In Iceland World War 2 is known as ‘the blessed war’
They call it blessað stríðið – “the blessed war”. This is because it led to Iceland’s independence and prosperity. Before the war Iceland was ruled by Denmark, but after Germany invaded it, Denmark lost control of Iceland. Iceland took the opportunity to elect a provisional leader who later became the first President of Iceland.
During the war Iceland was invaded by Great Britain and having only 70 armed police it could not defend itself and so surrendered peacefully. The allied occupation during the war had huge economical benefits for Iceland which led to them calling it “the blessed war.”
One Iceland Historian said “it was basically a bunch of mud huts in 1900 and still quite primitive even in the early 40s.”
