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The Sledge Patrol: A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival, and Victory
In 1943, a group of brave Danish and Norwegian hunters carried out one of the most dramatic operations of World War II. Using dogsleds to patrol a stark 500-mile stretch of the Greenland coast, their wartime mission was to guard against Nazi interlopers - an unlikely scenario given the cruel climate. But one day, a footprint was spotted on desolate Sabine Island, along with other obvious signs of the enemy. Not expecting to find the trouble they did, the three Sledge Patrol members escaped to the nearest hunting hut only to have the Germans pursue on foot. In the dead of the Arctic night, the men escaped capture at the last instant and, without their coats or sled dogs, walked fifty-six miles to get back to base. While the Sledge Patrol had only hunting rifles, resilience, and their knowledge of outdoor survival, the Germans were armed with machine guns and grenades and greatly outnumbered them. David Howarth skillfully relates the tensely exciting true tale of how the men of the Sledge Patrol fought capture or death in desolation by outwitting and outlasting the enemy. This is a saga of human skill, faith, and endurance - and one of the most remarkable Allied victories ever recorded.
248 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1957
34 people are currently reading
584 people want to read
About the author
David Howarth
103 books90 followersDavid Armine Howarth (1912 - 1991) was a British historian and author. After graduating from Cambridge University, he was a radio war correspondent for BBC at the start of the Second World War, joining the Navy after the fall of France. He rose to the rank of lieutenant commander and spent four yeas in the Shetland Islands, becoming second in command of the Shetland Naval base. He was involved in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), including the Shetland Bus, an SOE operation manned by Norwegians running a clandestine route between Shetland and Norway, which utilized fishing boats with crews of Norwegian volunteers to land agents and arms in occupied Norway. For his contributions to espionage operations against the German occupation of Norway, he received King Haakon VII's Cross of Liberty. The King also made Howarth a Chevalier First Class of the Order of St Olav.
After the War he designed and built boats before turning to writing full time. He wrote an account of the Shetland Bus operation, as well as many other books of history, bringing to his many of his books an immense practical knowledge of ships and the sea.
David Howarth died in 1991. At his request, his ashes were scattered over the waters of Lunna Voe, Shetland, near Lunna House, the first base of the Shetland Bus operation.
After the War he designed and built boats before turning to writing full time. He wrote an account of the Shetland Bus operation, as well as many other books of history, bringing to his many of his books an immense practical knowledge of ships and the sea.
David Howarth died in 1991. At his request, his ashes were scattered over the waters of Lunna Voe, Shetland, near Lunna House, the first base of the Shetland Bus operation.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
February 25, 2022
3.5 stars. I had no idea there were coastal watchers on Greenland during WWII. A very small group of hunters and men who manned 4 weather stations along the northeast coast of Greenland were tasked with patrolling about 500 miles of coastline for signs of German incursions onto the island. Weather reports were now being encrypted & the Germans had counted on the international reporting in their war efforts. The men of the sledge patrol were Danes, Norwegians and Eskimos who lived in this arctic environment a solitary life with minimal comforts and hunted for food for themselves & their sledge dogs. A hardy lot, who a few were to be challenged to the limits of human endurance, in their assignment. Hardly any of this group really thought that the Germans would land on Greenland, and when it happened their lives changed to one of escape and survival.
The book started out very slow and I set it aside to watch the Olympics, but once the "encounter" occurred it was a fascinating tale that had me chilled to the bone as I journeyed with the sledge patrol. Howarth provides beautiful descriptions of the harsh landscape and delves into the culture of those living in the arctic. A life of cooperation, kindness & generosity. The antithesis of war, which the Eskimos in particular could not grasp. He also plumbed the interior battle that the two "enemy" leaders Poulson (Dane) & Ritter (German), fought within themselves. Lt Ritter in particular was a study of a non-Nazi German Naval Officer who was at odds with a number in his contingent and the war in general.
