Was the Invasion of Iceland an evil act?

I doubt there were enough Icelanders to do this effectively. Iceland's population in 1940 was about 120,000; if it mobilized at a similar rate to the UK, that would give about 8,000 men under arms (compare 3 million out of 46 million for Britain, which is about 6.5% of the population). Typical destroyers at the time had 200-400 crew, but you always need folks at home - navies usually have pretty "bad" tooth-tail ratios, so we're looking at maybe a quarter or so on boats (which is a lot). So...5-10 destroyers. And frankly, that's being generous. And how many are at sea at any time? There's no way that Iceland can support a navy large enough to defend its own waters.

The only way you get an Icelandic Navy would be to re-flag some US, British, and Canadian ships with Iceland's flag and keep their old crews with a few token Icelanders onboard to help with local navigation and give the sham some realism.
 
The only way you get an Icelandic Navy would be to re-flag some US, British, and Canadian ships with Iceland's flag and keep their old crews with a few token Icelanders onboard to help with local navigation and give the sham some realism.

Hey!

I wonder if this could be a way for the US to participate in the war before Pearl Harbor. A bunch of destroyers could be "sold" to Iceland, their crews "taking leave" or "being discharged" and going to volunteer in the Icelandic Navy. Think Flying Tigers, but with ships.

The Flying Tigers had, if I remember right, well over 100 planes and enough pilots and technicians to fly them all. The Eagle Squadron is a worse comparison because I think it was only pilots, without planes or support crew.
 
As a Dane who would have preferred the union between Denmark and Iceland had lasted, no I don’t think it was negative or evil.
 
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