@@DarkZodiacZZ Yeah, but they did not really have a choice. It was either: 1. Stop trading with Germany and get invaded. 2. Don't stop and keep autonomy So, you know. Not that many options.
The political maneuvering on the part of the Swedish government is really fascinating and a totally under represented part of the war. It seems like they really were doing everything realistically within their power to resist Germany without pushing far enough break the tension and invite a war they would lose, however costly it would have been for Germany. The solidarity with Finland is particularly inspiring, holding out to try and keep them from being completely annexed by the Soviets is something they really do deserve credit for.
It was massively in sweedens interest to mediate a separate peace for the finns with the soviets such that finland still existed and sweeden didn't border the soviets. without that the soviets may have come crashing through all of finland, then sweeden, then norway and taken the whole of the scandinavian lands and tranformed them into socialist republic of the usSR kind. The soviets would have at least demanded troop crosing rights in order to invade nazi occupied norway
Individual Swedes came to our help by the thousands, as did Estonians who´d lost their own nation. Estonians took huge risks only to get into Finland, and many times they had to pay for smugglers or fishers to get them over the Finnish Gulf. One must respect such determination to fight communists! Of course men came from all over the world really, inlcuding Christopher Lee. Thankfully Sweden realized that if Finland falls, they are definately the next. It´s sort of hilarious that not so long before Finland was just an insignificant "eastern sweden", used to draft men for wars and rip taxes from Finns´ backsides! :) Anyway, had Germany attacked Sweden, I believe they´d been able to destroy the iron mines if they wanted to stop Nazis getting possession of them.
@@ivrishcon-abarth38Russia attacked Finland - Sweden innumerable times, occuoying the whole of Finland in the early 18th century, killing of thousands, burning the cities and towns both in Finland and in the coastal areas in Sweden. Finland was occupied again in 1808 and annexed to Russia. The Finns gaining libery in 1917 despite Finnish communists who murdered people from the upper classes, thus starting the Finish civil war.
@@Hasso98 Yes i understad at Norway have problems whit the Swedish thin line diplomacy, but is 60 year's a go just drop it, and if Norway mobilized 200.000 in ther army when Sweden did it, so perhaps with the help of the British army you could have won the battle of Norway. You have to direct your anger to France and U.K. instead they were the only ones who could resist Germany militarily but they blow it in the start of war.
@@Hasso98 If you are Russian you dont have any historical moral heights to whine at Swedens concessions to Nazi Germany duringW.W.-2. You tell me you (Russia) wont forget, but you forgot or dont know about the concessions Soviet-Russia did with Nazi-Germany it was called Molotov-Ribbentropp pact and it was signed 23 of August 1939, and Soviet-Russia sold both food and oil in millions of tons to Nazi-Germany right up until the outbreak of war Jun 1941, and then the war political pact for Soviet-Russia to annex half of Polen, Baltic states and Finland, in addition, you had technical collaboration regarding to war aircraft and tank's, talk about high-level of collaboration with the Nazi-Germans. That's quite a lot of Swedish war history i'm not proud of but the transit of 20.000-30.000 German soldiers on train and sell iron ore are not the worst moments. You can not afford your patriotism or nationalism to make you blind deaf or mute in today's modern society when most of the information is available online.
@Peder Hansen Sweden did its best and help a lot off Jews and others to flee. If they had stopped trading with the German the country would have been invaded and if they had joined Germany the British would have bombed the mines.
I knew the Swedish supported the Fins with military equipment but always thought that it was not that much considering that the Fins still claim that Swedish support was too small. Now seeing the exact data... wew 84000 rifles?! and a considerable amount of other equipment. That sounds like a lot more support then "too small".
Your right..swedish support was finlands life line especially in winter war - we got virtually no support from westerns powers - germany did some covertly and throught sweden. On continuation war the situation was differend with direckt support from germany and having bolth swedish and german military units in front.
Finland had expected (unrealistically, like so much else that Finland expected) Swedish joining the war on their side and compared to that it was seen as not that much. The reality as you say is different, there were some 8000 volunteers and more or less half the Swedish army's equipment. Watching this video makes the Swedish decision to stay out that much more understandable, out of 6 poorly equipped divisions, how many could they realistically send? 3-4? Would it have made a difference? Probably not and afterwards Sweden would be in an even weaker situation. I think the Swedish support in the Winter War has been and still is being wrongfully underestimated in Finland. EDIT: after WW2 there was still ongoing support from Sweden, for example an important reason Sweden did not join Nato was to support Finland's neutrality.
I mean spending 84k guns vs losing up to 70k manpower in total casualties, id say the equipment loss is "lesser" of the two. I could understand some Fins losing their family members and looking for anyone to blame for it. Finland basically stopped the Soviet expansion to Scandinavia, no way Stalin would just take Finland and stop there. Also, lot of the equipment came from Germany anyways. Obviously this help was VITAL and did help Finland succeed in protecting its existence and thus the freedom of Sweden as well.
:Things worth mentioning: *Sweden informed the allies when the Bismarck left port *They wire tapped the German landline between Germany & Norway (including breaking its codes) and intel was shared with the allies and Finland *Sweden warned the UK of Barbarossa, the UK would in term warn the USSR (Stalin thought it was all hogwash) *Large numbers of allied bombers got lost and-or performed emergency landings in southern Sweden. The crew got interned and often ran off with Swedish women *A V2-Rocket crash landed in Sweden, an analyze was made and sent to the UK before the remains were given back to Germany *Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, would be instrumental in saving thousands of Hungarian Jews by Swedish passports. He was captured and died in a Moscow prison
tyskbulle Sweden sold ballbearings to the allies during the war. Transported by speedy british merchants that ran the minefields and blockade between Denmark and Norway. When that blockade was started a bit more than one third of the swedish merchant marine was locked out of Sweden. These ships and their men took part in the war on the allied side. Over 2000 men and 270 swedish merchant ships was lost in allied service.
@@andyg1024 You could say Sweden was left with no choice in the matter. Unlike the USSR that willingly fueled the German war machine for 20 months. How many heroes did that make in the end?
The best work on Sweden in ww2 I have ever heard. As a Dane, I have always been a bit biased against Sweden in the period, but TIK makes it plain, that Sweden had very little choice in the matter. You would be either drunk or suicedal to play tough against Hitler in 1940, with the forces Sweden had at their disposal!
@@TheImperatorKnight Well there is a lot of bad blood between the two countries, and it is kind of a bad habit of Danes (me included) to doubt the morals of Swedes- Its silly, but in the case of ww2 it is very easy to point fingers at others failings in order to forget your own. Denmark did a lot of nescessary but not exactly heroic things during the war. Sweden DID help the Germans invade Norway, and they DID refuse Denmark help in the early years of the war, but they had very good reasons to do it.
I see. Thank you for being honest :) it's funny because I always assumed that the Scandinavian countries and people were all friendly towards each other and got along. Shows how little I know! But then again, people think I'm weird for thinking we're all humans and that tribes are artificial barriers to individual alliances, so I'm not one to talk
@@hoegild1 Sweden didn't help Germany invade Norway. Where did you get that silly idea? Also "and they DID refuse Denmark help in the early years of the war" What early years of the war? The invasion of Denmark was over in less then a day and the danish government surrendered in less then two hours.
Aaand the debate is on, so let me explain my previous comment. First Sweden didnt help Danish refugees in the early years, even sending some (communists) back to gestapo. Second, Sweden allowed Germany to move troops through Sweden, while fighting in Norway, making the invasion much easier. I do not at the moment have sources on this, but it is fairly mainstream knowledge.
Alright, let us get some things right. 1. Bolt-action rifles dating to the late 19th century was standard armament in all armies in ww2, with the exception of the US army - the US being the only country with the industrial capacity (and the infantry doctrine) to equip all their men with with semi-automatic rifles (except the Marine Corps, which continued to use M1903 Springfield bolt-action rifles). 2. The 1925 defence decision called for 4 line divisions, but you completely miss both the motorised brigade (created out of the cavalry division that was disbanded) and the local defence/landstormen that consisted of the oldest 10 classes and was almost as large as the line army and tasked with local defence. The army was far larger than just 4 divisions and could mobilise roughly 400 000 men in 1939. 3. Swedish had more artillery than that in 1939. There were 120 modernised light field guns, 200 ww1 vintage light field guns, 174 pre-ww1 light field guns (without recoil system), 160 ww1 vintage medium howitzers, 48 modern heavy field guns, 12 ww1 vintage heavy field guns, 53 pre-ww1 heavy field guns (without recoil system), 28 modern heavy howitzers, 66 ww1 vintage heavy howitzers and 12 ww1 vintage heavy siege howitzers, for a total of 227 pre-ww1, 450 ww1 vintage and 176 modern artillery pieces. 3. Sweden had in active service 48 MG-armed tanks and 16 cannon-armed tanks in 1939, with 7 MG-armed and 5 cannon-armed older tanks in depots used for training. There were 25 cannon-armed and 21 MG-armed and armoured cars in active service, with 8 MG-armed armoured cars in depots used for training. Total numbers are thus 21 gun-armed and 55 MG-armed tanks and 25 cannon-armed and 29 MG-armed armoured cars. 4. Sweden had 173 planes in active service in 1939, plus around 50 planes in reserve (a mix of reserves for the active units and older planes) with a further roughly 50 trainer and liason planes. While most were biplanes, the roughly 45 B 3 (Junkers Ju 86) and 11 T 2 (Heinkel He 115) were not. 5. Sweden did not get most of her equipment abroad - all equipment save some planes were produced locally, albeit often on license. Ammunition was standard 6,5x55mm (for rifles, LMGs and MGs) and 9x21mm (for pistols and SMGs) in 1939. It was only the war that led to some imports of non-standard calibre weapons, including 7,92x57mm Mauser and the switch of the standard pistol bullet from the 9x21mm to the 9x19mm. Non-standard weapons were usually sent back to the depots and modified to standard calibres once enough arms were available and the immediate invasion threat died down. 6. Only the US feared Sweden would go over to the other side and impounded arms orders - mostly aircrafts in the form of 60 J 9 (Serversky EP-106), 58 B 6 (Repubic 2PA) and 144 J 10 (Vultee P-66 Vanguard). Sweden purchased arms from Germany (including captured Bofors weapons from Poland and Austria), Switzerland, Italy and Finland and eventually radar stations from Britain. No-one gave arms - they were paid for, and in the Italian case, through the nose in strategic materials. 7. One needs to remember that Germany actively threatened war with Sweden if Sweden allowed Allied troops on its soil, which influenced the Swedish "no" quite a bit. Germany would not stand idly by if the Allies tried to secure the Swedish iron ore. 8. The Landstorm that manned the Per-Albin line had served on average 360 days of conscription and at least 100 days of neutrality watch during ww1. To claim that they could not operate the weapons of the line is simply silly - the line had very few anti-tank weapons, mostly because tanks as part of a naval landing on a beach were not a thing in 1940 (and would remain a very minor thing until the Allies built a large amount of amphibious tanks and landing crafts for tanks for the invasion of Normandy in 1944). The Germans certainly had nothing that could land tanks at beaches in 1940. 9. The Swedish offensive plans against German-occupied Norway in 1941-1944 focused on Mo-i-Rana, which was the closest port to the border and also lacked a rail connection to the rest of Norway, making it a much easier target, not Narvik. 10. In 1940 there were 230 000 men in the line army, and 190 000 men in local defence units, which were tactically but not operationally mobile. The local defence held down fortified lines, air fields, garrisons, cities, ports and beach defences, freeing up the line army to deploy wherever it was needed and for offensive or counter-offensive work. In 1941, this had increased to 340 000 men in the line army and 260 000 men in the local defence, plus another 100 000 in the home guard. By that time, the local defence actually had more MGs and AT guns than the line army, since they manned a lot of fixed fortifications. 11. The German intelligence on the Swedish army was beyond horrible. The officer responsible, Major Karl Ogilvie at Fremde Heere West (Foreign Armies West) simply copied the same assessment from 1939 to 1944, indicating that Sweden lacked AA capability (despite that more than 1 000 40mm Bofors guns and 1 200 20mm AA guns had been delivered to the army), lacked mechanised forces (despite Sweden having a motorised brigade since 1937 and creating 2 armoured brigades, each with 140 tanks in Summer 1943, which grew to 3 armoured brigades with 185 tanks each in early 1944) and was entirely focused on defence (despite General Rappe conducting a very skilled infantry attack in the Finnish style durin the great exercises of January 1942). The German military attaché in Sweden, Bruno von Uthmann writes in his memoirs that no German plans on Sweden was ever made, which means he was not consulted at all (and he was probably the one who knew the Swedish army the best). On the other hand, Swedish intelligence on the German forces in Norway was excellent. 2 days after 25. Panzer-division moved from Oslo to Trondheim, the new location shows up in the staff reports of II. MILO, the Swedish military area tasked with defending that part of the border. Sweden also acquired the report the German staff of the 25. Panzer-division prepared for the planned invasion (this if anything is an intelligence master-piece!). The report also included that Sweden lacked any armoured units. The Germans were completely unaware of the Swedish 9. and 10. Pansarbrigaden armoured brigades placed in reserve to counter any German armoured trusts in Summer 1943. 12. By Summer 1943, it was obvious that while the Germans might be able to conquer Sweden, they could ill afford to move the resources necessary to do so from other fronts - the resources in Norway was not enough, and Sweden's attitude changed accordingly. Sweden had 360 planes in combat units Summer 1943 - the Germans had 155 in Denmark, Norway and Finland. 13. von Schell's plan called for at least one regiment of paratroopers, 2 panzer divisions and at least 4 infantry divisions, he never had any paratroopers, only 1 panzer division (weakly equipped and completely green) and 2-3 infantry divisions, depending on how much the other divisions in Norway were cannibalised. Sweden at this time had 10 infantry divisions, 1 motorised and 2 armoured brigades (that had more tanks than the German 25. Panzer-division) as well as the local defence and the home guard, their numbes being equilent to about 10 more infantry divisions (albeing lacking in artillery). 14. von Schell himself commented his plan when it was discovered in the archives and then debated heatedly in Sweden in the 60s in a polite reply that he never had the forces the plan called for. 15. The force mobilised in 1943 was 300 000 men, with another 300 000 plus 100 000 in the Home Guard available for mobilisation. They were mobilised because Sweden planned to cancel the transition treaty and wanted to be ready for a potential German armed response, or at least make a show of force to discourage the Germans from any armed response. Sweden knew the Germans had a panzer division in Norway and closely tracked its movement, but did not know the details of the German plan - it was discovered in the 60s. 16. Sweden did not fear a communist take-over of Denmark and Norway. The "police" troops were created to give the Norwegian and Danish governments a reliable force to establish order after a German collapse (or perhaps even invade if the German forces refused to surrender after Berlin did), arrest collaborators and prevent the Germans from taking civilians as hostages or destroying evidence of their war crimes. 17. You keep consistently call mortars "grenade launchers" - there's a substantial difference. Mortars were quick-fire weapons with dedicated crews and forward observers, grenade launchers were attached to rifles and used by the infantry to throw hand grenade sized rifle grenades further than a man could throw them, but much shorter and with a much lower rate of fire than mortars. Edited for spelling and clarity.
Thanks for clearing the the situation in Sweden altrough as an half swedish I grossly knew the situation during the war. I can see the "efforts" along the coast of south Sweden but many bunkers it was built with cheap concrete with few exceptions!
@@paoloviti6156 Sweden did have a shortage of cement during the war, and used granite gravel in many fortifications to make the concrete stretch. However, the Per Albin line fortifications were sturdy and could take 150mm naval artillery hits from above without problem - in fact, they are still there because they are so sturdy that tearing them down is considered too expensive and they've just been filled in with sand and left to (very slowly) crumble.
@@GefreitervonAdler I know but there was examples of badly made bunkers and I personally saw some of them. My Swedish girlfriend has left a bunker on purpose for me and my son on the edge of her garden knowing my passion. It was a small bunker as an observatory and I would love to transform it as his summer house! Lol...
My grandfather got drafted in 1940, and from what he told me, even though there was pressure from the Germans, Russia was still considered "the great enemy", and the major concern was the finns, our brother kin.
The brother kin would be the danes and norwegians. Finland was at best a buffer against soviet Russia. If Finland fell, our great nation might be next.
My great-grandfather was drafted and placed on the Finnish border. He watched the Germans burn down lappland and his unit received many finish refugees.
Sweden did what was best for them. They were in a difficult situation geographically and saved their people from the horrible fate of western USSR . I am a Yank and I believe they did the right thing. Britain and the U S were not able to help them I 1940. They probably more worried about Stalin.
Better than Denmark. Denmark is a flat piece of land that German motorized units can just roll into. Norway and northern Sweden have worse terrain. They share a long mountain border. Both nations have a lot more territory to give in case of invasion. The Swedish home opinion sympathizes with Norway. It's not popular to be a hitlerist in Sweden when Hitler is bombing the norwegians right over the border and starting to treat Denmark as a client state. Or a communist either, people sympathize with Finland as well.
@asdfbry Hitlerists aren't very popular in Sweden. There's a few small groups of them, who get even smaller. People don't really like guys who are pro-Hitler when Hitler is bombing Norway and Denmark.
@@SusCalvin Nazi sympathizers in Sweden during that time was far more common than the official story tells these days. Simply because those very organizations are the peak of political correctness today. The political party Bondeförbundet (Centerpartiet) and the tabloid Aftonbladet were outright pro-nazi. And the eugenics policy of the Swedish Social Democrats basically inspired the nazi 'final solution'. (The eugenics program continued up to 1975)
@@Merecir Which is another reason few people even know about. The troop transports to Finland by sea went BEHIND our naval guns without escort. In other words german divisions went unguarded near Stockholm because the admiral of the baltic was a nazi at this point. On my bucket list to piss on his grave. He delayed defense plans at the coast and should have hanged for it.