The author served as a British naval officer during WWII, running a Norwegian-manned spy ring, code named The Shetland Bus, about which he wrote a book. I'm eager to track that one down.
The book started out very slow and I set it aside to watch the Olympics, but once the "encounter" occurred it was a fascinating tale that had me chilled to the bone as I journeyed with the sledge patrol. Howarth provides beautiful descriptions of the harsh landscape and delves into the culture of those living in the arctic. A life of cooperation, kindness & generosity. The antithesis of war, which the Eskimos in particular could not grasp. He also plumbed the interior battle that the two "enemy" leaders Poulson (Dane) & Ritter (German), fought within themselves. Lt Ritter in particular was a study of a non-Nazi German Naval Officer who was at odds with a number in his contingent and the war in general.
The author served as a British naval officer during WWII, running a Norwegian-manned spy ring, code named The Shetland Bus, about which he wrote a book. I'm eager to track that one down.
March 29, 2016
Great book about the little known history of the Sledge Patrol in Greenland. A book about adventure, endurance and survival which is well written and gripping. Loved this book and recommend it to anyone who likes to read about Arctic adventures. A lot of background is given about the history of Greenland so there is a fascinating history lesson here as well.
June 15, 2015
"The Sledge Patrol" is a book I read in order to while away the time on a recent long-haul flight, and it turned out to be a remarkable true-life adventure from WWII, a sideshow in the grand scheme of a conflict in which more than 50 million died, but a human drama to match any.
The book relates the story of the 15 or so men of the North-East Greenland Sledge Patrol, a mixture of Danish, Norwegian and Inuit civilians appointed by the Wartime Danish Governor of Greenland to patrol a remote and almost uninhabited 500-mile stretch of coastline to check for signs of German infiltration. The author explains that whilst the men involved undertook their duties conscientiously, most were initially bemused at the idea the German Army might invade NE Greenland. They were though happy to take a salary from the Government for doing something they would have done for nothing, i.e. travelling up and down the coast by dog sledge; and hunting. To give the men legal status and the (theoretical at least) protection of the Geneva Convention, the Danish Governor even officially designated them "The Greenland Army", something which he himself saw the comic side of. However things got serious in the spring of 1943, when three members of the scattered Sledge Patrol did actually discover Germans in Greenland. This was a party of 19, mainly meteorologists sending weather reports that were valuable to the German U-boat operations in the North Atlantic. This discovery, and the fact the Germans knew they had been discovered, led to clashes between the two sides and a desperate retreat by the Danes, who were armed only with hunting rifles and faced opponents with machine guns and grenades. The subsequent story includes several tales of astonishing human endurance, and for the reader the tension is maintained by the knowledge that this is a true life story and therefore not necessarily subject to a Hollywood-style happy ending.
The story itself is augmented by the author's descriptions of the landscapes and culture of the Artic, which Mr Howarth himself clearly loved. In a land where human survival is so tenuous, the inhabitants had developed a culture of mutual co-operation and sharing, where the idea of humans killing one another was completely alien. Nevertheless, the terrible World War eventually left its footprint even on them. Recommended for anyone with an interest in WWII.
The book relates the story of the 15 or so men of the North-East Greenland Sledge Patrol, a mixture of Danish, Norwegian and Inuit civilians appointed by the Wartime Danish Governor of Greenland to patrol a remote and almost uninhabited 500-mile stretch of coastline to check for signs of German infiltration. The author explains that whilst the men involved undertook their duties conscientiously, most were initially bemused at the idea the German Army might invade NE Greenland. They were though happy to take a salary from the Government for doing something they would have done for nothing, i.e. travelling up and down the coast by dog sledge; and hunting. To give the men legal status and the (theoretical at least) protection of the Geneva Convention, the Danish Governor even officially designated them "The Greenland Army", something which he himself saw the comic side of. However things got serious in the spring of 1943, when three members of the scattered Sledge Patrol did actually discover Germans in Greenland. This was a party of 19, mainly meteorologists sending weather reports that were valuable to the German U-boat operations in the North Atlantic. This discovery, and the fact the Germans knew they had been discovered, led to clashes between the two sides and a desperate retreat by the Danes, who were armed only with hunting rifles and faced opponents with machine guns and grenades. The subsequent story includes several tales of astonishing human endurance, and for the reader the tension is maintained by the knowledge that this is a true life story and therefore not necessarily subject to a Hollywood-style happy ending.
