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You made big mistake when you said that British troops would be ordered to take Swedish iron mines that is only speculation at best and have never been proven
So, about that allied expedition to Norway, why only Royal Navy flags ? In your animation I mean. Never heard of the French expedition and victories in Norway (before the German invasion of France) ? Doesn't ring a bell ?
Nazi Germany: Hey Sweden, why the tens of thousands of armed men? Sweden: They're uh... law enforcement! Nazi Germany: Oh ok... but why do they have artillery and anti-tank weapons? Sweden: (starts sweating profusely) umm... for bears?
Its a fun story, but late war Germany did everything to avoid provoke Sweden, and give Sweden a excuse to enter the war. So the the white the buses did come to the concentration camp to pick up Scandinavian citizens, they continue to fill the buses with as meany other prisoners (mostly jews) they could fit in. Ironic that Folke Bernadotte (the leader of the operation) was murdered by a Jewish exstrem nationalist/terrorist.
I find it fascinating about Sweden's neutrality in comparison to Switzerland. Switzerland emphasis on neutrality is on their geography and economics while Sweden emphasize on military and resources.
The reality of their neutrality was that they were geopolitically insignificant to either side. It is clear that in a modern world, there can be no neutrality.
@@livethefuture2492 Not remotely true. Swedish iron ore and ball bearing manufacture was important to both sides during the war. Both very critical resources in wartime. As for the cold war and even today, Gotland is a hugely important location for controlling the Baltic sea. Whoever holds it has an invaluable position to launch naval operations and airstrikes from. Educate yourself. What protected Swedish neutrality was raising the cost of acquiring it above what's worth investing and not risking them allying with your enemy.
@@livethefuture2492 sweden was worth way more than switzerland. it just happened so that Austrian painter was busy wiping out soviets and minorities to point they extended themselves so thin to point sweden became a secondary priority. besides swedes were mostly cooperating with germany, so clearly the incentive there was good enough for germans to not invade them. Why would you invade a country that is willingly (without much resistance) give you supplies and even let military access, when the other option is months of invasion + resistance (probably leading to temporary if not permanent) shortfall in critical war materials?
There was plan made up for an invasion of Sweden, but apparently göring, who had worked/lived in Sweden and had a Swedish wife, refused and said he would resign if Hitler went thru with it
The biggest problem with occupying Sweden would be logistics. Sweden is more than ten times larger than Switzerland and the mines are up north. Far, far north. It would be impossible to guard the railroads against Swedish resistance groups.
The numbers for the Swedish aid in the Winter War is severely lacking. Actually sent: ~9 000 volunteers (another 4 000 had been accepted, but did not have time to arrive). Many volunteers served in Finnish units rather than SFK, the Swedish Volunteer Corps. 860 pistols. 85 900 rifles and carbines. 516 MGs and LMGs. 45 000 000 small arms cartridges. 38 AT rifles. 114 AT guns (some of these had been ordered by Finland before the war). 31 medium mortars. 147 000 mortar shells. 100 artillery pieces. 130 000 artillery shells. 32 planes. Also sent was firewood, tents, tent stoves, sea mines, torpedoes, 9 000 helmets, uniform cloth (that did much to remedy the m/Cajander lack of Finnish uniforms) and food. As well as the care for 70 000 Finnish children evacuated to Sweden to be out of harm's way. Sweden also transported, assembled and serviced arms deliveries from other countries such as Hungary, Britain, France and Italy In total, the Swedish aid was worth some 500 000 000 SEK, or a more than the Finnish state budget of 1938, or about 40% of the Swedish state budget of 1938. Sweden forgave the debt immediately after the March peace.
I did a study on this for school & found that the economic support they gave was valued on it's own as a years worth of the Finnish state budget. That amount did not include all of the cost of the military support that Sweden gave. Perhaps my sources on that subject were faulty. Side note: The planes that Sweden gave, came with volunteers to man them, making it possible for Finland to set up an air force in Northern Finland, that didn't have one at the time. Together with this, Sweden allowed Finish planes to use two Swedish air fields, which resulted in them getting bombed by the USSR.
Sweden did what they had to do to prevent invasion, they also took huge risks in helping Norway, Denmark and Finland. My mother’s uncle was a norwegian resistance member and had to flee to Sweden when the gestapo discovered what he had been up to. Sweden welcomed him with open arms, he settled down there after the war.
My Gammelfarfar (Great Grandfather) served in the army during the war, he was stationed both on the Norwegian and Finnish Borders. He was also tasked to protect the railroad lines German soldiers used to transit. He had a deep animosity towards both the German & Soviets.
As a 50/50 Swede/Norwegian this is a topic that has been discussed in my family many times. I have to say that while I understand why my Norwegian relatives feel a sense of betrayal that Sweden didn't declare war on Germany, it's still a bit much to expect a country to declare war on a much more powerful one out of solidarity. It's not like Norway declared war on the Soviets when they attacked Finland after all.
we set up training camps for Norwegian resistance fighters, Norwegian resistance fighters also blew up a German logistics train at Krylbo station (today Avesta) which I understand they knew who they were but did nothing to catch them. when germany took norway was sweden's salvation from occupation. Churchill didn't like Sweden he had an invasion force and plan ready to occupy Sweden, failed because Germany managed to occupy Norway before, after that maybe it felt easier not to sell iron ore to England but let it go to Germany.
Norrbaggarna var beredda att gå i krig för att slippa Sverige några årtionden tidigare. När de blev anfallna av Tyskland så ville de minsann ha svensk militärhjälp
& keep in mind, at that time, Germany was still allied with the USSR... Going against Germany & USSR combined at that point in time is a pretty big ask..🧐
Attest you do realize that Norway did act in the same matter. There was also bitterness of the union-dissolution, there one strong argument for the union was a common defense.
I'm Norwegian, have basically never heard anyone express a sense of betrayal towards the Swedes because of their WW2 policies. Some light jokes and sibling-teasing perhaps, but nobody would feel strongly enough about it to get into a heated argument or anything. I think people in general just remember that "they were neutral (haha, you silly cowards) but kinda helped us a bit still (thanks, sweet brother)".
You didn't mention Sweden's intelligence operations, and how it provided the allies with that, and also early codebreaking allowing Sweden to tap into any communication passing through sweden (to finland or norway), relayed to the allies via e.g. Polish resistance movement.
My father travelled with the Germans through Sweden, watching over them. He said not much about these uneventful trips other than that the Germans were polite and even friendly, sharing a smoke whenever they made a stop. Staying neutral it’s still interesting to see how we managed to balance on a greased line - selling iron ore to the nazis and advanced technology to the allied. Speedboats came regularly to the town of Lysekil on the Swedish westcoast to pick roller bearings and other high precision items. It was a clandestine operation, but everyone in the town knew about it. Searching the archives, there’s a thriller made back in the 60’s or 70’s called Operation Argus loosely based on these events. My father later had to witness the extradition of the Baltic people that had taken shelter in Sweden to the Soviets. He was given letters to be forwarded to relatives and heard and saw terrible things.
My grandfather watched over those trains, too! He said the work was not very taxing, as the Germans made efforts to keep quiet, and the Swedish made efforts to stay away.
An interesting notation within Sweden's wartime story is how they technically helped the British sink the battleship Bismarck: The Swedish cruiser _Gotland_ spotted Bismarck during her initial move out of the Baltic towards Norway, and Swedish Naval officers, via a Norwegian intermediary, passed the information on to the British Embassy.