@Krister Lagerström Roosevelt cleverly started re-armament in stages to prepare the USA for an entry in war. However Roosevelt's original plan was to enter the war fully prepared in 1943, but the Japanese surprise attack in Dec 1941 derailed those plans. The USA was already supporting Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the Republic of China support with lend-lease. The American plan was to support countries which fought Nazi Germany and stay out themselves as long as possible and then enter fully prepared and just flood the axis. The problem Roosevelt faced was that the USA was still recovering from the Great Depression and any talk of war would have made American riot. Most Americans were ok with support but not with an American entry. Back then the American mindset was pretty much the polar opposite of today. Anything outside the borders of the USA was seen as "not our problem and not our fight", which was turned upside down in the Cold War and after it too far that matter. Korea, Vietnam, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq... Anyways staying out of both WWI and WWII was the jackpot as far as Sweden was concerned. When the rest of Europe was in ruins and needed to spend a gargantuan amount of money to rebuild their countries Sweden was completely unaffected and was good to go the minute the war was over. This meant that the Swedish industry expanded greatly after the war. The only thing holding Sweden back was its small population. This is how the first immigrant workers arrived in Sweden following WWII. The industries needed a bigger workforce.
They played their cards well???? They SOLD millions of tons of iron ore to the REICH to make munitions that killed many many people. Do not comment on something you know nothing about, swedes were collaborators,hated by their near neighbours and this continues to this day.
Well we were Walking on a tightrope. but we managed to read their messagetrafic, you see in 1940 the Germans asked if they could use our telegraphlines for their trafic between Norway and Germany, we agreed then we listened in and it was in code, so enter Arne Beurling he cracked the code in a month using only paper and pen, he also built a machine used for forcing the code. We knew when Barbarossa would start in advance.
@@androidtv4589 Are you stupid? Without us giving finland half of our whole artillery plus 10 thousand volunteers finland would never have stood a chance lol... But please keep telling me how we didn't contribute to the war.. "Do not comment on something you know nothing about" lmao..
Now this has given me a whole nother view of my own country, sweden. You went in more depth than what the history teachers did, way more in depth actually. Thanks for the history lesson and thank you Peter for asking that question!
24:50 "These 'police troops' had grenade launchers and anti-tank guns, so they were obviously not just police." American police 2020: "hold my Brännvin"
I am surprised that at this point USA police cars are not replaced with military surplus tanks. I think the only real reason is that the roads cannot handle regular tank activity. USA expenditure on the military is ginormous, and their local police get the hand-me-downs of the military to save money.
You can't compare modern day militarized law enforcement with mid 20th century clandestinely trained militia for taking over quickly when the regime of the occupying nation collapsed.
@@johanrunfeldt7174 I'm sure that the militias were better about respecting the rights of the citizenry, that part is for sure. But when it comes to armament, relative to the time period, I pretty much think that you can make the comparison.
Is there English pronunciation for Lulea? I think it's funny the modern English pronunciation of Finland's capital is "Helsinki" rather than "Helsingfors", which it had been for the previous 6oo or so years before 1919.
@@ElGrandoCaymano That's because the Finnish name for Helsinki is Helsinki. Helsingfors (Hell-sing-fosh) is the Swedish name for the town, which used to apply because Finland was part of Sweden. When Finland became independent, it also made Finnish it's "primary" language (though Swedish remains an official majority language) and the capital switched names correspondingly.
@@TheImperatorKnight Concur , the nazis themselfs were also irritated that so few Swedes joined them , they had plenty of danish and norweigans who joined up. Sweden still views the others as smaller siblings , and while we may not have the best relations at times , noone is allowed to invade them - except ous of course ;)
In this case, I really have to bow down to your very correct assessment and level of detail. As a (half-)Swede I have never heard a foreigner with such detailed knowledge of the Swedish situation, and delivering it without bias. Sweden usually get bashed for being neutral from so many hindsight warriors. Not only could we help Finland with materiel and 10 000 volunteer troops. You mention the training of resistance fighters from Norway/Denmark. It also made possible the single biggest rescue operation of Jews during the war. Almost all of the Jews in Denmark were shipped over the Öresund strait in a joint effort between Danish and Scanian fishing crews. Morally speaking, they would probably be dead if not for Swedish neutrality.
This was very interesting, thanks! This certainly brings some light and nuance to a very complex situation in history. Most people in Sweden are aware of (and would in retrospect condemn) the German soldier transports, but I bet most haven't understood how severe the situation was for our country at the time. Considering the circumstances, I would think the Swedish government probably made the right call.
The wartimes are always tough. Yes, Sweden may have made a few miscalculations, but all in all their strategy was wise. As a Finn, I admit Finland also did some less honourable decisions, but I don’t think we really had much choice back then. There were very few countries that helped Finland in our hour of need. I do think that Sweden and Baltic nations, especially Estonia were really helping us, sending volunteers and weapons. Also, we did get lots of help from the Germans. I don’t like Nazis, but politically retaining our independence was crucial. So, thank you Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for your help! And thank you Germany as well, not the Nazi party, but the German soldiers! Let us hope we never have to lose the lives of our sons and daughters again to satisfy the greed and bloodlust of dictators and politicians, no matter which country or party they come from!
It's interesting to add some more details (I'm a half-Finn myself born in Sweden), what Sweden actually did to help Finland in the winter war against the Soviet aggression. It supplied a volunteer Swedish division (including 727 Norwegians) of about 12,000 men, but in reality 8,620 actually were in Finland fighting. In addition, Swedish people donated, and the state gave 490 million kronor (1940); this was more than the Finish budget 1939, and more than the Swedish military budget 1939/1940. In addition, 84,000 rifles, 575 machine guns, 85 anti-tank guns, 104 anti-aircraft cannons, 112 howitzer and cannons, and 25 aircraft were donated. The regular Swedish Military was kept out of the winter-war by the government, much to the anger of the majority of the public opinion. Sweden own defense was very weak, and the government concluded it would only help the Finns a month or so. In addition, there were a fear that Soviets would come closer to Sweden, for example occupying Åland. Of course, there were the other opposite argument that it's better to take the fight far away from the heartland and not wait until Soviet troops land on your coast. The former argument was adopted - to adhere to the neutrality or non-belligerent position in the conflict.
Many large industries and workers unions, would give up one month of pay in aid for Finland. There are many stories of army equipment being "lost" along the northern border. 100 000 Norwegian refugees would cross the border, many of them being cared-for and guided by local Swedish farmers. A great grandfather of mine was killed helping some of these refugees. Finnish war children would also arrive in the tens of thousands, many would stay permanently. After the war Sweden would aid in the reconstruction of its Nordic neighbors. This is mostly forgotten today and Sweden is often cited as being cowardly or greedy. But they do not know this. In solidarity, Swedish school children would at times mobilize more for another country then their own.
@@omanvictory4011 Should one take much stock in the opinions of outsiders? There has been slander and negative discourse about Sweden for half a century. Meanwhile this socialist dystopian nation, somehow manages to take care of people better then most.
@@tyskbulle If the peace treaty had allowed it, settling 3,000 Germans (or even 200k) in Finland would not have been a problem. The Soviet Union had a strange way of hauling "criminals" from abroad. Apparently the USSR was indeed in ruins.
Joakim von Anka Should push comes to shove, I'm very sure the next time it will be different. Norway and Denmark were never in a position where they could spare being solidary, especially to us Swedes, until just recently. Not to mention that with EU and the media, there is nothing that will make them doubt lending us a helping hand if we ever need it.
16:00 about refusing the Germans. Sweden did "accidentally"leek a few pieces of intel to the alliance as a result off unexplained temporary failure anti conters espionage operations and by a few a mean battleship worth of intel.
@@Dragon-Believer The time to stand up to bullies was 1933 to 1939. It was too late to merely intimidate them into stopping, Germany was the equivalent of a criminal who has already committed enough crimes to get life in prison if not execution, no reason to hold back or flinch anymore
@@HeinzGuderian_ - how do you figure? germany could have occupied sweden for 2 years, maybe 3. even so military occupation doesn't make you part of the same country
Thanks for this, it is interesting and informative. I live in Sweden but have an English background with my Grandfather having been a POW in Italy and a great uncle buried in Libya having died flying for the RAF, so I found Sweden’s role in WW2 disturbing and this video has helped me understand more. Pass the sprit.
As a Swede, I grew up with the American perspective of WW2, meaning I legitimately thought that Sweden was a "bad guy" in WW2; trading with the Germans to profit during a time of crisis. As I grew older I took a more keen interest in history and my perspective has since changed. I think Sweden played the cards she was dealt as well as she could have. By remaining independent, Sweden did a lot of good for those that were prosecuted in the neighboring countries. Of course, if Sweden had resisted, maybe the war would've ended sooner and less damage would've been done, but it would've come at a great cost of Sweden itself. Would _any_ other nation have done such a sacrifice?
TIK you left out Swedish ball bearings exported to BOTH Britain and Germany. Both combatant powers were critically dependent upon them. For Britain these bearings were critical for 40% of her aeroengine production. ( Merlins ) One hero stood up and used patrol boats to race through Danish waters to ship the critical bearings right underneath Nazi noses. After the USAAF hit German bearing production, Speer went crazy. The Swedes had both over a barrel. Sweden even shipped tungsten carbide tool bits to the USSR -- paid for by the Americans. America sent an Esso oil tanker at least once a month straight through the dual blockade to fuel Sweden. Ball bearings were the reason why.
Dont forget that alot of allied naval forces, especially the US navy sailed around with armaments made by Bofors. www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_4cm-56_mk12.php
@@tr6431 Which they didn't pay for😄 If I remember correctly Britain had a licensing agreement to manufacture bofors anti-air cannons. USA wanted their bofors guns too, got help by the brits to make them but didn't pay licensing fees to Bofors!
2:37 Probably just a typo but just for clarification, it's *Malmberget* , not Malmberger. I live in that town! Edit: Malmberget literally means "Ore Mountain"
No body seems to notice the fact that at that time almost half of swedens ore was mined in the south, this was before all smaller mines was closed, and ore was also shipped out from Oxelösund in large numbers and other minor ports in the south.
My grandfather on my mothers side was a part of Operation Performance. He was on board the "B.P Newton" which made it to Edinburgh. He was awarded the "British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service".
great video as usual. as a swede myself i found this very educating. i think alot of (most?) swedes are overly ashamed of swedish ww2 concessions towards the germans, thinking it was because of oppurtunitism and unwillingness to fight, rather than a finely tuned plitical balance act to keep us (and finland) from being invaded or descending into economic collapse and starvation...
That was the impression I got from Gilmour's book (and the original question) - that Swedes feel ashamed about WW2, and that there's varying interpretations... I'd recommend Gilmour's book for anyone interested in this topic because he makes a good case for why they did what they did
@@TheImperatorKnight Thank you for this TIK there are Swedish historians who have made this case but it just wont get through to English speaking audiences, I have to check out Gilmours book at some point. Sadly its just much easier to assume that Sweden just did what Germany wanted and were up to no good. But there is a context here that is being ignored by those who claim that Sweden should be ashamed of there role in WW2. Ignored is also all the ways in which Sweden helped there neighbours and the Allies. I think both the Allies and Germans underestimated the Swedish defence capabilities but there is little doubt that Sweden would have fallen if the Germans attacked in force before Barbarossa. Little known fact Sweden planed for "operation save Norway" and "operation save Denmark" that was supposed to free those countries and involve the Danish and Norwegian "police forces" trained and armed in Sweden during the war, the war ended before it could be put to action though and it never left the planing stage as far as I know.
The Swedish government kept their country out of the war. That would/should be any country's goverment's first objective. Can't blame them. And they supported theirs neighbors when they could. Respect. 🇳🇴
I don't think Swedes have anything to feel ashamed about. Wars are full of stories like this, from individuals to political groups to entire countries that are forced to navigate difficult situations and survive as best they can. TIK did an excellent job here of explaining the choices Sweden had to make and from that it seems like they did the best they could to oppose Germany without risking a war that would kill thousands of its citizens. Finland, Spain, Turkey, Bulgaria... there's a long list of countries that found themselves just trying to avoid destruction.
@@TheSlyngel The way I have heard it, is that those operations were supposed to take place if the Nazis decided to fight on in Scandinavia after the surrender in continental Europe. I saw somwhere that the Nazi commanders actually considererd this, but he realized that it would be hopeless. I am short on sources here.
Sweden did what they could to stay out of the war, while helping their neighbour countries as much as possible (white busses, acting as mediator, training norwegian/danish troops, sending volunteers and equipment to finland and taking in refugees) without getting dragged in the war for their own nation's sake. I believe it was the right thing to do.
Some "strange" info for you, sir. When the Germans invaded Norway, the swedish officers at the island/half island of Getterön in Varberg 75 km S Gothenburg where drunk. Some of the german boats had stopped outside Kungbacka (I think it was), to wait to attack at the same time. Maybe the swedish officers thought that it was the swedish westcoast that was their target. During the transit through sweden, you can read in different books about it . But there is a big misstage in almost all books... The picture showing the germans at a stop (for food or toilets) garded by swedish soldiers are not from the transit. During the transit they used the best wagons that we had. This shows a cargowagon, and the german soldiers got no weapons. The swedish guards are looking at the train, not for a threat from outside, because the picture is from their trip home as "POW". Sweden got nine 21 cm guns from Skoda in 42(43), and the germans got nickel, chrome, brom and some other rare metals to make aluminium to aircraft, and fuses to bombs... Germany demand sweden to give them access to the telephonecable on the westcoast, so they could have contact between Oslo - Kopenhagen - Berlin. We tapped all comunication, and gave it to the allied. A very importent part of the war. Take care Calle Bazz
I heard a similar story of rapid boats landing outside Stavanger. The German marines commandeered a telephone in some upper middle class home, and tried to call back to Germany. Except they called the wrong number, and got to a Swedish Count. When he heard bewildered German, he didn't know what to belive, but wrote down their message and said he'd get in contact with the Fuhrer. Instead he called the Norwegian embassy, and frantically tried to warn them that Norway was perhaps being invaded... I see the whole thing before me like some kind of Monty Python sketch...
"Sweden got nine 21 cm guns from Skoda in 42(43)". Ah... The famous haubitz m/42. A nicely portable haubitz, all you needed to do was to reduce it to three parts, after all, total weight was only 21 metric tons...
A minor note, one of the places we get our iron ore from is not Malmberger but Malmberget. Roughly translated to iron mountain. The region that consists of Kiruna, Gällivare and Malmberget is called Malmfälten (the iron fields). This is a very intresting video :)
A tip: in 1996 the Swedish author, playwriter and comedian Hans Alfredson wrote a contrafactual novel about a Nazi invasion of Sweden and how he imagined this action would have affected WW2 in Europe. I don't know if it's been translated but if you want to practice your Swedish the title is "Attentatet i Pålsjö skog" (The attack in Pålsjö skog) and I can highly recommend it!
Thank you for the excellent video, I think you're absolutely correct in your assessment of the Swedish situation. You've excellently highlighted Sweden's determination in many instances to stand up to external pressure and and this clearly demonstrated with her negotiating peace on behalf of Finland with the Soviets. What I have come to realise from your Sweden's video and Switzerland's situation is that 'neutrality' is not necessarily as morally pure and totally uninfluenced by the belligerents in a conflict as we would like to think especially when your on the doorstep of the conflict.
Says a lot that Finland was ready to go back with Sweden at that point.. and it would've worked just fine that way too. 1940s Sweden was a whole lot different from 1700 Sweden.
The Germans deployed the same trick in North Africa to fool the allies into thinking they were facing far better equipped and motorized Germans than they actually were. In the early years of WWII the allies often assessed German number of troops and equipment significantly higher than they really were. Had they known the actual numbers it's likely they wouldn't have let Hitler have his way in Czechoslovakia in 1938 and would have opened up a real second front in 1939 when Poland was invaded. The allies themselves made up dummy armies in England and fed them false information about what they were being prepared for to con the Germans.
I like the ball bearing - game theory - theory. Sweden had the world monopoly on ball bearings which ran the tanks planes etc of both sides. Had the Germans taken Sweden the Allied forces would have fought a battle of all battles so as not to lose their bearings. Both sides would have lost, so in Nash equilibrium style they fought their battles elsewhere and the bearing supplies went both directions.
There was a huge campaign from the people to make the politicians have Sweden join Finland in the winter war. But they pussied out. - Finlands sak är vår!
I appreciate the support of the Swedish people, and especially the material contributions. I just wish we had both been more prepared for any outside agression.
Sweden did a lot of things under the radar during WW2. Some of my favorites are the hiding of Jews in the Swedish outskirts, sending reinforcements to the Norwegian resistance and helping locating the german battleship Bismarck. Sweden got a lot is fingers pointed towards them, but Sweden played it like ”the hero that no one knows about” basically. Sweden, did sway the tide a lot in the north but many people do not know about it.
Sweden may have played their cards dirty for a while but we also gave finland half of our artillery and 10k volunters in the winter war for an example. Without us the finlands woulnd't have stood a chance
@Peder Hansen Sweden did not help Germany invade norway. Transit rights were after the surrender of Norway. Occupy Norway they reluctently helped. Sweden helped Germany as little as they could without threatening thier independance. Simply Sweden reluctently helped Germany while willingly helped the Brits and Finns.
What was not mentioned is that the swedes had broken the german army teleprinter code directly after the invasion of Norway. Since teleprint communications partly went over Swedish lines the transmissions were secretly tapped. The unit called Geheimschreiber that was used to decode and code messages was very difficult to break but if it hadn't been for a swedish professor, Arne Boeurling. He single-handedly deciphered the German cipher machine in a matter of two weeks during 1940, using only pen and paper. This machine's cipher is generally considered to be more complicated than that of the more famous Enigma machine.. From 1954 he was professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, United States, where he took over Albert Einstein's chair. Unfortunately, the germans discovered that the swedes had broken their code in 1943 but by then Sweden was prepared for any German aggression and the war had begun to turn for the germans..
In the first years of the 1940s no military could have stopped a Blitzkrieg attack if this was directed against it without natural obstacles. The Channel saved Britain, this could not be flanked like the Maginot line. Then the German War efford was separated in rivulets losing much of the impact capacity it could have mustered against any specific target. This is why I consider american concept about France's loss in 1940 to be absolutely absurd. Had Germany been Canada the US military capacity of the time would have been swept away just as any military structure was during that period.
After considering the tightrope Sweden had to walk between the Allies, Germany/Axis and Soviet Russia(Before the joined the side of good), I would question why anyone would want to head up a country.
The soviet union isn't very popular either. People have close ties to Finland, and Stalin invading the place pushes the war a little closer to home.
