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Sweden maintained its policy of neutrality during World War II.When the war began on 1 September 1939, the fate of Sweden was unclear. But by a combination of its geopolitical location in the Scandinavian Peninsula, realpolitik maneuvering during an unpredictable course of events, and a dedicated military build-up after 1942, Sweden kept its official neutrality status throughout the war.
Finnish soldiers raise the flag at the three-country cairn between Norway, Sweden, and Finland on 27 April 1945, which marked the end of World War II in Finland.. Finland participated in the Second World War initially in a defensive war against the Soviet Union, followed by another, this time offensive, war against the Soviet Union acting in concert with Nazi Germany and then finally fighting ...
Sweden, which had declared itself to be a non-belligerent rather than a neutral country (unlike for the rest of World War II wherein Sweden tried to uphold neutrality), contributed military supplies, cash, credits, humanitarian aid and some 8,700 Swedish volunteers prepared to fight for Finland. The Swedish Army, which had been downsizing its ...
During the war, Sweden's government rejected a total of three formal pleas from Finland's government to engage militarily in Finland's defense against the Soviet Union. Detailed plans for Swedish deployment along Finland's border had been made ten years before, and they were regularly updated in secret contacts between the General Staffs of the ...
Norway and Sweden also feared an influx of Finnish refugees if Finland lost to the Soviets. Fifteen months later, the Swedish government conceded to German demands for transit rights of one division across Sweden for German troops on their way from occupied Norway to Finland to join the German attack on the Soviet Union. [8]
Storlien, Sweden, 1940, German transit traffic Storlien, Sweden, 1940, German transit traffic, alpine riflemen. The matter of German troop transfer through Finland and Sweden during World War II was one of the more controversial aspects of modern Nordic history beside Finland's co-belligerence with Nazi Germany in the Continuation War, and the export of Swedish iron ore during World War II.
To counter the effects of Soviet reinforcements starting to arrive at the war front, Finland asks Sweden to contribute to the war effort with 2 divisions, 20.000 soldiers. Sweden declines, but is willing to raise the roof of the numbers of Swedish volunteers to Finland. Finland explores the option of large scale western intervention in the war.
[6] [7] Finland at the time was only officially allied with Estonia, [8] as Sweden had rejected participation in the anti-Soviet alliance. [9] The casus belli for the Soviet invasion was a claimed Finnish attack against the Russian village of Mainila , although it was later revealed that this was a false flag action conducted by the military of ...