The story itself is augmented by the author's descriptions of the landscapes and culture of the Artic, which Mr Howarth himself clearly loved. In a land where human survival is so tenuous, the inhabitants had developed a culture of mutual co-operation and sharing, where the idea of humans killing one another was completely alien. Nevertheless, the terrible World War eventually left its footprint even on them. Recommended for anyone with an interest in WWII.
April 29, 2015
I have to hand it to David Howarth; he really knows how to find and tell a good ‘story’. “The Sledge Patrol” is an eye-opening narrative of what must rank as one of the, if not the, most extraordinary conflicts of World War 2.
The action takes place in Greenland (a colony of Denmark), the largest island in the world, possessing 1600 miles of coastline, and with (in 1940) a population of just 22,000 souls, predominantly living on the West coast. North of Scoresby Sound on the East coast the human population comprised a total of 26 men and one woman. Twelve of those men survived by hunting; each in their own territories of approximately sixty miles square. The remaining fourteen men were there to man four weather stations; one Danish, three Norwegian.
After the invasion of Denmark in 1940, the Germans became extremely interested in the reported weather observations by stations on Greenland; which were transmitted in unencrypted international code (it had not occurred to the British to supply encryption, and Occupied Denmark was naturally unable to do so). Weather observations in Greenland were key to accurate forecasting of the weather in the North Atlantic ocean; on which the outcome of the Battle of the Atlantic was to depend.
“The Sledge Patrol” is the engrossing story of the preparations against a possible German invasion of North-East Greenland (70° to 75°30’ N), and what happened when that unexpected event occurred. Here is a truly remarkable description of the transposition of the concept of mass warfare to a highly hostile and very scarcely populated land where everyday personal survival against the brutal beauty of the elements had long since bred an unquestioning social and spiritual morality of generosity and complete unselfishness. Crime in the under-populated Arctic was unknown: the concept of war and ‘enemy’ was barely graspable to a human mind operating in such spiritually majestic surroundings.
This is precisely why Howath’s narrative in this book is so very interesting. Those different ‘rules,’ knowledge, and survival skills which applied in the winter Arctic wastes of Greenland, gave rise to a unique approach to battle.
The action takes place in Greenland (a colony of Denmark), the largest island in the world, possessing 1600 miles of coastline, and with (in 1940) a population of just 22,000 souls, predominantly living on the West coast. North of Scoresby Sound on the East coast the human population comprised a total of 26 men and one woman. Twelve of those men survived by hunting; each in their own territories of approximately sixty miles square. The remaining fourteen men were there to man four weather stations; one Danish, three Norwegian.
After the invasion of Denmark in 1940, the Germans became extremely interested in the reported weather observations by stations on Greenland; which were transmitted in unencrypted international code (it had not occurred to the British to supply encryption, and Occupied Denmark was naturally unable to do so). Weather observations in Greenland were key to accurate forecasting of the weather in the North Atlantic ocean; on which the outcome of the Battle of the Atlantic was to depend.
“The Sledge Patrol” is the engrossing story of the preparations against a possible German invasion of North-East Greenland (70° to 75°30’ N), and what happened when that unexpected event occurred. Here is a truly remarkable description of the transposition of the concept of mass warfare to a highly hostile and very scarcely populated land where everyday personal survival against the brutal beauty of the elements had long since bred an unquestioning social and spiritual morality of generosity and complete unselfishness. Crime in the under-populated Arctic was unknown: the concept of war and ‘enemy’ was barely graspable to a human mind operating in such spiritually majestic surroundings.
