page_title: Operation Gauntlet
section_title: Allied preparations
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Gauntlet / Prelude / Allied preparations
caption_attribution_description: English: AWM caption:1941. Starboard side view of the British transport SS "Empress of Canada" which carried New Zealand troops to the Middle East as part of Convoy US-1 in 1940-1941; and this ship carried Australian troops to the United Kingdom as part of Convoy US-3 in 1940-1945. NOTE the defensive arrmament consisting of a 6-inch gun right aft with a 3-inch AA gun sited above it. (Naval Historical Collection)
context_page_description: Operation Gauntlet was an Allied Combined Operation from 25 August until 3 September 1941, during the Second World War. Canadian, British and Free Norwegian Forces landed on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard Archipelago, 650 mi south of the North Pole.
  Coalmines on the islands were owned and operated by Norway at Longyearbyen and by the Soviet Union at Barentsburg; both governments agreed to their destruction and the evacuation of their nationals. The objective of Gauntlet was to deny Germany the coal, mining and shipping infrastructure, equipment and stores on Spitsbergen and suppress the wireless stations on the archipelago, to prevent the Germans receiving weather reports.
  Gauntlet was a success; the Germans had not known of or had been able to challenge the expedition, the raiders suffered no casualties, the local civilians were repatriated, several ships were taken as prizes and a German warship was sunk on the return journey.
context_section_description: On 26 July 1941, the Canadian Corps in Britain offered to provide sufficient troops for a landing on Spitsbergen, to garrison a naval refuelling base for four months and then withdraw before winter. Force 111 was to be raised, comprising two battalions of a Canadian infantry brigade less transport and attached units including an anti-aircraft battery. The Canadians offered the HQ of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade (Brigadier Arthur Potts) and its signal section, the 3rd Field Company Royal Canadian Engineers (RCE).
  A battalion each of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and the Edmonton Regiment was attached and two field hospitals of the 5th Field Ambulance Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps (RCAMC) and detachments of administrative troops accompanied the expedition. The War Office added the 40th Field Battery Royal Canadian Artillery (RCA), with eight 25-pounder field guns from the 11th Field Regiment RCA; Force 111 was ready by 4 August.
  The Canadians embarked on RMS Empress of Canada in Glasgow, sailed for No. 1 Combined Training Centre at HMS Quebec (shore establishment), Inveraray on Loch Fyne and began rehearsing the landings. On 11 August, Potts was told that the operation had been considerably reduced in scope, and on 16 August, Potts was ordered to ensure "that the Germans get no advantage out of Spitsbergen between now and March, 1942". The operation was to be a landing of a force sufficient for the demolition or the removal of mining equipment, coal and the transport and harbour infrastructure. Wireless and weather stations were to be disabled; the Russians were to be transported to Archangelsk and the Norwegians to Britain.
  Russian and Norwegian civilian representatives and a Norwegian army officer, the Governor Designate of Spitsbergen, would accompany the expedition to manage civilian matters. Force 111 returned to Surrey except for the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade HQ with 29 Canadian officers and 498 other ranks from the Edmonton Regiment (Major W. G. Bury) and the 3rd Field Company RCE (Major Geoffrey Walsh), 84 men of the Saskatoon Light Infantry (M.G.) and administrative parties, 14 British officers and 79 men, including 57 Royal Engineers and a Norwegian infantry party (Captain Aubert) with three officers and 22 other ranks, a total of 645 men.
caption: SS Empress of Canada
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