Transit of German Troops Through Finland and Sweden - Timeline

Timeline

Originating from http://www.lysator.liu.se/nordic/scn/faq736.html

• April 9, 1940, The invasion of Denmark and Norway
  • Sweden accepts German demands for import and export of products to/from Norway as before — i.e. no war material.

• April 16, 1940
  • Food and oil supplies permitted transport to northern Norway to "save the population from starvation" after the war had emptied the reserves.
  • Troops, including 40 "red-cross soldiers" were denied transit

• April 18, 1940
  • The 40 "red-cross soldiers" were accepted for transit together with a train loaded with sanitary material. However when this turned out to contain 90% food, according to the Swedish customs, further requests for transit of "sanitary material" were rejected.

• April to June, 1940
  • Norway protests that Sweden is taking the neutrality too seriously, expecting more support for Norway.
  • German civil sailors were given individual transit visa.
  • Wounded soldiers were transported through Sweden, and 20 further "red-cross soldiers" and a physician were allowed to pass together with five wagons with food stuff.

• June 18, 1940
  • As the war in Norway was finished, German demands for transit were repeated with greater emphasis. The Swedish parliament did formally modify the neutrality policy according to the German demands. (The United Kingdom and France were informed before the parliament debate.)

• July 7, 1940
  • Sweden's Prime Minister admits the transit in a public speech in Ludvika.

• July 8, 1940
  • Swedish agreement with Nazi Germany formalized:
    • 1 daily train (500 man) back and forth Trelleborg–Kornsjø
    • 1 weekly train (500 man) back and forth Trelleborg–Narvik

  The agreement with Germany was later expanded.

• July 9, 1940
  • The Soviet Union demands troop transfer rights through Finland

• July 15, 1940
  • Protests from Norway's exile Cabinet, and from the United Kingdom's government, against Swedish concessions for German demands.

• August, 1940
  • After the Soviet occupation of the Baltic Republics, they are annexed to the Soviet Union, making the Soviet Union a dominant power at the Baltic Sea beside the Third Reich.

• August 18, 1940
  • A German envoy agree on troop transfer rights with Finland's leadership:
    • The Wehrmacht is granted rights to use
      • the ports of Vaasa, Oulu, Kemi and Tornio.
    • rail lines from the ports to Ylitornio and Rovaniemi.
    • roads from Ylitornio and Rovaniemi to Northern Norway, and to establish depots along the roads.
  • The agreement was later expanded to include the port of Turku.

• September 6, 1940
  • The troop transfer treaty between Finland and the Soviet Union is signed:
    • Soviet Union can use rail lines from the Soviet border to Hanko.
    • Only three trains are allowed to be simultaneously in Finland.

• April 1941
  • As the German plans for an attack on Russia were taken seriously by the Swedish government, it was discussed between the Cabinet and the Commander-in-chief how Sweden could react in case of a war between Germany, Finland and Russia.
    • The Commander-in-chief warned of the danger of a continued policy of neutrality, which could provoke German anger and occupation. Plans for cooperation with Germany and Finland were made.
    • Individual Cabinet members considered cooperation with the Soviet Union, however this was fiercely rejected by a large cabinet majority.

• Midsummer, 1941
  • In connection with Germany's attack on Russia on Midsummer's Day 1941, Sweden had its most serious cabinet crisis:
    • June 22, 1941, with Operation Barbarossa the German invasion of the Soviet Union starts.
      • Germany demanded to transit the fully armed division Engelbrecht (163. inf. div) from Norway to Finland.
    • June 23, 1941
      • The Cabinet discuss the requested transit of one armed division (Division Engelbrecht) from northern Norway to northern Finland. Agrarians, Liberals and the Right supported acceding to the combined Finnish-German request. Some Social Democrats opposed it.
      • The king declared "he would not be a party of giving a negative answer to Finland's and Germany's request", which was tactically cited by the prime minister in terms of a threat of abdication. It has not been decisively shown whether the prime minister's interpretation was purely tactical, or if he in fact had perceived an honest intention to consider abdication on the part of the king, but the prime minister's record and personality speak for the tactical-theory.
    • June 24, 1941
      • The Social Democratic parliament group decides, with the votes 72-59, to try to convince the other parties for a rejection, but to agree in case they insisted.
      • The other parties seemed prepared to split the Cabinet.
    • June 25, 1941
      • The Swedish government accepts the transit of Division Engelbrecht.

• June 25, 1941
  • Soviet Union stages a major air assault with 460 planes against Finnish targets.
  • Finnish government issues a statement that Finland is at war, the Continuation War.

• July 9, 1941
  • The German Troop transporter Tannenberg, Preussen and Hansestadt Danzig are sunk by Swedish mines in Swedish water outside southern Öland. 200 Germans drowned.

• July 11, 1941
  • Finland's official ambitions for a Greater Finland become known abroad with the publication of Mannerheim's Order of the Day of July 10, the so-called Sword Scabbard Declaration.
  • New demands on transit of an armed division from Trelleborg to Tornio.

• following weeks of July 1941
  • Public attitudes in Sweden to Finland's and Germany's demands grew less and less favorable.
  • Troop transit is proposed in Swedish waters along the Swedish coast with Swedish escort.

• autumn of 1941
  • Several requests for neutrality-violating exports and transits are rejected during the following autumn.

In 1943, as Germany's prospects began to wane, Swedish public opinion turned against the agreement, and pressure from Britain and the USA mounted, the Swedish Cabinet declared on June 29, 1943 that the transits had to stop before October 1943. On August 5, it was officially announced that the transits were to cease.