This will be interesting! A minor nitpick though: the Swedish army didn't really consider the Torne river important and was not planning on using it as a line of defense to any great extent. Since the population up here is so sparse, almost all the the troops allocated to the defense of this part of the country (and in the 1980's we're talking at least 4-5 infantry brigades, two independent tank battalions, quite a bit of artillery, plus a whole bunch of independent ranger battalions) would have to be transported from the south and as such the mobilization was expected to take several days. Because of this the Torne river was considered to be "a bridge too far" to defend - the Home Guard group commanders up there were authorized to blow up the bridges on their own authority, but after that they were expected to only make some token delaying actions before fading into the forest. Instead the real defense in depth started one river further west, at the Kalix river. There the military spent a lot of effort on fixed fortifications, the "Kalix line", with several artillery forts blasted into mountaintops (using old naval guns from decommissioned ships), tank traps, bunkers, road sections prepared for demolition, etc etc.There was also a secondary line of defense even further west, along the Lule river. The zone of operations only really stretched as far north as Gällivare; north of there the infrastructure did not allow for anything but independent ranger forces with very little heavy equipment. The main objective of the Swedish forces up here would be to hold Boden. It is and was an important garrison town but also housed the air defense center for the region and it sits on a railway junction that is the main connection to the rest of the country. Losing Boden would mean having to give up everything north of it because everything would be supplied from there. The Soviet objective was expected to be the Norwegian harbors and probably the railway line Luleå-Narvik. Before 1984 there was no road Kiruna-Narvik (current E10), only the railroad (the Iron Ore Line). You touched on it, but it's worth noting that the Swedish army counted on the Soviets trying to break through and push past the Swedish lines; the Swedish forces had standing orders that any unit that was isolated or behind enemy lines was to immediately transition to the "independent war" (sv. "fria kriget"). The chain of command was generally highly decentralized since the planners greatly feared a scenario like that in Norway or Denmark in April 1940. The propaganda stated for decades that "any message that claims the mobilization has been cancelled is false", and later "any message that claims the resistance has ended is false". If the mobilization order was given the entire system would start rolling on its own and be very hard to stop.
As you mentioned, the Swedish pilots were expected to perform better than the Soviet pilots. The Swedish Airforce trained their pilots hard. Not without losses. Huge losses. The training enviroment were to be as realistic as possible. That resulted in a lot of losses of both pilots and aircrafts. During the cold war Sweden lost 550 pilots. A Big number for the size of Sweden. Especially in peacetime. I believe it is one of the most lost in peacetime. I think the West Germany had a similar experience with their losses of Starfighters and pilots due to their hard and realistic training. But not to the same extent.
Watching this, something struck me. Think about the fact that nobody, even the Russians, seriously planned for a NATO attack heading East. NATO tanks were defensive by design, Russian tanks offensive. The serious plans, on both sides, were always assuming an attack from the East. Through the Fulda gap or maybe further south. Now. Who are the imperialists?
Question: Are these summer tactics and strategy, or general over tactics and stategy? I ask this because you said the Russian supply lines would be consigned to paved roads. IF the attack came, say late January or early February, wouldn't the terrain itself be frozen solid enough to support an advance on a wide front? Worked the oilfield up at Fort Nelson BC for a while. They had to let the muskeg to freeze hard enough so that the drilling rigs wouldn't sink in the swamp. I'm wondering if Northern Sweden isn't the same way, and would afford the Soviets an opportunity to attack on a broad front. In such a case that would be a game changer for the scenario. I'm not saying they'd put supply points out in the middle of nowhere, but the tactic of dropping bridges and other transport infrastructure would not be nearly as effective
I take slight exception to saying "all their neighbors had been invaded AND occupied", feels like that should have been an "or". But at least later you say that Finland was just invaded... =)
Is this series dead or just dormant? I hope that when you finish with the A-10 Balloon Goes Up videos, which I love, by the way, that you will come back to this.
Yes. We'll I was looking for a way to spend all that free time I have. Hah! Actually, it's an approach I look forward to applying to more aircraft - especially ones that seem to be misunderstood in DCS. The Kola map has some interesting opportunities for the Harrier, for instance. BUT one (or two) things at a time.
Very interesting topic. Just to shine a little more light on the topic. During this era, Sweden had the conscript system. This made almost every adult male part of the defence forces. Outside of those units you had the "home guard", soldiers who had all their personel equipment at home. Insuring a very fast deployment to defend key locations and objectives. There where tank regiments using the Strv 103 (s-tank) that was a very capable defensive tank. 2 Jäger regementes, that would conduct sabotage operations. And much much more =)
Thank you! Very helpful. You are right I have only scatched the surface. But ALL of that is important if you want to understand what the Viggen was designed to do...
It is a really big map so 140gb might actually be lower than what the map will end up with, remember they have only detailed a part on the map about as big as caucasus map
