Northern Europe

[Trooper]

V1 purists can relax, I will not argue that the Nordic Source Book information would be "core material". Warning this material isnt “official” in any sense. Some ideas have been stolen from Nordic source book and some are my own. There is also some ideas from Swedish websites.

Norway is very weak nation after three years of war and nuclear attacks didn’t help. Oil industry is thing of past and power generation has been destroyed by air strikes and EMP effects.


Iceland is a isolated country. Fish is sufficient, but lack of other raw materials is huge. EMP caused widespread damage to power generation and transmission.


Sweden is in a poor state. Soviet troops invaded southern Sweden in 1997. Nuclear attacks in 1998 caused massive damage to Swedish urbanized society. In addition, in southern Sweden, the Soviet troops are still operating and have prevented the effective use of the local agricultural land. Hunger is no stranger to Swedish families. There are some hydro power plants still operating in northern Sweden, but the EMP has destroyed transmission networks.



Denmark has survived war surprisingly well. Many cities experienced heavy air attacks on the early stages of war and use of chemical weapons caused massive civilian casualties. The Danish army has experienced a heavy losses in Poland. Certainly the Danish army is unable to launch any offensive operations in 2000.

Electricity transmission networks have been destroyed by the EMP. Small-scale industry has been relocated near wind farms. Denmark is first and foremost farms and domestic animals. Food is sufficient and it is used for the purchase of equipment from Germany (Operation Omega vehicles & equipment). Defense secretary Ole Kock-Olesen is in favor to continue fighting and so far the government has complied with his plans. Danish navy also collects sound dues. You have to you use navy controlled sea lanes or take your chances in dense minefields.



Finland has fought both the Soviet Union and NATO. Officially Finland is not in war. The traditional hatred towards Russians, however, has intensified after the Soviet nuclear attacks. Government control just the souther parts of Finland's most densely populated areas. Northern Finland, has independent towns and some military units in Lapland do not take orders anymore.

As in other Nordic countries, the EMP has destroyed the electricity transmission networks. Tampere has nevertheless succeeded to organize a limited distribution electricity (ancient hydro power plants in downtown area were immune to EMP). The government has also begun to move industry and workers closer to electric power sources.

Russian border is a constant source of unrest. Marauding Soviet military units cross the border at least once a month.

Finnish military administration is not popular because junta murdered civilian goverment. Resistance have not surfaced –yet.

Military Intelligence is also happy to hire mercenaries from NATO countries to train Estonian freedom fighters. The captured NATO weapons are sent continuously over the Gulf of Finland. The ultimate objective is the independence of Estonia. Finland's support is there to ensure the future supply of oil shale. Finns have managed to move one oil production plant to Finland. Local Russian population and the remnants of Communist regime have also received help from Soviet government.

[Legbreaker]

I like it!

Not sure Germany would be willing to give up anything from Omega though - they've got a lot of rebuilding to do with their own forces if they want to hold onto what they've got. France may also become a serious threat in the coming few years.

[Mohoender]

I like it too.

[HorseSoldier]

Not sure I see a logic, or time frame, when a Soviet invasion of southern Sweden would have been feasible. I can see the opposite -- some violation of Swedish neutrality in the north to try and get into Norway from other angles, but I don't see a point where the Soviets had troops to spare on an unnecessary sideline operation, especially one that would be heavily dependant on sealift they didn't much have.

[Legbreaker]

Good point. Northern Sweden is more likely....

[sglancy12]

For my own non-canon material, I can easily see Sweden a sort of Baltic version of France... insofar as they are not nuked, the military is not exhausted from the war, but undoubtedly the country is swamped with refugees and it's economy has been crippled by the end of international trade.

The Swedes would beef up their coastal sea patrols to try and turn back refugees from Baltic, and they might spend some of their precious national resources trying to help their neighbors recover. Not out of altruism or even a kind of back-door imperialism. Rather I see the Swedes trying to help it's fellow Scandanavian countries because if those countries don't collapse into anarchy then there will be fewer refugees spilling over into Swedish territory.

The biggest worry for Sweden in forming alliances with its Scandanavian neighbors would be that even if all of them are not in NATO, all of them have been in conflict with the USSR. Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland would all have exchanged shots with the USSR. Finland is still dealing with Soviet marauders and Norway has a loyal Soviet unit garrisoning Narvik. Forming an alliance of defense and assistance with these nations might mean having to deal with whatever fading strength the USSR has left in 2001. It might not be much... or they might have an ICBM still ready to go.

