What if: Rädda Danmark ("Save Denmark") in 1945

What if: Rädda Danmark ("Save Denmark") in 1945

What if the Swedish plans to send troops too liberate eastern Denmark and the island Bornholm during the late phase of the war happen due lets say the war going on for another month ore two.

What would the Swedish invasion look like, this article is a good way to start:

On May 4th 1945 the Swedish army General Major C.A. Ehrensvärd had approved the last decisions concerning the Swedish invasion of eastern Denmark, early planning had started already during christmas 1943. The invasion would be launched at the same time the Allies' would attack western Denmark. A week earlier the American General Major in the Army Air Force Frederick Anderson had visited Sweden and finally managed to talk Per Albin Hansson to take side and join the Allies'. At the same time when Wilson was in Sweden, he followed how Danish infantry units regrouped from Småland and Blekinge (further north) to Skåne. The countdown had begun.

The op "Rädda Danmark" (save Denmark) was part of two operations, "Rädda Själland" and "Rädda Bornholm", Själland is the large island in eastern Denmark where amongst else Copenhagen is situated, and Bornholm is a small island located south of Skåne.

To be able to pull the Op off, according to planning there was a need for 1158 troop transport ships (most of them quite small) and about 100 naval vessels. From the Swedish side the invasion would be led by 3. Army Corp consisting of two divisions (I. and IX.) and 7. motorized brigade, and 8. armoured brigade. To this came numerous independent units and about 4 000 Danish soldiers trained in Sweden. All in all 60 000 soldiers with about 6 000 vehicles. To this came the personell in the Navy and the Air Force.

The opposing force, the Germans occupation force on Själland, consisted of about 28 000 soldiers that had prepared the harbors to be blown up. In Helsingør there was a special ship that would be used to block the harbor, and the harbor in Copenhagen was also prepared in a similar way. The German naval force in Copenhagen consisted of amongst the cruisers Prinz Eugen and Nürnbeg, 4 destroyers and to this mine-sweepers, patrol ships etc.

Swedish and Danish troop concentrations in Skåne had already begun, and the earliest possible date for invasion was set to 18th May 1945. The first wave that would launch an surprise assault in Helsingør would consist of 6 000 men. On the Skåne coast heavy coastal artillery (21 and 15 cm) would give supporting fire, the Swedish Navy Coastal battleships Oscar II and Tapperheten would also give supporting fire. Most of the Swedish Air Force would be based in Skåne and give air cover and attack ground targets.

A Swedish Wikipedia article translated to English

The Swedish general staff devised a plan that included the landing of 60,000 men, mainly on the coasts of the island of Zealand and in a minor operation on the island of Bornholm, with 6,000 motor vehicles and more than 1,100 between ships and small boats, the first wave of landing had to be made up of 6,000 men. The focus of the operation were the ground forces of the 3rd Army Corps, two infantry divisions (I and IX), the 7 Motorized Brigade and 8th Armored Brigade, in addition to the Danske Brigade; This was a composition of Danish leaked nominally trained in Sweden as a police force of about 4,800 actual, including women, and its own air and naval component; The Swedish Air Force was moved to the south to support the operation; in front of a force of 28,000 Germans supported by a substantial naval squadron, including the ' heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, the' light cruiser Nürnberg, 4 destroyers, 4 minesweepers, 2 mine-laying, twenty patrol boats and four auxiliary cruisers.

When planning was under way the Swedish general staff realized it could not intervene at the same time also in Norway, in what was meant to be in the initial operation Rädda Norske (Save Norway) and planning was then limited only to Denmark. It was provided an articulation into two distinct operations one of which called Rädda SJALLAND and the other Rädda Bornholm. The operation was also designed to cancel the effect on international public opinion by the Swedish neutrality, and despite the lukewarm public support for the country. The greatest Malcolm Murray of Staff Swedish drafted a memorandum on operational mode where it was concluded that to avoid to the maximum the bloodshed had to block the German resistance in SJALLAND with a numerical preponderance and an aerial and naval superiority.

The landing had been thought to be made of normal beaches as well as from some ports, and the main port had to be that of Elsinore ; for both the shallowness of the Danish waters and the lack of specific equipment by Swedish the bulk of the troops had to be transported on small boats and landing should have been made quickly so as not to expose themselves to a possible German counterattack. It was also designed a Swedish variant of artificial harbors Mulberry used by the Allies during the Normandy landings. The heavy material would be transferred by crane barges for unloading.

