Sweden during World War II

But by a combination of its geopolitical location in the Scandinavian Peninsula, realpolitik maneuvering during an unpredictable course of events, and a dedicated military build-up after 1942, Sweden kept its official neutrality status throughout the war.

Sweden was one of only nine of these nations to maintain this stance for the remainder of the war, along with Ireland, Portugal,[2] Spain,[3] Switzerland, and the microstates of Andorra, Liechtenstein, Vatican City, and San Marino.

Proponents argue that during the war, Sweden softened its policy against accepting refugees, admitting thousands of Jews and political dissenters from Norway and Denmark.

Apart from a period termed "the vacation government" (Sw: semesterregeringen) between 19 June and 28 September 1936, Per Albin Hansson was to be the Prime Minister of Sweden until his death in 1946.

Captain Fale Burman, chief of Army Procurement (Arméns utrustningsdetalj) in 1937, commented:[8] ... Härför krävdes total nyanskaffning av deras viktigaste innehåll, stridsvagnarna.

Per Albin Hansson's statement shortly before World War II began: Friendly with all other nations and strongly linked to our neighbors, we look on no one as our enemy.

It was, however, subject to British and German naval blockades and accidental bombings from the Soviets on some cities (e.g. Strängnäs), which led to problems with the supply of food and fuels.

The vast sculpture group Saint George and the Dragon, located in Storkyrkan in Stockholm, was disassembled and evacuated to an underground space in April 1940.

This military aid included:[17] Twelve of Sweden's most modern fighter aircraft, British Gloster Gladiators, were flown by volunteer Swedish pilots under Finnish insignia.

Realizing this danger, however, and the consequent possibility of Allied or German occupation and of the war being waged on their territory, both the Swedes and the Norwegians refused to allow this proposal.

On 8 April, a Royal Naval detachment led by HMS Renown mined Norwegian waters as a part of Operation Wilfred, but German troops were already on their way and "Plan R 4" was quickly made obsolete.

When Germany invaded both Denmark and Norway on 9 April 1940, the 100,000 Swedish soldiers who had been deployed along the Finnish border in northern Sweden were in the process of being demobilized, owing to the end of the Winter War there.

However, Sweden re-organized its system of mobilization to allow for personal order by letter to be made possible as an alternative to official proclamation, so that 320,000 men were able to be raised in a few weeks.

In his book Blodsporet ("The Blood Track"), Espen Eidum detailed how, at the request of Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany sent three trains with 30 to 40 sealed carriages through Sweden to the battle of Narvik.

[38][39] Peenemünde guidance and control expert Ernst Steinhoff explained that the excited operator applied a set of planned corrections (such as that for the Earth's rotation) in the opposite direction from the way he had been instructed.

[40] The rocket subsequently exploded in an air burst (a common V-2 malfunction)[32] about 1500 metres above the county of Bäckebo, mainly over a farm, causing no injuries,[41][42][43] and the valuable wreckage was exchanged with Britain by the Swedes for Supermarine Spitfires.

Though the event remains unclear, a theory developed that it was a deliberate attack in response to Sweden rejecting Soviet appeals for Vasily Sidorenko, who had been arrested for espionage, to be released.

[citation needed] As the war began to shift in favor of the Allies, the Swedes changed their strategy with regard to aiding the precariously situated European Jews, who up to that point had been refused refuge in Sweden.

However, the Danes successfully ferried all but 450 of the Danish Jews across the straits between Copenhagen and the Swedish mainland, across waters that were patrolled by German Schnellboots, in an unprecedented rescue effort.

[50] King Gustav V of Sweden attempted to use his diplomatic connections with German leaders to convince them to treat Jews more humanely, as evidenced through his correspondence, although to little effect.

Count Folke Bernadotte, a relative of the Swedish royal family, was able to communicate with the German government and relay information back to Sweden, as did other diplomats.

"[citation needed] During World War II, six newspapers were de facto banned from distribution: Ture Nerman's Trots Allt!, the Nazi publication Sverige Fritt and Ny Dag, Arbetar-Tidningen, Norrskensflamman and Sydsvenska Kuriren (the last four were organs of the Communist Party of Sweden).

There were indications that the bans imposed on the communist newspapers had served their political purposes by impressing the Germans, whilst at the same time not really restricting the work of the media.

[52][53] Perhaps the most important aspect of Sweden's concessions to Germany during the Second World War was the extensive export of iron ore for use in the German weapons industry, reaching ten million tons per year.

Sir Ralph Glyn, a British Member of Parliament, claimed that a cessation of Swedish iron ore exports would bring the war to an end within months.

Their number was small compared to occupied countries, in which officials encouraged enlisting for the Eastern Front (Norway 6,000; Denmark 6,000; France 11,000; Netherlands 20,000[58][page needed]).

The traffic was encrypted with Germany's Geheimschreiber device, but the cypher code was broken by Swedish mathematics professor Arne Beurling[25] in early summer 1940 and the results from this espionage were sent to the Allies through the Polish resistance movement.

When the German battleship Bismarck embarked on her voyage to attack the Atlantic convoys, Swedish intelligence informed the British of her departure from port.

Toward the end of the war Swedish intelligence cooperated with US air transport in relief efforts directed toward areas liberated by the Red Army.

[65] In 1970, film director Johan Bergenstråhle made a documentary, Baltutlämningen (English title: A Baltic Tragedy), about the Latvian soldiers who were given to the Soviets to be sentenced to hard labor in prison camps.