1918-1939 The Faroes since 1945






The Faroe Islands during World War II

In 1940, the British occupied the Faroes and Iceland to make sure the Germans would not establish footholds there. Under British occupation, the Faroese Landsting was given the right to pass legislation, giving the islands political autonomy. While formally remaining part of the Danish monarchy, the Faroes' ties to Denmark lay, for the remainder of the war, on ice.
Contacts with the motherland Denmark were severed for the remainder of the war; the Faroes had to issue their own banknotes and come up with provisorical postage stamps due to the unavailability of supplies from Copenhagen.
During WW II, British engineers built Vagar Airport in 1942-1943.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Brief summaries of the Faroes' history from Puffin Travel and from Foeroeyar
Articles Vagar Airport and British Occupation of the Faroe Islands in WW II, from Wikipedia
DOCUMENTS Faroe banknotes, from Ron Wise's World Paper Money<./A> and from Currency Museum
REFERENCE Article : Faroe Islands, in : Americana Annual 1940 p.280, 1943 p.269, 1944 pp.255-256, 1945 p.269 [G]
Article : Faroe Islands, in : New International Year Book 1939 p.256, Events of 1940 p.247, 1941 p.194, 1942 p.223 [G]
Article : Faeroes, in : New International Year Book Events of 1943 p.191, 1944 p.202, 1945 p.191 [G]
Article : Faroe Islands, in : Funk & Wagnall's New Standard Encyclopedia Year Book 1940 p.224 [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on January 3rd 2002, last revised on March 27th 2007

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