859A.20/184a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister to the Norwegian Government in Exile (Biddle), at London
Washington, May 20,
1942—9 p.m.
Norwegian Series No. 9.
- 1.
- War Department recommends that after relief of British forces in Northeast Iceland sector by American troops, Independent Norwegian Company now stationed at Akureyri under British Command be placed under the command of the Commanding General, United States Forces in Iceland, who has taken over the Supreme Command from the British.
- 2.
- General Bonesteel, the Commanding General in Iceland, states that the Norwegian Company would be of great assistance in training our troops in winter warfare and in carrying out winter patrol missions in the Akureyri area.
- 3.
- You are requested to discuss this matter with the Norwegian authorities, emphasizing the obvious advantages to our common cause of preserving the principle of unity of command in Iceland and asking that arrangements be made to accomplish the end desired by the War Department. We would expect that the Company would continue to be financed by and function generally under the Norwegian Government and that the proposed command arrangements would apply only to the portion of the unit in Iceland and not to the detachment now garrisoning Jan May en Island.
Hull