4 года назад+110
”-Half drunk farmers with hunting rifles” Sweden had, and has to this day, less of a problem with alcoholism than... for example Finland... and rhe finnish ”half drunk farmers with hunting rifles” did pretty damn well when they were called upon. Very good and interesting video nontheless. 👍🏻 Then there are a few factual details. Just to mention a few: ”-Lack of AT-guns and the ones they had, few knew how to operate.” That was true at the moment of mobilization. The problem was quickly rectified though. ”-Sweden had no tanks because they figured the terrain was unsuitable.” This however is just wrong. Germany and Sweden had a secret tank development program throughout the 30’s. Sweden, on top of that, developed and produced a number of different tanks in 30’s, some of the best tanks of the pre-war era. The german Pz-38(t) tanks for example, that Germany got when they invaded Checkoslovakia, was developed in cooperation betwene Checkoslovakia and Sweden and a great number of the actual tanks that Germany confiscated were in fact intended for the Swedish army. So, many Pz38(t) tanks that conquered Poland and France, had in a way been taken from the Swedish Army. Germany did pay compensation and allso eventually allowed Sweden to build them under license in Sweden. That’s how much Sweden biched and moaned about the stolen tanks. Sweden did however, end up producing other, more modern, powefull tank models, instead of the tanks that they bitched so much about. Like the ones you show pictures of at 11:25 Regarding the lack of AT-guns and artillery. Sweden was not neutral in ”The finnish winter war.” Sweden was bombed by russian planes and swedish airforce set up a complete airforce base with several squadrons in Finland, with Finnish airforce markings, and so on, and did, despite Sweden itself being in a very precarious situtaion, send considerable ammount of war materiel to Finland. Just like you correctly explained in the video. I believe around 1/4 of the Swedish army heavy artillery guns plus ammunition, were gifted to Finland. The finnish artillery, these swedish guns, were absolutely crutial in Finlands defense. As were all the Bofors AT-guns and anmunition. Sweden SERIOUSLY hampered its own buildup, by sending so much of the little ammo they had, to Finland. ...as you said in the video, the Soviet Union was considered the no1 threat at that point in time, 1939-40, so helping Finland was a given, as it was a buffer to the Soviet Union. Edit: Btw. Something that is less known and often overlooked, (but that you actually mentios, good on you), is that Sweden has a very different outlook on being conquered. In many countries, like France, Holland and Yugoslavia, partisan activity was largely an afterthaught. In the swedish army and the whole society, it is allways hammered into the minds of everyone that ”Sweden never surrensers”. Every phonebook for example, in Sweden had a whole page that only talks about this. ”-Any message that the resistance should end, is false!” I kid you not. So, it is in fact impossible for the government of Sweden or the military high command, to surrender. Simply because everyone has been told that any such order from the political or military leadership is allways false enemy propaganda. (Pretty hardcore if you ask me. Like going into an MMA match and telling the officials that any tapout from you is to be disregarded.)
Yes Sweden was nut the old telephone directory did have a pages like "how you start your own resistence movment" "remember to attack the enemy in every way you can" and the (in)famus ”Any message that the resistance should end, is false!” and I did think the Japanes was the crazy guys...
They may be drunk farmers but the Swedes had the best damn Mauser ever made. Ignore TIK's heresy in disparaging it as an obsolete rifle from 1896, because to paraphrase a meme: "Nej, rifle is fine".
A side note that you might consider as well, Sweden did have a somewhat modernized army and air force at this time. One reason is because since Germany after WW1 wasn't allowed to research or develop tanks, planes etc because of the treaty of Versailles, German engineers and scientist was assigned to Swedish companies to develop weapons for Sweden ( but the results of the tests etc was brought back to Germany) And Swedish air force was quite big big during WWII with increasing numbers every day (for a long time, and during the cold war, Sweden had the 4th most powerful air force in the world with (at that time) modern planes. The book Hitler, Donitz, and the Baltic Sea: The Third Reich's Last Hope, 1944-1945 also mentions other problems why Germany never attacked Sweden. First, one of the biggest problems was the Swedish navy, sure it was nothing compared to the allied navies that Germany has faced before, but this was a navy that fought in it's own backyard, on it's own terms, with backup from a large air force. Another problem with attacking Sweden was that it would disturb all German transports to Finland thus making it harder to fight the Russians. The Baltic sea was also the only place where Germany could train new crews for their uboat fleet and a war with Sweden would make training impossible. In the end after years of planning, the German navy, who was responsible for planning the invasion of Sweden reported "actions against Sweden without a compelling reason was justifiable only if the success of the operation within a very short time was guaranteed. In the view of Germany's current situation, this was quite unlikely." Germany simply couldn't afford to go to war with Sweden because, sure they would sooner or later invade Sweden but they would lose more important resources because of that invasion. Unlike Norway and Denmark, Sweden did somewhat actually mobilize for war. Sweden was actually mobilizing for an invasion of Denmark and Norway, the invasion was planned to take place in 1945 but the surrender of Germany happen before the plans was put into action. ( Google operation save Denmark / operation save Norway ) As a Swede, i agree that Sweden should have done more during the war but going to war with Germany in 1939 would have been suicidal. Sweden in 1943/45 at least had a chance to give the German war machine a huge repair bill during an invasion of Sweden. Sweden in 1945 was mobilized for war.
Nowadays a lot of people try to break everything down to a moral question. Of course Sweden could have stopped selling iron ore to NS Germany. But we all know the consequences. In the end it was better for Sweden and ist population.
Oh boo hoo, poor Sweden. Millions of Ukrainian and Belarusian citizens died, the UK is getting bombed to pieces, but yeah , let’s cry for Sweden. Didn’t we all agree that chamberlains appeasement did not work?
@@NeoConNET7 Spoken like a true smooth brain. let's go to war against Germany lose after a week and then have all Swedish manufacture and industry become directly controlled by the Germans so that we won't be called cowards in the future.
Basically Sweden viewed ( and rightly so ) German, Soviet and even the British as the enemy of their existentialsm. One wrong move they would be invaded. This habit of riding a high horse from the allies made everything look white or black, which isn't.
The Swedish opinion is very anti-German. There are some hitlerists in the country but it gets even less popular to be one when Hitler is bombing Norway. There's a lot of sympathy for Finland as well with volunteers and material going to the fight against the Soviets.
Nazi Germany did not attack Sweden firstly out of tactical reasons. They couldn’t spare the troops. However, they didn’t need to, Sweden had no alternative than to cooperate in 1940. The second reason is, of course, the trade with iron ore. A third reason, that is quite intriguing, is the relation Sweden-Finland, that I believe Germany had a lot of respect for. Think of the coming plans for Barbarossa - do not complicate the situation for Finland, a natural enemy of the Soviet Union. In the summer of 1943, the Swedish General Defence Staff told the government, under Per Albin Hansson, that the military now was ready for the Germans. This, together with the general situation globally, meant that Sweden could end the friendly attitude towards Berlin. The German plan 1943 to attack Sweden was identical to the one they had developed in 1940. The difference was immense. By 1943, the Swedish military was much stronger than in 1940. When Wehrmacht occupied Denmark and Norway 1940, Sweden had only mobilised ¼ of the field army, 100 000 men, placed up in the very north because of the Finnish Winter War. On the western coast, passed by the German navy, Sweden had only 800 men with weapons. By 1943, the Swedish army was prepared, blocking the supposed German advances (by the old plans from 1940). Sweden had buffer zones, they had mined the few roads, prepared all bridges. Most of all, the Swedish ability to mobilise was much better. The whole field army, 400 000 men, could be called up in a week. Sweden had 300+ tanks in the south, part of a large tactical reserve. Sweden also had an Air Force by now. Remember: Sweden had the technical ability to construct its own hardware, including aeroplanes (SAAB). By the end of the war, Sweden had the most modern Air Defence in Europe. By 1950, the Royal Swedish Air Force was the first fully jet-driven air defence in the world. By then, Sweden was contemplating their own nuclear weapon. There’s this myth that Germany actually planned an attack by 1943. This is not true. They sent this general to Norway to look over the situation. What he presented for OKW was exactly the old plan from 1940, minus the panzer, because the small 25th Panzer Division was moved to Germany by the spring of 1943. It was not a realistic plan to march 150 000 men into Sweden, with limited air support, into a Swedish defence system very much like the Finnish. Where the main German attack would happen, by the southern Norwegian border, the Swedish army always had about 50 000 men (trained troops) in well-prepared positions. This was the main part of the Swedish I Army Corps, under Lieutenant-General Axel Rappe, the most battle harden Swedish general (regimental commander in the Finnish Civil War 1918). Behind them were the tactical reserves, with tanks and air force. Regarding the move of the German 162nd Infantry Division (Engelbrecht) through Sweden, it’s always forgotten that the Swedish government also acted on a recommendation from the General Defence Staff. By moving this division with 18 000 men and equipment to Finland, they left Norway which meant relief for the Swedish military in regards to the main threat by the Germans from Norway. Simple strategy.
@@humanbeing1675 Facts are always facts in the end. If you read what I wrote you may see that nowhere did I mention a superpower. If you want to compress information as much as you can, especially about the information that is almost not known, you will automatically be one-sided. Sweden had a strong development in its military between 1939 and 1943. Comparing to the decline in German forces, especially the army units, in Norway, of course, became a factor. One strong reason why this is a surprise for most is the fact that Sweden historically doesn't support this narrative. Sweden wants to portrait itself as a peaceful, helpless nation who managed to keep themself out of the war with the lone wisdom of the holy social democratic party's fantastic diplomacy. It's important to understand that Sweden established it's stand in the cold war during WWII. Neutrality worked (they said), we don't need NATO, we create our own big military, per capita the third-largest in the world after China and Israel, by 1980 in total 850 000 men, in a country of 8 million. A modern, self-built Air Force which drained all the resources out of the other two forces. You must put everything in its perspective. Yes, Sweden could have built its own nuclear weapons at the end of the 1940s. They offered it to the other Nordic countries as an alternative to NATO. Fortunately, Norway and Denmark was smarter, they had learned the lesson and knew from where the real protection would come from.
My background as a retired captain in the Royal Swedish Army Reserve had helped a lot in my knowledge. My fascination for the truth of the Swedish military during WWII - not an easy task because of the Swedish lockdown on this kind of endeavours - is inspired by my maternal grandfather, who was a professional NCO in the Swedish army during the war. He trained thousands of Swedish soldiers on the German 8cm mortar, later becoming a Staff Sergeant. He met and talked to general Rappe several times. My grandfather told me about weapons, tactics and most of all - moral. He said: "We learned a lot by our unpreparedness in 1940, we learned even more by our friends, the Finns, so if the Germans would have come in 1943, we would have slaughtered them in the forests - with passion!" The hate against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union among the general Swedish population during the war was immense for what they did with our Nordic neighbours. The Swedish government's attitudes did not mirror the public opinion, but personally, I'm glad they kept Sweden out of the war.
My paternal grandfather, a man I never met, was a Stalinist Communist who fought in the Finnish civil war on the red side. He wanted to move to the worker's paradise Ukraine in 1936. My grandmother luckily stopped him. My father was only 3 y.o. I wouldn't be here if they did. My grandfather spent a couple of years during the war in Labour Companies because he was labelled a danger (almost a terrorist). He built transport roads for the army in the forests, officially for the forestry industry. From this, I learned vital things in political history and civics.
@@torbjornkvist The swedish german relations at least before the war were pretty good. Even after the war Sweden supported the german population with different programs. I'm not so sure If all swedes hated the germans in general (or only nazis) but Im not swedish and you know this maybe better. Sorry, but in the end I don't like this theoretical warfare of desktop generals. Of course Sweden tried to be prepared but if I read this stuff here i get the impression that the eastern front was a walk in the park. Come down..its only theory. Sweden had no war for the last few centuries. And thats good. If you like see the big picture. The Wehrmacht was even at the end of '44 capable of giving the US a really hard time. (see battle of the bulge). In November '43 there were still 177.000 in Finland and in Norway/Denmark 486.000 soldiers of the Wehrmacht. What you wrote about the time of the cold war is something different. I was always impressed that a relatively small country like Sweden (regarding the population) was able to build up its own military industry on a high level. I hope you do not feel offended in any way. Its just my personal perspective based on my limited knowledge.
Very interesting TIK! There's so much more detail to the war than what we're taught in school and videos like this about the strategic situation add so much to the history. Thank you!
Several important historic details are missed; re the effect of the winter war, Churchill wanting to move troops through Norway / Sweden to "support Finland," (and of course secure the northern mines with British troops). Swedish military co-operation with Finland. The state of the Swedish armed forces, and their buildup during the period. The Germans didn't invade because they didn't need to invade, and would've had difficulty controlling it if they had. They always had a manpower shortage, on top of all their other shortages. About the only thing Germany had in abundance, was coal.
Churchill never wanted to support Finland, it was just an excuse as the actual plan was to stop in Kiruna and occupy the mines. Sweden and Norway knew this of course, which is why both refused the transit.
Don't count the swedish navy out. Sure, it couldn't have matched any major navy in a classic gun battle, but it wasn't designed to. It was a coastal defense force and agter the kriegsmarine bloodletting in Norway 1940 the germans could not count on controlling the baltic against a swedish advisary, and once barbarossa was underway, swedish submarines and other vessels could have wrought havoc on the German sealanes along the baltic. At the very least the swedish navy would have tied up the entire kriegsmarine and a lot of aircraft at a time when they were needed elsewhere.
Thank you for an interesting video about Sweden. I agree with your conclusion. There is a Swedish movie from 1988 called Fyra dagar som skakade Sverige. Four days that Shuck Sweden. That is about the agreements to allow German troops for any Swedes who want to watch it on svtplay.
As a Swede I’m grateful for this well researched, and non-biased documentary/what ifs. As much as we had a great deal of people who supported Hitler (Just like the USA, UK ETC.) most of us did not support Hitler and his ideals (Well, except for the hate of communism and the USSR). We had no choice but to do what we did.. If we would’ve gone to war against Germany they’d just March right thru and get our iron ore anyway. So instead we worked as double agents so to say, we even helped cracking the Germans Enigma encryption.
Which is what any nation which values its own integrity and independence should stay well clear out of any pacts with other countries. A country quickly becomes cannon fodder, lackeys or "expendables" under the greater powers. In history Sweden often got the short end of the stick whenever it allied itself with other countries and often was forced to accept a really harsh bargain. Seeing the great destruction of WWI and the early stages of WWII it's hardly surprising Sweden didn't want to risk either destruction or an incredibly costly war.
Not so sure about that, we could've backed Finland all out in the fight against communism, while it would've landed us on the losing side with Germany in the short run. We'd have less guilt floating around for sitting the war out and aiding "evil" while communism is still in fashion around these parts, this I imagine would not be the legacy had we picked a side as Finland didn't go down that path. War is a function of the human species, prolonged periods without war makes a people soft and eventually a footnote in history. How this relates to the video at hand is that in fighting a common enemy Sweden would not be occupied as such but be treated much the same as Finland by Germany. Granted we would be almost guaranteed to lose Gotland in the peace.
There is a number of grave factual errors already in the first five minutes: Sweden in 1940 had 48 stridsvagn m/37 tanks, equivalent to Pz 1 tanks. They had at least 15 Landsverk L-60, equivalent of Pz III tanks at the end of -39. More were delivered during 1940, but I don't know exactly when. Fighter planes. Sweden had 52 Gloster Gladiators in april 1940, and 40 P-35 Seversky, an American all-metal monoplane. They had ordered 120 of these and 144 P-66 Vanguards, but only 20 more of the P-35 and none of the P-66 were delivered before USA placed the remainder under embargo. Also, there was 72 Italian Fiat-42 bi-planes parked in Sweden. Originally intended for Finland, these were bought by Sweden in -40. Bombers. 63 Northrop A-17 dive-bombers and a number of Junkers Ju 86. The Swedish navy in -40 consisted of three 'Sverige'-class coastal defense ships, comissioned in 1917, 1921 and 1922 respectively, and all thoroughly modernized in the late 30's. Four older coastal defense ships, two light cruisers, 14 destroyers, 15 submarines, and a number of mine-layers, minesweepers and MT-boats. Nine minutes in, you claim USSR and Germany were allied. They were not. They had a non-aggression pact, similar to what Germany had with Denmark, Norway and Sweden and several other nations. One thing Sweden had quite a lot of, was artillery and AA-guns. Maybe because Bofors is a Swedish company?
Alan Le I am no expert but given that everyone in that country is born with a gun in their hands, and the Swiss build bunkers as a pastime I think it would be ‘Nam but with mountains instead of jungles.
The designated detonation objects would have taken 2-4 hours to make ready (a problem only adressed in 1975 cutting it down to less than a few minutes) so most of them would have been overrun and captured intact. The swiss airforce adapted for flying in mountains but overwhelmed in numbers. I imagine it would have ended in partisan fights of versprengte army units. And a painful and long drawn out fighting into the valleys of the designated reduit. Flattend cities and mass hostage murders. Thankfully the strategy was only to be able to so much damage and demand so much comittment that its not worth attacking this ressource poor country. Would Switzerland have held out till relief if Germany attacked in 1940 as would have been the plan if Italy didnt fuck up starting new theaters everywhere? No. But we really want you people off of our lawn.
Ann Onymous The Swiss are very skillful defenders of their mountainous terrain. They beat up much larger Austrian armies and before that Holy Roman Empire armies. Nobody has conquered Switzerland for many centuries. Given their large army and massive reserves, brilliant, determined and skilled fighting ability , if the Germans had attacked after Barbarossa would have suffered stupendous losses. Once the allies were in Italy and France, I highly doubt that the Germans would have found it expedient to invade such a mountainous well defended terrain. They also supplied the Germans with critical ball bearings for their tanks! Had the Swiss stopped supplying ball bearings in 1944, once Normandy had occurred, the Germans who were already stretched out on two fronts, would have been likely unable to withdraw enough troops towards Switzerland without either or both fronts collapsing.
