Would the Nazis eventually invade Sweden?

[usertron2020]

The Nazi's seriously planned an invasion of Sweden in order to get there iron ore sources in case the Swedish government refused.
But the swedish government not stopped export of iron ore to The Third Reich, so the invasion plans were postponed to ward "the Final victory" (1)

Hitler talk in several occasion about " incorporate" Sweden and Swiss into The Third Reich. what imply invasion...

Problem: The Swedish iron ore mines were in the far north and set for long term demolition were they to be invaded by the Nazis. They also had a pretty good and large army. Though whether they properly mobilized and deployed such an army in time to face the invaders IDK. WWII was filled with examples of countries with sizable armies that collapsed due to political feebleness (frex, Yugoslavia, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium).

Since the main goal in invading Sweden is the iron mines invading the country during WWII is self-defeating.

1) Actually, IIRC, and you are free to correct me if I am wrong, Sweden cut off the tap for iron ore to Nazi Germany right around the time of the Liberation of Paris, by which time the Nazis were in no position to do anything about it.

The Heer garrison in Norway was equipped for, and pointed at, repelling an Allied amphibious invasion.

Also, if Hitler had tried anyway, the Swedish Army was strong enough to stop them long enough to allow a now switched sides Finnish Army to cross the border to occupy the iron mines which were right across the border (almost) from Finland.

If the Finns are not enough, the Soviet Army lurked right behind them. If the Soviets were not enough, the Germans had to face the possible prospects of British troops landing in a now denuded German garrison in Norway. And if the Germans reinforce Norway too, then either Market-Garden is a success, or the Soviets cross the Vistula River and liberate Warsaw months sooner, or both!

 

[Driftless]

About the only way I could see a German military invasion happen is if all of the points below lined up:
* Britain falls in 1940
* The Germans only immediate enemy in continental Europe is the Soviets, but not quite yet...
* The Swedes are functionally surrounded by the Germans or the Soviets.
* Sweden becomes a spot of festering resistance (Norwegian, Danes, Poles, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, anti-Nazi Germans) that neither the Swedish government, nor Nazi security forces are able to snuff out.
* Non-military "leverage" does not subvert the Swedes
** Then, the Germans might tighten up their backyard.

*OR*

* The Soviets drove through Southern Finland and kept going into Sweden. That would be a pretty radical development, and I could see the Germans stepping in whether the Swedes liked it, or not.

There were Swedish politicians and business leaders that were German leaning, even if not Nazi leaning; at least up to the invasions of Denmark & Norway. Sweden had a long useful trade relationship with Germany, and centurys of distrust and warfare with the Russians/Soviets. The invasion of Denmark & Norway caused some moral outrage for many Swedes and while they played a skillful game of neutrality, I'd bet there were many Swedes who felt they were trapped in between a bear and a werewolf.

 

[Rubicon]

And Swedish members of the SS if "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" has any basis in fact. Certainly there were Swedish volunteers who fought for the Finns.

There were about 200-250 Swedish Waffen-SS volunteers overall and about 1300 volunteers in Finland during the continuation war.

 

[wcv215]

Again, if German victory is on the table I don't see why it would be impossible that all the officers who were willing to stop Hitler could not have stayed alive and gravitated to positions where they are useful in stopping him? If the war goes on schedule there are no attempts during the fight. If they are lucky they stay alive and undetected.

If for example Rommel was told about generalplan ost and lake moscow I think he wouldve sided with gassing the SS and Hitler at their own victory celebration.

The officers who tried to assassinate Hitler in 1944 were trying to stave off total destruction of Germany, because they were losing the war, and please remember they were a small minority. With Germany still (seemingly) going to endless victories this motivation would not have appeared. There is no reason to think that after a victory on the Eastern Front (and this is the only way the Nazis would ever be in a position to invade Sweden post-war) they would still try to overthrow the Nazis, at least not until it was too late. Is it impossible, of course not. That doesn't make the events probable though.

In the aftermath of victory the Nazi party would have defanged the military and replaced it with the SS, because the traditional army was viewed as being politically unreliable. Whatever the German officers views on Generalplan Ost, and the gist of it was available for anyone to see by the 1920s, is irrelevant because none of them would be a position to actually do anything about it. As for Rommel in particular, remember that despite the myth that has built up around him he was not willing to actively aid the conspiracy against Hitler, he just didn't report them, and this was as Germany was facing near certain destruction in the war.