As a half Swede (other half being British) I love that you did a video from Sweden's perspective. I've been waiting so long to see a video about my second home 🇬🇧🇸🇪
Yeah all sides in WW2 (except Finland) were our enemies. You brits wanted to Invade Sweden and had the backing of the allies. Germany for obvious reasons, enemies. And USSR for invading Finland. So to the people who wanted Sweden to take a side, Why should we be forced to collaborate with our enemies because you said so? The best option was neutrality, end of story.
Great episode! My grandfather fought on the swedish/norwegian boarder. They blew up bridges with dynamite to stop the germans being able to advance further into Sweden. I remember staying up many late nights listening to all his stories…
My grandfather served in the Boden fortresses when the trains carrying the germans passed through. Every cannon on the fortress-mountains surrounding boden was pointed towards the trains carrying the germans as they went through.
My great granpa died in a military accident, while patrolling the border to norway. His brother fought in Finland as a volunteer, but he never talked about it so i guess he went through some fucked up things.
No Baltic refugeees were returned to the Soviet union by Sweden. The 167 who were returned did not have refugee status as they were interned military personnel who had served in the German armed forces or security services. The issue was rightly controversial even at the time as the Hansson government was seen as giving in too easily to Soviet demands.
They were stuck between two enemies. On the Allied side the Soviets wanted to conquer them, on the other Germany was also trying to conquer them. It was a lose/lose situation
@@Ren3gaid It was planned in june-july 1943. On Hitlers orders the germans moved the equivalent of 3 infantry divisions to Norway and converted the Panzer brigade Norwegen to the 25th Panzer division. If Operation Zitadelle (Kursk) had been a succes for the Germans it would then most likely have tried to tighten its grip on northern Europe. Because of the failure of Zitadelle those troops were now badly needed in Russia.
@@Ren3gaidGermany would have conquered Sweden the second they stopped bowing to all Berlin's demands, and by the time the swedes started to refuse Germany had more important things to deal with
A very interesting video I did not see coming but 1 that Im happy to see. However here are a few more interesting things about Sweden during ww2. 1. Sweden actually managed to break a significant amount of the german encrypted cypher that we later passed on to the allies and also the Soviet Union during operation Barbarossa. 2. At the end of WW2 Sweden became more aware to the horrors of the Holocaust that was going on so a response was to send white buses to concentration camps around german occupied territories and rescue people from the camps. 3. At one point during the war Stockholm became the biggest hub for spies in the world due to Swedens neutrality and all major nations had spies networks deployed in the capital to spy on each other.
The force mobilised in late April numbered some 420 000 men - 230 000 in the line army and 190 000 local defence (which consisted of the older conscripts, aged 35-45). From June 1940, the Home Guard added another 80-100 000 men to this.
A lot of people often forget what state Europe was in in 1940. France had fallen, the British expiditionary forces had evacuated from mainland Europe. Germany seemed unstoppable, and USA was still neutral. Anyone who demands that Sweden should declare war on Germany at that point is delusional.
As a Swede, I love my Nordic neighbors. Often when visiting friends in Helsinki and Oslo, I ask them about this topic and feelings about it. They’re mixed. Betrayal, but still very helpful and kind. My grandmother was danish WW2 refugee from Copenhagen, so this is close to heart. What I can’t understand is why we didn’t form a democratic Nordic union. Yes our Nordic history is filled with siege, kings and queens fighting about territory, but I’m hoping we can like each other enough to extend the Nordic union of today with a common currency and more cooperation. The Nordic region would be the seventh largest economy, larger than Russia with 100+ citizens, and have fantastic industrial landscape. I believe it would be very beneficial for our people.
It's worth noting that Sweden had set a date somewhere in june 1945 to declare war and invade the occupied danish and norwegian territory but didnt need to as the axis surrendered in may
Surrounded by two powers that wanted to make their national anthems the final boss music of other nations (thanks Drach) Sweden did a good job of balancing placating them while maintaining their independence. They did help where they could. Its easy to say they shouldn't have been as close to nazi germany with hindsight. But its a different story when they have taken over your neighbours, severely damaged a major city because that country didn't surrender fast enough, taken a country just to make it easier to take another all in 6 hours, steamrolled what was thought pre war to be Europe's best military in a few months then started a fight with another large power and actually winning for a while. All within a couple of years. The video did a good job showing how isolated they were from help. in a similar way to finland in the winter war, the allies couldn't really help finland. There was no way during the german expansion period early to mid war for the allies to get to sweden to help in any major way.
Yeah and dont forget, Sweden Russia had been in many, many wars over the history, Sweden was historically close to Germany, both in culture and ties, Russia was seen as the main enemy, and has always been seen that way
Yeah as the other guy said, USSR (Russia) was our main enemy of WW2. Not the Germans, or the Brits. Even tho both Germany and UK had plans to invade Sweden. (Dont forget that). Neutrality was the best option, and we had our best politicians of all time then, they didnt sell us out to UK and USA (now NATO) or Germany (now EU) like they’ve done now.
@@repuIsive Less then a month >Due to the usual British backstabs, in a war that only happened due to the British blatantly violating their neutrality and actively planning an invasion
very interesting! I always wondered about Sweden's state during ww2, given some ships of it were sunk by german U boats. In U boat, you could even see Swedish cargo ships among alllied convoys, or even allied patrols near the southern coast of sweden
and USSR submarines did enter Swedish water and did sink Swedish (and German) ships, and the Swedish fleet did depth charge "unknown" submarines, and may or may not have sunk up to 2 USSR submarines, they did not return to port.
10:59 the german soldiers traveling through sweden weren't allowed to carry weapons and they were under armed guard on the trains that were used to transport them to norway.
As a child in Sweden, I was taught that we stayed out of WW2 completely. Not until I was a teen, I learned that we actually played a pivotal role for the German war effort with supplies from our mines, and that many Swedish citizens at the time actually openly supported Hitler. Learning all that was a hard pill to swallow.
Thanks for mentioning the precarious supply situation. Most videos on Sweden during WW2 fail to stress just how surrounded Sweden was, and that the only lifeline to the West went through a German blockade.
15:15 another interesting fact is that Sweden secretly supported Britain by the ball bearings: "United Kingdom ball bearings at a discount. In 1938 SKF only charged the UK 74% of what they charged Germany and in 1943 only 68%" From "Swedish overseas trade during World War II" on Wikipedia
I have read a lot of books about ww2. But in school history books Sweden 🇸🇪 has only been neutral after the napoleon war. But they did help the Germans to cross the border from Denmark, Norway, and the Baltic Sea. But they only did it to help aid Finland against the Russians. But it almost feels like history is repeating itself. But it is only sending arms and ammunition to Ukraine 🇺🇦. And some swedes soldiers did volunteer to help the Germans and the Finnish army.
It's an interesting subject! The Swedish volunteers for the SS were in the higher hundreds, the Norwegian ones were about 2000 & the Danish were about 15000 (30000 volunteered but half were denied).
One needs to remember that while Swedish politicians were intimidated by the German armed forces, they were even more concerned about trade - Sweden was totally and utterly dependent on coal (about 9 million tons yearly) to keep its industry and railroad running. Without it, no transport and thus starvation in the cities. With the Germans in control of Norway and the North Sea, Sweden was dependent on German goodwill to acquire coal and both British and German goodwill for its trade overseas (a deal allowing a small number of merchant ships trhough monthly was struck, and Sweden got grain, meat, oil and other vital materials from neutral powers in South America that way).
@@bjornerikroth yeah, but household heating and hot water coal usage could be handled by strict rationing and using firewood and charcoal - the electricity plants that provided the power for Sweden's electrified railroads could not.