I broadly agree. When I studied Modern History at Stockholm University, we had to do a lot of work on the second World War, notably on the 1941 Midsummer Crisis . I think there is also another factor to consider: With the exception of Poland, Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom, no country voluntarily entered the war. They did so because they were attacked. If you put the following question to an ordinary Belgian, Greek, Yugoslav or Norwegian or anyone else, how would they have replied: "Choose between the following options: Your country can either be attacked by Germany, defeated and brutally occupied for the next 4-5 years. You will eventually come out of the war, but it will have been costly in terms of lives lost and economic misery, but at least you will have stood up and acted honourably. It will then take another five years or so to rebuild your economy. Alternatively, you can give in the German demands, enough to make sure they don't attack you. You toe the line. It is craven and dishonourable, but you will remain reasonably free and in peace. And when the war is over, you will have a major advantage over everyone else, with your economy intact." I'm not so sure most people would have chosen the honourable way. I have thought about these issues for almost fifty years nd I still don't know if Swedish policy was "right" or "wrong".
hello TIK.I read and search history for over 25 years.Your work is briliant and your logistics about the war excellant.sorry about my hand writing i speak and hear very well but i am not write often english.Gongratulations from GREEK-HELLAS......
Same as today many Swedes that Russia would occupy Gotland, how to fix the supply! So damn laughablae! And for what, no pipline (Nord stream) goes there. And Russians still suffers from ww2, only 147 million people and largest borders to defend! When i ask people why Russia will attack its only emotional, no facts ever and i still awaits for those answers. BTW I am born in Finland and my home town was burned 3 times, Germans did the last one. It was Stalin then and we had Obama ealier, and he had the Nobel Peace Prixe, given by Norway. What an mess, killing babies and women give you an prize!!! Well it was some extra info, cant hurt at all hehe.
TK UA pointless question, the only country on earth that has gun rights is the USA, all other countries who do have some for of access to guns, Sweden included, see it as a privilege that can be denied for an arbitrary reason. Ergo, the only country who could teach about importance of gun rights is the USA, being the only country that considers having guns a right.
@@TheSlyngel he gave up half thru the semester and - in front of class - said that me and my twin brother knew much more about wW2 then he did. My father was an ex officer, and we had plenty of family friends that fought in Finland during the war. So we got pretty well educated about the war and it effects in Sweden and Finland at home. Problem was not the teacher so much, but more about the books. They were a joke.
A 63yo yank (chronic), my mom's dad was a Swedish emigre in the 1920s (Gothenburg), married a woman (my granny) from farm family of immigrant swedes on Nebraska praries, and my dad was in rotc (U Nebraska) during the war (his brother fought w/ US 29th infantry in the bulge), so, I care, and, I would say, never heard that much detail (by 1000%) about the Scandi war, and, analyzed with balance and breadth, like everything you have presented on this channel, really enjoyed last 3 years getting a new perspective on the REAL WW 2, and I am really grateful. I am still getting my head around the basic reality that Hitty & the Nazi really were socialists...now, all this detail about Norway, Sweden, Finland et al... my yank son married a Danish girl and lives in AAlborg, waiting for a bit of Viking stuff for the WW2, but, I will wait patiently, again, many thanks
Hope all is well Tik. Good to see this video, should make up for my craptacular last week. Got stuck reading Collingham's work, though it's on the list to finish.
@@TheImperatorKnight Eh, won't go too detail on RUclips platform. I'll just say a relationship went down in flames and am dealing with fallout. Hope life is better on other side of the pond.
@@TheImperatorKnight Thanks mate. I'll live, just need time. Out of curiosity, which campaign in the east do you study the most? Personally, I like to look at Barbarossa more closely than the other campaigns.
It sounds like a really good analyze of the situation. God you empathized on the pact between Germany and Russia 1940. People tend to forget this part in Sweden. Sweden was totally surrounded by Germany and its allies. People in Sweden usually have a miss conception of Russia beeing a enemy of Germany. Great work TiK :)
My favorite fact about WW2 era Swedish armed forces. the italian fighters that we purchased. and later complained to Italy about because they kept breaking down. And the italian response was that well of course they did, they were only expected to survive for about a week after deployment in war.. So yeah...
My great grandfather was a ”fjälljägare” in the swedish army during the war, his unit was an elite force on skis. Unfourtunetly I don’t know too much of what he did during the war but he was stationed in the very north and I know that he was over on the Finnish side a few times. From what I understand from my mom and grandmother he saw some pretty horrible things, among them a whole boat of finnish children fleeing over the Torneriver and how it capsized in the middle of the river and all the children drowned. It was in the middle of winter. Anyway, big thanks for this video, it was very interesting and I will certainly pick up those books! Finlands sak är vår ✊🏼
Thanks for taking this topic up, Not many english speaker that really talk about this. But must say that your phrasing of Luleå made me lol hard as a born and raised in that town. ''Lulu'' xD It should be pronounce ''LOO-lay-oh'' for you people that do not use the words Å, Ä or Ö. Also you can say ''Lule'' because many in the northern part of Sweden never say the Å if that is the last character in a City's name. Like Pite (Piteå), Ume (Umeå), Skellefte (skellefteå) and so one. Just some random facts from me to the world on how local people say the city names here.
Haha glad you liked the video! I actually used Google translate for Luleå, but it clearly didn't do a very good job... Thank you for clarifying the pronunciation :)
@@TheImperatorKnight For future reference wikipedia have sometimes the english pronunciation for town so it's easier for english speaker to say the local name. No problems! :) Also as a short fun story with the swedish mobilization in July-August 1943. My Grandfather on my father side who served in the army as a NCO (Rank of Furir or Sergeant for non swedish people) during that time. His squad was in charge of guarding a railway bridge in Norrbotten where the iron ore went through and when they expected a German attack, basically the order my Grandfather got was ''If germans show up, kill so many you can and blow the fuck out of the brigde if needed to retreat, but don't you dare to lose any men! God have not put you here on this earth to die in the hands of some inbred prussian basterd's!'' :D Also my grandfather was guarding the germans who where in transit here in Sweden to Finland. Mostly They only wanted big, tall scary looking vikings guys to intimidate the Germans a bit and my grandfather was a really big basterd. ^^
Wonderful and informative vid. TY My neighbors were a Scandinavian couple, one each from Sweden and Norway. So great if we had your vid then!!!! Thanks again!
Ironically Italy was one of few countries that still sold us much needed fighterplanes during the war and it caused a big ongoing row between Mussolini and Hitler who didn't want Sweden armed. At the end of the war we were allowed to buy large quantities of Mustangs from USA. By then the war was just about over. We did develop and finally start to field ur own quite capable Tank destroyers in late 43.
It seems like Sweden was being extremely realistic in its foreign policy perspective. It wanted to survive without being an active member of the Axis, it knew it couldn't withstand an invasion in 1940/41 and did everything it could to hinder the Germans without antagonising them enough to be invaded. Slowly decreasing it's cooperation with Germany as the Axis situation deteriorated. Sweden evidently had a pretty smart government especially in comparison to coup government of Yugoslavia which did the exact opposite, resulting in an invasion.
You do know that the British captured 4 Swedish destroyers June 20:th 1940. The ships had been bought in Italy and were on their way home to join the Swdish navy when they arrived in the Faroe islands in the eveening the 19:th. The next morning they were surrounded by ships from the Royal Navy. We got the ships back eventually. But it was not always easy to be pro Allied.
The story of Switzerland follows much along the same path as Sweden. They grudging made concessions in terms of trade with Germany when they had to, but stubbornly defied them as much as possible. Like Sweden, Switzerland was to a great extent vulnerable to being cut off from vital supplies. If you're interested, I'd recommend two books on the subject: Target Switzerland (1998) The Swiss and the Nazis(2010) both by Stephan P. Halbrook
@@MrRjh63 It was a weird situation. The Swiss were flying German built fighter planes, and were very keen on intercepting any German Luftwaffe planes that violated their airspace. This upset the Germans, who decided to teach the Swiss a lesson by sending over even more planes to violate Swiss airspace. It was the Swiss who taught the Germans a lesson, by aggressively taking them on. At some point in the war, a German plane with some sort of secret equipment on board crashed in Switzerland. The Swiss agreed to let the Germans come and recover it, but let the British come examine and take pictures of it first. Towards the end of the war, it was mostly U.S. and British planes that were caught accidentally (or occasionally on purpose) crossing into Swiss airspace. I think U.S. planes accidentally bombed several Swiss cities on a couple of occasions. The Swiss were just as determined to intercept Allied planes, requiring them to land and be held until the war ended.
Great video as always. Now as a swede there's two more examples of I would have liked to see included in the video as examples of when we resisted Germany: 1. Sweden allowed the allies to use it's territory to conduct operations against Germany, primarily in the form of signals intelligence gathering. 2. We allowed a covert naval operation conducted by danish resistance fighters and with the aid of swedish volunteers that managed to save hundreds of danish jews from being sent to extermination camps.
In fact, Sweden FINALLY accepting to recieve Danish jews (👎) , the day AFTER the botched German round-up in Denmark, but NOT before (👎) , in the nick of time saved approx 7000 Danish Jews, 14 out of 15 Danish persons labeled as Jewish by Nazi standards, from being send to the transit camp of Theresienstadt in Chekoslovakia (👍👍👍👍👍👍👍) . 500 Danish Jews were caught and shipped in the classic cattle wagons to the camp. Approx. 70 died there. Mainly elderly and/or sick People. See my previous comment on the Dano-Jewish situation.
Well last time Sweden did the "moral" right thing, and help England against Napoleon as one off the last one nation. We lost Finland to the Russia. And, Did we gain it back after the war as a thanks? no! When great power dance they step on the small. Better to just not dance with them. And Norway and Denmark would have the same as Sweden, if they could. And Sweden was after fall off France more dependent of Germany then Germany of Sweden. It's easy to be moral right when you live in a great power, but how is ready yo die for Ukrainian right to Krim? Maybe if we hade chose to be in-would in WW, Sweden would have bin thank with lose Gotland to Russia.
What was moraly right of sweden Helping the allied powers against Napoleon? Napoleonic France was the most progressive state in Europe by that time. While the nations WHO fought against her reaserted feudalism and tyranny on the people of europe.
@@napoleon7107 What utter revisionist nonsense. Napoleonic france was under unilateral power by a single dictator compared to the parliamentary system of Britain. The french just exchanged a royal dictator for a non royal one. And this bastion of freedom france was still involved in the slave trade and had slaves in their colonies LONG after Britain had got rid of theirs. So, let's see. A slave free British empire with a parliamentary system vs a slave trading france under unilitarel rule by one individual. And napoleonic france is in your eyes "the most progressive state in europe". Ahaha.
@@lokischeissmessiah5749 Napoleon was spreading the ideals of the French revolution and effectively ended feudalism in the old regimes of Europe. His civic reforms were progressive.
Loki Scheissmessiah England was a oligharcy at best. A Kingdom run by its Nobels with zero chans of advancement for for ordinary people is is still less of a free country then a meritocracy were people could advance from farmers to dukes and kings soley based on merit. Several of Napoleons marchals was ordinary people WHO advanced under him based on merit nothing else. Bernadottes father was a procurator. Under Napoleon he became a Prince of a little Italien principality then king of sweden . Murat the son of a baker became king of neaples and there is many other exempels. Napoleon was elected first consul for life and then emperor by the French people. Never forget that. He only first accepted to become emperor beacuse England sent out assasin after assasin against hon. And the French people feard civil unrest in his wake if he for killed. So they legitimised his rule by Making him emperor. And thus avoided a power sreuggle amongst his to bekomme marchals and foreign powers trying to reinstall the Hated bourbons if he died. Napoleon of left Alone would never start a unjust war. And code Napoleon ensured that every French citizen was equal before the law and religius freedom everywere. Thats freedom. Yes he got pushed by the french nobility and empress Josephine WHO game from a slave oenig family, to extend slavery in haiti. Something he at saint helena. Said was one of his greatest regrets and blunders. As did he regret going in to spain with blatent force instead of whinning the people over first. He was not perfekt. But a good man with good intents. And so great he Almost tock on the entire feudal tyrant powers of Europe and won. In the end he did force change in Europe. The revolutions in 1848 were all inspirerad by the french and a conseqvens of europés people having tasted and lived in freedom under Napoleons empire and laws.
After watching the Winter War, the Continuation War, and this episode, may I ask what effect it had on, or what effect did the Sami have on the events? I ask due to their presents in all of northern Scandinavia, including the Kola Peninsula. I have tried to look this up myself, but it seems this culture has been suppressed in many ways, and I was hoping you could find better references than I can. Also, let me say Thank You! This is a great channel and the effort you put into it is appreciated. Thank You.
In finland the Sami population participated in the war same as everyone else. They had a reputation of being exceptionally good in wilderness operations, even by finnish standards. The ending of the war was particularly tragic to Sami population, as almost all of them lost their homes and possessions, destroyed by German forces in their retreat. Interesting detail is that WWII is the first and only time in written history when the Sami population of this region has ever participated in a war.
Apart from some anecdotal stories about them lending aid to (and participating in activities with) Norwegian resistance fighters, that quite often hiked over the mountains and into Sweden. There isn't much information that they did anything out of the ordinary day-to-day such as it was in the wartime 1940s. I'm sure that several Sami individuals served in the army at the time, after all, institutional discrimination mostly extended to the destruction of their cultural heritage and their economic activities, not the actual individuals themselves (I stress that this regards the institutional discrimination).
My grandfather worked at the Swedish railway (SJ). Sometime during the middle of the war he was alone at night at a small raiway station in Hälsingland. Then a train full of german soldiers rolled into the station. No swedish guards, only my grandfather and a few hundred german soldiers. It could have been the Engelbrecht division, but I som not sure.
Thanks all the volunteer Swedish people who helped Finland when needed.
There were also Swedish volounteers in the SS Viking division..
@@grevberg yea, around 300. While like 5 000+ helped Finland
AFAIK Sweden also sold lots of raw materials for Germany war effort.
@@DarkZodiacZZ Yeah, but they did not really have a choice. It was either:
1. Stop trading with Germany and get invaded.
2. Don't stop and keep autonomy
So, you know. Not that many options.
@@dkfdhdsj6261 Source?
The political maneuvering on the part of the Swedish government is really fascinating and a totally under represented part of the war. It seems like they really were doing everything realistically within their power to resist Germany without pushing far enough break the tension and invite a war they would lose, however costly it would have been for Germany. The solidarity with Finland is particularly inspiring, holding out to try and keep them from being completely annexed by the Soviets is something they really do deserve credit for.
It was massively in sweedens interest to mediate a separate peace for the finns with the soviets such that finland still existed and sweeden didn't border the soviets. without that the soviets may have come crashing through all of finland, then sweeden, then norway and taken the whole of the scandinavian lands and tranformed them into socialist republic of the usSR kind. The soviets would have at least demanded troop crosing rights in order to invade nazi occupied norway
Individual Swedes came to our help by the thousands, as did Estonians who´d lost their own nation. Estonians took huge risks only to get into Finland, and many times they had to pay for smugglers or fishers to get them over the Finnish Gulf. One must respect such determination to fight communists! Of course men came from all over the world really, inlcuding Christopher Lee. Thankfully Sweden realized that if Finland falls, they are definately the next. It´s sort of hilarious that not so long before Finland was just an insignificant "eastern sweden", used to draft men for wars and rip taxes from Finns´ backsides! :) Anyway, had Germany attacked Sweden, I believe they´d been able to destroy the iron mines if they wanted to stop Nazis getting possession of them.
@@ivrishcon-abarth38Russia attacked Finland - Sweden innumerable times, occuoying the whole of Finland in the early 18th century, killing of thousands, burning the cities and towns both in Finland and in the coastal areas in Sweden. Finland was occupied again in 1808 and annexed to Russia. The Finns gaining libery in 1917 despite Finnish communists who murdered people from the upper classes, thus starting the Finish civil war.
thank you Sweden for everything! love from Finland 🇫🇮❤️🇸🇪
Right back to YOU BRAVE FINN's !!!.
@@Hasso98 Yes i understad at Norway have problems whit the Swedish thin line diplomacy, but is 60 year's a go just drop it, and if Norway mobilized 200.000 in ther army when Sweden did it, so perhaps with the help of the British army you could have won the battle of Norway.
You have to direct your anger to France and U.K. instead they were the only ones who could resist Germany militarily but they blow it in the start of war.
@@Hasso98 If you are Russian you dont have any historical moral heights to whine at Swedens concessions to Nazi Germany duringW.W.-2.
You tell me you (Russia) wont forget, but you forgot or dont know about the concessions Soviet-Russia did with Nazi-Germany it was called Molotov-Ribbentropp pact and it was signed 23 of August 1939, and Soviet-Russia sold both food and oil in millions of tons to Nazi-Germany right up until the outbreak of war Jun 1941, and then the war political pact for Soviet-Russia to annex half of Polen, Baltic states and Finland, in addition, you had technical collaboration regarding to war aircraft and tank's, talk about high-level of collaboration with the Nazi-Germans.
That's quite a lot of Swedish war history i'm not proud of but the transit of 20.000-30.000 German soldiers on train and sell iron ore are not the worst moments.
You can not afford your patriotism or nationalism to make you blind deaf or mute in today's modern society when most of the information is available online.
@@Hasso98 We helped the Allies too, we let them use our airfields to get a better range into Germany. So we did not prioritize one side.
@@Hasso98 You do Know that Chechnya is a part of Russia right?
I'm not even Swedish nor do I have any close Swedish ancestry, but this video is making me really patriotic for Sweden.
Thanks or as i usually say ”Tack som fan”
@@bigdaddylowke9435 Rätt ord!
ÖÅÄ
Om swedish
@Peder Hansen
Sweden did its best and help a lot off Jews and others to flee. If they had stopped trading with the German the country would have been invaded and if they had joined Germany the British would have bombed the mines.
I knew the Swedish supported the Fins with military equipment but always thought that it was not that much considering that the Fins still claim that Swedish support was too small. Now seeing the exact data... wew 84000 rifles?! and a considerable amount of other equipment. That sounds like a lot more support then "too small".
Your right..swedish support was finlands life line especially in winter war - we got virtually no support from westerns powers - germany did some covertly and throught sweden.
On continuation war the situation was differend with direckt support from germany and having bolth swedish and german military units in front.
@Finnish Uber Wehraboo finland was too small too win too tho
sweden send also a volunteer Corps (with Danmark and norway )
Finland had expected (unrealistically, like so much else that Finland expected) Swedish joining the war on their side and compared to that it was seen as not that much. The reality as you say is different, there were some 8000 volunteers and more or less half the Swedish army's equipment. Watching this video makes the Swedish decision to stay out that much more understandable, out of 6 poorly equipped divisions, how many could they realistically send? 3-4? Would it have made a difference? Probably not and afterwards Sweden would be in an even weaker situation.