This is precisely why Howath’s narrative in this book is so very interesting. Those different ‘rules,’ knowledge, and survival skills which applied in the winter Arctic wastes of Greenland, gave rise to a unique approach to battle.
February 13, 2022
I've read several of Howarth's books now and he consistently delivers fascinating stories.
This one is about a group of men charged with guarding a weather station in the north of Greenland during WWII. If that sounds like a paltry task, it was anything but. The weather reports were of vital interest to all parties engaged in the war as they largely determined the movements of ships in the seas off the coast of Norway which had been occupied by the Germans. You can see then how the story might unfold: A lonely group of men dutifully makes their rounds in this desolate piece of Arctic land. One day Germans show up. The game of cat and mouse is on.
It's quite the tale of human endurance, and it seems a feature of Howarth's writing that he's able to elevate those human elements of the story. He also inserts keen observations and opinions in a way that's welcome and discrete rather than obnoxious and overbearing.
In the end the story got a bit circular—literally, they were chasing each other in circles—but it makes for a fun weekend read nonetheless.
This one is about a group of men charged with guarding a weather station in the north of Greenland during WWII. If that sounds like a paltry task, it was anything but. The weather reports were of vital interest to all parties engaged in the war as they largely determined the movements of ships in the seas off the coast of Norway which had been occupied by the Germans. You can see then how the story might unfold: A lonely group of men dutifully makes their rounds in this desolate piece of Arctic land. One day Germans show up. The game of cat and mouse is on.
It's quite the tale of human endurance, and it seems a feature of Howarth's writing that he's able to elevate those human elements of the story. He also inserts keen observations and opinions in a way that's welcome and discrete rather than obnoxious and overbearing.
In the end the story got a bit circular—literally, they were chasing each other in circles—but it makes for a fun weekend read nonetheless.
June 4, 2017
The east coast of Greenland is a vast wasteland inhabited only by a few intrepid hunters. Technically a Danish colony, some 2200 miles away and geographically part of North America, the Greenland governor decided to cast the island’s lot with the allies, after Denmark was overrun by the Germans. It was of strategic importance to the United States and Britain who needed weather reports in order to predict weather over Europe. I didn’t realize just how far north the country is until I looked at a globe. It’s a forbidding country, uninhabited by only a few natives, and with severe weather.
A small group of Arctic-loving Norwegians and Danes protected the vital radio and weather equipment under very difficult circumstances. Ironically, the German captain sent to invade and seize the station was an Arctic climate lover himself and was sympathetic to those who lived and worked there. One cannot help but admire the hardiness of these folks who thought nothing of walking, often with hardly any supplies but a rifle to ward off polar bears, hundreds of miles in horrible conditions, thinking nothing of it.
The culture of these Arctic lovers and Eskimos was the antithesis of what was going on in the rest of the world. To survive they needed to be able to help each other and to count on that assistance. The prospect of shooting someone else or anything not for food was completely foreign to the Eskimos, especially, who had no comprehension of why the fighting was going on hundreds of miles away. The entire Greenland “army” consisted of nine (!) men tasked with patrolling an immense coastline. That they ever ran into anyone else is simply astonishing.
David Howarth has done a service of showing us how WW II was truly a *world* war and how it affected even desolate parts or the globe. Fascinating. I suspect some of it was fictionalized as the internal monologues and thinking of some of the participants must have been impossible to document.
N.B. The Wikipedia article on Greenland is quite interesting. It had been populated by people from Iceland until the Little Ice Age of the 13th and 14th centuries when settlements were abandoned. Study of bones shows the populace had been very malnourished. Growing anything must have been close to impossible. One theory, though, holds that they failed because of their Euro-centric thinking driven by the Church and large landowners, when to be successful they should have adopted the culture and ways of the Inuit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland The article on Greenland in WW II (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenla...) provides additional detail and led me to Sloan Wilson’s Ice Brothers which I will start this afternoon. (Gotta love Kindle and credit cards.)