1) Strange that you start with Poland and not the Winter war 2) I doubts there was much Swedish iron, in a fighter bomber, they are made out of aluminum. 3) Sweden did mobilize, remember the Winter War, so there was lots of mobilized troops, but Norway and Denmark was seen as close friends, so there was no warplane Norway or Denmark.The Germans invasion, created total chaos for the Swedish defense 4) Sweden and Germany did have historical good relationship, and the nazi was seen as a "weirdness" but the belief (or hope) was that Germany would become its old usual 5) The Swedish ball bearings was also exported to UK. Remember Germany did have there own factory's for ball bearings. Swedish ball bearings was critical for UK, but nice to have for Germany. 6) You forget that German interest in Swedish pre ww2 arms industry, that allow German to develop and get experience of modern weapons. 7) You forget that UK did try to seize 4 Swedish destroyer (that was bought from Italy) to later release them, and then try to sink them with bombers, by mistake??? (but no hits) 8) You forget about that Sweden did report the German battleship Bismark position to the allied. 9) You forgot about the hundreds of allied bombers that did emergency land in Sweden, on special made landing strips, and the crew was in silence returned to the allied. 10) You forget that Sweden did hand over "air-torpedo" (V2) that crash somewhat intact in Sweden to the allied. 11) You forgot that USSR did bomb Stockholm by mistake?? 12) Later in the war, Sweden did break the Germans diplomatic code, hence could hold a tougher line, because Sweden did know how hard they were able to push the German delegation. 13) In the Lappland war, then Finland fight to throw out the German troops from north Finland, Germany artillery did by mistake shoot over the border into Sweden (and hit uninhabited wasteland) 14) If the German troops did not surrender to the Norway and Danish "police force" Sweden was ready to back them up with the whole might of the Swedish military. It was lite about Sweden perspective, and most how did the allied see the action of Sweden.
It felt like this video feel in almost every trap you can to give an unjust picture. Why would anyone compare Germany total manpower and planes, they could never use them at the same theater if war. Examples that are not mentioned in your comment regarding weird or unjust depictions: 1. The amount of equipment provided the fins are a huge part of the total equipment available at the time in Swedish stockpiles. 2. Yes, around 300 joined ss. That's nothing compared to the neighbors and other parts of Europe. The Danes had 6000. Norway ~1900. 3. Every nation that got invaded apart for France and UK did everything they could to stay neutral. Don't blame the swedes for bending and doing what they can to stay out of the war. Everyone did. Sadly the axis war machine picked it's targets. 4. The swedes deciphered the Siemens & Halske T52, sent crusial info to the allies (ex Bismarck) The Swedes read traffic in the system for three years, not only between Berlin and Oslo, but also between Germany and the German forces in Finland, and of course the German embassy in Stockholm. In total, the Swedes intercepted 500,000 German messages and decrypted 350,000.
On point 14, I would like to add that one of the major reasons why the Germans decided to surrender without a fight in occupied Norway and Denmark was because Sweden more or less threatened that they would invade if they didn't. The Swedish military had been training for a naval invasion of Denmark for about a year, and plans for it had been worked on since 1942, called 'Operation Rädda Danmark'.
My grandfather guarded the border at the time, and took 3 German prisoners. They had basically got lost and crossed the border by mistake. He told us kids the story of it all, how they shot warning shots and after a few shots going back and forth the germans waved a white rag. Not sure what happened to those prisoners tho, they were probably released back. But it was exciting to hear about it. He was also a part of Ådalen which is a major event in swedish history. Alot of things happened for that generation.
16:50 it is just hindsight, and what we know today. And another aspect, let say that Sweden would have declared war on Germany and joined Britain (to defend Democracy and Human rights), what would that have lead to? That the country gets bombed and invaded? And then the Germans take the ore and bearings, with 0% going to Britain? It is also by hindsight a bad decision.
Fun fact about sweden's relation to Germany. German was seen as the 2nd most important culturally language before 1945. The academics, the philosophers and scientist almost all could speak or read german. This slowly was replaced by english as the most important 2nd language to most swedes.
In my teens, I read my grandfather's Time/Life WW2 series. I didn't realize he didn't have them all. Years later I found the ones he didn't have. Among them was The Neutrals (Europe). It was a fascinating read. All the neutrals had an incredible story to tell. Another neat aspect was how the diplomats from various Waring states interacted at social functions in a neutral country.
Many of my relatives were in the miltiary at that time. My grand father was in the army, my grand father on my fathers side was stationed in the navy. My grand mothers brother was guarding the norwegian border. I've heard stories that the swedish soldiers used to trade cigarettes with the german soldiers at the border. So even if we weren't at war many people were involved in the miltiary
This is *not* complete. The complete the picture there should have been mentioned, that Sweden shifted a lot of german soldiers frome the former 'Heeresgruppe Kurland' back to the Soviets. Those soldiers fled across the baltic sea to Sweden in the last days of the war. Many of them later died as soviet POWs and the Swedes knew. In 1994 the swedisch king apologized The swedisch words are Tyskutlämningen or Baltutlämningen.
“I was saving the planet from an Axis of Darkness, and while you were back home opening National Parks! Yes!” Winston Churchill Oversimplified: So they turned their eyes north towards Norway. Neutral Sweden was exporting iron ore to Germany, through neutral Norway. So the allies asked if they could please stop exporting iron ore to Germany. UK: Hey could you plz stop exporting ore to Germany. Sweden: New phone who this? Norway: New phone who this? Allies: How about we land troops in Norway and move them across Sweden to go help out your good pal Finland and along the way maybe take control of all your iron fields? Norway and Sweden: Nah m8
People do realize every country was neutral until they got invaded, basically... right? Belgium and Holland didnt become occupied because they wanted to. The US didnt get bombed because they felt like it. Taking potshots at Swedish "neutrality" is pretty dishonest and also complete BS. It always annoys me that people seem to take issue with Swedish neutrality but noone has any issue with all the invaded and attacked countries being neutral as well. Sweden also stopped being neutral with the Winter War. 1/3 of its pilots fought for Finland flying Swedish aircraft, supported by Swedish groundcrews. Sweden cracked the encryption device the German high command relied upon, the G Machine, in 3 weeks (no computer needed) which allowed the Swedes to find out German plans ahead of all negotiations. This allowed Sweden to discover the German invasion plans of Russia which Sweden provided to the allies. Sweden also informed the allies that the Bismarck was setting sail and leaving port. By 1942, Sweden adopted a clear anti-Germany standpoint and began to reduce its cooperation with Germany as its armed forces were growing stronger. So much so that in 1943, Germany made invasion plans for Sweden. But the Finnish general, Mannerheim, warned the Germans that the Swedes would fight just as hard as the finns, but would also be better equipped. Russia bombed Sweden on several occasions, including the Stockholm area. The town of Pajala was hit by 150 fire-bombs for instance. Sweden was very much involved in the war, sending 500 army officers to lead the volonteer corps and sending a large number of pilots to fight the Soviets in the skies over Finland. Edit; Also, the reason why Norway was invaded was because the Brits wanted to land at Narvik to go to Finland. Swedish iron was shipped to Germany via Norwegian ports. So Germany secured the iron by securing Norway. Denmark unfortunately was invaded merely as a sidenote while Germany went after Norway. Had Sweden refused trade with Germany, Germany would have invsded. Thats how important the iron ore was. Sweden was in no position to withstand any invasion until 1942-1943, so to protect Swedish citizens, Sweden traded to avoid being invaded. But Sweden was still bombed by Russia, Sweden still deployed forces to fight Russia. And eventually, Sweden told Germany that the partnership had entered a new stage.
I never heard that Narvik was planned to Finland. Source? Can we still get it? British were bombing the harbour in Stockholm by name Hammarbyhamnen. There were German ships. And need to be careful not to mix the winter war and the continuing war and laplands war while talking wars in Finland.
