Warriors of the North said:
Chapter 2.1: June-December 1937
With the events occurring abroad, Sweden continued to put work into improving its military. While the Army was getting the majority of the upgrades (the Gevär m/37 was very well received by the troops), there was serious work being put into forming a native aircraft industry. The new fuel tanks were, unfortunately, incompatible with the old (if reliable) Bulldogs however. And Sweden still lacked a true home-grown fighter design. So, it was decided to look even further abroad for new aircraft.
At the time, the United States was also looking for new fighters to bolster its obsolescent Army Air Corps. Swedish officials managed to be present at a competition between several different fighters, and one stood out that impressed them. The Seversky SEV-1XP (re-branded the P-35 in American service) highly impressed the Swedes, and orders were soon placed for three squadrons to replace the obsolete Bulldogs in Swedish service. New engines and fuel tanks of Swedish design would be fitted to the fighters, along with a new designation: J 9. These fighters were believed to be at least equal (if not superior in firepower) to the BF-109B currently in German service, examples of which having been acquired from surplus Condor Legion stocks as Germany was attempting to replace the B model with more advanced iterations of the 109 design.
[1]
The Seversky P-35 J 9, Sweden's newest fighter.
The Swedish Navy, while receiving little upgrades, was also showing it still had use, if only for keeping an eye on the coastline. A seaplane from the HSwMS
Gotland spotted unidentified ships trying to speed ashore near Stockholm. The
Gotland herself was fairly close by, and managed to intercept the unidentified ships. When the cruiser pulled up alongside, the previously mystery ships hauled up a Latvian flag and their crews started to call out, in Latvian, not to shoot. The crew of the
Gotland reported being more bemused than angry, as Latvians could have just traded regularly in Stockholm, so they merely escorted the ships back to their homeland, leaving a message with the Latvian government to keep a closer eye on their traders.
As this chapter has been focusing on the military branches, it is also worth mentioning that in a move that many considered smart and showing remarkable foresight, Sweden did not sell off or scrap the old Mausers. While the Swedish Army, as a Standing force, lacked any militia units, they started to distribute the old Mausers amongst the men of military age who had yet to be drafted. By doing so, it allowed for quicker arming and training of militia, should things ever come to that point.
It was dearly hoped that this was a move that would just be a sensible precaution...never something truly needed, however. Nonetheless, the old Mausers would continue to find a use serving Sweden, if only as a last resort.
Turning away from internal Swedish issues however, things were bleak. While Europe had calmed down following Sanjuro's victory in Spain, China was becoming a battlefield reminiscent of the worst days of the Great War. The entirety of the northern Republic, and a large part of the eastern Ma Clique, had been occupied by the Japanese. The line had stabilized somewhat around the Communist territory and the Nationalist/Republican
[2] North Line, but it was generally seen as a matter of
when not
if this Line would fall.
Unlike the Spanish Civil War, Sweden was unable to get any officers into China to observe this War however. The only ways into war-torn China were through Japanese territory, the Soviet/Mongolian border, or through China herself. The Japanese were leery of letting Westerners near the front, the Soviets refused any Swedes passage along the Trans-Siberian Railway, and the Chinese were only allowing in those who would help them. So any news on the Chinese front had to come from the Swedish spy network...something that had been gutted in order to bring any and all trained citizens into the various research fields. All the northerners were able to gather was that the Japanese had advanced air-cover, and their troops were far better trained than the Chinese militia, if heavily outnumbered. It was a good example of an army made of lesser numbers, but higher quality, winning a war however...something that was marginally comforting in Stockholm.
The Line was stable when this map was produced, but a breakthrough would see the Republic's capital of Nanjing fall by the end of the year
In news closer to Stockholm, the Germans had decided to stop influencing Sweden to their way of thinking. The Social Democrats in power were too far from the Nazi's in ideology, and it was considered more important in Berlin to get like-minded nations into their camp, such as Hungary. However, instead of going back to the status-quo, Sweden found itself being drawn into the British camp. The Entente, or Allied, powers were mostly just Britain (and the Commonwealth) and France/her colonies at the time. However, Britain had noticed how many nations Germany was attempting to draw into their fold, and was making concerted efforts to draw three nations into her camp.