Much Swedish reaching out might have to be covert or clandestine in order to keep a low profile.

I have been working on a TW2000 Gazeteer for my own campaign. Here is what I wrote about Scandanavia so far.

Denmark:
NATO Ally. Nuked. Famine. Disorder. Unoccupied by foreign armies, but central government is unable to directly administer most of the islands. Danish army has withdrawn from the front lines and has returned to Denmark to attempt to restore order. Sweden is distributing aid and helping with reconstruction, and (due to historic considerations) some Danes are suspicious that this is a first step towards annexation. There are ethnic tensions involving Islamic immigrants, but it poses no threat to what remains of the Danish national government. Soviet and Polish marines attempted to invade, but were expelled with massive casualties in 1996. NATO sea mines and Danish patrol ships still keep the remnants of the Soviet Baltic Fleet bottled up.

Finland:
Neutral in WWIII, but pre-war they were very close to the USSR, making millions off the NATO embargo of the USSR. Finland was invaded by both the Soviets and NATO, militarily resisted both sides. The Finnish national army is exhausted by the conflict, but the country was not nuked save for EMP effects. The country has a Soviet/Baltic refugee/marauder problem, which is effecting their food-self sufficiency. There are too little resources, too many problems, but a unified and determined population. Some power is nuclear, very little is hydro (not enough mountains), most is still wood and peat, which is good since EMP doesn’t affect peat. Sweden wants to make an alliance to provide energy in exchange for an alliance to keep refugees out.

Iceland:
NATO ally, but no military. USAF base near Keflavik are damaged by Soviet submarine launched cruise missiles. Nuked? Isolated and cold, but no foreign invaders, marauders or refugees. No fossil fuel but hydro and geothermal provides energy. Little food pressures due to fishing industry and low population. Should there have been an attempted Soviet invasion ala Red Storm Rising? Unlikely. The Soviet Navy would not have the advantage of strategic surprise in TW2000 timeline.

Norway:
NATO ally. Invaded by Soviets, twice. Naval bases and Oslo nuked. Famine and nuclear strikes initiated social collapse. King of Norway is ruling what little is left of the country in the south by virtue of his command of the Norwegian Army. North Sea oil platforms are currently unmanned, but efforts are being made to ensure they do not fall into foreign hands (perhaps mined or booby-trapped). Famine is an issue. Sweden is breathing down Norway’s neck, pressing them for an alliance in exchange for food and security assistance.

Sweden:
Neutral in WWIII. Country suffers from refugee problems from all across the Baltic and northern Europe, food and fuel shortages and the collapse of the world economy. Nevertheless, Sweden still has a functioning constitutional democracy. Government has emergency powers, but elections have been held since 1998. Sweden has plans to reunify Scandinavia into one political union. Sweden is particularly interested in Norway’s North Sea oil platforms, but their first goal is to make the Baltic a Scandinavian Lake. That means gaining a foot-hold in Denmark and then dealing with the remnants of the Soviet Baltic Fleet. The refugee problems have caused xenophobic reaction against non-Scandinavians. Swedish politics takes a turn to the right. Neo-Nazis/far right are gaining power based on the politics of exclusion. The 18th Division is the corps of the Neo-Nazi movement. Sweden isn't the 4th Reich, but right wing politicians are making gains among the frightened and desperate population.

[HorseSoldier]

As a side note, Iceland isn't part of Northern Europe, and even if there are cultural ties back to continental Scandinavia it (and Danish Greenland) aren't going to have any impact on events in northern Europe.

[Mohoender]

Euh? Actually, Iceland is part of Northern Europe. Greenland is not being part of Northern America.

[HorseSoldier]

No. It's accorded a European status for cultural reasons, not for anything rational and based on geography. Which is my point -- an island 1000 km west of mainland Europe isn't going to have any relevance in anything European circa the T2K year 2000. By that same geographic rubric, southern Europe ends somewhere in North Africa.

[Mohoender]

If you get to the tectonic plate level you are partially right (half right actually). It is right on top of the Atlantic ridge. Based on Geography it would become a joke of some sort. If you get to that, Hawaii and Alaska should not be part of the USA.