A small group of Arctic-loving Norwegians and Danes protected the vital radio and weather equipment under very difficult circumstances. Ironically, the German captain sent to invade and seize the station was an Arctic climate lover himself and was sympathetic to those who lived and worked there. One cannot help but admire the hardiness of these folks who thought nothing of walking, often with hardly any supplies but a rifle to ward off polar bears, hundreds of miles in horrible conditions, thinking nothing of it.
The culture of these Arctic lovers and Eskimos was the antithesis of what was going on in the rest of the world. To survive they needed to be able to help each other and to count on that assistance. The prospect of shooting someone else or anything not for food was completely foreign to the Eskimos, especially, who had no comprehension of why the fighting was going on hundreds of miles away. The entire Greenland “army” consisted of nine (!) men tasked with patrolling an immense coastline. That they ever ran into anyone else is simply astonishing.
David Howarth has done a service of showing us how WW II was truly a *world* war and how it affected even desolate parts or the globe. Fascinating. I suspect some of it was fictionalized as the internal monologues and thinking of some of the participants must have been impossible to document.
N.B. The Wikipedia article on Greenland is quite interesting. It had been populated by people from Iceland until the Little Ice Age of the 13th and 14th centuries when settlements were abandoned. Study of bones shows the populace had been very malnourished. Growing anything must have been close to impossible. One theory, though, holds that they failed because of their Euro-centric thinking driven by the Church and large landowners, when to be successful they should have adopted the culture and ways of the Inuit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland The article on Greenland in WW II (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenla...) provides additional detail and led me to Sloan Wilson’s Ice Brothers which I will start this afternoon. (Gotta love Kindle and credit cards.)
August 6, 2021
Life on Greenland had always been based on cooperation as the key to survival in an extreme climate. The Danes manning the sledge patrol knew this better than they understood the bigger picture of the war between their faraway occupied country & Germany.
Ritter, head of the German expedition, Slovak by birth, enthusiastic Habsburg WW1 veteran & a loving veteran of the Artic, may have had a better understanding of circumstance but not of the validity of the new war.
More than the facts and the few deaths, magnified in their effect by the tiny population, the common bond between men in the north is what you take away from reading this book. Even the Kriegsmarine rank-and-file felt a new appreciation for their Danish prisoners once they learnt how to drive a sledge along the icy coasts.
Ritter, head of the German expedition, Slovak by birth, enthusiastic Habsburg WW1 veteran & a loving veteran of the Artic, may have had a better understanding of circumstance but not of the validity of the new war.
More than the facts and the few deaths, magnified in their effect by the tiny population, the common bond between men in the north is what you take away from reading this book. Even the Kriegsmarine rank-and-file felt a new appreciation for their Danish prisoners once they learnt how to drive a sledge along the icy coasts.
October 17, 2011
Very interesting episode illuminating a small corner of WWII. If you're into "man against the elements" stories, this book details events about people pushing the envelope of survival in one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet. The book also is one of the few that genuinely shows the dichotomy of ideologies in the German military and does it more convincingly than the bulk of revisionist history and fiction.
September 27, 2015
It's the Danes vs the Germans in Eastern Greenland during WWII. A number of weather station outposts had been established by the Danes providing weather reports to the British and American forces. When the signals started being coded so the Germans couldn't get them as well, a German group landed and set up their own weather station. For a while, the German presence was hidden, but all that changed when one of the Danish group was on patrol and came across footprints. From that point on, it became a battle for survival on each side.
I'd read this years ago but remembered so little (something about dog sleds?) that it was essentially a first read. The fact that this is written as a piecing together of actual events is amazing. Much of the book alternates from the Danish sequence to the German sequence. It's interesting to me how the Laws of the Arctic played out against the Rules of War and that ultimately, we're all just a bunch of people trying to live and do our jobs.
