NR 3 JULI/OKTOBER 2010 The Swedish Submarine Issue by Bengt Gustafsson most people probably have local legends The year before, the last Swedish destroy- from time to time that give a different pic- er in service, HMS Halland, had been de- ture than the official one of troublesome ployed against a couple of submarines that events, such as the one that exists in the were discovered in the outer Stockholm ar- United States that it was, in actual fact, chipelago in September. One of them acted President Bush who was behind 9/11. The in the manner we had grown used to, i.e. reason for these backlashes is generally ide- it headed out towards international waters alistic differences of a religious or political when it noticed that it had been detected, nature regarding the complicated state of although it did not come up to the surface affairs or preconceptions about a person, so that its nationality could be determined, an occupation, or an institution. which it should have done in In Sweden, we have the subma- The Truth is in line with our regulations con- rine issue. The Swedish armed the Eye of the cerning the admission to Swed- forces assert that, from the mid- Beholder ish territory of foreign naval dle of the 1970’s until autumn vessels. The other one, on the 1992, Sweden was subjected to other hand, remained in Swed- specific violations by foreign submarines ish waters and began a cat-and-mouse game far into our waters, including in the direc- with the helicopters and destroyer that were tion of our naval bases. There was only one deployed. In so doing, it demonstrated a occasion where it was obvious even to the manoeuvrability not previously witnessed. layman which nation was responsible for A few depth charges were discharged when the incursion, i.e. the Soviet Whiskey class there were new indications, but without any submarine which, on the morning of 28 visible results. October 1981, was discovered after it had It was in 1982, also in the autumn, and run aground in the eastern part of the Karl- once more from the Stockholm archipelago skrona Naval Base in southern Sweden. An that the alarm was raised about suspected event that gave rise to newspaper headlines, submarines. This was an alarm that was to like ‘Whiskey on the Rocks’, throughout lead to weapons being repeatedly deployed the English-speaking world. In Sweden, this against indications of foreign underwater is known as U-137-incidenten (the U-137 activity. This anti-submarine operation came incident) after the name temporarily given to be ‘christened’ The Hårsfjärden incident to submarine S-363 by the Soviet Union for after the place where some of these indica- the operation. tions had appeared. The Swedish Navy unit 64 DISKUSSION & DEBATT called the Berga Navy School was situated identify the Soviet Union as responsible for at Hårsfjärden. For logistical reasons, the the violations, based on existing indications, international press was then able to follow and stated that possible aims were intelli- the anti-submarine operations at close quar- gence activity and/or training and exercises. ters. Would we once again get to see a Soviet The report led to the Palme Government submarine? The weapons deployed did not immediately presenting a note to the Soviet lead to any underwater craft being forced ambassador in Stockholm, in which it ex- to the surface on this occasion either. This plained that the Government had no infor- was actually the task the Swedish Navy had mation to contradict the conclusions of the been given. During later incidents, the order commission. The wording was also such that was changed to sink the underwater craft. the Politburo could choose to reply that it All of this was followed by an extensive had not, unfortunately, had any knowledge investigation of the seabed, during which of what its military organizations had been tracks from caterpillar treads were found at up to. The Soviet Union, however, rejected a couple of different places, indicating that the allegation, which could in fact have been small craft had been involved in the enemy predicted. The Soviet Union had previously operation. It was estimated that, in total, officially explained the U-137’s appearance a handful of submarines were involved in in the Blekinge archipelago as being due to this, one of which was a so-called ‘mother defective navigational aids, resulting in a submarine’ to the smaller vessels. Following navigational error. these events, the Swedish Navy began to re- Even before then, a rumour had begun to view warnings of suspected submarine vio- spread about what had actually happened lations and then discovered that violations during the Hårsfjärden incident. This re- of this new type had probably begun in the ferred to the events that took place at the middle of the 1970’s. Among other things, a end