[HorseSoldier]

Agreed -- I wouldn't do a T2K write up on the American Pacific Northwest and include Alaska (though it is often lumped that way in all sorts of organization schemes), for the same reason I wouldn't include Iceland in Northern Europe for T2K purposes. It's about the same distance from AK to CONUS as it is from Iceland to continental Europe (when I fly back home to see friends and relatives in the SE USA, the flight from Anchorage to Seattle is almost as long as the flight from Seattle all the way across the continental US). No matter how good, bad, or downright strange things are in Washington state and Oregon, it doesn't impact Alaska at all in the T2K world.

(Though I think GDW may not have grasped the sheer size of the territory in question when they wrote the Alaska/western Canada/Pac Northwest military history -- some of those Soviet divisions made literally must have just miracled themselves from point A to point B and units falling back into the Pacific Northwest from Alaska post-TDM is pretty seriously sketchy.)

[Mohoender]

Agreed as well

[Trooper]

Secret military unit flew NATO agents
National News | 2011-03-24

Sweden had a top secret aircraft unit, which was trained for war up until 1997. The so far unknown "Air Unit 66" exercised with NATO members Norway and Denmark, according to a new book about Sweden during the Cold War.

In outward appearance, Sweden stood alone and non-aligned during the Cold War, which lasted between 1945 and 1991. Official statements declared that the country would be neutral in war. But there never was a defence plan based on neutrality. In fact, there were a series of top secret collaboration with the Nordic NATO members Norway and Denmark.

This shows a new book, 'Den dolda alliansen – Sveriges hemliga Nato-förbindelser' (The Hidden Alliance – Sweden's Secret NATO association), by Michael Holmström, journalist at the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.

A security guarantee from the United States was that the U.S. Marines had units that could be deployed in the northern or southern Sweden. The U.S. Air Force was able to land in Sweden within six to eight days.

Another finding in the book is that high-ranking officers and other key people were reported to military duty at Swedish embassies in strategic NATO countries.

Holmström also writes about a top secret air force unit: Flygenhet 66 (Air Unit 66), with the mission to, among else, secretly transfer people. The units military training could be about getting key figures out of the country, or deploy agents at the Finnish border to the Soviet Union. The unit used civilian air-planes, mostly small planes of Cessna-type.

Much of the planning was all about keeping the whole thing a secret. The Swedish Security Service protected the operations from civilian authorities. The pilots had code names, and got paid in cash.

One of the sources for the book, the chief of staff for Air Unit 66, Sven Hugosson, has today gone out in public and explain why he has chosen to talk about the secret military unit.

“I think it's time to talk about this since it has been surrounded by so much hypocrisy over the years,” he told public radio SR.

David Jonasson

http://www.stockholmnews.com/more.aspx?NID=6948

[Ramjam]

I just wish someone would bring out a English translation of the Nordic Source Book. The other Finnish books would be nice as well if they were ever available.

[Legbreaker]

I think somebody posted a fair bit of the book somewhere in the forums about a year ago.... Don't know if it was finished though.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

I know that Sweden was also further aligning itself with the West by sending personnel to train with various Western military forces - because I saw it myself.
Sometime in the late 1980s the Australia Army put on a big display in the centre of Perth, Western Australia.
One of the features was a group of SASR vehicles and equipment, one of the SAS team members was a Swedish junior officer who was in normal Swedish field uniform. We had a very brief conversation, he was there to learn Australia's way of long range patrolling.

[Arrissen]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

I know that Sweden was also further aligning itself with the West by sending personnel to train with various Western military forces - because I saw it myself.
Sometime in the late 1980s the Australia Army put on a big display in the centre of Perth, Western Australia.
One of the features was a group of SASR vehicles and equipment, one of the SAS team members was a Swedish junior officer who was in normal Swedish field uniform. We had a very brief conversation, he was there to learn Australia's way of long range patrolling.

Yeah, we had a Swedish Lt attached to us in 2 Cav once in 1991 while on a six week exercise in the Northern Territory seeing how we operated in a medium recon role. And a Dane another time too.

[Legbreaker]

The armour museum at Puckapunyal in Victoria has a fully functional Swedish S tank on long term loan. In T2K, imagine the Indonesian's surprise at seeing that beast appear out of the Australian desert!

[Trooper]

Alternative timeline for Sweden.

http://twilight2000.wikia.com/wiki/Sweden

[Antenna]

Originally Posted by Trooper

Alternative timeline for Sweden.

http://twilight2000.wikia.com/wiki/Sweden

I belive that is a timeline that I have done =)

http://www.ludd.ltu.se/~antenna/t2k/up/hist_p.htm

Antti