The approval was given on May 4th, setting the date to May 18th. The coastal artillery installations with cannons 150 mm and 210 mm would have to support the landing with the old Swedish coastal battleships Oscar II and Tapperheten (the Aran class) with cannons 210 mm

Maps of the Swedish plans to liberate eastern Denmark and the island Bornholm

Map I

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Map II
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Map III
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Map IV
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Archibald

Banned
Ah cool, Sweden kicking the nazi arse to the rescue of their Danes cousins. I like it. How big was Flygvapnet by 1945 ? SAAB rule the skies ! (and roads, for that matter)
 
POD the first week of May 1945: a damaged British bomber crash-lands on Bornholm.
The next day, the German garrison commander drags the RAF pilot out of his hospital bed. The British lieutenant hobbles into the town square on crutches to accept the German surrender.
Since the garrison surrendered to a WALLIE officer, Russians have no excuse to bombard or invade the island.

Meanwhile, a few .... thousand .... Swedish soldiers remove Swedish insignia from their uniforms. They quietly sneak ashore in civilian clothes, into Eastern Danish ports. Danish dockworkers get the crews of German block ships really really really drunk. Local hookers and pickpockets and smugglers help.
German garrisons wake up to tons of trash blocking garrison gates.
Visiting "Danish" troops raise Danish flags to march in victory parades. A free days later they quietly sail home.
 
Would the Germans surrender to Swedish troops, they are not the allies.
They are also not Russians -- thinking of the number of German units that moved west as fast as they could once Berlin was encircled so they could surrender to the Wallies rather than the Soviets.

This is a wonderful topic to bring up; thank you for doing so. It's a fascinating situation to game out and a fascinating plan that's always seemed to me one of the more interesting wrinkles in the later part of the war. Also a reminder how much policy preferences have inertia over time: Radda Danmark (and the larger plan re: Norway) sound very much like 1814, stepping out from neutrality to ensure being on what's clearly now the winning side to serve Swedish national interests. But with Radda Danmark (more in some ways I think than the Norwegian operation) there's an element of genuine fellow-feeling to it, that this was a contained, focused war that the Swedes were ready to fight for the sake of their neighbor (who was also, conveniently, just far enough west to not get Sweden tangled up in frustrating Moscow's ambitions, always the other concern for Swedish policy.)
 
Would the Germans surrender to Swedish troops, they are not the allies.
As yes says they not the USSR, would they even have to surrender? Sweden isn't at war so could justify doing a deal like escorting them off Bornholm and letting then head west or letting then be interned in return for cooperation?
 
Here is some more information about the Swedish armed forces in 1945:

Swedish army


The Swedish army had ten divisions, one motorized brigade, three armored brigades and one bicycle brigade. Especially the anti-aircraft units had grown in strength during the war. As you can see it was mostly an infantry army, the armor Sweden had was light and bad, but then on the other hand the Germans didn't have Tigers or anything in Denmark anyway. AT-weaponry was bad as well, no Panzerfausts or anything like that.

Swedish Air Force


There were three main plane types in service, with hundreds in service of this alone. In May 1945 the Swedish Air Force had 790 war planes, of which 580 could be used immediately for operative missions.

FFVS J 22 (fighter plane)
SAAB 17 (light dive bomber, recon)
SAAB 18 (medium bomber, recon)

In terms of combat worth of especially J 22 vs. late war German fighters the Luftwaffe would have blown the Swedes of the sky in no time. The Swedish fighters were limited by amongst else weak engines and not having the same high-octane fuel as the Axis' and Allies'. However this late in the war there were no Luftwaffe simply over Denmark, if there would indeed have been battle I can imagine that the SAAB 17/18s would have been quite busy with strafing enemy targets.

Swedish Navy


The Swedish Navy consisted of seven armored battle ships (of which four were obsolete), four cruisers, 24 destroyers, 26 submarines, 42 minesweepers, 20 motor torpedo boats, and six special ships. Two cruisers and two large destroyers were under construction.
 
I am picturing a war similar to the Bagladeshi War for Independence in 1971. The Indian Army only stayed long enough to thrash the Pakistani Army. As soon as Bangladeshi police and politicians asserted control, the Indian Army went home.

In this alt-history thread, it does not matter whether Bornholm's (German) garrison surrendered to a wounded British pilot, the Swedish Army or a junior-grade Danish officer.
The end result is the same, with Swedish soldiers returning home a few weeks later.
The greatest advantage is no civilian casualties caused by Russian shelling.
 
