Svalbard’s involvement in the war was centred around weather. Both the Allies and the Germans needed meteorological information to help in their war effort.

In August 1941 the Norwegian Exile Government (Germany invaded Norway in April 1940) and the Allied Forces decided to evacuate the whole population of Svalbard. Soviet citizens were transported to Russia and Norwegian citizens to London.

Once the Germans realised that everyone had been evacuated from Svalbard, they established land based weather stations. (Previously their ships and planes had been gathering data.)

The Allies attempted to reclaim Svalbard from the Germans. In May 1942 they sent two ships which were bombed and sunk by the Germans. Survivors tried to establish a foothold in some of the towns, which were later bombed, in September 1943.

After this, the Norwegians and Germans both remained in Svalbard, in different locations, continuing to gather information independently and without any further local conflict for the remainder of the war.