Evening star., 1944-12-24
With the Greenland PATROL Hunting Nazis
BY w. H. Shipper, Jr.,
Aviation Editor OF The Star.

BY w. H. Shipper, Jr.,
Auiation Editor OF The Star.
The Nazis come and the Nazis go, but
the Greenland Patrol keeps rolling right
along through Arctic storms, pack ice
and subzero weather.
Maybe the last OF Hitler's armed
meteorological outposts was destroyed
this fall, along with capture Of 90 Nazis.
and maybe not.
In any case the patrol Is still hunting.
Up north, where the ice piles high
as the sun sinks to its lowest ebb, the
Coast Guard, the Navy and the Army
Air Forces have teamed up to secure
coast long coveted by the Germans, first
as a possible base for air and sea raiders
and later as hideout for secret weather
stations.
Ideal Nazi Hideout.
The rugged east coast Of Greenland,
especially north Of the Arctic Circle, Is
ideal for the latter operation. Storms
moving in a general southeasterly di-
rection over Greenland are almost cer-
tain to influence military operations In
Europe a few days later. A weather
station dug into this coast Is very hard
to reach from the south, even after 1t
has been pin-pointed on the charts.
NtL hand StatinnC
while beyond range of American based
bombers, can he supplied by air from
German held fields in Northern Norway.
The Nazis for more than three years
now have shown grim determination
to take advantage Of this situation de-
spite the Yankee patrols which began
to search them out months before Pearl
Harbor.
Fatal Gun Duel.
The last battle of this little war in
the Arctic, which brought two brand
new combat Coast Guard cutters racing
5000 miles at full speed to reinforce
two old cutters badly battered by the
Ice, began with a fatal gun duel be-
tween Nazi officer and the captain
of a Danish sledge patrol established
by the Americans. The battle ended
several months later with capture of
60 Germans, destruction of two weather
stations and capture of one Nazi armed
trawler, scuttling of another and aban-
donment of third.
Last July when the cutters Northland
and Storis found their way through
the Ice fields off Northeast Greenland
to supply the sledge patrols huts and
stations they learned from the captain
of the patrol that he had spotted a
fortified German station on Shannon
Island.
Enemy Behind Rocks.
The captain told how he stalked the
camoufaged station with eight men,
who hid behind the rocks while he
crept nearer. He watched the sentries
changed each half hour and he learned
the Germans were armed with machine
guns, rifles and grenades. AS he watched
he was surprised from the rear by a
bearded German officer.
The Nazi was killed in the exchange
of shots which followed Immediately,
and the Danes raced away behind their
dog sleds with the Nazis, armed with
machine guns, in hot pursuit.
The Danes escaped but planned to
return. The Nazis had shot down one
of their men a year previously as he
mushed through an Arctic snowstorm
with his head swathed in furs. They
also killed the sled dogs.
The Danes were eager to go after the
Germans when coast guardsmen and
an Army combat team arrived to REIN
force them.
Fought Through Snow.
Landing parties which went inland to
attack from the rear fought through
heavy, melting snow, sleet and broken
country only to learn the Nazis had
abandoned the outpost ahead of them
They found smashed radio ano
meteorological equipment, along with