1:06 would not say the Swedish goverment favored the central powers in WW1, this is to missunderstand neutrality or rather "non-alignment" (which is the actual term, to not join any military alliances and do what you need to avoid that), where you have to kind of promise both sides that you are on their side to prentend you care (otherwise the other side would consider you part of the others and you might get invaded). The same example included trading in WW2, would Sweden stop selling to Germany then they would invade (they would consider Sweden not netural anymore, or more correctly to be in the other alliance which they trade with).
My grandma said when she was a little girl her dad was a soilder with the border of occupied Norway and i know of one women who lived in scania or Skåne and heard german bomb plane Thank you for talking about this Love from Sweden 🇸🇪 ❤️
On your map in the start of the video, you depict the island of bornholm as swedish by making it yellow, it is actually danish. The little island just south of sweden.
I knew Sweden was neutral during WW2, rescued Danish Jews, and supplied iron to Germany, but did not know much of what was presented in this video. Thank you for posting it and educating me.
The number of Swedes in the SS according to Gyllenhaal and Westerg's research was 163. There are some Swedish-speaking Finns and Estonians and even Ukrainians (Swedish-speaking Estonians deported from Estonia to Gammelsvenskby in Ukraine in the late 1700s) that the Germans listed as Swedes serving in the SS, but they were not Swedish citizens.
The leading commercial family at the time, the Wallenbergs, was run by two brothers, Jacob and Marcus. And they divided the world market between them before the war, Marcus dealing with Britain and Jacob with with Germany. This allowed them, and thus Sweden, to coordinate and balance its position between the two sides during the war. At the end of the war, Jacob was in trouble with the USA, but Marcus was able to leverage his contacts to keep Jacob out of court. And yes, this is the same family that Raul Wallenberg belonged to.
Let's see... Jews run commerce in Sweden... the Swedish government for some strange reason wants immigration of non-Christian MENAs and Central Asians. Hmm. I don't see any connection.
Remember how much (or lite) Norway did fight in the Winter War, there is a reason Sweden did have hundred thousand soldier mobilized and in war preparedness mod, and Norway was still in peace mode.
@@kirgan1000 Sweden also didn't fight in the Winter War. Only volunteers and sending support. It also makes a lot more sense for Sweden than Norway to be involved in a war in Finland, with their closer proximity to Finland, deep historical ties and extremely long border (including water border). Norway had none of that, just a border far far in the north, harsh terrain, sparsely populated and hundres of km away from any fighting. Sweden also had twice the population and was richer than Norway at the time. Still, there is no doubt that Norway was poorly prepared for war in 1940.
3:32 Yes, but the guns mounted in the Polish tanks were also Swedish. And the price the Germans were buying that iron at, was nothing short of a scam. They were basically buying iron ore for the price of refined steel. And now we get to the Allied powers. We sold them the blueprints for what was to become the most effective anti air weapon ever made, shooting downmore enemy planes than all otehr AA weapons the Allies had, combined. And we sold it dirt cheap.
Interesting video. The only factor I completely missed was Zarah Leander. Don't underestimate this, even if there was no gun powder and steel involved in that chapter.
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balls
Amazing video!
what about swedens bismark role
You made big mistake when you said that British troops would be ordered to take Swedish iron mines that is only speculation at best and have never been proven
So, about that allied expedition to Norway, why only Royal Navy flags ? In your animation I mean. Never heard of the French expedition and victories in Norway (before the German invasion of France) ? Doesn't ring a bell ?
Nazi Germany: Hey Sweden, why the tens of thousands of armed men?
Sweden: They're uh... law enforcement!
Nazi Germany: Oh ok... but why do they have artillery and anti-tank weapons?
Sweden: (starts sweating profusely) umm... for bears?
@qweqwe9678 especially drunk or drugged up ones waving double headed eagle or hammer and sicle banners around...😂
russian bears! then germany replies ''dont worry about russian bears little sweden'' and proceds to smile, a high meth head smile
Its a fun story, but late war Germany did everything to avoid provoke Sweden, and give Sweden a excuse to enter the war. So the the white the buses did come to the concentration camp to pick up Scandinavian citizens, they continue to fill the buses with as meany other prisoners (mostly jews) they could fit in.
Ironic that Folke Bernadotte (the leader of the operation) was murdered by a Jewish exstrem nationalist/terrorist.
How old are you?
It makes complete sense. Most bears in Norway are in areas near the border with Sweden.
I find it fascinating about Sweden's neutrality in comparison to Switzerland.
Switzerland emphasis on neutrality is on their geography and economics while Sweden emphasize on military and resources.
The reality of their neutrality was that they were geopolitically insignificant to either side.
It is clear that in a modern world, there can be no neutrality.
@@livethefuture2492 Not remotely true. Swedish iron ore and ball bearing manufacture was important to both sides during the war. Both very critical resources in wartime. As for the cold war and even today, Gotland is a hugely important location for controlling the Baltic sea. Whoever holds it has an invaluable position to launch naval operations and airstrikes from. Educate yourself. What protected Swedish neutrality was raising the cost of acquiring it above what's worth investing and not risking them allying with your enemy.
@@livethefuture2492 sweden was worth way more than switzerland. it just happened so that Austrian painter was busy wiping out soviets and minorities to point they extended themselves so thin to point sweden became a secondary priority. besides swedes were mostly cooperating with germany, so clearly the incentive there was good enough for germans to not invade them.
Why would you invade a country that is willingly (without much resistance) give you supplies and even let military access, when the other option is months of invasion + resistance (probably leading to temporary if not permanent) shortfall in critical war materials?
There was plan made up for an invasion of Sweden, but apparently göring, who had worked/lived in Sweden and had a Swedish wife, refused and said he would resign if Hitler went thru with it
The biggest problem with occupying Sweden would be logistics. Sweden is more than ten times larger than Switzerland and the mines are up north. Far, far north. It would be impossible to guard the railroads against Swedish resistance groups.
My Swedish great grandfather fought in Finland and died in action there.
Great.
He showed a big heart.
May he rest in peace
Han va en modig man som dog för friget. Må han villa I fred.
@@TheRoook Like....great that he fought for Finland? or great that he died there?
Allies: “Stop selling iron to Germany!”
Sweden: “No.”
Germany: “Stop harboring Jews in your embassy!”
Sweden: “No.”
Norway: “please help us…”
Sweden: “No.”
@@Norwagen Norwegian Commandos in Operation Gunnerside: “Nvm, we got this.”
Well you should not have left us 1905 @@Norwagen
But to be honest we sadly had little to offer in terms of help as most stuff went to Finland 🫤
@@Norwagen
Norway's government: "Stop harboring norweigan and danish rebels"
sweden: "no"
@@boarfaceswinejaw4516 Norways “Government” (Quisling was illegitimate)
The numbers for the Swedish aid in the Winter War is severely lacking.
Actually sent:
~9 000 volunteers (another 4 000 had been accepted, but did not have time to arrive). Many volunteers served in Finnish units rather than SFK, the Swedish Volunteer Corps.
860 pistols.
85 900 rifles and carbines.
516 MGs and LMGs.
45 000 000 small arms cartridges.
38 AT rifles.
114 AT guns (some of these had been ordered by Finland before the war).
31 medium mortars.
147 000 mortar shells.
100 artillery pieces.
130 000 artillery shells.
32 planes.