of the incident further south, where a mine had been removed from a permanent permanent minefield was located at an island minefield in the vicinity of a naval base at called Mälsten. In March 1983, a Swedish Sundsvall in central Norrland. business publication, Dagens Industri, pub- A parliamentary commission was also lished an article alleging that a West Ger- appointed to examine what had happened man submarine was intentionally released and given the task of proposing measures from Mälsten, where it had been penned in. for strengthening the Swedish capacity to People – journalists, authors, and politicians protect itself against these violations: the – generally with strong left-wing sympathies 1983 Submarine Defence Commission, gradually began to question whether there chaired by the former Social Democratic had actually been any submarine violations defence and foreign minister Sven Anders- at all apart from the U-137. They began to son. Among those on the commission was speak of ‘budget submarines’.3 Doubts grew Carl Bildt, who was then the foreign policy after another incident in the winter of 1984, spokesman for the Moderate Party. Follow- this time within the Karlskrona Naval Base. ing a press conference on 26 April, the com- The deployment of weapons produced no mission submitted a report to the Govern- visible results this time either. ‘If there actu- ment: SOU 1983: 13: Att möta ubåtshotet ally were submarines there, why were none [Countering the Submarine Threat].2 of them sunk? Surely, our navy can’t be that The commission believed that it could bad?’ In the early summer of 1984, the Su- 65 NR 3 JULI/OKTOBER 2010 preme Commander of the Swedish armed nevertheless, to take place in the autumn, forces at the time, Lennart Ljung, men- after which the latter – after a period as tioned for the first time in his diary the ru- minister of education – became ambassador mour that it had actually been U.S. subma- to our neighbouring country, Norway. rines that were involved at Hårsfjärden and As usual, Olof Palme chose to go on the that a damaged U.S. submarine had been offensive in his defence of Bodström. He towed out through the Öresund strait (the accused the opposition of having breached Sound) shortly after the incident. The Soviet the agreed security policy, and, despite all Union, whose propaganda machine had ini- party leaders saying during a debate in the tially concentrated on U-137’s ‘navigational Swedish Parliament that they were totally error’ and also on the Swedish Navy chas- behind Palme’s foreign policy declaration ing ‘ghosts’, promptly took advantage of in the statement of Government policy, he the rumours that it had actually been U.S. persisted in his criticism. Also, as usual, he submarines that were involved and urged thereby, turned the majority of the Swedish us to sink them. The Soviet disinformation news debate into dealing with the disagree- campaign was still going on at the beginning ment on the policy of neutrality instead of of the 1990’s. what Bodström had actually said. Along with earlier politically contentious issues A Split on the Domestic Front connected to the submarine issue, which I will not bore the foreign reader with, this When taking office, which incidentally took domestic foreign policy, so typical of Palme, place right in the middle of the Hårsfjärden created a political split on the submarine is- incident, Prime Minister Olof Palme had sue, which the armed forces were dragged appointed a trade union chairman as for- into. This must have astonished the rest of eign minister in his Government. (Palme, the world as such a major ordeal, which the no doubt, wanted to personally deal with incursions were for the officially militarily the most important part of foreign policy.) non-aligned state, should instead have led In 1985, Lennart Bodström, the new for- to national unity, such as that which existed eign minister, attended a dinner arranged by at the beginning of his period of Govern- Swedish journalists at one of Sweden’s larg- ment when Palme appointed the 1983 par- est morning newspapers, the liberal Dagens liamentary commission.5 He also publicly Nyheter. The journalists represented several and loudly criticized Carl Bildt for putting different right-wing newspapers. According a strain on the policy of neutrality by im- to the journalists, during a question-and-an- mediately travelling to Washington after the swer session, Bodström made it known that, commission’s press conference. This was an on his part, he ‘did not believe we had had unnecessary attack, which the others in the any submarine incursions, and if they had, party’s leadership perhaps regretted, as Carl they were not Soviet ones’.4 When Bod- Bildt became better known to the public as ström’s opinion was printed in the news- a politician thanks to this.