Was Sweden’s defense doctrines correct?
Were installations like those on Hemsön correctly positioned?
As several former Warsaw Pact countries are now NATO members, there is quite a bit of information available on how plans for an attack on Western Europe were developed. However, aside from Denmark and Skåne, it was Russia that was responsible for the Nordic countries. This means that there isn’t as much detailed knowledge today about plans for Sweden.
During a war, a key objective was to secure a free path for the fleet. Therefore, Denmark and Skåne were prioritized in the south, and in the north, the passage Norge-Island-UK (see more below) was important so that the extensive fleet forces in Murmansk could access the Atlantic.
Based on the information gathered after the Cold War, the plans align quite well with how Sweden’s defense was structured. The land route via Finland, Boden, Kiruna towards Narvik was a main route, and landings in the Härnösand area and Gävle were planned to swiftly advance and secure the Norwegian coast.
Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /data/7/0/70ffe675-feac-41d4-b2c4-4da3213114e6/hemsofastning.se/sub/en/wp-content/plugins/elementor/includes/base/widget-base.php on line 223
Warning: Undefined array key -1 in /data/7/0/70ffe675-feac-41d4-b2c4-4da3213114e6/hemsofastning.se/sub/en/wp-content/plugins/elementor/includes/base/controls-stack.php on line 695
The GIUK Gap is a term referring to the passages between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic, and it stands for Greenland–Iceland–United Kingdom. It is primarily a military term stemming from NATO’s military strategy during the Cold War, which was based on stopping the Soviet Union’s Northern Fleet at these passages in the event of war. No Soviet warships or combat aircraft were to be allowed to pass into the North Atlantic to threaten the vital sea routes between America and Europe.