To What Extent Did Intelligence Contribute to Sweden Maintaining Its Non-Belligerence Throughout World War Two? by Jens Aklundh, George Burnett and Sean Harrison
DISKUSSION & DEBATT To What Extent did Intelligence Contribute to Sweden Maintaining its Non-belligerence throughout World War Two? by Jens Aklundh, George Burnett and Sean Harrison the evolution and activities of the Swed- mentary and entirely overt until the autumn ish intelligence community throughout the of 1939, when the secret G-section was cre- Second World War have been documented ated, headed by Carl Petersén.1 These two by historians, most notably, Wilhelm Carl- departments grew exponentially from 1939 gren and C.G. Mackay, yet the importance to 1942, when a large reorganization of the of intelligence has remained ambiguous. Swedish defense and intelligence commu- The invasion of Poland was a rude awaken- nity occurred. The G-section was renamed ing for the Swedish intelligence services, and the C-bureau, and the cryptanalysis sec- the German invasion of Norway and Den- tion of Adlercreuz’s office was created as a mark in April 1940 caught Sweden wholly separate agency, the FRA.2 Furthermore, all unprepared. Though Sweden was militarily other Swedish Intelligence activities, exclud- and diplomatically limited by the tides of ing the FRA, were now organized under the the war, she successfully managed to remain leadership of Daniel Landquist. Through- outside of the battlefields of Europe. As will out the war, all of Sweden’s intelligence was be demonstrated, Sweden, far from being a under military control. Swedish intelligence pawn the strategic development of the war, remained small by international standards was capable of safeguarding her non-bellig- though it did grow significantly, and was by erence. This was to a certain extent the re- 1945 an experienced community.
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