I think the Swedish support in the Winter War has been and still is being wrongfully underestimated in Finland.
EDIT: after WW2 there was still ongoing support from Sweden, for example an important reason Sweden did not join Nato was to support Finland's neutrality.
I mean spending 84k guns vs losing up to 70k manpower in total casualties, id say the equipment loss is "lesser" of the two. I could understand some Fins losing their family members and looking for anyone to blame for it. Finland basically stopped the Soviet expansion to Scandinavia, no way Stalin would just take Finland and stop there. Also, lot of the equipment came from Germany anyways. Obviously this help was VITAL and did help Finland succeed in protecting its existence and thus the freedom of Sweden as well.
:Things worth mentioning:
*Sweden informed the allies when the Bismarck left port
*They wire tapped the German landline between Germany & Norway (including breaking its codes) and intel was shared with the allies and Finland
*Sweden warned the UK of Barbarossa, the UK would in term warn the USSR (Stalin thought it was all hogwash)
*Large numbers of allied bombers got lost and-or performed emergency landings in southern Sweden. The crew got interned and often ran off with Swedish women
*A V2-Rocket crash landed in Sweden, an analyze was made and sent to the UK before the remains were given back to Germany
*Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, would be instrumental in saving thousands of Hungarian Jews by Swedish passports. He was captured and died in a Moscow prison
Also many refugees from the Baltic States, fled to Sweden. Either fearing the Soviet or German occupation.
tyskbulle Sweden sold ballbearings to the allies during the war. Transported by speedy british merchants that ran the minefields and blockade between Denmark and Norway.
When that blockade was started a bit more than one third of the swedish merchant marine was locked out of Sweden. These ships and their men took part in the war on the allied side. Over 2000 men and 270 swedish merchant ships was lost in allied service.
Yea, real heroes of the free world those swedes were. Saving thousands and providing Nazis the resources to kill millions at the same time.
@@andyg1024 You could say Sweden was left with no choice in the matter. Unlike the USSR that willingly fueled the German war machine for 20 months. How many heroes did that make in the end?
its true, we had no choice. we were crushed behind the hammer and the anvil. i think we should have given more support to the norwegians however
The best work on Sweden in ww2 I have ever heard. As a Dane, I have always been a bit biased against Sweden in the period, but TIK makes it plain, that Sweden had very little choice in the matter. You would be either drunk or suicedal to play tough against Hitler in 1940, with the forces Sweden had at their disposal!
Glad you liked the video! Out of curiosity, why were you previously 'against' Sweden over WW2? Is it because they didn't intervene to help Denmark?
@@TheImperatorKnight Well there is a lot of bad blood between the two countries, and it is kind of a bad habit of Danes (me included) to doubt the morals of Swedes- Its silly, but in the case of ww2 it is very easy to point fingers at others failings in order to forget your own. Denmark did a lot of nescessary but not exactly heroic things during the war.
Sweden DID help the Germans invade Norway, and they DID refuse Denmark help in the early years of the war, but they had very good reasons to do it.
I see. Thank you for being honest :) it's funny because I always assumed that the Scandinavian countries and people were all friendly towards each other and got along. Shows how little I know!
But then again, people think I'm weird for thinking we're all humans and that tribes are artificial barriers to individual alliances, so I'm not one to talk
@@hoegild1 Sweden didn't help Germany invade Norway. Where did you get that silly idea? Also "and they DID refuse Denmark help in the early years of the war"
What early years of the war? The invasion of Denmark was over in less then a day and the danish government surrendered in less then two hours.
Aaand the debate is on, so let me explain my previous comment. First Sweden didnt help Danish refugees in the early years, even sending some (communists) back to gestapo. Second, Sweden allowed Germany to move troops through Sweden, while fighting in Norway, making the invasion much easier. I do not at the moment have sources on this, but it is fairly mainstream knowledge.
Alright, let us get some things right.
1. Bolt-action rifles dating to the late 19th century was standard armament in all armies in ww2, with the exception of the US army - the US being the only country with the industrial capacity (and the infantry doctrine) to equip all their men with with semi-automatic rifles (except the Marine Corps, which continued to use M1903 Springfield bolt-action rifles).
2. The 1925 defence decision called for 4 line divisions, but you completely miss both the motorised brigade (created out of the cavalry division that was disbanded) and the local defence/landstormen that consisted of the oldest 10 classes and was almost as large as the line army and tasked with local defence. The army was far larger than just 4 divisions and could mobilise roughly 400 000 men in 1939.
3. Swedish had more artillery than that in 1939. There were 120 modernised light field guns, 200 ww1 vintage light field guns, 174 pre-ww1 light field guns (without recoil system), 160 ww1 vintage medium howitzers, 48 modern heavy field guns, 12 ww1 vintage heavy field guns, 53 pre-ww1 heavy field guns (without recoil system), 28 modern heavy howitzers, 66 ww1 vintage heavy howitzers and 12 ww1 vintage heavy siege howitzers, for a total of 227 pre-ww1, 450 ww1 vintage and 176 modern artillery pieces.
3. Sweden had in active service 48 MG-armed tanks and 16 cannon-armed tanks in 1939, with 7 MG-armed and 5 cannon-armed older tanks in depots used for training. There were 25 cannon-armed and 21 MG-armed and armoured cars in active service, with 8 MG-armed armoured cars in depots used for training. Total numbers are thus 21 gun-armed and 55 MG-armed tanks and 25 cannon-armed and 29 MG-armed armoured cars.
4. Sweden had 173 planes in active service in 1939, plus around 50 planes in reserve (a mix of reserves for the active units and older planes) with a further roughly 50 trainer and liason planes. While most were biplanes, the roughly 45 B 3 (Junkers Ju 86) and 11 T 2 (Heinkel He 115) were not.
5. Sweden did not get most of her equipment abroad - all equipment save some planes were produced locally, albeit often on license. Ammunition was standard 6,5x55mm (for rifles, LMGs and MGs) and 9x21mm (for pistols and SMGs) in 1939. It was only the war that led to some imports of non-standard calibre weapons, including 7,92x57mm Mauser and the switch of the standard pistol bullet from the 9x21mm to the 9x19mm. Non-standard weapons were usually sent back to the depots and modified to standard calibres once enough arms were available and the immediate invasion threat died down.
6. Only the US feared Sweden would go over to the other side and impounded arms orders - mostly aircrafts in the form of 60 J 9 (Serversky EP-106), 58 B 6 (Repubic 2PA) and 144 J 10 (Vultee P-66 Vanguard). Sweden purchased arms from Germany (including captured Bofors weapons from Poland and Austria), Switzerland, Italy and Finland and eventually radar stations from Britain. No-one gave arms - they were paid for, and in the Italian case, through the nose in strategic materials.
7. One needs to remember that Germany actively threatened war with Sweden if Sweden allowed Allied troops on its soil, which influenced the Swedish "no" quite a bit. Germany would not stand idly by if the Allies tried to secure the Swedish iron ore.
8. The Landstorm that manned the Per-Albin line had served on average 360 days of conscription and at least 100 days of neutrality watch during ww1. To claim that they could not operate the weapons of the line is simply silly - the line had very few anti-tank weapons, mostly because tanks as part of a naval landing on a beach were not a thing in 1940 (and would remain a very minor thing until the Allies built a large amount of amphibious tanks and landing crafts for tanks for the invasion of Normandy in 1944). The Germans certainly had nothing that could land tanks at beaches in 1940.
9. The Swedish offensive plans against German-occupied Norway in 1941-1944 focused on Mo-i-Rana, which was the closest port to the border and also lacked a rail connection to the rest of Norway, making it a much easier target, not Narvik.
10. In 1940 there were 230 000 men in the line army, and 190 000 men in local defence units, which were tactically but not operationally mobile. The local defence held down fortified lines, air fields, garrisons, cities, ports and beach defences, freeing up the line army to deploy wherever it was needed and for offensive or counter-offensive work. In 1941, this had increased to 340 000 men in the line army and 260 000 men in the local defence, plus another 100 000 in the home guard. By that time, the local defence actually had more MGs and AT guns than the line army, since they manned a lot of fixed fortifications.
11. The German intelligence on the Swedish army was beyond horrible. The officer responsible, Major Karl Ogilvie at Fremde Heere West (Foreign Armies West) simply copied the same assessment from 1939 to 1944, indicating that Sweden lacked AA capability (despite that more than 1 000 40mm Bofors guns and 1 200 20mm AA guns had been delivered to the army), lacked mechanised forces (despite Sweden having a motorised brigade since 1937 and creating 2 armoured brigades, each with 140 tanks in Summer 1943, which grew to 3 armoured brigades with 185 tanks each in early 1944) and was entirely focused on defence (despite General Rappe conducting a very skilled infantry attack in the Finnish style durin the great exercises of January 1942). The German military attaché in Sweden, Bruno von Uthmann writes in his memoirs that no German plans on Sweden was ever made, which means he was not consulted at all (and he was probably the one who knew the Swedish army the best). On the other hand, Swedish intelligence on the German forces in Norway was excellent. 2 days after 25. Panzer-division moved from Oslo to Trondheim, the new location shows up in the staff reports of II. MILO, the Swedish military area tasked with defending that part of the border. Sweden also acquired the report the German staff of the 25. Panzer-division prepared for the planned invasion (this if anything is an intelligence master-piece!). The report also included that Sweden lacked any armoured units. The Germans were completely unaware of the Swedish 9. and 10. Pansarbrigaden armoured brigades placed in reserve to counter any German armoured trusts in Summer 1943.
12. By Summer 1943, it was obvious that while the Germans might be able to conquer Sweden, they could ill afford to move the resources necessary to do so from other fronts - the resources in Norway was not enough, and Sweden's attitude changed accordingly. Sweden had 360 planes in combat units Summer 1943 - the Germans had 155 in Denmark, Norway and Finland.
13. von Schell's plan called for at least one regiment of paratroopers, 2 panzer divisions and at least 4 infantry divisions, he never had any paratroopers, only 1 panzer division (weakly equipped and completely green) and 2-3 infantry divisions, depending on how much the other divisions in Norway were cannibalised. Sweden at this time had 10 infantry divisions, 1 motorised and 2 armoured brigades (that had more tanks than the German 25. Panzer-division) as well as the local defence and the home guard, their numbes being equilent to about 10 more infantry divisions (albeing lacking in artillery).
14. von Schell himself commented his plan when it was discovered in the archives and then debated heatedly in Sweden in the 60s in a polite reply that he never had the forces the plan called for.
15. The force mobilised in 1943 was 300 000 men, with another 300 000 plus 100 000 in the Home Guard available for mobilisation. They were mobilised because Sweden planned to cancel the transition treaty and wanted to be ready for a potential German armed response, or at least make a show of force to discourage the Germans from any armed response. Sweden knew the Germans had a panzer division in Norway and closely tracked its movement, but did not know the details of the German plan - it was discovered in the 60s.
16. Sweden did not fear a communist take-over of Denmark and Norway. The "police" troops were created to give the Norwegian and Danish governments a reliable force to establish order after a German collapse (or perhaps even invade if the German forces refused to surrender after Berlin did), arrest collaborators and prevent the Germans from taking civilians as hostages or destroying evidence of their war crimes.
17. You keep consistently call mortars "grenade launchers" - there's a substantial difference. Mortars were quick-fire weapons with dedicated crews and forward observers, grenade launchers were attached to rifles and used by the infantry to throw hand grenade sized rifle grenades further than a man could throw them, but much shorter and with a much lower rate of fire than mortars.
Edited for spelling and clarity.
This comment deserves a responce from TIK
Very well written insights! TIK should definitely respond to this
Thanks for clearing the the situation in Sweden altrough as an half swedish I grossly knew the situation during the war. I can see the "efforts" along the coast of south Sweden but many bunkers it was built with cheap concrete with few exceptions!
@@paoloviti6156 Sweden did have a shortage of cement during the war, and used granite gravel in many fortifications to make the concrete stretch. However, the Per Albin line fortifications were sturdy and could take 150mm naval artillery hits from above without problem - in fact, they are still there because they are so sturdy that tearing them down is considered too expensive and they've just been filled in with sand and left to (very slowly) crumble.
@@GefreitervonAdler I know but there was examples of badly made bunkers and I personally saw some of them. My Swedish girlfriend has left a bunker on purpose for me and my son on the edge of her garden knowing my passion. It was a small bunker as an observatory and I would love to transform it as his summer house! Lol...
My grandfather got drafted in 1940, and from what he told me, even though there was pressure from the Germans, Russia was still considered "the great enemy", and the major concern was the finns, our brother kin.
Well if we fins had failed to stop ussr to conquer us that would meant probablythat they would have attacked sweden too
The brother kin would be the danes and norwegians. Finland was at best a buffer against soviet Russia. If Finland fell, our great nation might be next.
My great-grandfather was drafted and placed on the Finnish border. He watched the Germans burn down lappland and his unit received many finish refugees.
@@JonaRosalinaRose Norway border?
@@crackmonkeynet all three borders meet up there.
Sweden did what was best for them. They were in a difficult situation geographically and saved their people from the horrible fate of western USSR . I am a Yank and I believe they did the right thing. Britain and the U S were not able to help them I 1940. They probably more worried about Stalin.
Better than Denmark. Denmark is a flat piece of land that German motorized units can just roll into. Norway and northern Sweden have worse terrain. They share a long mountain border. Both nations have a lot more territory to give in case of invasion.
The Swedish home opinion sympathizes with Norway. It's not popular to be a hitlerist in Sweden when Hitler is bombing the norwegians right over the border and starting to treat Denmark as a client state. Or a communist either, people sympathize with Finland as well.
Yuor coward leaders help communist.
@asdfbry Hitlerists aren't very popular in Sweden. There's a few small groups of them, who get even smaller. People don't really like guys who are pro-Hitler when Hitler is bombing Norway and Denmark.
@@SusCalvin Nazi sympathizers in Sweden during that time was far more common than the official story tells these days. Simply because those very organizations are the peak of political correctness today. The political party Bondeförbundet (Centerpartiet) and the tabloid Aftonbladet were outright pro-nazi. And the eugenics policy of the Swedish Social Democrats basically inspired the nazi 'final solution'. (The eugenics program continued up to 1975)
@@Merecir Which is another reason few people even know about. The troop transports to Finland by sea went BEHIND our naval guns without escort. In other words german divisions went unguarded near Stockholm because the admiral of the baltic was a nazi at this point. On my bucket list to piss on his grave. He delayed defense plans at the coast and should have hanged for it.
Your channel is a masterpiece.
Oh wow, thanks! It's nice to know you see it that way :)
Oh yeah
@@TheImperatorKnight definitely babes 10/10
I agree that this channel is incredible, very well researched, balanced, objective and so informative to watch.
A masterpiece in being wrong on so many leves.
I haven't heard much about Sweden in WWII before. Sounds like they played their cards pretty well, all things considered.
@Krister Lagerström Roosevelt cleverly started re-armament in stages to prepare the USA for an entry in war. However Roosevelt's original plan was to enter the war fully prepared in 1943, but the Japanese surprise attack in Dec 1941 derailed those plans. The USA was already supporting Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the Republic of China support with lend-lease. The American plan was to support countries which fought Nazi Germany and stay out themselves as long as possible and then enter fully prepared and just flood the axis.
The problem Roosevelt faced was that the USA was still recovering from the Great Depression and any talk of war would have made American riot. Most Americans were ok with support but not with an American entry. Back then the American mindset was pretty much the polar opposite of today. Anything outside the borders of the USA was seen as "not our problem and not our fight", which was turned upside down in the Cold War and after it too far that matter. Korea, Vietnam, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq...
Anyways staying out of both WWI and WWII was the jackpot as far as Sweden was concerned. When the rest of Europe was in ruins and needed to spend a gargantuan amount of money to rebuild their countries Sweden was completely unaffected and was good to go the minute the war was over. This meant that the Swedish industry expanded greatly after the war. The only thing holding Sweden back was its small population. This is how the first immigrant workers arrived in Sweden following WWII. The industries needed a bigger workforce.
They played their cards well???? They SOLD millions of tons of iron ore to the REICH to make munitions that killed many many people. Do not comment on something you know nothing about, swedes were collaborators,hated by their near neighbours and this continues to this day.
Android TV you gotta be kidding me lol
Well we were Walking on a tightrope. but we managed to read their messagetrafic, you see in 1940 the Germans asked if they could use our telegraphlines for their trafic between Norway and Germany, we agreed then we listened in and it was in code, so enter Arne Beurling he cracked the code in a month using only paper and pen, he also built a machine used for forcing the code. We knew when Barbarossa would start in advance.
@@androidtv4589 Are you stupid? Without us giving finland half of our whole artillery plus 10 thousand volunteers finland would never have stood a chance lol... But please keep telling me how we didn't contribute to the war..
"Do not comment on something you know nothing about" lmao..
Now this has given me a whole nother view of my own country, sweden. You went in more depth than what the history teachers did, way more in depth actually.
Thanks for the history lesson and thank you Peter for asking that question!
It does not address the real issues.
@@FairladyS130 what issue?
@@FairladyS130 yes what issue pleas do tell
@@FairladyS130 you never told what issues
"Half drunk" is not an impediment to having a good army. Just look at the British Army, it was 3/4 drunk most of the time.
It was still pretty sober compared to the British Navy :/
And German Army was high on amfetamine.
@@meduseldtales3383 That's actually a myth. See ruclips.net/video/Vo7MOzC3-SI/видео.html for more info.
Alcoholism was rampant during the 1st WW especially behind the lines but also at the front! During the 2nd WW was better in the British army....
@@kristianlarsson3640 Brilliant defense, a RUclips video
24:50 "These 'police troops' had grenade launchers and anti-tank guns, so they were obviously not just police." American police 2020: "hold my Brännvin"
I am surprised that at this point USA police cars are not replaced with military surplus tanks. I think the only real reason is that the roads cannot handle regular tank activity. USA expenditure on the military is ginormous, and their local police get the hand-me-downs of the military to save money.
You can't compare modern day militarized law enforcement with mid 20th century clandestinely trained militia for taking over quickly when the regime of the occupying nation collapsed.