These three were Italy, Portugal, and Sweden. The Italians, despite walking out of the London Conference, were still at least cordial with the British. And while Mussolini's Fascists were no friends of Democracy, some factions in the Entente/Allies were convinced that the Italians could be used as a bulwark against German expansion towards the Mediterranean. Considering the relations between Hitler and Mussolini, it was probably a foregone conclusion that these efforts would fail...though there remained some hope that the rivalry between the two nations would be enough to sway Italy to the Entente like it had in the Great War.
Portugal was a rather more unique case. The British (or, rather, the English) and the Portuguese have the longest standing alliance in history. However, the Estado Novo government under Salazar in Portugal was more friendly to the Fascists than to the democracies. While Portugal was unwilling to break with the British, the Alliance was more of a non-aggression pact than a true alliance by this period of time.
Finally, there was Sweden...influenced by Germany it may have been, it still had more similarities with the Entente powers than with the fascists and Nazis. So it was perfectly reasonable, and expected even, that it was only a matter of time until the Swedes were fully in that camp. Folklore says that the collective governments of Denmark and Norway breathed a sigh of relief when the Germans gave up on influencing their more powerful neighbor, and the Swedes started to lean towards Britain again.
However, there was still some influence from other nations than Britain persisting in the Swedish government. Gutted it may have been, the spy agency was still able to keep an eye on unusual events in Sweden herself. One such event was an opposition party gaining some financial support from sources outside Sweden. While the nation in question was covering its tracks well, efforts were put into place to investigate the opposition party. There was some backlash against the ruling party, but it was considered necessary for keeping the peace in Sweden.
All of these events left the second-half of 1937 as a very busy year in the world. Sweden would continue to watch these events with some amount of worry, even as the military and industry were upgraded. The final upgrades of the year would arguably be the most important even. While the Air Force was fawning over their new J 9's, the Army and Navy were getting new materials of their own. And both services highly appreciated the importance of these upgrades they were receiving.
For the Army, they gained the first
true tank Brigade in Swedish service. The Germans had refused to sell any of their Panzers, so the Swede's had looked a bit further south. The new nation of Czechoslovakia was quickly making a name for itself in tank production, and were willing to allow the Swedes to produce some of their newest model, the LT vz.34. While the tanks were light in every sense of the word, they were something to support the even lighter armored cars that currently made up the armored portion of the Swedish military.
As for the Navy, they had been working with designers from other nations to produce a true battlecruiser. The
Sveriges were powerful ships, arguably pocket battlecruisers anyway. But they lacked armor, and were too cramped and small for fighting in the open ocean. It was recognized that, if Sweden ever had need to sortie out of the Baltic, that larger ships would be needed. While some called for battleships, or even Aircraft Carriers, it was realized by the more level-headed members of the General Staff that such ships would never fit Sweden's needs. The Air Force was already monopolizing the aircraft industry, and the nation had no experience with battleships. However, the Navy
did have plenty of experience with Cruisers. While BC's were bigger than anything the Swedes had at the time, the principle behind manning them was similar to the existing Heavy Cruisers. Thus, Sweden focused their naval efforts on building battlecruisers to supplant their existing Heavy Cruisers.
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[1]: Historically, the Swedes wouldn't get the Seversky fighters until 1939-1940, when Seversky himself was flying one around Europe in an effort to gain more sales. In this case, I fudged things a little because the Swedes gain the P-35/ J 9 after a certain upgrade set is hit. I happened to hit it in 1937, when the P-35 was actually accepted into American service. Thus the little bit about how the Swedes managed (somehow) to be observing the trials that got the P-35 into service, and buying some on the spot.
[2]: I'm not sure if the Chinese would be called 'Nationalist' Chinese here, considering the name is 'Republic of China' and the 'Nationalist' Spanish just won the Civil War. Granted I could be wrong, but it seemed like it fit to have some confusion on that front.