Ástandið

At its peak the number of Allied soldiers equaled almost 50% of the native male population.

Many of the foreign soldiers would court Icelandic women, and estimates of the number of local women who married foreign soldiers go into the hundreds.

Immediately discussions began over what effect this would have, and minimal interaction with the occupational forces was encouraged; but this proved to be difficult, as many Icelanders had jobs which in some way led them to have interactions with British and later American servicemen.

[1] The Icelandic government tried unsuccessfully to reduce the Allied soldiers' encounters with Icelandic women, but with time the issue lapsed, as all Allied forces evacuated the island upon the conclusion of the war in 1945.

In order to reassure the Icelandic government, all American troops were now restricted to the Keflavík Air Base, which remained operational until 2006, when the US briefly left, only to return in 2016.