Sweden and the Winter war: WI

He reasoned that the best way he could defend Sweden was to move into Finland and meet the Russians there. When the Russians had reached a certain point inside Finland, the whole Northern Army Corps would move across the border and take up positions along the Kemi river, all without approval of the Swedish government.

But what was that "certain point inside Finland" Douglas was thinking about? This question makes a pretty big difference.

I think it is quite likely that it would be past the half way point of Finland's breadth, Finland being narrowest just south of the Gulf of Bothnia where the land border with Sweden begins. If that was the case, then we might as well assume that at the time Douglas moves his Corps over the border, southern Finland is already well in the process of being overrun.

Following my above conjecture, I do not think this overt act on part of Douglas would or could have saved Finland. The defense of the country would succeed or fail at the Isthmus and southern Karelia: in comparison, Kainuu and Lapland were a sideshow. Bringing the Swedish Northern Army Corps into Finland will not decide the war for Finland, even if it might make a difference about the role Sweden plays in WWII.

A possible course of events: the lead Red Army elements, pursuing the fleeing remnants of the Finnish Lapland Group, meet Swedish troops in southern Lapland. A tense standoff ensues, and the Soviet government demands in strict terms a withdrawal of the force, which the Swedish government does, after realizing they have troops in Finland and firing Douglas for his actions. Sweden returns to neutrality - for a small while at least.
 
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This is an interesting scenario!

We have to remember that Hitler had never any racial drivers to attack UK or France. They were both "aryan" in his viewpoint. As was Sweden. So by thinking over this context he would have most possibly just watched how war goes in north, with uk, france, sweden and finland fighting against soviets and build-up his army until he sees an opening for Barbarossa. While Wehrmacht builds up he would have started secret negotiations with western allies and northern countries, trying to create an unified front against them. No other countries had any ideas about german-USSR secret pact that preceded winter war and polish campaign at this point!

That's why i think that this scenario would have been Hitler's dream come true, trying to establish an western-europe front against Soviets. And this situation really has all the elements for this strategy to succeed! Germans hadn't started cleansing poland yet at this point in any great scale and Hitler could have simply said "look at ussr, look at what they are doing! the international commusism is the main enemy of europe, they must be stopped, and they will be stopped with unified front of western europe"

Where war would have gone from there, depends a lot from USA, but when british are in german side, USA is not far away from there either!

So very huge butterflies here, potentially :D
 
But what was that "certain point inside Finland" Douglas was thinking about? This question makes a pretty big difference.

I think it is quite likely that it would be past the half way point of Finland's breadth, Finland being narrowest just south of the Gulf of Bothnia where the land border with Sweden begins. If that was the case, then we might as well assume that at the time Douglas moves his Corps over the border, southern Finland is already well in the process of being overrun.

Following my above conjecture, I do not think this overt act on part of Douglas would or could have saved Finland. The defense of the country would succeed or fail at the Isthmus and southern Karelia: in comparison, Kainuu and Lapland were a sideshow. Bringing the Swedish Northern Army Corps into Finland will not decide the war for Finland, even if it might make a difference about the role Sweden plays in WWII.

A possible course of events: the lead Red Army elements, pursuing the fleeing remnants of the Finnish Lapland Group, meet Swedish troops in southern Lapland. A tense standoff ensues, and the Soviet government demands in strict terms a withdrawal of the force, which the Swedish government does, after realizing they have troops in Finland and firing Douglas for his actions. Sweden returns to neutrality - for a small while at least.

If the finns would have had a clue about these swedish plans, i believe finns would have retreated voluntarily to the point (in northern front) where swedish are going to start feeling threathened and will go active against USSR.

There were a lot of swedish volunteers at Salla area in winter war (armed and supplied by sweden) and these forces fought in Salla area!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Volunteer_Corps_(Winter_War)
 
Er, no he can't, as he's, like, Hitler. You know, insane racist nutbar
Exactly. He thinks Slavs are slightly more human than apes (on their good days), & doesn't really want war with Britain (which he thinks are almost as good as Germans, on his good days...). And don't tell me any loony thing Hitler does is ASB.:p For Hitler, ASB is doing the sane thing.:D
 
There's not a chance in hell of a Nazi-UK Axis not after Hitler annexed Austria, the Czechs and Poland. There's no way France and Britain can co-exist with Nazi Germany. Stalin was evil but he was generally sane and pragmatic when it came to issues like war & world politics. Hitler would never stop until he had revenge on France for the Treaty Of Versailles.

The Soviets joined the crave-up of Poland but they mostly taking back land the Poles had taken from them in the first place during the Polish-Soviet war in 1920. Besides the Poles would've done the same thing to Russia if given the chance. :)

The Winter War was a sideshow no-one would jump in except maybe Sweden, Hitler saw the west as the major threat at the time and Soviet bumbleing would reinforce the idea that the USSR would crumble with ease once the Western enimes were dealt with.
 
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