Also sent was firewood, tents, tent stoves, sea mines, torpedoes, 9 000 helmets, uniform cloth (that did much to remedy the m/Cajander lack of Finnish uniforms) and food. As well as the care for 70 000 Finnish children evacuated to Sweden to be out of harm's way. Sweden also transported, assembled and serviced arms deliveries from other countries such as Hungary, Britain, France and Italy
In total, the Swedish aid was worth some 500 000 000 SEK, or a more than the Finnish state budget of 1938, or about 40% of the Swedish state budget of 1938. Sweden forgave the debt immediately after the March peace.
we should've helped Stalin not the Nordic Hitler Mannerheim and his Nazi loving army
.... by asking only Finland keeping Swedish as a second official language. And it still is.
I did a study on this for school & found that the economic support they gave was valued on it's own as a years worth of the Finnish state budget. That amount did not include all of the cost of the military support that Sweden gave. Perhaps my sources on that subject were faulty.
Side note: The planes that Sweden gave, came with volunteers to man them, making it possible for Finland to set up an air force in Northern Finland, that didn't have one at the time. Together with this, Sweden allowed Finish planes to use two Swedish air fields, which resulted in them getting bombed by the USSR.
@@karilang9377What a crime. Truly horrible by us Swedes.
@@karilang9377 So it would be better to discriminated against the many native Swedish speaking finns, of which there were many more back then?
Sweden did what they had to do to prevent invasion, they also took huge risks in helping Norway, Denmark and Finland.
My mother’s uncle was a norwegian resistance member and had to flee to Sweden when the gestapo discovered what he had been up to. Sweden welcomed him with open arms, he settled down there after the war.
I waited to long to see this video, I’m so glad you finally made it. That makes me so happy to see as a Swede
SAAME
My Gammelfarfar (Great Grandfather) served in the army during the war, he was stationed both on the Norwegian and Finnish Borders. He was also tasked to protect the railroad lines German soldiers used to transit. He had a deep animosity towards both the German & Soviets.
Mine was aswell
Bra video! Lärde mig lite nytt trots den historienörden man är :)
Sant
As a 50/50 Swede/Norwegian this is a topic that has been discussed in my family many times. I have to say that while I understand why my Norwegian relatives feel a sense of betrayal that Sweden didn't declare war on Germany, it's still a bit much to expect a country to declare war on a much more powerful one out of solidarity. It's not like Norway declared war on the Soviets when they attacked Finland after all.
we set up training camps for Norwegian resistance fighters, Norwegian resistance fighters also blew up a German logistics train at Krylbo station (today Avesta) which I understand they knew who they were but did nothing to catch them. when germany took norway was sweden's salvation from occupation. Churchill didn't like Sweden he had an invasion force and plan ready to occupy Sweden, failed because Germany managed to occupy Norway before, after that maybe it felt easier not to sell iron ore to England but let it go to Germany.
Norrbaggarna var beredda att gå i krig för att slippa Sverige några årtionden tidigare. När de blev anfallna av Tyskland så ville de minsann ha svensk militärhjälp
& keep in mind, at that time, Germany was still allied with the USSR... Going against Germany & USSR combined at that point in time is a pretty big ask..🧐
Attest you do realize that Norway did act in the same matter. There was also bitterness of the union-dissolution, there one strong argument for the union was a common defense.
I'm Norwegian, have basically never heard anyone express a sense of betrayal towards the Swedes because of their WW2 policies.
Some light jokes and sibling-teasing perhaps, but nobody would feel strongly enough about it to get into a heated argument or anything.
I think people in general just remember that "they were neutral (haha, you silly cowards) but kinda helped us a bit still (thanks, sweet brother)".
It’s crazy how much the animations have improved over the years
love sweden from the eastern border 🇫🇮❤🇸🇪
🇸🇪🤝🏻🇫🇮
maanpetturi
@@SeverusHilltop ??? 💀💀
@@jes3d what
@@SeverusHilltop wtf
You didn't mention Sweden's intelligence operations, and how it provided the allies with that, and also early codebreaking allowing Sweden to tap into any communication passing through sweden (to finland or norway), relayed to the allies via e.g. Polish resistance movement.
Yes the great mathematician Arne Beurling that later got a professorship at Princeton university, where he later died.
Nice to see WW2 from a countries perspective who wasn’t directly included
My father travelled with the Germans through Sweden, watching over them. He said not much about these uneventful trips other than that the Germans were polite and even friendly, sharing a smoke whenever they made a stop.
Staying neutral it’s still interesting to see how we managed to balance on a greased line - selling iron ore to the nazis and advanced technology to the allied. Speedboats came regularly to the town of Lysekil on the Swedish westcoast to pick roller bearings and other high precision items. It was a clandestine operation, but everyone in the town knew about it.
Searching the archives, there’s a thriller made back in the 60’s or 70’s called Operation Argus loosely based on these events.
My father later had to witness the extradition of the Baltic people that had taken shelter in Sweden to the Soviets. He was given letters to be forwarded to relatives and heard and saw terrible things.
My grandfather watched over those trains, too! He said the work was not very taxing, as the Germans made efforts to keep quiet, and the Swedish made efforts to stay away.
An interesting notation within Sweden's wartime story is how they technically helped the British sink the battleship Bismarck:
The Swedish cruiser _Gotland_ spotted Bismarck during her initial move out of the Baltic towards Norway, and Swedish Naval officers, via a Norwegian intermediary, passed the information on to the British Embassy.
As a half Swede (other half being British) I love that you did a video from Sweden's perspective. I've been waiting so long to see a video about my second home 🇬🇧🇸🇪
May I recomend TIK's take on this as well here on youtube : "Could Sweden have withstood a German Blitzkrieg in WW2?"
@@matso3856 cool
@@Djahto543 interesting
Yeah all sides in WW2 (except Finland) were our enemies. You brits wanted to Invade Sweden and had the backing of the allies. Germany for obvious reasons, enemies. And USSR for invading Finland.
So to the people who wanted Sweden to take a side, Why should we be forced to collaborate with our enemies because you said so? The best option was neutrality, end of story.
Great episode! My grandfather fought on the swedish/norwegian boarder. They blew up bridges with dynamite to stop the germans being able to advance further into Sweden. I remember staying up many late nights listening to all his stories…
Militären (och värnplikt) är en ändlös källa av intressanta historier. Så många händelser man kan återberätta!
Er... Germans didn't invade Sweden.
The Germans never wanted to go into Sweden
We hade British commandos in Lapland, did spy on the Germans communications and gave the information to the Britts and more.
Narvik?
Next Video:
*WW2 From Liechtenstein and St Halena’s Prospective*
WW2 from the Andorran perspective.
WW2 from burkina faso 🇧🇫 perspective
Nah Turkeys perspective of ww2
@@christo-gj1qk Armchair Is Already thinking of that.
@@Mohammadpourjavid Colonized?
My grandfather served in the Boden fortresses when the trains carrying the germans passed through. Every cannon on the fortress-mountains surrounding boden was pointed towards the trains carrying the germans as they went through.
My great granpa died in a military accident, while patrolling the border to norway. His brother fought in Finland as a volunteer, but he never talked about it so i guess he went through some fucked up things.
thank you sweden for taking my finnish grandma during ww2 for 2 years into safety, while Finland being in war and danger.
And no thanks for returning Baltic refugees to Soviet Union..
@@spuldzexx You mean Sweden or Finland?
@@heh9392 Sweden
No Baltic refugeees were returned to the Soviet union by Sweden. The 167 who were returned did not have refugee status as they were interned military personnel who had served in the German armed forces or security services. The issue was rightly controversial even at the time as the Hansson government was seen as giving in too easily to Soviet demands.