I'd read this years ago but remembered so little (something about dog sleds?) that it was essentially a first read. The fact that this is written as a piecing together of actual events is amazing. Much of the book alternates from the Danish sequence to the German sequence. It's interesting to me how the Laws of the Arctic played out against the Rules of War and that ultimately, we're all just a bunch of people trying to live and do our jobs.
June 17, 2020
A re-read of a time during WW2 when the East Coast of Greenland very much in play for it's weather Recon. When the weather broadcast turned into code so the Nazi had no longer use of them, they set up their own Nazi weather stations. The Danes set up this sledge patrol to find the Nazi stations scattered for hundreds of miles and to warn the far flung hunters of the Nazis. A harsh land, but the Danes, Norwegians and Eskimos loved the solitude. A good read on dog teams and how they operated.
December 26, 2016
Reality again trumps fiction. Amazing story of how a small band of Danes and Greenlanders fought an equally small band of Germans on the North-East coast of Greenland during the spring and summer of 1943. Amazing feats of human endurance and a shrewd insight into the psychology of the protagonists. Highly recommended.
January 3, 2023
This is simply one of the best books I’ve ever read. In a lifetime of reading (100-150 books per year), that is saying something!
Its a quick, enthralling read; full of human spirit and epic beauty. The emotions run the gamut and nothing is overdone.
Its a quick, enthralling read; full of human spirit and epic beauty. The emotions run the gamut and nothing is overdone.
March 22, 2013
Even if you don't like war books it's a must read, never put it down
November 26, 2013
Interesting book. I did not know that Greenland was involved in World War II. I felt really bad for the lost of so many sled dogs.
October 5, 2024
The Great Greenland War. 8 Danes against 19 Germans fight for control of a frozen wasteland 600 miles from the nearest town. Amazing story of how WWII reached even the farthest corners of the Earth.
The eastern coast of Greenland is virtually uninhabitable. Only a few Eskimos and some hunters live there in hunting shacks with their dogs. But it's in a pivotal location to provide accurate weather information to shipping, both Allied convoys and German U-boats. The Governor of Greenland knows this so he sends a couple of men to enlist some hunters there in setting up a weather station and lookout for Nazis. The Nazis know this so they send a ship to set up a weather station and look for Allied weather stations and decommission them.
This story tells how the 8 Danes and a few Eskimo friends patrolled 600 miles of arctic coastline in the dead of winter using sled dogs and their own native intelligence. The Danes and the Germans eventually come in contact, then it's a running battle over ice and snow with the occasional polar bear thrown in. The Danes expect the American Air Corps to come to their aide at any time. The German Commander, an Austrian by birth who is loyal to the Kriegsmarine, has to deal with the distrust of the hard core Nazis in his crew.
What follows is some incredible accomplishments by men alone against nature, with simple misunderstanding leading to disaster, leavened with acts of basic humanity. Really told well by Howarth.
The eastern coast of Greenland is virtually uninhabitable. Only a few Eskimos and some hunters live there in hunting shacks with their dogs. But it's in a pivotal location to provide accurate weather information to shipping, both Allied convoys and German U-boats. The Governor of Greenland knows this so he sends a couple of men to enlist some hunters there in setting up a weather station and lookout for Nazis. The Nazis know this so they send a ship to set up a weather station and look for Allied weather stations and decommission them.
This story tells how the 8 Danes and a few Eskimo friends patrolled 600 miles of arctic coastline in the dead of winter using sled dogs and their own native intelligence. The Danes and the Germans eventually come in contact, then it's a running battle over ice and snow with the occasional polar bear thrown in. The Danes expect the American Air Corps to come to their aide at any time. The German Commander, an Austrian by birth who is loyal to the Kriegsmarine, has to deal with the distrust of the hard core Nazis in his crew.
What follows is some incredible accomplishments by men alone against nature, with simple misunderstanding leading to disaster, leavened with acts of basic humanity. Really told well by Howarth.