@@johanrunfeldt7174 I'm sure that the militias were better about respecting the rights of the citizenry, that part is for sure. But when it comes to armament, relative to the time period, I pretty much think that you can make the comparison.
i dare u to name one police department in the world that does not have acces to granade launchers and anti material rifles
@@fredrik38949 the swedish one xD
Never heard anyone pronounce Luleå as "Lulu". This is why I love different languages, simple little cute mistakes like that :3
Actually it was Google translate that let me down, because I would have pronounced it as Lu-lee-ah, but the computer said no
@@TheImperatorKnight you got trolled by your computer then x3 It's Lu-lee-oh. Å is a strange letter for people who don't have it in their alphabet
Is there English pronunciation for Lulea? I think it's funny the modern English pronunciation of Finland's capital is "Helsinki" rather than "Helsingfors", which it had been for the previous 6oo or so years before 1919.
@@ElGrandoCaymano That's because the Finnish name for Helsinki is Helsinki. Helsingfors (Hell-sing-fosh) is the Swedish name for the town, which used to apply because Finland was part of Sweden. When Finland became independent, it also made Finnish it's "primary" language (though Swedish remains an official majority language) and the capital switched names correspondingly.
@@Sami8s I mean most people dont prenounce the Å at all....
Finlands sak är vår!
för fosterland!
Vår retarderade kusin måste få extra kärlek och därefter bra beskydd mot Ryssen.
Inte efter årets JVM i hockey!
@su si Its a Swedish Proverb loosed translated, " The Fins problems are ours problem" .. (Finland's thing is ours)...
@@glimros4283 "Finland's cause is ours" is a better translation.
Good question.
I think so too
@@TheImperatorKnight Concur , the nazis themselfs were also irritated that so few Swedes joined them , they had plenty of danish and norweigans who joined up. Sweden still views the others as smaller siblings , and while we may not have the best relations at times , noone is allowed to invade them - except ous of course ;)
The question avoids the real issues as does the response.
@Tik Paints a more sober and realistic view than what we are taught in school here in Sweden. Thank you very much for this. Keep up the good work!
There's a difference between 'school' and 'education'. Here, you get educated ;)
In this case, I really have to bow down to your very correct assessment and level of detail. As a (half-)Swede I have never heard a foreigner with such detailed knowledge of the Swedish situation, and delivering it without bias. Sweden usually get bashed for being neutral from so many hindsight warriors. Not only could we help Finland with materiel and 10 000 volunteer troops. You mention the training of resistance fighters from Norway/Denmark. It also made possible the single biggest rescue operation of Jews during the war. Almost all of the Jews in Denmark were shipped over the Öresund strait in a joint effort between Danish and Scanian fishing crews. Morally speaking, they would probably be dead if not for Swedish neutrality.
The real issues and questions have been avoided.
This was very interesting, thanks! This certainly brings some light and nuance to a very complex situation in history. Most people in Sweden are aware of (and would in retrospect condemn) the German soldier transports, but I bet most haven't understood how severe the situation was for our country at the time. Considering the circumstances, I would think the Swedish government probably made the right call.
The wartimes are always tough. Yes, Sweden may have made a few miscalculations, but all in all their strategy was wise. As a Finn, I admit Finland also did some less honourable decisions, but I don’t think we really had much choice back then. There were very few countries that helped Finland in our hour of need. I do think that Sweden and Baltic nations, especially Estonia were really helping us, sending volunteers and weapons. Also, we did get lots of help from the Germans. I don’t like Nazis, but politically retaining our independence was crucial. So, thank you Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for your help! And thank you Germany as well, not the Nazi party, but the German soldiers! Let us hope we never have to lose the lives of our sons and daughters again to satisfy the greed and bloodlust of dictators and politicians, no matter which country or party they come from!
Just a reminder that you aren't an MSNBC anchorman. This was appallingly pc.
It's interesting to add some more details (I'm a half-Finn myself born in Sweden), what Sweden actually did to help Finland in the winter war against the Soviet aggression. It supplied a volunteer Swedish division (including 727 Norwegians) of about 12,000 men, but in reality 8,620 actually were in Finland fighting. In addition, Swedish people donated, and the state gave 490 million kronor (1940); this was more than the Finish budget 1939, and more than the Swedish military budget 1939/1940. In addition, 84,000 rifles, 575 machine guns, 85 anti-tank guns, 104 anti-aircraft cannons, 112 howitzer and cannons, and 25 aircraft were donated. The regular Swedish Military was kept out of the winter-war by the government, much to the anger of the majority of the public opinion.
Sweden own defense was very weak, and the government concluded it would only help the Finns a month or so. In addition, there were a fear that Soviets would come closer to Sweden, for example occupying Åland. Of course, there were the other opposite argument that it's better to take the fight far away from the heartland and not wait until Soviet troops land on your coast. The former argument was adopted - to adhere to the neutrality or non-belligerent position in the conflict.
Many large industries and workers unions, would give up one month of pay in aid for Finland. There are many stories of army equipment being "lost" along the northern border.
100 000 Norwegian refugees would cross the border, many of them being cared-for and guided by local Swedish farmers. A great grandfather of mine was killed helping some of these refugees. Finnish war children would also arrive in the tens of thousands, many would stay permanently.
After the war Sweden would aid in the reconstruction of its Nordic neighbors. This is mostly forgotten today and Sweden is often cited as being cowardly or greedy. But they do not know this. In solidarity, Swedish school children would at times mobilize more for another country then their own.
And that charitable nature will cause them to be a minority in their own country in a few decades. Madness
@@omanvictory4011 However, they sent draft dodgers back to the Eastern Front, and later to the Gulag
@@omanvictory4011 Should one take much stock in the opinions of outsiders? There has been slander and negative discourse about Sweden for half a century. Meanwhile this socialist dystopian nation, somehow manages to take care of people better then most.
@@tyskbulle If the peace treaty had allowed it, settling 3,000 Germans (or even 200k) in Finland would not have been a problem. The Soviet Union had a strange way of hauling "criminals" from abroad. Apparently the USSR was indeed in ruins.
Joakim von Anka Should push comes to shove, I'm very sure the next time it will be different. Norway and Denmark were never in a position where they could spare being solidary, especially to us Swedes, until just recently.
Not to mention that with EU and the media, there is nothing that will make them doubt lending us a helping hand if we ever need it.
16:00 about refusing the Germans. Sweden did "accidentally"leek a few pieces of intel to the alliance as a result off unexplained temporary failure anti conters espionage operations and by a few a mean battleship worth of intel.
"We're completely surrounded and outnumbered. We should stand on principle and antagonize them".
That is usually the best thing to do. Let them know it's going to be costly. There is nothing bullies love better than someone who is afraid.
Preper the hedgehog defense.
@@Dragon-Believer if the Germans invaded in 1941, Sweden would have been part of Germany.
@@Dragon-Believer The time to stand up to bullies was 1933 to 1939. It was too late to merely intimidate them into stopping, Germany was the equivalent of a criminal who has already committed enough crimes to get life in prison if not execution, no reason to hold back or flinch anymore
@@HeinzGuderian_ - how do you figure? germany could have occupied sweden for 2 years, maybe 3. even so military occupation doesn't make you part of the same country
Thanks for this, it is interesting and informative. I live in Sweden but have an English background with my Grandfather having been a POW in Italy and a great uncle buried in Libya having died flying for the RAF, so I found Sweden’s role in WW2 disturbing and this video has helped me understand more. Pass the sprit.
As a Swede, I grew up with the American perspective of WW2, meaning I legitimately thought that Sweden was a "bad guy" in WW2; trading with the Germans to profit during a time of crisis. As I grew older I took a more keen interest in history and my perspective has since changed. I think Sweden played the cards she was dealt as well as she could have. By remaining independent, Sweden did a lot of good for those that were prosecuted in the neighboring countries. Of course, if Sweden had resisted, maybe the war would've ended sooner and less damage would've been done, but it would've come at a great cost of Sweden itself. Would _any_ other nation have done such a sacrifice?
TIK you left out Swedish ball bearings exported to BOTH Britain and Germany. Both combatant powers were critically dependent upon them. For Britain these bearings were critical for 40% of her aeroengine production. ( Merlins ) One hero stood up and used patrol boats to race through Danish waters to ship the critical bearings right underneath Nazi noses. After the USAAF hit German bearing production, Speer went crazy. The Swedes had both over a barrel.
Sweden even shipped tungsten carbide tool bits to the USSR -- paid for by the Americans.
America sent an Esso oil tanker at least once a month straight through the dual blockade to fuel Sweden. Ball bearings were the reason why.
Dont forget that alot of allied naval forces, especially the US navy sailed around with armaments made by Bofors. www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_4cm-56_mk12.php
VERY interesting note. News to me. Have you got Any reference on that ESSO tanker? Pref video.
So... You could say we... Had them by the balls?
#ba-dum-tish!
@@tr6431 Which they didn't pay for😄 If I remember correctly Britain had a licensing agreement to manufacture bofors anti-air cannons. USA wanted their bofors guns too, got help by the brits to make them but didn't pay licensing fees to Bofors!
Nobody attacked us because they knew we had balls of steel.
2:37 Probably just a typo but just for clarification, it's *Malmberget* , not Malmberger. I live in that town!
Edit: Malmberget literally means "Ore Mountain"
" *The* Ore Mountain" actually :D
Varma hälsningar från Västergötland!
Mr BigCookie ❤️
Hälsningar från södra svealand (Närke) :-)
Såg ditt inlägg så slapp jag nämna det för han.
De har aldrig kommit nå större mängder malm från malmberget!
No body seems to notice the fact that at that time almost half of swedens ore was mined in the south, this was before all smaller mines was closed, and ore was also shipped out from Oxelösund in large numbers and other minor ports in the south.
My grandfather on my mothers side was a part of Operation Performance. He was on board the "B.P Newton" which made it to Edinburgh. He was awarded the "British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service".
great video as usual. as a swede myself i found this very educating. i think alot of (most?) swedes are overly ashamed of swedish ww2 concessions towards the germans, thinking it was because of oppurtunitism and unwillingness to fight, rather than a finely tuned plitical balance act to keep us (and finland) from being invaded or descending into economic collapse and starvation...
That was the impression I got from Gilmour's book (and the original question) - that Swedes feel ashamed about WW2, and that there's varying interpretations... I'd recommend Gilmour's book for anyone interested in this topic because he makes a good case for why they did what they did
@@TheImperatorKnight Thank you for this TIK there are Swedish historians who have made this case but it just wont get through to English speaking audiences, I have to check out Gilmours book at some point. Sadly its just much easier to assume that Sweden just did what Germany wanted and were up to no good. But there is a context here that is being ignored by those who claim that Sweden should be ashamed of there role in WW2. Ignored is also all the ways in which Sweden helped there neighbours and the Allies.
I think both the Allies and Germans underestimated the Swedish defence capabilities but there is little doubt that Sweden would have fallen if the Germans attacked in force before Barbarossa. Little known fact Sweden planed for "operation save Norway" and "operation save Denmark" that was supposed to free those countries and involve the Danish and Norwegian "police forces" trained and armed in Sweden during the war, the war ended before it could be put to action though and it never left the planing stage as far as I know.
The Swedish government kept their country out of the war. That would/should be any country's goverment's first objective. Can't blame them. And they supported theirs neighbors when they could. Respect. 🇳🇴
I don't think Swedes have anything to feel ashamed about. Wars are full of stories like this, from individuals to political groups to entire countries that are forced to navigate difficult situations and survive as best they can. TIK did an excellent job here of explaining the choices Sweden had to make and from that it seems like they did the best they could to oppose Germany without risking a war that would kill thousands of its citizens. Finland, Spain, Turkey, Bulgaria... there's a long list of countries that found themselves just trying to avoid destruction.
@@TheSlyngel The way I have heard it, is that those operations were supposed to take place if the Nazis decided to fight on in Scandinavia after the surrender in continental Europe. I saw somwhere that the Nazi commanders actually considererd this, but he realized that it would be hopeless. I am short on sources here.
Thanks so much for this, very well done TIK!!!
Glad you liked it!
Sweden did what they could to stay out of the war, while helping their neighbour countries as much as possible (white busses, acting as mediator, training norwegian/danish troops, sending volunteers and equipment to finland and taking in refugees) without getting dragged in the war for their own nation's sake. I believe it was the right thing to do.
Some "strange" info for you, sir.
When the Germans invaded Norway, the swedish officers at the island/half island of Getterön in Varberg 75 km S Gothenburg where drunk.
Some of the german boats had stopped outside Kungbacka (I think it was), to wait to attack at the same time. Maybe the swedish officers
thought that it was the swedish westcoast that was their target.
During the transit through sweden, you can read in different books about it . But there is a big misstage in almost all books...
The picture showing the germans at a stop (for food or toilets) garded by swedish soldiers are not from the transit.
During the transit they used the best wagons that we had. This shows a cargowagon, and the german soldiers got no weapons.
The swedish guards are looking at the train, not for a threat from outside, because the picture is from their trip home as "POW".
Sweden got nine 21 cm guns from Skoda in 42(43), and the germans got nickel, chrome, brom and some other rare metals
to make aluminium to aircraft, and fuses to bombs...
Germany demand sweden to give them access to the telephonecable on the westcoast, so they could have contact between
Oslo - Kopenhagen - Berlin. We tapped all comunication, and gave it to the allied. A very importent part of the war.
Take care
Calle Bazz
I heard a similar story of rapid boats landing outside Stavanger. The German marines commandeered a telephone in some upper middle class home, and tried to call back to Germany. Except they called the wrong number, and got to a Swedish Count. When he heard bewildered German, he didn't know what to belive, but wrote down their message and said he'd get in contact with the Fuhrer. Instead he called the Norwegian embassy, and frantically tried to warn them that Norway was perhaps being invaded... I see the whole thing before me like some kind of Monty Python sketch...
"Sweden got nine 21 cm guns from Skoda in 42(43)". Ah... The famous haubitz m/42. A nicely portable haubitz, all you needed to do was to reduce it to three parts, after all, total weight was only 21 metric tons...
Strategic move.
A minor note, one of the places we get our iron ore from is not Malmberger but Malmberget. Roughly translated to iron mountain. The region that consists of Kiruna, Gällivare and Malmberget is called Malmfälten (the iron fields).
This is a very intresting video :)
A tip: in 1996 the Swedish author, playwriter and comedian Hans Alfredson wrote a contrafactual novel about a Nazi invasion of Sweden and how he imagined this action would have affected WW2 in Europe. I don't know if it's been translated but if you want to practice your Swedish the title is "Attentatet i Pålsjö skog" (The attack in Pålsjö skog) and I can highly recommend it!
Actually the author is Holger Axel Andersson and Hans was the editor and publisher
Bruh when he dropped the ”LuLu” i lost it lmao
Hahah exakt
Yeah, me too.
Äh vem fan säger "Luleå"? Lule heter det ;)
Here in the north its called Lule anyway ;)
@@svenskatabbar1519 I call it Luleå and I live north from Kiruna
Thank you for the excellent video, I think you're absolutely correct in your assessment of the Swedish situation. You've excellently highlighted Sweden's determination in many instances to stand up to external pressure and and this clearly demonstrated with her negotiating peace on behalf of Finland with the Soviets. What I have come to realise from your Sweden's video and Switzerland's situation is that 'neutrality' is not necessarily as morally pure and totally uninfluenced by the belligerents in a conflict as we would like to think especially when your on the doorstep of the conflict.
Watching this made me want to play some more Hearts of Iron 4, cheers from Finland
Says a lot that Finland was ready to go back with Sweden at that point.. and it would've worked just fine that way too. 1940s Sweden was a whole lot different from 1700 Sweden.
My grandfather in his military service drove trucks in circles at the border to denmark. If that fooled anyone i dont know.
The Germans deployed the same trick in North Africa to fool the allies into thinking they were facing far better equipped and motorized Germans than they actually were. In the early years of WWII the allies often assessed German number of troops and equipment significantly higher than they really were. Had they known the actual numbers it's likely they wouldn't have let Hitler have his way in Czechoslovakia in 1938 and would have opened up a real second front in 1939 when Poland was invaded.
The allies themselves made up dummy armies in England and fed them false information about what they were being prepared for to con the Germans.
I like the ball bearing - game theory - theory. Sweden had the world monopoly on ball bearings which ran the tanks planes etc of both sides. Had the Germans taken Sweden the Allied forces would have fought a battle of all battles so as not to lose their bearings. Both sides would have lost, so in Nash equilibrium style they fought their battles elsewhere and the bearing supplies went both directions.
all countries had ballbearing production
Agree. Amazing how detailed and thoughtful your videos are on every topic!
as a swede in really happy to learn that we didnt betray the finns
There was a huge campaign from the people to make the politicians have Sweden join Finland in the winter war. But they pussied out.
- Finlands sak är vår!
I appreciate the support of the Swedish people, and especially the material contributions. I just wish we had both been more prepared for any outside agression.
No, Sweden just betrayed the rest of the world fighting against Germany.
@@FairladyS130 All countries that fought against the Axis entered the war by being attacked by an Axis power.
@@Merecir Wrong, do your research.
Sweden did a lot of things under the radar during WW2. Some of my favorites are the hiding of Jews in the Swedish outskirts, sending reinforcements to the Norwegian resistance and helping locating the german battleship Bismarck.
Sweden got a lot is fingers pointed towards them, but Sweden played it like ”the hero that no one knows about” basically. Sweden, did sway the tide a lot in the north but many people do not know about it.
Sweden may have played their cards dirty for a while but we also gave finland half of our artillery and 10k volunters in the winter war for an example. Without us the finlands woulnd't have stood a chance
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Buses
@Peder Hansen Sweden did not help Germany invade norway. Transit rights were after the surrender of Norway. Occupy Norway they reluctently helped. Sweden helped Germany as little as they could without threatening thier independance. Simply Sweden reluctently helped Germany while willingly helped the Brits and Finns.