Respect
They were stuck between two enemies. On the Allied side the Soviets wanted to conquer them, on the other Germany was also trying to conquer them. It was a lose/lose situation
Where did you get the information that Germany wanted to conquer them? Lmao?
Even in this video it's never said...
@@Ren3gaid It was planned in june-july 1943. On Hitlers orders the germans moved the equivalent of 3 infantry divisions to Norway and converted the Panzer brigade Norwegen to the 25th Panzer division. If Operation Zitadelle (Kursk) had been a succes for the Germans it would then most likely have tried to tighten its grip on northern Europe. Because of the failure of Zitadelle those troops were now badly needed in Russia.
Thank you , source?
I never heard about plans to invade sweden from anyone ever except like the vikings @@Gamleman
@@Ren3gaidGermany would have conquered Sweden the second they stopped bowing to all Berlin's demands, and by the time the swedes started to refuse Germany had more important things to deal with
@@Ren3gaidIf Sweden had stopped their exports to Germany 1939-1941 Germany would've definitely invaded them
A very interesting video I did not see coming but 1 that Im happy to see. However here are a few more interesting things about Sweden during ww2.
1. Sweden actually managed to break a significant amount of the german encrypted cypher that we later passed on to the allies and also the Soviet Union during operation Barbarossa.
2. At the end of WW2 Sweden became more aware to the horrors of the Holocaust that was going on so a response was to send white buses to concentration camps around german occupied territories and rescue people from the camps.
3. At one point during the war Stockholm became the biggest hub for spies in the world due to Swedens neutrality and all major nations had spies networks deployed in the capital to spy on each other.
Raoul Wallenberg has a memorial dedicated to him here on the campus of University of Michigan, where he once attended.
3:09 Skip Ads.
thanks bb
rude. he litelary needs that add to get money to keep making those vids
@@hubertswie7438cry
@@hubertswie7438he gets it through views technically the sponsor is the one who gets the money or new customers.
get sponsorblock extension for your browser
The force mobilised in late April numbered some 420 000 men - 230 000 in the line army and 190 000 local defence (which consisted of the older conscripts, aged 35-45). From June 1940, the Home Guard added another 80-100 000 men to this.
A lot of people often forget what state Europe was in in 1940.
France had fallen, the British expiditionary forces had evacuated from mainland Europe. Germany seemed unstoppable, and USA was still neutral.
Anyone who demands that Sweden should declare war on Germany at that point is delusional.
As a Swede, I love my Nordic neighbors. Often when visiting friends in Helsinki and Oslo, I ask them about this topic and feelings about it. They’re mixed. Betrayal, but still very helpful and kind. My grandmother was danish WW2 refugee from Copenhagen, so this is close to heart.
What I can’t understand is why we didn’t form a democratic Nordic union. Yes our Nordic history is filled with siege, kings and queens fighting about territory, but I’m hoping we can like each other enough to extend the Nordic union of today with a common currency and more cooperation. The Nordic region would be the seventh largest economy, larger than Russia with 100+ citizens, and have fantastic industrial landscape. I believe it would be very beneficial for our people.
It's worth noting that Sweden had set a date somewhere in june 1945 to declare war and invade the occupied danish and norwegian territory but didnt need to as the axis surrendered in may
Surrounded by two powers that wanted to make their national anthems the final boss music of other nations (thanks Drach) Sweden did a good job of balancing placating them while maintaining their independence. They did help where they could. Its easy to say they shouldn't have been as close to nazi germany with hindsight. But its a different story when they have taken over your neighbours, severely damaged a major city because that country didn't surrender fast enough, taken a country just to make it easier to take another all in 6 hours, steamrolled what was thought pre war to be Europe's best military in a few months then started a fight with another large power and actually winning for a while. All within a couple of years. The video did a good job showing how isolated they were from help. in a similar way to finland in the winter war, the allies couldn't really help finland. There was no way during the german expansion period early to mid war for the allies to get to sweden to help in any major way.
Yeah and dont forget, Sweden Russia had been in many, many wars over the history, Sweden was historically close to Germany, both in culture and ties, Russia was seen as the main enemy, and has always been seen that way
Yeah as the other guy said, USSR (Russia) was our main enemy of WW2. Not the Germans, or the Brits. Even tho both Germany and UK had plans to invade Sweden. (Dont forget that). Neutrality was the best option, and we had our best politicians of all time then, they didnt sell us out to UK and USA (now NATO) or Germany (now EU) like they’ve done now.
As a Swede myself, i would say that the Nordic fronts are the most underrated of the whole war.
Självklart så har man fördomar. Men det svenska perspektivet är mycket händelserikt och intressant.
6 hours, less than a month.. finland is not nordic, respectfully disagree
@@repuIsive Finland is Nordic though
@@repuIsive Finland is nordic. The Nordic region extends from Lake Onega in the east to Iceland in the west
@@repuIsive
Less then a month
>Due to the usual British backstabs, in a war that only happened due to the British blatantly violating their neutrality and actively planning an invasion
A huge thanks to the Swedish volunteers of the Winter War!
That double-cross from Britain might be considered a straight-up act of war. That's such a crazy detail.
It soured Sweden's attitude towards the allies for a while, for sure.
very interesting! I always wondered about Sweden's state during ww2, given some ships of it were sunk by german U boats. In U boat, you could even see Swedish cargo ships among alllied convoys, or even allied patrols near the southern coast of sweden
and USSR submarines did enter Swedish water and did sink Swedish (and German) ships, and the Swedish fleet did depth charge "unknown" submarines, and may or may not have sunk up to 2 USSR submarines, they did not return to port.
Nice a new vid From our armchair historian, also hello from Norway! Iove your vids!
Same man! Im also from Norway!
Your months of work paid off, well done. Please keep making videos!!
I’m impressed by the quality of the research behind this video. Great work!
I have been waiting for this!!
10:59 the german soldiers traveling through sweden weren't allowed to carry weapons and they were under armed guard on the trains that were used to transport them to norway.
Great vid man keep it up
As a child in Sweden, I was taught that we stayed out of WW2 completely. Not until I was a teen, I learned that we actually played a pivotal role for the German war effort with supplies from our mines, and that many Swedish citizens at the time actually openly supported Hitler. Learning all that was a hard pill to swallow.
Love these videos! Keep it up🎉
0:03 you can see exactly where this video got demonetized
Thanks for mentioning the precarious supply situation. Most videos on Sweden during WW2 fail to stress just how surrounded Sweden was, and that the only lifeline to the West went through a German blockade.
15:15 another interesting fact is that Sweden secretly supported Britain by the ball bearings: "United Kingdom ball bearings at a discount. In 1938 SKF only charged the UK 74% of what they charged Germany and in 1943 only 68%" From "Swedish overseas trade during World War II" on Wikipedia
I have read a lot of books about ww2. But in school history books Sweden 🇸🇪 has only been neutral after the napoleon war. But they did help the Germans to cross the border from Denmark, Norway, and the Baltic Sea. But they only did it to help aid Finland against the Russians. But it almost feels like history is repeating itself. But it is only sending arms and ammunition to Ukraine 🇺🇦. And some swedes soldiers did volunteer to help the Germans and the Finnish army.
It's an interesting subject! The Swedish volunteers for the SS were in the higher hundreds, the Norwegian ones were about 2000 & the Danish were about 15000 (30000 volunteered but half were denied).
@@KeveTeller One more thing, Swedes who joined SS was seen as deserters at best, and traitors at worst.