January 8, 2025
I’ve read this book at least four times over the past forty years. Love it. Very hard to stop reading and go to sleep.
In WWII, both Allied and German forces needed weather forecasts for Europe from the western Atlantic. Greenland was the prime place for weather stations to radio reports of the weather that would arrive in Europe in a few days. This was essential for military operational planning.
Up to 1941, weather stations in Greenland broadcast information in clear language, understandable by all sides. Then it was changed to an Allied code. In 1942, the Germans set up their own small weather stations on the Greenland eastern coast, needing just a couple of people per station, weather equipment, food and a radio. They also sent about a dozen soldiers to knock out the Danish and Eskimo (Inuit) weather stations. The Danes put together patrols on sledges aiming to take out the Germans. All of this over about 500 miles of uneven snowy and icy coastline.
Thus was set the scenario for a very tense tale recounted by David Howarth. He engages the reader very closely with individuals on all sides of the story and the suspense and tension is incredible. And then there is the environment - I feel like I’ve spent days and nights enjoying and struggling through the snow and ice and lived with the sled, dogs and friends.
A very special story. Highly recommended.
In WWII, both Allied and German forces needed weather forecasts for Europe from the western Atlantic. Greenland was the prime place for weather stations to radio reports of the weather that would arrive in Europe in a few days. This was essential for military operational planning.
Up to 1941, weather stations in Greenland broadcast information in clear language, understandable by all sides. Then it was changed to an Allied code. In 1942, the Germans set up their own small weather stations on the Greenland eastern coast, needing just a couple of people per station, weather equipment, food and a radio. They also sent about a dozen soldiers to knock out the Danish and Eskimo (Inuit) weather stations. The Danes put together patrols on sledges aiming to take out the Germans. All of this over about 500 miles of uneven snowy and icy coastline.
Thus was set the scenario for a very tense tale recounted by David Howarth. He engages the reader very closely with individuals on all sides of the story and the suspense and tension is incredible. And then there is the environment - I feel like I’ve spent days and nights enjoying and struggling through the snow and ice and lived with the sled, dogs and friends.
A very special story. Highly recommended.
June 7, 2025
Greenland, at the best of times, is a cold, barren island. Howarth's The Sledge Patrol is a true account of a few brave individuals who survive the natural threats during World War II.
Under Danish control, Greenland is far from any of the European battlefields. Its true value during wartime is as a combination weather reporting station and as a possible way station for long distance flights. Germany wanted to maintain weather reports for the North Atlantic, so they sent a single ship there to overtake weather communications. The Danes had other ideas. Enemy combatants, perhaps, but Arctic adventurers had their own code on conduct.
Amazingly, this true account features individuals who loved traveling alone for hundreds of miles in the cold. Their supplies were rudimentary by contemporary standards, but their stamina, dedication, and determination were extraordinary.
I had read Howarth's We Die Alone and this book has many similarities. I do wish the maps were clearer to read, but the may have been the edition I was reading.
Under Danish control, Greenland is far from any of the European battlefields. Its true value during wartime is as a combination weather reporting station and as a possible way station for long distance flights. Germany wanted to maintain weather reports for the North Atlantic, so they sent a single ship there to overtake weather communications. The Danes had other ideas. Enemy combatants, perhaps, but Arctic adventurers had their own code on conduct.
Amazingly, this true account features individuals who loved traveling alone for hundreds of miles in the cold. Their supplies were rudimentary by contemporary standards, but their stamina, dedication, and determination were extraordinary.
I had read Howarth's We Die Alone and this book has many similarities. I do wish the maps were clearer to read, but the may have been the edition I was reading.