What was not mentioned is that the swedes had broken the german army teleprinter code directly after the invasion of Norway. Since teleprint communications partly went over Swedish lines the transmissions were secretly tapped. The unit called Geheimschreiber that was used to decode and code messages was very difficult to break but if it hadn't been for a swedish professor, Arne Boeurling. He single-handedly deciphered the German cipher machine in a matter of two weeks during 1940, using only pen and paper. This machine's cipher is generally considered to be more complicated than that of the more famous Enigma machine.. From 1954 he was professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, United States, where he took over Albert Einstein's chair. Unfortunately, the germans discovered that the swedes had broken their code in 1943 but by then Sweden was prepared for any German aggression and the war had begun to turn for the germans..
In the first years of the 1940s no military could have stopped a Blitzkrieg attack if this was directed against it without natural obstacles.
The Channel saved Britain, this could not be flanked like the Maginot line.
Then the German War efford was separated in rivulets losing much of the impact capacity it could have mustered against any specific target.
This is why I consider american concept about France's loss in 1940 to be absolutely absurd.
Had Germany been Canada the US military capacity of the time would have been swept away just as any military structure was during that period.
I agree with your assesment. Well done.
Great video and an interesting one as well. A lot of good history behind this one and it's a commonly misunderstood period as well.
After considering the tightrope Sweden had to walk between the Allies, Germany/Axis and Soviet Russia(Before the joined the side of good), I would question why anyone would want to head up a country.
The soviet union isn't very popular either. People have close ties to Finland, and Stalin invading the place pushes the war a little closer to home.
”-Half drunk farmers with hunting rifles”
Sweden had, and has to this day, less of a problem with alcoholism than... for example Finland... and rhe finnish ”half drunk farmers with hunting rifles” did pretty damn well when they were called upon.
Very good and interesting video nontheless. 👍🏻
Then there are a few factual details.
Just to mention a few:
”-Lack of AT-guns and the ones they had, few knew how to operate.” That was true at the moment of mobilization. The problem was quickly rectified though.
”-Sweden had no tanks because they figured the terrain was unsuitable.”
This however is just wrong. Germany and Sweden had a secret tank development program throughout the 30’s. Sweden, on top of that, developed and produced a number of different tanks in 30’s, some of the best tanks of the pre-war era. The german Pz-38(t) tanks for example, that Germany got when they invaded Checkoslovakia, was developed in cooperation betwene Checkoslovakia and Sweden and a great number of the actual tanks that Germany confiscated were in fact intended for the Swedish army. So, many Pz38(t) tanks that conquered Poland and France, had in a way been taken from the Swedish Army. Germany did pay compensation and allso eventually allowed Sweden to build them under license in Sweden. That’s how much Sweden biched and moaned about the stolen tanks. Sweden did however, end up producing other, more modern, powefull tank models, instead of the tanks that they bitched so much about. Like the ones you show pictures of at 11:25
Regarding the lack of AT-guns and artillery. Sweden was not neutral in ”The finnish winter war.” Sweden was bombed by russian planes and swedish airforce set up a complete airforce base with several squadrons in Finland, with Finnish airforce markings, and so on, and did, despite Sweden itself being in a very precarious situtaion, send considerable ammount of war materiel to Finland. Just like you correctly explained in the video. I believe around 1/4 of the Swedish army heavy artillery guns plus ammunition, were gifted to Finland. The finnish artillery, these swedish guns, were absolutely crutial in Finlands defense. As were all the Bofors AT-guns and anmunition. Sweden SERIOUSLY hampered its own buildup, by sending so much of the little ammo they had, to Finland.
...as you said in the video, the Soviet Union was considered the no1 threat at that point in time, 1939-40, so helping Finland was a given, as it was a buffer to the Soviet Union.
Edit:
Btw. Something that is less known and often overlooked, (but that you actually mentios, good on you), is that Sweden has a very different outlook on being conquered. In many countries, like France, Holland and Yugoslavia, partisan activity was largely an afterthaught. In the swedish army and the whole society, it is allways hammered into the minds of everyone that ”Sweden never surrensers”. Every phonebook for example, in Sweden had a whole page that only talks about this.
”-Any message that the resistance should end, is false!”
I kid you not. So, it is in fact impossible for the government of Sweden or the military high command, to surrender. Simply because everyone has been told that any such order from the political or military leadership is allways false enemy propaganda.
(Pretty hardcore if you ask me. Like going into an MMA match and telling the officials that any tapout from you is to be disregarded.)
Yes Sweden was nut the old telephone directory did have a pages like "how you start your own resistence movment" "remember to attack the enemy in every way you can" and the (in)famus ”Any message that the resistance should end, is false!” and I did think the Japanes was the crazy guys...
ruclips.net/video/mX7oultgO4k/видео.html
THANKS FOR THE EXCELLENT INFO! UNFORTUNATEKY TIK ONLY HIGHLIGHTS THE COMMENTS THAT REAFFIRM HIS NARRATIVE WHICH IS OFTEN PARTIALLY INCORRECT.
They may be drunk farmers but the Swedes had the best damn Mauser ever made. Ignore TIK's heresy in disparaging it as an obsolete rifle from 1896, because to paraphrase a meme: "Nej, rifle is fine".
JR what?
A side note that you might consider as well, Sweden did have a somewhat modernized army and air force at this time. One reason is because since Germany after WW1 wasn't allowed to research or develop tanks, planes etc because of the treaty of Versailles, German engineers and scientist was assigned to Swedish companies to develop weapons for Sweden ( but the results of the tests etc was brought back to Germany) And Swedish air force was quite big big during WWII with increasing numbers every day (for a long time, and during the cold war, Sweden had the 4th most powerful air force in the world with (at that time) modern planes.
The book Hitler, Donitz, and the Baltic Sea: The Third Reich's Last Hope, 1944-1945 also mentions other problems why Germany never attacked Sweden. First, one of the biggest problems was the Swedish navy, sure it was nothing compared to the allied navies that Germany has faced before, but this was a navy that fought in it's own backyard, on it's own terms, with backup from a large air force.
Another problem with attacking Sweden was that it would disturb all German transports to Finland thus making it harder to fight the Russians. The Baltic sea was also the only place where Germany could train new crews for their uboat fleet and a war with Sweden would make training impossible.
In the end after years of planning, the German navy, who was responsible for planning the invasion of Sweden reported "actions against Sweden without a compelling reason was justifiable only if the success of the operation within a very short time was guaranteed. In the view of Germany's current situation, this was quite unlikely."
Germany simply couldn't afford to go to war with Sweden because, sure they would sooner or later invade Sweden but they would lose more important resources because of that invasion.
Unlike Norway and Denmark, Sweden did somewhat actually mobilize for war. Sweden was actually mobilizing for an invasion of Denmark and Norway, the invasion was planned to take place in 1945 but the surrender of Germany happen before the plans was put into action. ( Google operation save Denmark / operation save Norway )
As a Swede, i agree that Sweden should have done more during the war but going to war with Germany in 1939 would have been suicidal. Sweden in 1943/45 at least had a chance to give the German war machine a huge repair bill during an invasion of Sweden. Sweden in 1945 was mobilized for war.
I’ve watched your channel for quite some time and this was the video that made me subscribe. This channel is so underrated
Finally a proper video about Sweden from the man himself! Thank you so much TIK, please keep the videos coming!
So basically the Swedes did the best out of a really bad situation they were put in. Hard to really make a moral case against that.
Yes, and yet, some do
Nowadays a lot of people try to break everything down to a moral question. Of course Sweden could have stopped selling iron ore to NS Germany. But we all know the consequences. In the end it was better for Sweden and ist population.
Oh boo hoo, poor Sweden. Millions of Ukrainian and Belarusian citizens died, the UK is getting bombed to pieces, but yeah , let’s cry for Sweden. Didn’t we all agree that chamberlains appeasement did not work?
Sweden was cowardly, just like Switzerland. ruclips.net/video/QbFZgyDcXqw/видео.html
@@NeoConNET7 Spoken like a true smooth brain. let's go to war against Germany lose after a week and then have all Swedish manufacture and industry become directly controlled by the Germans so that we won't be called cowards in the future.
Basically Sweden viewed ( and rightly so ) German, Soviet and even the British as the enemy of their existentialsm. One wrong move they would be invaded. This habit of riding a high horse from the allies made everything look white or black, which isn't.
The Swedish opinion is very anti-German. There are some hitlerists in the country but it gets even less popular to be one when Hitler is bombing Norway. There's a lot of sympathy for Finland as well with volunteers and material going to the fight against the Soviets.
Nazi Germany did not attack Sweden firstly out of tactical reasons. They couldn’t spare the troops. However, they didn’t need to, Sweden had no alternative than to cooperate in 1940. The second reason is, of course, the trade with iron ore. A third reason, that is quite intriguing, is the relation Sweden-Finland, that I believe Germany had a lot of respect for. Think of the coming plans for Barbarossa - do not complicate the situation for Finland, a natural enemy of the Soviet Union.
In the summer of 1943, the Swedish General Defence Staff told the government, under Per Albin Hansson, that the military now was ready for the Germans. This, together with the general situation globally, meant that Sweden could end the friendly attitude towards Berlin.
The German plan 1943 to attack Sweden was identical to the one they had developed in 1940. The difference was immense. By 1943, the Swedish military was much stronger than in 1940.
When Wehrmacht occupied Denmark and Norway 1940, Sweden had only mobilised ¼ of the field army, 100 000 men, placed up in the very north because of the Finnish Winter War. On the western coast, passed by the German navy, Sweden had only 800 men with weapons.
By 1943, the Swedish army was prepared, blocking the supposed German advances (by the old plans from 1940). Sweden had buffer zones, they had mined the few roads, prepared all bridges. Most of all, the Swedish ability to mobilise was much better. The whole field army, 400 000 men, could be called up in a week. Sweden had 300+ tanks in the south, part of a large tactical reserve. Sweden also had an Air Force by now.
Remember: Sweden had the technical ability to construct its own hardware, including aeroplanes (SAAB). By the end of the war, Sweden had the most modern Air Defence in Europe. By 1950, the Royal Swedish Air Force was the first fully jet-driven air defence in the world. By then, Sweden was contemplating their own nuclear weapon.
There’s this myth that Germany actually planned an attack by 1943. This is not true. They sent this general to Norway to look over the situation. What he presented for OKW was exactly the old plan from 1940, minus the panzer, because the small 25th Panzer Division was moved to Germany by the spring of 1943. It was not a realistic plan to march 150 000 men into Sweden, with limited air support, into a Swedish defence system very much like the Finnish.
Where the main German attack would happen, by the southern Norwegian border, the Swedish army always had about 50 000 men (trained troops) in well-prepared positions. This was the main part of the Swedish I Army Corps, under Lieutenant-General Axel Rappe, the most battle harden Swedish general (regimental commander in the Finnish Civil War 1918). Behind them were the tactical reserves, with tanks and air force.
Regarding the move of the German 162nd Infantry Division (Engelbrecht) through Sweden, it’s always forgotten that the Swedish government also acted on a recommendation from the General Defence Staff. By moving this division with 18 000 men and equipment to Finland, they left Norway which meant relief for the Swedish military in regards to the main threat by the Germans from Norway. Simple strategy.
According to you Sweden was almost a superpower. Maybe the Wehrmacht was so scared of Sweden that they attacked the Soviet Union instead. Who knows?🤪
@@humanbeing1675 Facts are always facts in the end. If you read what I wrote you may see that nowhere did I mention a superpower. If you want to compress information as much as you can, especially about the information that is almost not known, you will automatically be one-sided. Sweden had a strong development in its military between 1939 and 1943. Comparing to the decline in German forces, especially the army units, in Norway, of course, became a factor. One strong reason why this is a surprise for most is the fact that Sweden historically doesn't support this narrative. Sweden wants to portrait itself as a peaceful, helpless nation who managed to keep themself out of the war with the lone wisdom of the holy social democratic party's fantastic diplomacy. It's important to understand that Sweden established it's stand in the cold war during WWII. Neutrality worked (they said), we don't need NATO, we create our own big military, per capita the third-largest in the world after China and Israel, by 1980 in total 850 000 men, in a country of 8 million. A modern, self-built Air Force which drained all the resources out of the other two forces. You must put everything in its perspective. Yes, Sweden could have built its own nuclear weapons at the end of the 1940s. They offered it to the other Nordic countries as an alternative to NATO. Fortunately, Norway and Denmark was smarter, they had learned the lesson and knew from where the real protection would come from.
My background as a retired captain in the Royal Swedish Army Reserve had helped a lot in my knowledge. My fascination for the truth of the Swedish military during WWII - not an easy task because of the Swedish lockdown on this kind of endeavours - is inspired by my maternal grandfather, who was a professional NCO in the Swedish army during the war. He trained thousands of Swedish soldiers on the German 8cm mortar, later becoming a Staff Sergeant. He met and talked to general Rappe several times. My grandfather told me about weapons, tactics and most of all - moral. He said: "We learned a lot by our unpreparedness in 1940, we learned even more by our friends, the Finns, so if the Germans would have come in 1943, we would have slaughtered them in the forests - with passion!" The hate against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union among the general Swedish population during the war was immense for what they did with our Nordic neighbours. The Swedish government's attitudes did not mirror the public opinion, but personally, I'm glad they kept Sweden out of the war.
My paternal grandfather, a man I never met, was a Stalinist Communist who fought in the Finnish civil war on the red side. He wanted to move to the worker's paradise Ukraine in 1936. My grandmother luckily stopped him. My father was only 3 y.o. I wouldn't be here if they did. My grandfather spent a couple of years during the war in Labour Companies because he was labelled a danger (almost a terrorist). He built transport roads for the army in the forests, officially for the forestry industry. From this, I learned vital things in political history and civics.
@@torbjornkvist
The swedish german relations at least before the war were pretty good. Even after the war Sweden supported the german population with different programs. I'm not so sure If all swedes hated the germans in general (or only nazis) but Im not swedish and you know this maybe better.
Sorry, but in the end I don't like this theoretical warfare of desktop generals. Of course Sweden tried to be prepared but if I read this stuff here i get the impression that the eastern front was a walk in the park. Come down..its only theory. Sweden had no war for the last few centuries. And thats good.
If you like see the big picture. The Wehrmacht was even at the end of '44 capable of giving the US a really hard time. (see battle of the bulge). In November '43 there were still 177.000 in Finland and in Norway/Denmark 486.000 soldiers of the Wehrmacht.
What you wrote about the time of the cold war is something different. I was always impressed that a relatively small country like Sweden (regarding the population) was able to build up its own military industry on a high level.
I hope you do not feel offended in any way. Its just my personal perspective based on my limited knowledge.
Comprehensive and well reasoned answer. I like it. 👍
Very interesting TIK! There's so much more detail to the war than what we're taught in school and videos like this about the strategic situation add so much to the history. Thank you!
Several important historic details are missed; re the effect of the winter war, Churchill wanting to move troops through Norway / Sweden to "support Finland," (and of course secure the northern mines with British troops). Swedish military co-operation with Finland.
The state of the Swedish armed forces, and their buildup during the period.
The Germans didn't invade because they didn't need to invade, and would've had difficulty controlling it if they had. They always had a manpower shortage, on top of all their other shortages. About the only thing Germany had in abundance, was coal.
Churchill never wanted to support Finland, it was just an excuse as the actual plan was to stop in Kiruna and occupy the mines.
Sweden and Norway knew this of course, which is why both refused the transit.
@@Merecir that's why there are the quotation marks..... LTR.
Don't count the swedish navy out. Sure, it couldn't have matched any major navy in a classic gun battle, but it wasn't designed to. It was a coastal defense force and agter the kriegsmarine bloodletting in Norway 1940 the germans could not count on controlling the baltic against a swedish advisary, and once barbarossa was underway, swedish submarines and other vessels could have wrought havoc on the German sealanes along the baltic. At the very least the swedish navy would have tied up the entire kriegsmarine and a lot of aircraft at a time when they were needed elsewhere.
Don't forget the swedish Navy would be getting some help from the Royal Navy
@@jamesricker3997 British help with the German shipping lanes in the Baltic? Not blood linely. B8
Thank you for an interesting video about Sweden. I agree with your conclusion. There is a Swedish movie from 1988 called Fyra dagar som skakade Sverige. Four days that Shuck Sweden. That is about the agreements to allow German troops for any Swedes who want to watch it on svtplay.
As far as I can see, you are spot on with your analysis.
As a Swede I’m grateful for this well researched, and non-biased documentary/what ifs.
As much as we had a great deal of people who supported Hitler (Just like the USA, UK ETC.) most of us did not support Hitler and his ideals (Well, except for the hate of communism and the USSR).
We had no choice but to do what we did.. If we would’ve gone to war against Germany they’d just March right thru and get our iron ore anyway.
So instead we worked as double agents so to say, we even helped cracking the Germans Enigma encryption.
Sweden did not fall into any faction. They played their own hand, and they played it perfectly.
Which is what any nation which values its own integrity and independence should stay well clear out of any pacts with other countries. A country quickly becomes cannon fodder, lackeys or "expendables" under the greater powers. In history Sweden often got the short end of the stick whenever it allied itself with other countries and often was forced to accept a really harsh bargain. Seeing the great destruction of WWI and the early stages of WWII it's hardly surprising Sweden didn't want to risk either destruction or an incredibly costly war.
Not so sure about that, we could've backed Finland all out in the fight against communism, while it would've landed us on the losing side with Germany in the short run. We'd have less guilt floating around for sitting the war out and aiding "evil" while communism is still in fashion around these parts, this I imagine would not be the legacy had we picked a side as Finland didn't go down that path. War is a function of the human species, prolonged periods without war makes a people soft and eventually a footnote in history. How this relates to the video at hand is that in fighting a common enemy Sweden would not be occupied as such but be treated much the same as Finland by Germany. Granted we would be almost guaranteed to lose Gotland in the peace.
There is a number of grave factual errors already in the first five minutes: Sweden in 1940 had 48 stridsvagn m/37 tanks, equivalent to Pz 1 tanks. They had at least 15 Landsverk L-60, equivalent of Pz III tanks at the end of -39. More were delivered during 1940, but I don't know exactly when.
Fighter planes. Sweden had 52 Gloster Gladiators in april 1940, and 40 P-35 Seversky, an American all-metal monoplane. They had ordered 120 of these and 144 P-66 Vanguards, but only 20 more of the P-35 and none of the P-66 were delivered before USA placed the remainder under embargo. Also, there was 72 Italian Fiat-42 bi-planes parked in Sweden. Originally intended for Finland, these were bought by Sweden in -40.