Here is some more information about the Swedish armed forces in 1945:

Swedish army


The Swedish army had ten divisions, one motorized brigade, three armored brigades and one bicycle brigade. Especially the anti-aircraft units had grown in strength during the war. As you can see it was mostly an infantry army, the armor Sweden had was light and bad, but then on the other hand the Germans didn't have Tigers or anything in Denmark anyway. AT-weaponry was bad as well, no Panzerfausts or anything like that.

Swedish Air Force


There were three main plane types in service, with hundreds in service of this alone. In May 1945 the Swedish Air Force had 790 war planes, of which 580 could be used immediately for operative missions.

FFVS J 22 (fighter plane)
SAAB 17 (light dive bomber, recon)
SAAB 18 (medium bomber, recon)

In terms of combat worth of especially J 22 vs. late war German fighters the Luftwaffe would have blown the Swedes of the sky in no time. The Swedish fighters were limited by amongst else weak engines and not having the same high-octane fuel as the Axis' and Allies'. However this late in the war there were no Luftwaffe simply over Denmark, if there would indeed have been battle I can imagine that the SAAB 17/18s would have been quite busy with strafing enemy targets.

Swedish Navy


The Swedish Navy consisted of seven armored battle ships (of which four were obsolete), four cruisers, 24 destroyers, 26 submarines, 42 minesweepers, 20 motor torpedo boats, and six special ships. Two cruisers and two large destroyers were under construction.

Agreed for the most part except two: the 57mm bofors AT gun was an excellent one, like the british one and would be able to deal with anything up to a modernized Panzer IV, perhaps a panther. And the J22 was recognized by the americans as a excellent plane and more than a match for Mustang P51 and FW 190 at low and medium altitude. Plus the germans acknowledge that the swedish pilots were very well trained: against poorly trained german pilots in 1944-1945, the fight would be in favour of the Swedes in the air. Plus in Norway, the german tanks are a sad joke: only french Somua and a few stugs III. All the divisions, except one or two were fortress divisions or luftwaffe. If you add the norwegian resistance able to arm 25 000 or even 30 000, Sweden would have been able to crush the Germans in Norway within weeks, except for naval bases like Trondheim which would have turn like Lorient or Saint Nazaire OTL. As for Denmark, dunno, I've heard (maybe I'm wrong) that the amphibious capacities of the Swedes were very low.
 
Agreed for the most part except two: the 57mm bofors AT gun was an excellent one, like the british one and would be able to deal with anything up to a modernized Panzer IV, perhaps a panther. And the J22 was recognized by the americans as a excellent plane and more than a match for Mustang P51 and FW 190 at low and medium altitude. Plus the germans acknowledge that the swedish pilots were very well trained: against poorly trained german pilots in 1944-1945, the fight would be in favour of the Swedes in the air. Plus in Norway, the german tanks are a sad joke: only french Somua and a few stugs III. All the divisions, except one or two were fortress divisions or luftwaffe. If you add the norwegian resistance able to arm 25 000 or even 30 000, Sweden would have been able to crush the Germans in Norway within weeks, except for naval bases like Trondheim which would have turn like Lorient or Saint Nazaire OTL. As for Denmark, dunno, I've heard (maybe I'm wrong) that the amphibious capacities of the Swedes were very low.
Do not forget the so called 15,000 strong Norwegian police troops in Sweden.
 
If the end of the war is imminent, why carry out such an operation and risk Swedish lives other than to deny that territory to the Soviets?
 
Operation Rädda Danmark was, unfortunately, the navy's pipe dream.

Sweden at this time had no landing ships at all. The crossing was supposed to be done in converted trawlers.

Lieutenant Colonel Karl Wärnberg, the army's planner for the operation, kept pestering the Chief of the Navy, Admiral Fabian Tamm with the question "How do we get ashore?" over and over and over and over again. The navy could never answer that - Sweden did not have the capacity to land against defended beaches, and the plans remained plans because of it.

Operation Rädda Norge, on the other hand, was a much more realistic thing.
 
The easiest way to do this, are if the Swedes contact the German authorities in secret in April, and simply negotiate a deal, where they land their troops with ferries and the Germans just surrender. Why should the Germans fight the Swedes? I would choose a Swedish prison camp over Allied one whether Western or Soviet any day of the week. The Swedes sends a signal to USSR, the Danish governmewnt get a faster control over it territory and the Germans can deal with the German-friendly Swedes instead of more hostile powers.
 
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