Greysheet Catalog Details
On 9 April 1940, Nazi forces crossed into neutral Denmark and occupied the country. Exactly one year later, on 9 April 1941, Denmark’s representative in Washington, DC signed an agreement authorizing the United States government to construct military bases for the defense of Greenland, which remained an unoccupied Danish colony, though local representatives declared Greenland a self-ruled territory run by the Grønlands Administration (GA). The first US forces arrived in June 1941, at a time when the US was neutral in World War II. However, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US declared war on Japan on 8 December 1941, then declared war on Germany on 11 December 1941. Greenland remained a de facto US protectorate until the liberation of Copenhagen on 5 May 1945.