Bombers. 63 Northrop A-17 dive-bombers and a number of Junkers Ju 86.
The Swedish navy in -40 consisted of three 'Sverige'-class coastal defense ships, comissioned in 1917, 1921 and 1922 respectively, and all thoroughly modernized in the late 30's. Four older coastal defense ships, two light cruisers, 14 destroyers, 15 submarines, and a number of mine-layers, minesweepers and MT-boats.
Nine minutes in, you claim USSR and Germany were allied. They were not. They had a non-aggression pact, similar to what Germany had with Denmark, Norway and Sweden and several other nations.
One thing Sweden had quite a lot of, was artillery and AA-guns. Maybe because Bofors is a Swedish company?
Could Switzerland have withstood a German invasion?
Alan Le I am no expert but given that everyone in that country is born with a gun in their hands, and the Swiss build bunkers as a pastime I think it would be ‘Nam but with mountains instead of jungles.
The designated detonation objects would have taken 2-4 hours to make ready (a problem only adressed in 1975 cutting it down to less than a few minutes) so most of them would have been overrun and captured intact. The swiss airforce adapted for flying in mountains but overwhelmed in numbers. I imagine it would have ended in partisan fights of versprengte army units. And a painful and long drawn out fighting into the valleys of the designated reduit. Flattend cities and mass hostage murders. Thankfully the strategy was only to be able to so much damage and demand so much comittment that its not worth attacking this ressource poor country.
Would Switzerland have held out till relief if Germany attacked in 1940 as would have been the plan if Italy didnt fuck up starting new theaters everywhere? No. But we really want you people off of our lawn.
would have been occupied but then the fun REALLY starts just ask Yugoslavia...
Ann Onymous The Swiss are very skillful defenders of their mountainous terrain.
They beat up much larger Austrian armies and before that Holy Roman Empire armies. Nobody has conquered Switzerland for many centuries. Given their large army and massive reserves, brilliant, determined and skilled fighting ability , if the Germans had attacked after Barbarossa would have suffered stupendous losses.
Once the allies were in Italy and France, I highly doubt that the Germans would have found it expedient to invade such a mountainous well defended terrain.
They also supplied the Germans with critical ball bearings for their tanks!
Had the Swiss stopped supplying ball bearings in 1944, once Normandy had occurred, the Germans who were already stretched out on two fronts, would have been likely unable to withdraw enough troops towards Switzerland without either or both fronts collapsing.
@@alanle1471 Just France could conquer Switzerland: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_invasion_of_Switzerland
I broadly agree. When I studied Modern History at Stockholm University, we had to do a lot of work on the second World War, notably on the 1941 Midsummer Crisis . I think there is also another factor to consider: With the exception of Poland, Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom, no country voluntarily entered the war. They did so because they were attacked. If you put the following question to an ordinary Belgian, Greek, Yugoslav or Norwegian or anyone else, how would they have replied: "Choose between the following options: Your country can either be attacked by Germany, defeated and brutally occupied for the next 4-5 years. You will eventually come out of the war, but it will have been costly in terms of lives lost and economic misery, but at least you will have stood up and acted honourably. It will then take another five years or so to rebuild your economy. Alternatively, you can give in the German demands, enough to make sure they don't attack you. You toe the line. It is craven and dishonourable, but you will remain reasonably free and in peace. And when the war is over, you will have a major advantage over everyone else, with your economy intact."
I'm not so sure most people would have chosen the honourable way. I have thought about these issues for almost fifty years nd I still don't know if Swedish policy was "right" or "wrong".
hello TIK.I read and search history for over 25 years.Your work is briliant and your logistics about the war excellant.sorry about my hand writing i speak and hear very well but i am not write often english.Gongratulations from GREEK-HELLAS......
The German navy actually recommended against invading Sweden as they was not sure they could keep the supply lines open
Same as today many Swedes that Russia would occupy Gotland, how to fix the supply! So damn laughablae! And for what, no pipline (Nord stream) goes there.
And Russians still suffers from ww2, only 147 million people and largest borders to defend! When i ask people why Russia will attack its only emotional, no facts ever and i still awaits for those answers. BTW I am born in Finland and my home town was burned 3 times, Germans did the last one. It was Stalin then and we had Obama ealier, and he had the Nobel Peace Prixe, given by Norway. What an mess, killing babies and women give you an prize!!!
Well it was some extra info, cant hurt at all hehe.
I can confirm that what Peter said is what we learned in school here in Sweden.
Do they teach in school how important it is to have gun rights, and have militias ?
TK UA pointless question, the only country on earth that has gun rights is the USA, all other countries who do have some for of access to guns, Sweden included, see it as a privilege that can be denied for an arbitrary reason. Ergo, the only country who could teach about importance of gun rights is the USA, being the only country that considers having guns a right.
@@noth606 Exactly while gun ownership is realtively high in sweden (by European standards). It is not by any means seen as a right.
Then you had a shitty teacher
@@TheSlyngel he gave up half thru the semester and - in front of class - said that me and my twin brother knew much more about wW2 then he did. My father was an ex officer, and we had plenty of family friends that fought in Finland during the war. So we got pretty well educated about the war and it effects in Sweden and Finland at home. Problem was not the teacher so much, but more about the books. They were a joke.
A drowning man can not save another and Sweden was in that position. I agree with your analysis
@Peder Hansen Germany would have occupied them inside of a month
A 63yo yank (chronic), my mom's dad was a Swedish emigre in the 1920s (Gothenburg), married a woman (my granny) from farm family of immigrant swedes on Nebraska praries, and my dad was in rotc (U Nebraska) during the war (his brother fought w/ US 29th infantry in the bulge), so, I care, and, I would say, never heard that much detail (by 1000%) about the Scandi war, and, analyzed with balance and breadth, like everything you have presented on this channel, really enjoyed last 3 years getting a new perspective on the REAL WW 2, and I am really grateful. I am still getting my head around the basic reality that Hitty & the Nazi really were socialists...now, all this detail about Norway, Sweden, Finland et al... my yank son married a Danish girl and lives in AAlborg, waiting for a bit of Viking stuff for the WW2, but, I will wait patiently, again, many thanks
why I was supposed to go to sleep I have early day at work...but when TIK uploads watch I must. .Thanks for the video TIK.
24:58 neat, my family owns a couple of those sleds. They worked great when hooked up to a snowmobile or dragged while skiing.
Hope all is well Tik. Good to see this video, should make up for my craptacular last week. Got stuck reading Collingham's work, though it's on the list to finish.
Oh no! Why "craptacular"?
@@TheImperatorKnight Eh, won't go too detail on RUclips platform. I'll just say a relationship went down in flames and am dealing with fallout. Hope life is better on other side of the pond.
Oh wow, yeah that sounds like a bad week... But I'm sure there will be better weeks ahead for you :)
@@TheImperatorKnight Thanks mate. I'll live, just need time. Out of curiosity, which campaign in the east do you study the most? Personally, I like to look at Barbarossa more closely than the other campaigns.
You can't really judge Sweden, it was trapped between a rock and a hard place
It sounds like a really good analyze of the situation. God you empathized on the pact between Germany and Russia 1940. People tend to forget this part in Sweden. Sweden was totally surrounded by Germany and its allies. People in Sweden usually have a miss conception of Russia beeing a enemy of Germany. Great work TiK :)
My favorite fact about WW2 era Swedish armed forces. the italian fighters that we purchased. and later complained to Italy about because they kept breaking down. And the italian response was that well of course they did, they were only expected to survive for about a week after deployment in war.. So yeah...
Sweden played it the best they could during WWII. Sweden kept out of WWII which was their best possible outcome.
The German troops were jeered at when their trains passed through Gothenburg. When they asked where they were, they were told "Stalingrad".
Well researched! Five stars.
To be fair, most (not all) of the information came from Gilmour's book. I'd highly recommend it
My great grandfather was a ”fjälljägare” in the swedish army during the war, his unit was an elite force on skis. Unfourtunetly I don’t know too much of what he did during the war but he was stationed in the very north and I know that he was over on the Finnish side a few times. From what I understand from my mom and grandmother he saw some pretty horrible things, among them a whole boat of finnish children fleeing over the Torneriver and how it capsized in the middle of the river and all the children drowned. It was in the middle of winter. Anyway, big thanks for this video, it was very interesting and I will certainly pick up those books!
Finlands sak är vår ✊🏼
I believe you nailed it tik ,I agree with all your points
Thanks for taking this topic up, Not many english speaker that really talk about this. But must say that your phrasing of Luleå made me lol hard as a born and raised in that town. ''Lulu'' xD It should be pronounce ''LOO-lay-oh'' for you people that do not use the words Å, Ä or Ö. Also you can say ''Lule'' because many in the northern part of Sweden never say the Å if that is the last character in a City's name. Like Pite (Piteå), Ume (Umeå), Skellefte (skellefteå) and so one.
Just some random facts from me to the world on how local people say the city names here.
Haha glad you liked the video! I actually used Google translate for Luleå, but it clearly didn't do a very good job... Thank you for clarifying the pronunciation :)
@@TheImperatorKnight For future reference wikipedia have sometimes the english pronunciation for town so it's easier for english speaker to say the local name. No problems! :)
Also as a short fun story with the swedish mobilization
in July-August 1943. My Grandfather on my father side who served in the army as a NCO (Rank of Furir or Sergeant
for non swedish people) during that time. His squad was in charge of guarding a railway bridge in Norrbotten where the iron ore went through and when they expected a German attack, basically the order my Grandfather got was ''If germans show up, kill so many you can and blow the fuck out of the brigde if needed to retreat, but don't you dare to lose any men! God have not put you here on this earth to die in the hands of some inbred prussian basterd's!'' :D
Also my grandfather was guarding the germans who where in transit here in Sweden to Finland. Mostly They only wanted big, tall scary looking vikings guys to intimidate the Germans a bit and my grandfather was a really big basterd. ^^
@@northland7885 Du reagerade på TIKs "Lulu" men inte MalmbergeR...
Need more Stalingrad!!! Let's finish it!
The Swedish M96 mauser chambered in 6.5x55 was a really good rifle thu. Possibly the best bolt action at the time.
and the sniper version is the best masuer sniper
Wonderful and informative vid. TY My neighbors were a Scandinavian couple, one each from Sweden and Norway. So great if we had your vid then!!!! Thanks again!
Ironically Italy was one of few countries that still sold us much needed fighterplanes during the war and it caused a big ongoing row between Mussolini and Hitler who didn't want Sweden armed. At the end of the war we were allowed to buy large quantities of Mustangs from USA. By then the war was just about over.
We did develop and finally start to field ur own quite capable Tank destroyers in late 43.
I like how he pronounced "Luleå" like "lulu"
An an "lulu" native laughed my ass off xD
@@Thennix I want to hear him Pronounce the neighbouring cities of Piteå and Umeå and the rest.
It seems like Sweden was being extremely realistic in its foreign policy perspective. It wanted to survive without being an active member of the Axis, it knew it couldn't withstand an invasion in 1940/41 and did everything it could to hinder the Germans without antagonising them enough to be invaded. Slowly decreasing it's cooperation with Germany as the Axis situation deteriorated.
Sweden evidently had a pretty smart government especially in comparison to coup government of Yugoslavia which did the exact opposite, resulting in an invasion.
@zain mudassir different country different time mate
You do know that the British captured 4 Swedish destroyers June 20:th 1940. The ships had been bought in Italy and were on their way home to join the Swdish navy when they arrived in the Faroe islands in the eveening the 19:th. The next morning they were surrounded by ships from the Royal Navy. We got the ships back eventually. But it was not always easy to be pro Allied.
Could you do the same thing for Switzerland? Very interesting topic👍
The story of Switzerland follows much along the same path as Sweden. They grudging made concessions in terms of trade with Germany when they had to, but stubbornly defied them as much as possible. Like Sweden, Switzerland was to a great extent vulnerable to being cut off from vital supplies.
If you're interested, I'd recommend two books on the subject:
Target Switzerland (1998)
The Swiss and the Nazis(2010)
both by Stephan P. Halbrook
Mark Felton did a vid on Swiss neutrality and how the Germans and Americans both attacked them at some point but it didnt escalate.
@@MrRjh63 It was a weird situation. The Swiss were flying German built fighter planes, and were very keen on intercepting any German Luftwaffe planes that violated their airspace. This upset the Germans, who decided to teach the Swiss a lesson by sending over even more planes to violate Swiss airspace. It was the Swiss who taught the Germans a lesson, by aggressively taking them on.
At some point in the war, a German plane with some sort of secret equipment on board crashed in Switzerland. The Swiss agreed to let the Germans come and recover it, but let the British come examine and take pictures of it first. Towards the end of the war, it was mostly U.S. and British planes that were caught accidentally (or occasionally on purpose) crossing into Swiss airspace. I think U.S. planes accidentally bombed several Swiss cities on a couple of occasions. The Swiss were just as determined to intercept Allied planes, requiring them to land and be held until the war ended.
Great video as always. Now as a swede there's two more examples of I would have liked to see included in the video as examples of when we resisted Germany: 1. Sweden allowed the allies to use it's territory to conduct operations against Germany, primarily in the form of signals intelligence gathering. 2. We allowed a covert naval operation conducted by danish resistance fighters and with the aid of swedish volunteers that managed to save hundreds of danish jews from being sent to extermination camps.
In fact, Sweden FINALLY accepting to recieve Danish jews (👎) , the day AFTER the botched German round-up in Denmark, but NOT before (👎) , in the nick of time saved approx 7000 Danish Jews, 14 out of 15 Danish persons labeled as Jewish by Nazi standards, from being send to the transit camp of Theresienstadt in Chekoslovakia (👍👍👍👍👍👍👍) . 500 Danish Jews were caught and shipped in the classic cattle wagons to the camp. Approx. 70 died there. Mainly elderly and/or sick People. See my previous comment on the Dano-Jewish situation.
Great and informative video, thank you :)
Well last time Sweden did the "moral" right thing, and help England against Napoleon as one off the last one nation. We lost Finland to the Russia. And, Did we gain it back after the war as a thanks? no! When great power dance they step on the small. Better to just not dance with them. And Norway and Denmark would have the same as Sweden, if they could. And Sweden was after fall off France more dependent of Germany then Germany of Sweden. It's easy to be moral right when you live in a great power, but how is ready yo die for Ukrainian right to Krim? Maybe if we hade chose to be in-would in WW, Sweden would have bin thank with lose Gotland to Russia.
Don't forget Norway
What was moraly right of sweden Helping the allied powers against Napoleon? Napoleonic France was the most progressive state in Europe by that time. While the nations WHO fought against her reaserted feudalism and tyranny on the people of europe.
@@napoleon7107 What utter revisionist nonsense. Napoleonic france was under unilateral power by a single dictator compared to the parliamentary system of Britain. The french just exchanged a royal dictator for a non royal one. And this bastion of freedom france was still involved in the slave trade and had slaves in their colonies LONG after Britain had got rid of theirs. So, let's see. A slave free British empire with a parliamentary system vs a slave trading france under unilitarel rule by one individual. And napoleonic france is in your eyes "the most progressive state in europe". Ahaha.
@@lokischeissmessiah5749 Napoleon was spreading the ideals of the French revolution and effectively ended feudalism in the old regimes of Europe. His civic reforms were progressive.
Loki Scheissmessiah England was a oligharcy at best. A Kingdom run by its Nobels with zero chans of advancement for for ordinary people is is still less of a free country then a meritocracy were people could advance from farmers to dukes and kings soley based on merit. Several of Napoleons marchals was ordinary people WHO advanced under him based on merit nothing else. Bernadottes father was a procurator. Under Napoleon he became a Prince of a little Italien principality then king of sweden . Murat the son of a baker became king of neaples and there is many other exempels. Napoleon was elected first consul for life and then emperor by the French people. Never forget that. He only first accepted to become emperor beacuse England sent out assasin after assasin against hon. And the French people feard civil unrest in his wake if he for killed. So they legitimised his rule by Making him emperor. And thus avoided a power sreuggle amongst his to bekomme marchals and foreign powers trying to reinstall the Hated bourbons if he died. Napoleon of left Alone would never start a unjust war. And code Napoleon ensured that every French citizen was equal before the law and religius freedom everywere. Thats freedom. Yes he got pushed by the french nobility and empress Josephine WHO game from a slave oenig family, to extend slavery in haiti. Something he at saint helena. Said was one of his greatest regrets and blunders. As did he regret going in to spain with blatent force instead of whinning the people over first. He was not perfekt. But a good man with good intents. And so great he Almost tock on the entire feudal tyrant powers of Europe and won. In the end he did force change in Europe. The revolutions in 1848 were all inspirerad by the french and a conseqvens of europés people having tasted and lived in freedom under Napoleons empire and laws.
A big thanks from sweden!
After watching the Winter War, the Continuation War, and this episode, may I ask what effect it had on, or what effect did the Sami have on the events? I ask due to their presents in all of northern Scandinavia, including the Kola Peninsula. I have tried to look this up myself, but it seems this culture has been suppressed in many ways, and I was hoping you could find better references than I can. Also, let me say Thank You! This is a great channel and the effort you put into it is appreciated. Thank You.
Swedes were extremely harsh on the sami people. A beautiful people that live of the land.
In finland the Sami population participated in the war same as everyone else. They had a reputation of being exceptionally good in wilderness operations, even by finnish standards. The ending of the war was particularly tragic to Sami population, as almost all of them lost their homes and possessions, destroyed by German forces in their retreat. Interesting detail is that WWII is the first and only time in written history when the Sami population of this region has ever participated in a war.
Apart from some anecdotal stories about them lending aid to (and participating in activities with) Norwegian resistance fighters, that quite often hiked over the mountains and into Sweden. There isn't much information that they did anything out of the ordinary day-to-day such as it was in the wartime 1940s.
I'm sure that several Sami individuals served in the army at the time, after all, institutional discrimination mostly extended to the destruction of their cultural heritage and their economic activities, not the actual individuals themselves (I stress that this regards the institutional discrimination).
Fantastic work, respect ! 🍀
My grandfather worked at the Swedish railway (SJ). Sometime during the middle of the war he was alone at night at a small raiway station in Hälsingland. Then a train full of german soldiers rolled into the station. No swedish guards, only my grandfather and a few hundred german soldiers.
It could have been the Engelbrecht division, but I som not sure.