Fall Sverige (Operation Sweden)?

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McBeast
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Fall Sverige (Operation Sweden)?

#1

Post by McBeast » 04 Jan 2008, 22:09

Hey

I was just wondering about a planned operation fall sverige. An invasion in 1943, 1944. Is this bogus or real?

Personal i think that its fake. I googled it and couldent find anythin about it.

Kind Regards McBeast

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Ironmachine
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#2

Post by Ironmachine » 05 Jan 2008, 10:16

In an old number of Command magazine there was a little article about the Germans plans for the invasion of Sweden in 1943, after the Kursk offensive. IIRC, it would have involved about 6 divisions and some small parachute landings. The German defeat at Kursk ended the project.

You can also found this interesting (from http://panzercentral.com/forum/viewtopi ... &view=next):
Earmarked for the invasion of Sweden, the 25. Panzer-division were built up during spring and summer 1943 as the potential spearhead of Generalleutnant von Schell's "Fall Schweden"-plan for th invasion of Sweden.
At its highest, the 25. Panzer-division had an impressive array of men, but lacked severly in armoured vehicles. Total vehicle count included 15 Souma S35, 40 Hotchkiss H35 and H39 (the H39s also with SA18 guns, presumably, sicne they are not differed), 41 Pz III, 16 Pz IV as well as 7 Pz II, 15 StuG III and 10 SPWs.
The lack of armoured vehicles were somewhat compensated for by adding lots of 88mm AT guns. The division had a grand total of 30 88mm gun and 6 50mm guns in a divisional AT battalion and 3 regimental AT companies.
The divisional recoinnasance battalion had one company with the 7 Pz II tanks and 3 motorised infantry recoinnasance companies as well as a mortar company for support with 4 82mm mortars. It might also have had a platoon of otherwise unmentioned halftracks.
Having 7 Panzergrenadiere battalions, supported by the mentioned AT guns and one light and one heavy mortar company (4 82mm and 4 120mm mortars, respectively), the motorised infantry component of the division was unusually strong, perhaps taking into account the heavy forested terrain of Sweden.
The artillery regiment had 4 battalions, 3 105mm (one which might have been Wespes) each with 12 guns and 1 150mm, with 18 guns. Some sources suggest this 150mm gun battalion might have been equipped with with French 155mm guns. During spring, the regiment had 24 French 75mm guns.
Overall, the division was heavy on infantry and artillery, but weak on armour. About 1000 trucks were available to transport the roughly 21000 men of the division.
Generally, while the division was a fearsome force indeed, many of the men had never seen battle and were trained mostly on the spot.
When the plans of Fall Schweden were unearthed in the 60s, von Schell was asked to comment on them in Swedish military press. He politely replied that the 25. Panzer-division never reached the strength the plan called for, and that the supporting troops (another panzer division, 4-6 mobile infantry divisions, a Jager regiment, a Fallschirm regiment as well as strong Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine elements and divisionary attacks by the German forces in Finland) were never made available in the light of the German casualties in Tunisia and at Kursk, and thus he thought the plan being unrealistic, perhaps hinting at the plan being realistic should the appropriate forces have been available.


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Ironmachine
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#3

Post by Ironmachine » 05 Jan 2008, 10:38

And googling around I have found this in Irving's Hitler's War (1977 edition) that can be downloaded at http://www.fpp.co.uk/books/Hitler/1977:
By the spring of 1943 the Axis alliance was a myth, and Hitler knew it. In Tunisia, Montgomery’s offensive had succeeded and the Axis bridgehead was being inexorably crushed. Late in February the Italians had already hinted that the loss of Tunis might bring about a new situation, and one month later Churchill had only evasively answered Parliamentary questions about possible Axis armistice feelers. Finland was already searching for a way out of the war. From the decoded messages shown to Hitler, it was clear that both the Hungarian and Romanian governments had in neutral capitals official emissaries who were sounding out the western enemy on the prospects of peace. Now Vidkun Quisling and Gauleiter Terboven—Reich Commissar for Norway—separately warned Hitler that in the event of an enemy invasion of Norway, Sweden would support the Allies. Hitler, who had just personally instructed his new envoy to Stockholm that his sole purpose must be to keep Sweden neutral—to safeguard Germany’s iron-ore supplies—now resorted to more drastic measures : after one routine Berghof conference he detained Jodl and a handful of trusted advisers and instructed them to draft outline plans for a lightning invasion of Sweden should need arise. Only the success of “Citadel,” regaining the initiative on the eastern front, would bring all these peripheral nations back into line.
(my emphasis)
Notes
p. 508 For the contingency planning for an invasion of Sweden, see Wolf Junge’s manuscript ; the naval staff plans in its war diary annex, Part C, Vol. III ; the naval staff war diary, October 23, 1943 ; and the OKW war diary.

John T
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Re: Fall Sverige (Operation Sweden)?

#4

Post by John T » 11 Jan 2008, 00:11

McBeast wrote:Hey

I was just wondering about a planned operation fall sverige. An invasion in 1943, 1944. Is this bogus or real?

Personal i think that its fake. I googled it and couldent find anythin about it.

Kind Regards McBeast
It was a real plan but as it required more troops than available in Norway it makes some sense to say that it was much of a paper product and never realy intended to been implemented.

If you read scandinavian Linder wrote a book on it:
http://www.smb.nu/pos/06/10_dubbel.asp


Cheers
/John T.

nightingale
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Re: Fall Sverige (Operation Sweden)?

#5

Post by nightingale » 25 Apr 2014, 18:13

I know a lady who passed away recently nearly 100 years of age, from Sweden. She told me some things about that time, WWII, and said they never invaded Sweden. She said her and her girlfriends used to watch their trains go by, and I think she said it was tracks just for the Germans. She said they would wave at the girls. She seemed to have a fascination with them and later ended up dating one and was somewhat involved with them although she would never tell me that part.

But I do remember that she said once that they never bothered them in Sweden, they left them alone.

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