The Cod Wars were a series of skirmishes between the Icelandic Coast Guard and the British Royal Navy with West German and Belgian support. If you’re thinking, “Cod? Isn’t that a type of fish?” you’d be correct. Cod is a common fish found in the waters of the northern Atlantic and has long been a part of the Icelandic and British cuisines. Although the Cod Wars were not true wars, they did involve confrontations with armed vessels, but more importantly, they featured the story of how a small nation with no standing army fought against one of the world’s military superpowers.

The First Cod War started on September 1st, 1958 when Iceland implemented a new law expanding its fishing borders from around 7.5km to 22.2km, which all NATO members at the time had opposed. The British responded by deploying 53 warships to the area to protect their fishing boats and the Icelanders retaliated with 6 patrol boats and a large seaplane. This resulted in Iceland protests in front of the British embassy and an incident involving a single live round. Iceland eventually threatened to leave NATO and expel American forces in Iceland, forcing America to intervene in Iceland’s favor. The First Cod War came to an end in 1961.

The Second Cod War started in September 1972 when Iceland once again expanded its fishing borders, this time to 92.6km. Western powers opposed the change yet again, and even the Warsaw Pact, an alliance made up of Soviet puppet states, opposed Iceland’s expansions. Despite the declaration, British and West German boats continued to fish in the area, forcing Iceland to chase out these boats with patrol ships and cut their fishing nets. This resulted in a casualty: an Icelandic engineer who was electrocuted due to a collision with a British ship. Iceland once again used threats of forcing American influence out of the country, which caused America to step in. The second Cod War concluded in 1973.

The third and final Cod War began in November 1975, when Iceland extended its maritime border 370km, over 10 times what was originally requested in the First Cod War. This third iteration brought much more action, with ships being damaged on both sides and resulted in a serious injury on the British side. Many boats and ships on either side rammed each other at notable speeds, and in one incident a few 57mm rounds were fired. Iceland temporarily cut off all diplomatic ties with the United Kingdom in February of 1976. Diplomatic ties were restored in the spring of that year.