Word: reykjavik
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...bluejackets and leathernecks pouring ashore at Reykjavik last week looked over the possibilities of Iceland-as a place to live and a place to defend...
...boys ashore soon found their way to Reykjavik's only cinema and saw Golden Boy. They went to the music halls and saw very proper classical shows. Despite tight restrictions on liquor sales, they managed to find a nip here & there. They wandered into shops and had a fine time trying to make the shopkeepers (who had learned the broad English words of the British) catch onto the American twang...
They buddied up to British soldiers and learned some of the Island's lore. They learned that fire has had more to do with the volcanic island's look than the ice for which it is named. That Reyk means smoke and Reykjavik is "the smoking harbor." That Mount Hekla was considered by medieval Icelandic monks the entrance into Hell. That the poetic Icelanders have named their rocks and rills Waterfall of the Gods and Lava of Evil Deeds and Trembling River...
Iceland has half a dozen possible airfields, and more could be made on the flat south-coastal plains-if there are planes to put on them. Reykjavik is the only good harbor; though lots of little boats can huddle in the fiords by the herring ports on the north shore...
Last week Winston Churchill said that the British-Canadian forces would not be removed. Presumably the U.S. will soon begin to convoy to Reykjavik. There the British Navy can take over and convoy Lend-Lease goods the rest of the way to Britain. If this takes place it will enable the British to concentrate their convoy vessels on the last leg of the haul. The inevitable result: much lower mortality among British merchantmen, much higher mortality among U-boats. Add to this the fact that Reykjavik can now serve as a base for U.S. naval patrols, particularly air patrols...