Iceland and the Second World War origins of GIUK strategy

The discussion links the GIUK Gap to the fall of Norway, the British occupation of Iceland, and the later American presence there. Iceland offered a way to establish a North Atlantic defensive line against German raiders and submarines when the North Sea route had become more dangerous. The occupation carried a political and moral cost because Britain treated strategically placed neutral territory as a military necessity. The comparison with Mers-el-Kebir shows the same wartime logic: British leaders judged the risks posed by Iceland or French warships under enemy control too great to accept. Iceland's experience also helps explain its later acceptance of American and NATO basing. The same geography exposed Arctic convoys to surface, submarine, air, and weather threats as they passed north of the gap toward the Soviet Union.