February 17, 2025
I literally could not put this book down. I enjoy survival type adventures in wilderness. I have a small group of friends and we share camping and hiking trips together. This takes place in the vast arctic wilderness of Greenland during WWII. Skilled members of Greenland's Sledge Patrol use their knowledge and equipment to outmaneuver the Germans and succeed in preventing them from gaining control of the continent. It's a different world there. When the ice is frozen you have the land mass to utilize the sleds. When the thaw arrives that luxury no longer exists. We get in our cars and travel 40-50 miles to a destination as if it were nothing. These men travelled with dog sleds hundreds of miles 10 days at a time to get to huts, radio stations and the few small towns that Greenland offers. If you enjoy WWII history this is a "must read."
June 2, 2022
E-BOK. Nasjonalbilioteket. Online. Norsk, bokmål. En spennende, interessant og for meg ukjent historie om kamper i Nordøst-Grønland mellom tyskerne på den ene siden og danske og norske fangstfolk på den andre siden - i det som senere ble Sirius-patruljen. Dermed kontrollerte faktisk Det Tredje Riket en liten del av Nord-Amerika under krigen, mens japanerne på sin side okkuperte ytterste del av Aleutene over lengre tid.
August 29, 2017
An interesting account of the patrolling of Northeast Greenland during WW II for Germans. I was drawn to the book because of my Danish ancestors. Greenland is controlled by Denmark and there were a number of Danes in the Sledge Patrol. Whereas I found it an interesting read concerning living in the Arctic, I was put off by numerous typos. Poorly edited!
January 7, 2024
4.5/5.0 Fascinating and well told! I especially appreciated the maps, though I wish a map of Greenland in its entirety was included with reference points. I feel this would have further emphasized the remoteness and vasteness of the Sledge Patrol domain. I definitely recommend this book and look forward to checking out Howarth’s ‘Shetland Bus.’
May 3, 2018
It took a little bit to get going but was a very interesting book.
June 23, 2019
Riveting true story. I never new of Greenland’s involvement during the war. Several lessons to be learned. This book left me craving a trip to witness the Arctic’s isolated beauty.
January 18, 2024
Quite the interesting read of fortitude and stamina. I'm literally surprised that Hollywood has yet to make a movie about this!
March 24, 2024
This was well-written and absorbing, but ultimately not a lot happened, hence a star subtracted. Promising setting and situation, but maybe the events didn't fully merit a book.
December 30, 2024
I’m not normally a nonfiction reader, but this book had me on the edge of my seat!!
July 6, 2025
The best stories are the stories of real people and their lives. This one of everyday people living in the throes of war brings to light true heroes. A very interesting read.
January 15, 2015
"The Sledge Patrol" is by the same author of the riveting true-adventure story "We Die Alone" and it does not disappoint. During WWII, a small and hardy band of Danish and Norwegian hunters, responsible for patrolling the coast of Greenland from the enemy, encountered a larger group of German soldiers and Nazis armed with machine guns and grenades. Travelling a vast region - hundreds of miles - of the Arctic north via dog sledge, skiing, and walking, the group, along with their Inuit friends, exhibited the highest ideals of fortitude, endurance, and comradeship in outwitting the invaders. Howarth, who served as a British naval officer and helped operate a Norwegian-manned spy ring during the War, was a splendid writer who exhibits sympathy and admiration not just for the allies but for the German commander, Lt. Ritter, who loved the Arctic and admired the men who lived there, questioned the Nazi ideology, and eventually determined to live up to his moral ideals, regardless of the cost to him and his family in Germany. This is just one small story out of the millions of stories of WWI, set in an isolated and perilous landscape, but what an amazing one. Highly recommended.
July 26, 2013
A pleasant surprise. I sometimes read a book at random based on the synopsis on the back cover. This ended up being a very interesting account of a little known incident in WWII Greenland, when a handful of Danes and a few dozen Eskimos armed with nothing but their cold weather survival knowledge and a few hunting rifles, found themselves defending Greenland against a landing party of machine-gun wielding German Nazis. A good polar adventure and human drama.
June 1, 2015
How men who patrolled a 500 mile stretch of Greenland by dogsled fought capture or death by outwitting and outlasting the Nazis.
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