Could Sweden be viewed as an Axis co-belligerant due to permiting german military transit?

As the title says. Also, what consequences would that have? Could the soviets invade from Finland or the Allies bomb the mines so the germans don't have acces to the iron?
 
Wasn't there some left-wing Swedish folk singer who did a song about German military trains being allowed to pass through Sweden? I think he wrote it after the war, so not technically a protest song.

EDIT: Maybe this is the song(from wikipedia)...

Karl Gerhard performed the revue song "Den ökända hästen från Troja" (The Infamous Trojan Horse) in 1940 and it was later banned. The song used the tune by Isaak Dunajevskij with new words in Swedish by Lille Bror Söderlundh. When the song was performed, a large Dalecarlian horse was brought onto the stage, but instead of legs it had columns. It also had a fifth column that opened and Karl Gerhard stepped out.

Contra what I wrote, that dates from the war period, obviously.
 
Permitting german military? Are you talking about how Sweden allowed German transports on the Swedish railways? Well in that case, probably no since they stopped in 1943 when Sweden felt secure enough to repudiate the agreement.
 
As the title says. Also, what consequences would that have? Could the soviets invade from Finland or the Allies bomb the mines so the germans don't have acces to the iron?

What would be the benefit for the Allies from making Sweden into an enemy? Would it outweigh the negatives? IOTL Sweden could stay neutral for a big part because not making it into an enemy was on balance more beneficial than harmful for both the Allies and the Axis. The Swedes also went to some trouble with their balancing act, which saw them drift closer to the Allies as the war progressed and when it started to look obvious that the Axis would lose.

As for the Soviets invading from Finland - they would first have to get into Finland to do that.
 
Last edited:
Bit hard to make Sweden co-bellngment of Germany if Sweden is not active on the war. And Soviets would have difficulties invade Sweden if they don't occupy Finland firstly.
 
My mother worked on the telephone/telegraph in Norway towards the end of WW2, when the German occupiers stopped asking for declarations of loyalty. Back then it was telephone switchboards and the operators could listen in to the conversations. The older operators, who had been working during the invasion said there was no neutrality in Sweden, they were assisting the Germans in every way short of actual forces.
 
My mother worked on the telephone/telegraph in Norway towards the end of WW2, when the German occupiers stopped asking for declarations of loyalty. Back then it was telephone switchboards and the operators could listen in to the conversations. The older operators, who had been working during the invasion said there was no neutrality in Sweden, they were assisting the Germans in every way short of actual forces.

Well the railway traffic was very difficult to hide, unlike the spying on German communications or training Danish and Norwegian "police troops".
 
Well the railway traffic was very difficult to hide, unlike the spying on German communications or training Danish and Norwegian "police troops".

Different times. As I heard it told, there was a lot of Swedish support for the Germans during the invasion of Norway. The spying on the Germans and training troops came much later in the war.
 
Different times. As I heard it told, there was a lot of Swedish support for the Germans during the invasion of Norway. The spying on the Germans and training troops came much later in the war.

The transports of troops started after the fighting was over. And Sweden was almost surrounded by the Axis, it continued until the Axis were weaker and the Swedes strong enough to feel safe enough to stop cooperating.
 
The transports of troops started after the fighting was over. And Sweden was almost surrounded by the Axis, it continued until the Axis were weaker and the Swedes strong enough to feel safe enough to stop cooperating.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Sweden was surrounded by Axis because it cooperated with the Axis conquering its neighbors.

But yes, once the fortunes of war turned, Sweden did help the Allies.
 
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Sweden was surrounded by Axis because it cooperated with the Axis conquering its neighbors.

But yes, once the fortunes of war turned, Sweden did help the Allies.
Sweden just joined the dominant, the winning side.
 

nbcman

Donor
If the Swedes were considered a co-belligerent, then the Spanish surely would also be considered to be one as well.
 
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Sweden was surrounded by Axis because it cooperated with the Axis conquering its neighbors.

But yes, once the fortunes of war turned, Sweden did help the Allies.

How? By letting German troops travel through Sweden? Well that can't be it, that started after the Norwegian government went into exile.
 
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Sweden was surrounded by Axis because it cooperated with the Axis conquering its neighbors.

But yes, once the fortunes of war turned, Sweden did help the Allies.