Thanks! Finally we get to see your version of Swedens WW2 history. Greetings from Sweden
One needs to remember that while Swedish politicians were intimidated by the German armed forces, they were even more concerned about trade - Sweden was totally and utterly dependent on coal (about 9 million tons yearly) to keep its industry and railroad running. Without it, no transport and thus starvation in the cities. With the Germans in control of Norway and the North Sea, Sweden was dependent on German goodwill to acquire coal and both British and German goodwill for its trade overseas (a deal allowing a small number of merchant ships trhough monthly was struck, and Sweden got grain, meat, oil and other vital materials from neutral powers in South America that way).
Not just industry and transport, a lot of household heating was by coal as well. And the war winters were amongst the coldest ever.
@@bjornerikroth yeah, but household heating and hot water coal usage could be handled by strict rationing and using firewood and charcoal - the electricity plants that provided the power for Sweden's electrified railroads could not.
1) Strange that you start with Poland and not the Winter war
2) I doubts there was much Swedish iron, in a fighter bomber, they are made out of aluminum.
3) Sweden did mobilize, remember the Winter War, so there was lots of mobilized troops, but Norway and Denmark was seen as close friends, so there was no warplane Norway or Denmark.The Germans invasion, created total chaos for the Swedish defense
4) Sweden and Germany did have historical good relationship, and the nazi was seen as a "weirdness" but the belief (or hope) was that Germany would become its old usual
5) The Swedish ball bearings was also exported to UK. Remember Germany did have there own factory's for ball bearings. Swedish ball bearings was critical for UK, but nice to have for Germany.
6) You forget that German interest in Swedish pre ww2 arms industry, that allow German to develop and get experience of modern weapons.
7) You forget that UK did try to seize 4 Swedish destroyer (that was bought from Italy) to later release them, and then try to sink them with bombers, by mistake??? (but no hits)
8) You forget about that Sweden did report the German battleship Bismark position to the allied.
9) You forgot about the hundreds of allied bombers that did emergency land in Sweden, on special made landing strips, and the crew was in silence returned to the allied.
10) You forget that Sweden did hand over "air-torpedo" (V2) that crash somewhat intact in Sweden to the allied.
11) You forgot that USSR did bomb Stockholm by mistake??
12) Later in the war, Sweden did break the Germans diplomatic code, hence could hold a tougher line, because Sweden did know how hard they were able to push the German delegation.
13) In the Lappland war, then Finland fight to throw out the German troops from north Finland, Germany artillery did by mistake shoot over the border into Sweden (and hit uninhabited wasteland)
14) If the German troops did not surrender to the Norway and Danish "police force" Sweden was ready to back them up with the whole might of the Swedish military.
It was lite about Sweden perspective, and most how did the allied see the action of Sweden.
@@millanoire thanks
Well said!
Impressive comment
It felt like this video feel in almost every trap you can to give an unjust picture.
Why would anyone compare Germany total manpower and planes, they could never use them at the same theater if war.
Examples that are not mentioned in your comment regarding weird or unjust depictions:
1. The amount of equipment provided the fins are a huge part of the total equipment available at the time in Swedish stockpiles.
2. Yes, around 300 joined ss. That's nothing compared to the neighbors and other parts of Europe. The Danes had 6000. Norway ~1900.
3. Every nation that got invaded apart for France and UK did everything they could to stay neutral. Don't blame the swedes for bending and doing what they can to stay out of the war. Everyone did. Sadly the axis war machine picked it's targets.
4. The swedes deciphered the Siemens & Halske T52, sent crusial info to the allies (ex Bismarck) The Swedes read traffic in the system for three years, not only between Berlin and Oslo, but also between Germany and the German forces in Finland, and of course the German embassy in Stockholm. In total, the Swedes intercepted 500,000 German messages and decrypted 350,000.
On point 14, I would like to add that one of the major reasons why the Germans decided to surrender without a fight in occupied Norway and Denmark was because Sweden more or less threatened that they would invade if they didn't. The Swedish military had been training for a naval invasion of Denmark for about a year, and plans for it had been worked on since 1942, called 'Operation Rädda Danmark'.
The animation is amazing
My grandfather guarded the border at the time, and took 3 German prisoners. They had basically got lost and crossed the border by mistake. He told us kids the story of it all, how they shot warning shots and after a few shots going back and forth the germans waved a white rag. Not sure what happened to those prisoners tho, they were probably released back. But it was exciting to hear about it. He was also a part of Ådalen which is a major event in swedish history. Alot of things happened for that generation.
16:50 it is just hindsight, and what we know today. And another aspect, let say that Sweden would have declared war on Germany and joined Britain (to defend Democracy and Human rights), what would that have lead to? That the country gets bombed and invaded? And then the Germans take the ore and bearings, with 0% going to Britain? It is also by hindsight a bad decision.
Fun fact about sweden's relation to Germany.
German was seen as the 2nd most important culturally language before 1945. The academics, the philosophers and scientist almost all could speak or read german.
This slowly was replaced by english as the most important 2nd language to most swedes.
Yesss finally a video about Sweden!!!! 🇸🇪
Before even watching this video, ill just let yall know.
Thanks for helping Sweden..
Greetings from Finland.
4 gripen flög över mit hus idag och nu denna banger video. Är det ett tecken?
It is veterans day today, here in sweden. 29th of may.
removing the fuze effect on top for the ads wont stop me from skipping right after the add
I am of Swedish decent and I love learning more about the country that my ancestors came from.
In my teens, I read my grandfather's Time/Life WW2 series. I didn't realize he didn't have them all. Years later I found the ones he didn't have. Among them was The Neutrals (Europe). It was a fascinating read. All the neutrals had an incredible story to tell.
Another neat aspect was how the diplomats from various Waring states interacted at social functions in a neutral country.
Great video, would you ever see yourselves doing a video on Ireland during the Second World War?
Many of my relatives were in the miltiary at that time. My grand father was in the army, my grand father on my fathers side was stationed in the navy. My grand mothers brother was guarding the norwegian border. I've heard stories that the swedish soldiers used to trade cigarettes with the german soldiers at the border. So even if we weren't at war many people were involved in the miltiary
This is *not* complete. The complete the picture there should have been mentioned, that Sweden shifted a lot of german soldiers frome the former 'Heeresgruppe Kurland' back to the Soviets. Those soldiers fled across the baltic sea to Sweden in the last days of the war. Many of them later died as soviet POWs and the Swedes knew.
In 1994 the swedisch king apologized
The swedisch words are Tyskutlämningen or Baltutlämningen.
I like your video bro, that's very helpful for me to get into college and now i am an college student. Thank you very much.
“I was saving the planet from an Axis of Darkness, and while you were back home opening National Parks! Yes!” Winston Churchill
Oversimplified: So they turned their eyes north towards Norway. Neutral Sweden was exporting iron ore to Germany, through neutral Norway. So the allies asked if they could please stop exporting iron ore to Germany.
UK: Hey could you plz stop exporting ore to Germany.
Sweden: New phone who this?
Norway: New phone who this?
Allies: How about we land troops in Norway and move them across Sweden to go help out your good pal Finland and along the way maybe take control of all your iron fields?
Norway and Sweden: Nah m8
1940
People do realize every country was neutral until they got invaded, basically... right? Belgium and Holland didnt become occupied because they wanted to. The US didnt get bombed because they felt like it. Taking potshots at Swedish "neutrality" is pretty dishonest and also complete BS.
It always annoys me that people seem to take issue with Swedish neutrality but noone has any issue with all the invaded and attacked countries being neutral as well.
Sweden also stopped being neutral with the Winter War. 1/3 of its pilots fought for Finland flying Swedish aircraft, supported by Swedish groundcrews. Sweden cracked the encryption device the German high command relied upon, the G Machine, in 3 weeks (no computer needed) which allowed the Swedes to find out German plans ahead of all negotiations. This allowed Sweden to discover the German invasion plans of Russia which Sweden provided to the allies. Sweden also informed the allies that the Bismarck was setting sail and leaving port.
