US President Donald Trump is preparing to take Greenland from Denmark by financial or military means. Trump says that Greenland is critical for US national security.
However, the US military has maintained its presence in Greenland for more than seven decades, at one point operating as many as four military bases on the island, armed with combat aircraft, strategic bombers, missile defense systems, and even nuclear bombs.
In fact, the US nuclear operations in Greenland were run in a clandestine manner, as Denmark had a long-standing policy, going back to the early 1950s, of not allowing nuclear weapons on its soil during peacetime.
However, behind the scenes, Denmark had quietly allowed the US to store its nuclear warheads in Greenland.
But the people of Greenland and Denmark were unaware of this secretive arrangement.
It was against this background that, 58 years ago, when the Cold War was at its height, one of the US Air Force’s (USAF) B-52G Stratofortress bombers, carrying four nuclear bombs, crashed onto the sea ice of Wolstenholme Fjord in the northwest corner of Greenland, one of the coldest places on Earth.
The crash led to a radioactive leak in Greenland and extensive combing operations. However, several experts claim that one of the nuclear warheads from the accident is still missing somewhere beneath the icy sheets of Greenland.
When U.S. Lost A Nuclear Bomb In Greenland
The island of Greenland, situated about halfway between Washington D.C. and Moscow, has strategic importance to the US military, so much so that the United States has made several bids to acquire the territory, including in 1946.
In 1951, the US and Denmark signed the U.S.-Danish defense agreement, giving Washington sweeping access to Greenland’s territory and airspace.
The treaty gave the US a significant role in Greenland’s defense. The treaty gave the US such sweeping powers that in 1955, a US State Department official said that the U.S. could do “almost anything, literally, that we want to in Greenland.”
In 1953, the US began construction on the Thule military base, now known as Pituffik Space Base, located in northwest Greenland.
In 1957, Danish Prime Minister Hans Christian Hansen secretly gave the US the authority to store nuclear weapons at Thule Air Base.
This clandestine agreement was in violation of the official Danish position that had banned the storage of nuclear warheads in Denmark or Greenland during peacetime.
A Nuclear Outpost In The Arctic
In 1958, the U.S. Strategic Air Command (SAC) quietly stationed nuclear bombs at Thule —
two Mark 6 atomic bombs, two MK 36 thermonuclear weapons, and additional components.
The storage was short-lived, but it wasn’t the end of America’s nuclear footprint in
Greenland.
Between 1958 and 1965, the U.S. maintained 48 nuclear warheads at Thule for Nike-Hercules air defence missiles. There were also likely deployments of nuclear-armed Falcon missiles, though exact numbers remain unknown.
However, more alarming were the U.S. nuclear-armed overflights.
Operation Chrome Dome
During the late-1950s and 1960s, the United States maintained up to 12 nuclear-armed bombers airborne 24 hours a day. The justification was fear of a possible Soviet surprise-attack that would be capable of destroying a large portion of the U.S. strategic bomber force on the ground before it got airborne.
To prevent such a partial disarming of the U.S. deterrent force, the Pentagon began building up an Airborne Alert Program from the mid-1950s.
Initially started in 1958 under the so-called Head Start program, the full-scale Airborne Alert Indoctrination program known as ‘Chrome Dome’ resulted in at least two overflights of Greenland a day with nuclear weapons for almost a decade.
In addition to Chrome Dome flights, an additional nuclear-armed aircraft was “parked” right above Thule Air Base, where it circled continuously as part of the Hard Head mission. The objective of Hard Head was to ensure continuous visual surveillance of the Thule Air Base.
B-52 Crashes With Nuclear Weapons
On January 21, 1968, the Cold War grew significantly colder.
It was on this day that a USAF B-52G Stratofortress bomber, carrying four nuclear bombs, crashed onto the sea ice of Wolstenholme Fjord in the northwest corner of Greenland, one of the coldest places on Earth.
The bomber, call sign HOBO 28, had crashed due to human error.
Foam cushions placed over a heating vent had caught fire. The crew desperately tried to extinguish the blaze, but it quickly became uncontrollable.
Within seconds, the cockpit filled with smoke. It was too late to make an emergency landing, so the crew decided to eject.
Six of the seven crew members were able to parachute out safely; however, one crew member died when the plane crashed onto the frozen fjord seven miles west of Thule Air Base.
The impact from the crash and the subsequent fire had broken open the weapons and released their radioactive contents, but luckily, there was no nuclear detonation. It scattered radioactive plutonium across miles of icefields, creating an environmental catastrophe.
The crash happened less than 48 hours before a national election in Denmark, and the U.S. Embassy warned the State Department about the severe repercussions in light of the “special nuclear sensitivities” in Denmark.
Though classified documents released years later suggest that higher authorities in Denmark were possibly aware that the US was conducting nuclear overflights over Greenland, this was not public knowledge in Denmark.
The Clean Up Operation
After the incident, the US immediately halted nuclear alert flights over Greenland. However, there was still the issue of collecting the plane wreckage and cleaning up the radioactively contaminated ice.
The US wanted the wreckage to just sink in the fjord. However, Denmark wanted the US to gather the wreckage and move it back to the US, along with all the contaminated ice.
Since the fate of the Thule airbase hung in the balance, the US, reluctantly, agreed to Denmark’s demands.
The cleanup operation was named “Crested Ice.” Authorities had to move fast because during the spring season, the fjord would start to melt, and there were fears that the plane wreckage, alongwith contaminated ice, could sink 800 feet to the seafloor.
The US and Danish authorities collected all pieces of the plane wreckage and measured the contaminated ice, which they loaded into sealed tanks.
Debris from the weapons was sent to the Pantex plant in Texas for evaluation, and the tanks were shipped to the Savannah River in South Carolina.
However, a secondary-stage cylinder containing uranium and lithium deuteride, the nuclear fuel components of one of the bombs, was never found.
Fortunately, according to scientists, this secondary “fusion” unit cannot detonate on its own.
The story, even though nearly six decades old, underlines Greenland’s enduring geopolitical significance.
From the US perspective, Greenland has always been crucial for American security, first against the Nazis, then against the Soviets, and now amid increasing competition for the Arctic, against the Chinese and Russians.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
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- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