Sweden could not realistically stop Germany conquering Denmark and Norway in 1940 without becoming a combatant itself on the Allied side. When we think about the Swedish policies of neutrality during WWII, it was not about being absolutely neutral as such. It was all about not ending up as a belligerent (and thus a target). Sweden's solidarity to its Nordic neighbours had a very definite limit, and it ran in really risking becoming an active side in the world war.

My grandparents and my great aunt who I used to talk about the war before they passed away said that when the Winter War ended in Finland losing Karelian territories to the USSR, they felt angry towards Sweden for its "betrayal" in not helping Finland by actually committing on Finland's side in the war. The truth is that Sweden helped Finland with a lot of supplies and weapons and sent actual troops to fight the Red Army under the cover of "volunteers". Stockholm did pretty much all it could - without really risking Sweden officially becoming a nation at war. I feel this same kind of subjective emotional response to Sweden's perceived "betrayal" could well be influencing your mother's views - when Sweden did not officially come to Norway's aid in 1940, it was under the circumstances easy to think that the Swedes de facto took Germany's side in the war. (I recently read an account by an American test pilot who was in Sweden flying Brewsters bound for Finland when the German invasion of Denmark begun, and his view as given was that the Swedes were all but sure that the Germans would bomb and invade Sweden as well any day now. It appeared to him that the Swedes were very much ready to go to war against Germany to defend their home soil. So, the situation looked very different from that particular subjective perspective.)

This kind of bitterness by the wartime generations is understandable, but I think that we who can look at the issue with some more detachment should understand that Sweden was placed between the devil and the deep blue sea itself during the war, and its feelings for its Nordic neighbours notwithstanding the Swedish leadership looked at their own nation's interest first. Kowtowing to the side that seemed the strongest (in general, or in Sweden's Nordic/Baltic vicinity) was a way to avoid conflict, and that meant that while Germany was ascendant in 1940-42, Sweden gave it some serious leeway. Then since 1943 Stockholm could also see the writing on the wall and turned increasingly towards accommodating the Allies. It might have been amoral and not in the strict interest of "genuine neutrality", but it was very utilitarian and prudent from the Swedish leadership's perspective.
 
Last edited:
As the title says. Also, what consequences would that have? Could the soviets invade from Finland or the Allies bomb the mines so the germans don't have acces to the iron?

Easiest & most direct is to tighten the Blockade restrictions. Sweden was dependent on some critical imports, particularly petroleum. The Brits used allowances to neutrals, tightening or loosening them, as part of their global strategy. That was usually more effective than military action and more economical. Since Germany was short most strategic materials, other than coal or iron it could not provide many substitutes to Swedish industry. ie: Tungsten for machine tools.

The transports of troops started after the fighting was over. And Sweden was almost surrounded by the Axis, it continued until the Axis were weaker and the Swedes strong enough to feel safe enough to stop cooperating.

As a Swedish cabinet minister exclaimed to a particularly obtuse British diplomat "Have you considered at our strategic position!".

Permitting german military? Are you talking about how Sweden allowed German transports on the Swedish railways? Well in that case, probably no since they stopped in 1943 when Sweden felt secure enough to repudiate the agreement.

The Swedes seem to have concluded at that point it was not longer practical for the Germans to invade them. I've speculated on the USN raids on German cargo ships in Norwegian ports in March 1943 was part of a plan to give the Swedes more confidence in the Allies. More important may have been the Allied victories apparent when the dust settled in the spring of 1943. Over half a million Axis soldiers surrendered in the east & in Africa was significant The Allied invasion of France in 1944 was a major turning point. & the the success of the Red Army offensive in the east. After those occurred Sweden continued methodically cutting off Germany bit by bit. They also began allowing the exiled Danes & Norwegians to organize military forces & plan for operations in their homelands

Other cooperation included allowing the Brits to run a spy network out of Sweden at least from 1944. Allowing key persons like Neils Bohr to be smuggled out to the UK via Sweden, despite German warnings & sanctions.
 
Last edited:
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Sweden was surrounded by Axis because it cooperated with the Axis conquering its neighbors.

But yes, once the fortunes of war turned, Sweden did help the Allies.

Please explain how they helped the Axis conquer their neighbors.
 
Top