User:Realpolitik agenda/Winter war

This page is about the effects on Sweden, during and following the, sub-conflict of the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union, during World War II.

The Winter War 30 November 1939 - 12 March 1940

Impact on domestic politics
The Liberal, Conservative and Agrarian parties were concerned about a perceived threat from the Soviet Union and were more favorably disposed towards Finland than the Social Democrats were. Among the latter, a certain wariness from the Finnish Civil War still lingered. The Communists, on the other hand, were loyal to the Soviet Union, and supported its Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Germany. However, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, they swung around to a pro-Allied view.

At the outbreak of the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union in November 1939, Sweden declared itself to be ”non-belligerent” in regard to that particular conflict, actively siding with Finland. This allowed Sweden to aid Finland economically, and with armaments. Sweden and Finland also laid minefields in the Sea of Åland to deter Soviet submarines from entering the Gulf of Bothnia.

The defense of Finland
When the Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939, many Swedes favored some sort of involvement in the conflict, both on a humanitarian and military basis. Sweden's interest in Finland lay in the fact that Finland had been an integrated part of Sweden for more than six hundred years, with Sweden losing control of its eastern provinces in 1809. Despite several pleas from the Finnish government, the Swedish government chose not to engage militarily when the Red Army advanced during the Winter War. However, Sweden was declared a "non-belligerent" rather than neutral during the conflict and accepted that as many as 8,000 Swedes voluntarily went to Finland. The Swedish government and public also sent food, clothing, medicine, weapons and ammunition to aid the Finns during the Winter War, but avoided direct military involvement. The military aid included:
 * 135,402 rifles, 347 machine guns, 450 light machine guns with 50,013,300 rounds of small arms ammunition;
 * 144 field guns, 100 anti-aircraft guns and 92 anti-armor guns with 301,846 shells;
 * 300 sea mines and 500 depth charges;
 * 17 fighter aircraft, 5 light bombers and 3 reconnaissance aircraft.

Twelve of Sweden's most modern fighter aircraft, Gloster Gladiators, were flown by volunteer Swedish pilots under Finnish insigninas, which was one third of the Sweden's fighter force at the time. In addition, some 70,000 Finnish children were sent to safety from Finland to Sweden during the 1940s.

February crisis of 1940
Within a month, the Soviet leadership began to consider abandoning the operation, and on 29 January 1940, via intermediaries in Sweden, Finland's government was approached on the subject of preliminary peace negotiations. Until this point, Finland had fought for its existence as an independent and democratic country. However, at the news that Finland might be forced to cede its territory or sovereignty, public opinion in France and Britain, already favorable to Finland, swung in favor of intervention. When rumors of an armistice reached governments in Paris and London, both decided to offer military support.

On the 1 February, the Finnish president Risto Ryti met with Swedish prime minister Per Albin Hansson to request Swedish support. Finland asks for two divisions from the regular Swedish army, 20.000 men. The Swedish reply is that a reacessment of the neutrality is out of the question, but that it is willing to raise the roof of the number of voulonteers to Finland from 8.000 to 12.000. This proposal is totally insufficient for the Finnish needs, and as a result, Finland starts to consider an intervention by the Western Allies.

Potential Allied invasion

 * Main article: Winter War: Franco-British Plans for Intervention

Franco-British support was offered on the condition their armed forces be given free passage through neutral Norway and Sweden instead of taking the difficult passage from Petsamo. It was alleged by some that French and British governments sought to occupy the iron ore districts in Kiruna and Malmberget. (Borders as of 1920–1940.)In February 1940, the Allies offered to help: the Allied plan, approved on 4–5 February by the Allied High Command, consisted of 100,000 British and 35,000 French troops that were to disembark at the Norwegian port of Narvik and support Finland via Sweden while securing supply routes along the way. Plans were made to launch the operation on 20 March under the condition that the Finns first make a formal request for assistance (this was done to avoid German charges that the Franco-British forces constituted an invading army). On 2 March, transit rights were officially requested from the governments of Norway and Sweden. It was hoped that Allied intervention would eventually bring the two still neutral Nordic countries, Norway and Sweden, to the Allied side by strengthening their positions against Germany — although Hitler had by December declared to the Swedish government that Western troops on Swedish soil would immediately provoke a German invasion.

However, only a small fraction of the Western troops were intended for Finland. Proposals to enter Finland directly, via the ice-free harbour of Petsamo, had been previously dismissed. There was speculation in some diplomatic quarters, encouraged by German sources, that the true objective of the operation was to occupy the Norwegian shipping harbour of Narvik and the vast mountainous areas of the north-Swedish iron ore fields, from which the Third Reich received a large share of its iron ore, critical to war production. If the governments of France and Britain later broke their pledge not to seize territory or assets in Norway and Sweden, and Franco-British troops later moved to halt exports to Germany, the area could become a significant battleground between the Allies and the Germans.

End of the Winter War
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