Operation Rädda Danmark

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The remaining Danish flotilla, which had escaped the Germans in 1943, was located in Karlskrona, Sweden. She, too, was to take part in the Swedish invasion of Denmark in 1945.

The operation Rädda Danmark ( "Rescue Denmark" ) was a planned, but never executed Swedish military operation at the end of World War II . The plan was to train Swedish armed forces (together with Danish troops of the civil police and the Danska brigades ) together in Sweden during the war and to send them to Wehrmacht- occupied Denmark during the first half of 1945 . However, the German Reich capitulated before the plan could be implemented. The strategic goal was to occupy the island of Bornholm and the Danish straits in the foreseeable collapse of the German Empire and thus to forestall a Soviet occupation. In the case of Bornholm, which was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, this failed.

On May 4, 1945, the Swedish army under Major General Carl August Ehrensvärd made the final decisions about the planned Swedish invasion of eastern Denmark. The planning had already started during Christmas 1943. The invasion was to start at the same time as the Allied attack on German-occupied western Denmark. A week earlier, the American Major General of the United States Army Air Forces and Deputy Commander of the US Strategic Headquarters in Europe, Frederick L. Anderson , had visited Sweden and talked to Per Albin Hansson about the plans.

The planned operation Rädda Danmark consisted of two sub-operations, Rädda Själland (rescue Zealand) and Rädda Bornholm (rescue Bornholm). Zealand is the large island in eastern Denmark, where Copenhagen is located, among other places , and Bornholm is a small island south of Sweden.

In order to be able to carry out the operation, 1,158 predominantly smaller troop transports and around 100 naval ships were necessary according to the planning. On the Swedish side, the invasion was to be carried out by three large divisional formations . The intended army corps should consist of the First and Ninth Divisions and the Seventh Motorized Brigade and the Eighth Tank Brigade. There were also numerous smaller units and around 4,000 Danish soldiers who had been trained in Sweden. In total there were around 60,000 soldiers with around 6,000 vehicles. In addition, there was the necessary personnel from the Swedish Navy and Air Force .

The German occupation forces on Zealand consisted of about 28,000 soldiers who had prepared the ports for demolition. There was a ship in Helsingør that had the task of blocking the port. A similar blockade was also planned in the port of Copenhagen. The German naval forces in Copenhagen consisted of the cruisers Prinz Eugen and Nürnberg , four destroyers and various minesweepers and patrol boats.

The Swedish and Danish troop formation in Skåne had already started and the earliest possible date for the invasion was set for May 18, 1945. The first wave, which was supposed to start with a surprise attack in the Helsingør region, was to consist of 6,000 men. Heavy coastal artillery (21 and 15 cm) was provided for fire support on the coast of Skåne. Furthermore, the warships of the Swedish Navy Oscar II and Tapperheten should provide fire support. The Swedish Air Force was deployed in Skåne for tactical air support.

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