By 1942, Sweden adopted a clear anti-Germany standpoint and began to reduce its cooperation with Germany as its armed forces were growing stronger. So much so that in 1943, Germany made invasion plans for Sweden. But the Finnish general, Mannerheim, warned the Germans that the Swedes would fight just as hard as the finns, but would also be better equipped.
Russia bombed Sweden on several occasions, including the Stockholm area. The town of Pajala was hit by 150 fire-bombs for instance. Sweden was very much involved in the war, sending 500 army officers to lead the volonteer corps and sending a large number of pilots to fight the Soviets in the skies over Finland.
Edit;
Also, the reason why Norway was invaded was because the Brits wanted to land at Narvik to go to Finland. Swedish iron was shipped to Germany via Norwegian ports. So Germany secured the iron by securing Norway. Denmark unfortunately was invaded merely as a sidenote while Germany went after Norway.
Had Sweden refused trade with Germany, Germany would have invsded. Thats how important the iron ore was. Sweden was in no position to withstand any invasion until 1942-1943, so to protect Swedish citizens, Sweden traded to avoid being invaded. But Sweden was still bombed by Russia, Sweden still deployed forces to fight Russia. And eventually, Sweden told Germany that the partnership had entered a new stage.
I just want to add , UK also bombed Sweden , probebly by mistake
I never heard that Narvik was planned to Finland. Source? Can we still get it?
British were bombing the harbour in Stockholm by name Hammarbyhamnen. There were German ships.
And need to be careful not to mix the winter war and the continuing war and laplands war while talking wars in Finland.
@@karilang9377 google is your friend
Nice work
As a swede i never expected this video but i am happy that you made a video about us. I appreciate your videos👍👍👍
I'd love to see a video on the English Civil Wars
1:06 would not say the Swedish goverment favored the central powers in WW1, this is to missunderstand neutrality or rather "non-alignment" (which is the actual term, to not join any military alliances and do what you need to avoid that), where you have to kind of promise both sides that you are on their side to prentend you care (otherwise the other side would consider you part of the others and you might get invaded).
The same example included trading in WW2, would Sweden stop selling to Germany then they would invade (they would consider Sweden not netural anymore, or more correctly to be in the other alliance which they trade with).
The phrase stuck between a rock and a hard place comes to mind 😅
Thanks for explaining the history behind the Hearts of Iron 4 DLC for me
Just know your up there with my top 2 history channels along with oversimplified,
LOVE THE VIDEO MAN!!!
A NEW ARMCHAIR HISTORIAN VIDEO MY BOIS!
Fun fact is that the famous children book author Astrid Lindgren worked for the swedish intelligens departement during ww2
She started out as the secretary of "Revolver-Harry" Söderman before that.
Reminds me of the book I read on Swedish volunteers into all sides of WWII.
My grandma said when she was a little girl her dad was a soilder with the border of occupied Norway and i know of one women who lived in scania or Skåne and heard german bomb plane
Thank you for talking about this
Love from Sweden 🇸🇪 ❤️
On your map in the start of the video, you depict the island of bornholm as swedish by making it yellow, it is actually danish. The little island just south of sweden.
I knew Sweden was neutral during WW2, rescued Danish Jews, and supplied iron to Germany, but did not know much of what was presented in this video. Thank you for posting it and educating me.
Now those Jews are having Sweden "rescue" Africans by the hundreds of thousands. Smart.
The number of Swedes in the SS according to Gyllenhaal and Westerg's research was 163. There are some Swedish-speaking Finns and Estonians and even Ukrainians (Swedish-speaking Estonians deported from Estonia to Gammelsvenskby in Ukraine in the late 1700s) that the Germans listed as Swedes serving in the SS, but they were not Swedish citizens.
Jake Gyllenhaal?
@@sebswede9005 Lars Gyllenhaal.
@@GefreitervonAdler And yes! They are related...
No. But they are related.
Really interesting from a different perspective 👍
The leading commercial family at the time, the Wallenbergs, was run by two brothers, Jacob and Marcus. And they divided the world market between them before the war, Marcus dealing with Britain and Jacob with with Germany. This allowed them, and thus Sweden, to coordinate and balance its position between the two sides during the war. At the end of the war, Jacob was in trouble with the USA, but Marcus was able to leverage his contacts to keep Jacob out of court. And yes, this is the same family that Raul Wallenberg belonged to.
Let's see... Jews run commerce in Sweden... the Swedish government for some strange reason wants immigration of non-Christian MENAs and Central Asians. Hmm. I don't see any connection.
@@floycewhite6991 says the nazi-muskovite...
This was a very good video
Swedens WWII neutrality, is probably one of the strongest diplomatic feats in history
Next video request: WW2 from Iran's perspective 🙏
Also great video, keep up the good work ♥️👍
I like how we got Sweden before Norway a country that actually fought in the war
Remember how much (or lite) Norway did fight in the Winter War, there is a reason Sweden did have hundred thousand soldier mobilized and in war preparedness mod, and Norway was still in peace mode.
@@kirgan1000 Sweden also didn't fight in the Winter War. Only volunteers and sending support.
It also makes a lot more sense for Sweden than Norway to be involved in a war in Finland, with their closer proximity to Finland, deep historical ties and extremely long border (including water border).
Norway had none of that, just a border far far in the north, harsh terrain, sparsely populated and hundres of km away from any fighting.
Sweden also had twice the population and was richer than Norway at the time.
Still, there is no doubt that Norway was poorly prepared for war in 1940.
Ive been waiting for this...
3:32 Yes, but the guns mounted in the Polish tanks were also Swedish. And the price the Germans were buying that iron at, was nothing short of a scam. They were basically buying iron ore for the price of refined steel. And now we get to the Allied powers. We sold them the blueprints for what was to become the most effective anti air weapon ever made, shooting downmore enemy planes than all otehr AA weapons the Allies had, combined. And we sold it dirt cheap.
What was the AA weapon called? i wanna read about it.
@@TastyEmpire51I'm guessing Bofors, almost everyone used it, though how swedish it is is up for debate.
@@msuomtv Thanks.
@@TastyEmpire51 Bofors 40mm/L48 Anti-air automatic cannon m/1936.
Great video
My grandpa was one of the Volunteers from Sweden who went to finland
I would love a WW1 from portuguese perspective
Hopefully they will in the future. In the meantime (if you haven’t already) ‘The Great War’ channel did a short episode on that subject
Interesting video. The only factor I completely missed was Zarah Leander. Don't underestimate this, even if there was no gun powder and steel involved in that chapter.
We (sweden) gave aloooot of intel to the allies by getting access to german communications
especially on the battleship bismarck, very crucial intel
5:40 they could have helped Finland
Hi from Switzerland! My Fatherland and Sweden were Neutralitiy Brothers in ww2! Long live our Old Friendship!
Congrats. Are u gonna be same once the russians come for us? Man up!
I didnt said that and im with You! Europe has to stop Russia Together!
Armchair Historian: Releases a video talking about Sweden 🇸🇪 during ww2
Me: SABATON INTENSIFYS
You have to “play” both Allies and Axis. Mad respect for keeping their people safe regardless what you think of them.
Thanks for making this video, as a Swede I’m very happy that you made it 🙏
”Sweden is firmly neutral on the Axis side.” -Winnie C.
They worked with the allies undercover the whole war tho
He's not wrong
Who?
@@Pannkakaize they didn’t tho
@@oliverwortley3822 They did indeed
The beautiful country and the people, love my country🇸🇪