29th December 1944 - Sweden
Abandoning Latin America we return to Europe, but alas fail to stop at the Danube and overshoot Slovakia badly. Instead we come to Northern Europe where a group of evil sociopaths are carrying out a shocking scheme of unparalleled evil and malevolence, but enough about the founders of Ikea we are here to meet King Gustav V. Like us, Prime Minster Hansson is attempting to meet the Monarch in question.
"Where is his majesty?" Hansson asked the butler in the Stockholm Royal Palace
"Hiding in the throne room, cowering under the throne." The butler replied. "He won't let anyone in."
Hansson strode to the throne room and knocked on the door.
"I demand entry to bring news from your government." He shouted.
"I'm busy." Gustav's voice replied. "And it would be an unacceptable breach of neutrality for you to force entry!"
Hansson sighed and repeated his demand for entry, but in a German accent.
The door flew open and a grovelling Gustav appeared. "Come in at once, please take anything you want. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"Works every time." Hansson muttered to himself.
"Ohh, it's you." Gustav had stopped grovelling enough to notice it was his Prime Minister and not an actual German answering.
"Indeed your majesty, now if we can get on with the briefing about your government." Hansson sat down and pulled out a slim file.
The Swedish Government. They just look guilty don't they?
"We have decided the armed services need experienced leadership at this critical time so have made some changes to our senior commanders." Hansson dispensed with small talk.
"Have you finally replaced the Chief of Staff?" Gustav asked.
"No, Carl Gustav Ehrensvärd remains in that role." Hansson said.
"Despite the problems?"
"What problem?" Hansson countered.
"Well the non-existence issue."
"Your majesty, please stop listening to that Carl August Ehrensvärd fraudster. Our Chief of Staff is very real and engaged in an ongoing camouflage demonstration."
"No-one's ever seen him." Gustav pointed out.
"That just proves how good he is." Hansson smugly replied. "We have however brought in Archibald Douglas as Chief of the Army to provide a more visible face."
"I'm not sure about bringing in a Scottish officer at this tense time." Gustav stuttered nervously.
"He is as Swedish as you are your majesty." Hansson reassured him.
"You mean he's half-German." Gustav said reverentially, an ecstatic grin plastered across his face.
"No he's properly Swedish. As Swedish as me." Hansson replied to the suddenly depressed monarch.
"Moving on, the Navy will bring Erik Palmstierna out of retirement. He was navy minister twenty years ago so we hope he knows who swapped the names on HSwMS Gotland and HSwMS Fylgia. We can't have the HSwMS Gotland being a
Flygia-class cruiser and vice-versa, it makes us look stupid."
"I do keep getting mocking letters from other monarchs about that." Gustav sadly nodded.
"In the air we need to call upon one of the founding fathers of the Swedish Air Force to reinvigorate it."
"The very first chief, Karl Amundson!" Gustav said excitedly.
"No, he's too dead." Hansson sadly shook his head.
"His successor, Eric Virgin!"
Hansson shook his head.
"He didn't die in Abyssinia did he?"
"It would have been better if he had, would have made it less shameful."
"So it's Torsten Friis. He knows his telephones and forts I'll admit, but are we sure he's the best we have for the air force?" Gustav asked doubtfully.
"Well he's not dead and he hasn't spectacularly cocked up as military advisor to a conquered state, so he's the best of what's left." Hansson explained.
"Any changes to the civilian side of my government?"
"Per Wijkman has requested he be allowed to adopt a codename during cabinet meetings." Hansson passed over the letter.
"Instead of Per Wijkman he wants to be called Peter G. A. Wijkman." Gustav read. "I'm not an expert, but that seems a terrible codename."
"It was inspired by German coding and security best practice." Hansson said.
"Well in that case it's fine." Gustav signed the document with a flourish.
"We have also appoitned a new Armaments Minister." Hansson moved the meeting on.
"Did you go for Erik Einar Ekstrand? He had some exciting ideas about submarines." Gustav enthused.
"No, he had some exciting ideas about diplomatic sub-committees." Hansson brought out the dictionary and pointed to the relevant words. "We went for Ernst Trygger, he was the best person to push forward our revolutionary Atoms and Jets programme."
"That's Ernst Trygger the ex-Prime Minister?" Gustav asked.
Hansson nodded.
"The dead one?"
"Yes. With him at the helm we will not be wasting any money on a nuclear programme or developing jets."
Gustav nodded at this wisdom.
--
Notes:
Sweden did not suffer as badly as Latin America, but it still didn't go well.
Our issues start with the King himself. Paradox think the King is Gusta
v while the internet insists its Gusta
f. To your undoubted shock I believe Paradox are wrong on this, if only because the Swedish Royal Court side with the 'F' group. I may have very slightly exagerated the pro-German leanings of the King, but basically that was him only more cowardly and with a bit more dodgy blackmail. Also
Terrible Glasses.
PM, Foreign Minister and Head of Intelligence bang on. Per / Peter Wijkman was security related job and was indeed Per, no idea where the G. A. came from.
The Gustav confusion continues as they have given the (correct) chief of staff the wrong middle name, they meant August. Perhaps confused by the Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle? Or just general ineptness.
There was no Minister for the Navy in Sweden, it was abolished in 1920s. Erik P was the last minister who had that job. As mentioned the Swedish OOB is a bit broken and the ship / class names don't match up, another triumph of Paradox research, attention to detail and testing.
Torsten Friis was commander of the field telegraph corps and served in the fortification troops. A natural choice to lead the naescent Swedish airforce, honestly I was all preped for this to be a Paradox cockup but it was in fact a Swedish OTL awful choice. Then again his predecessor was indeed Eric Virgin, a man who enjoyed the jokes about his name so much he quit Sweden in 1934 and was hired by Abyssinia to reform their military. Sadly he spent more time mocking the Italians than actually training the Abyssinian Army, with results we all know.
Archibald Douglas, a wonderfully Swedish name and OTL senior officer. A direct descendant of the Scottish mercenary cavalry officer Robert Douglas, a man who fought so well for Sweden in the Thirty Years war he got promoted to Field Marshall, commanded in all the big battles and ended up a Count with massive estates. Delightfully the family kept up the 'proper' Scottish names even hundreds of years later.
Finally Ernst Trygger, the only corpse in the government. PM in the 20s, quit parliament in 1937, died in 1943. Lawyer, academic and lecturer, his views on nukes an jets are unknown. That said, in OTL Sweden did the IKEA route for jets - buying in 'kits' of engines from USA and UK and getting Volvo to ineptly nail them together. A dead man seems perfect to oversea that, no chance of corruption or wasting money on indigenous R&D.
With this all over, we will be returning to Bratisalva and finally entering 1945!