Submarine incidents in Sweden

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Map of Sweden's territorial waters

U-boat incidents in Sweden deals with various, sometimes alleged, violations of Swedish territorial waters by foreign submarines ( Swedish : Ubåtskränkningar , literally injuries by submarines ) or other unidentified underwater vehicles during the late phase of the Cold War and in recent times.

The incidents sparked a debate in Sweden about the possible infiltration of Swedish territorial waters by Soviet submarines. The Swedish Navy responded with increased patrols, mine-laying and electronic surveillance measures on sensitive passages. Suspected submarines were tracked and attacked several times with underwater bombs, and there were neither hits nor incidents.

Reports of new sightings and televisions of Swedish naval helicopters dropping underwater bombs in coastal waters increased in the late 1980s. The episode is perceived in Sweden as iconic of the Cold War and Swedish relations with the Soviet Union. Reports of submarines intruding into Swedish waters have been controversial. A debate developed whose fronts ran between the dividing lines between left and right. The discussion was influenced by the question of relations with Russia and the objective nature of Swedish neutrality. The Soviet Union denied responsibility for any border violations and stated that the submarine S-363 (see below) had got lost in Swedish waters due to a navigation error. Russia maintains this position. The incidents were the subject of several committees of inquiry in the Swedish parliament .

The events came to an end with the dissolution of the Soviet Union; In the 2010s, new unresolved incidents reached the media without the military or government having yet contributed to clarifying the facts. In 2016 it became known that our own submarines were the cause of supposedly foreign sonar signals. This incident had previously contributed to the increase in Sweden's military budget as part of the perception of an alleged threat from Russia .

List of serious incidents

Side view of a Soviet whiskey class submarine . 1981 a ship of this type (S363) ran in the military restricted area before the Swedish Karlskrona naval base due

Only four of the specified cases are currently considered certain.

  • 1962: During an exercise by the Swedish military, a submarine was located by radar and hydrophones north of Fårö in Gotland . It withdrew after several depth charges.
  • Autumn 1969: During a naval exercise on the coast of Norrland , the Swedish submarine HSwMS Springaren came into direct contact with a foreign submarine that was leaving the scene.
  • 1973: The Swedish Coast Guard sighted the periscope of a submarine near Kappelhamnsviken on Gotland . A destroyer was dispatched to the scene of the incident and made contact with the submarine, which then left the Swedish territorial waters.
  • Autumn 1976: During a naval exercise in the Stockholm archipelago , a Soviet type W submarine was identified outside Swedish waters by its radar signal. A Swedish submarine detected that the Soviet submarine was entering Swedish waters and recorded noises. After the approach of Swedish submarine fighter helicopters and destroyers, the Soviet submarine left Swedish waters.
  • September 18 to October 6, 1980: The Swedish tug ship Ajax sighted the tower of a submarine near Utö in the Stockholm archipelago. Submarine hunting helicopters were deployed, contacted and fired warning shots. The submarine remained in place and took measures to disguise its position. The Swedish Navy tried to land the submarine for several weeks. Despite being sighted several times, the submarine managed to escape.
  • October 27, 1981: The stranding of S-363 : On the evening of October 28, 1981, a fisherman living in the eastern part of the Karlskrona archipelago told the coast guard that a submarine was stranded in Gåsefjärden , 30 kilometers outside the center of Karlskrona on. The report was originally questioned as the local waters are considered difficult to navigate. It was found on site that the stranded watercraft was a Soviet submarine. The position was secured by Swedish troops against a possible action by the Soviet Union to restore the submarine. After several questioning of the crew, the ruling coalition of the Conservatives and the Liberal Party decided to release the submarine and its crew. This incident marks the beginning of the Swedish submarine affair.
  • 1st - 13th October 1982: The Hårsfjärden incident . After a long series of minor incidents, the Swedish Navy set up a trap by laying mines and sensors in a stretch of water. A foreign submarine entered the trap and triggered the reaction of the naval forces stationed on site. 33 depth charges and 4 mines are reported to have detonated. The submarine escaped the trap shortly after entering it. As a result of the incident, a parliamentary commission of inquiry was set up under the chairmanship of Sven Andersson , who, in agreement with Carl Bildt, identified the Soviet Union as responsible for the incident. Subsequent investigations cast doubt on the conclusions of the investigation, suggesting that a civilian ship may have caused several recorded noises. Individual positions suspect a NATO deception maneuver behind the incident.
  • May 4, 1983: A suspected submarine was sighted in Törefjärden , north of Luleå , mines were triggered.
  • May 1983: Outside Sundsvall , helicopters made contact with a foreign submarine. Warning shots could not be fired because civilian journalists broke into the security zone around the submarine.
  • Summer 1983: A submarine was searched for in Töreviken .
  • August 1983: A submarine was sought in the port of Karlskrona and in the adjacent archipelago. Depth bombs were dropped in the port of Karlskrona.
  • 9-29 February 1984: Another submarine hunt took place in Karlskrona . 22 depth charges were dropped.
  • Early summer 1986: The submergence of an unidentified object was observed near Klintehamnsviken on Gotland . During an investigation of the seabed, tracks, apparently from an underwater vehicle, were found over a length of 1,100 meters.
  • Summer 1987: During a check of magnetic sensors in a minefield near Kappelshamnsviken on Gotland , the Swedish military discovered “clear tracks of a chain-driven underwater vehicle on the seabed”.
  • Early summer 1988: A suspected foreign submarine was found in Hävringebukten near Oxelösund . Noises from the submarine were recorded.
  • February 1, 1990: The West German submarine U13 accidentally entered Simrishamn . After the incorrect navigation was discovered, she reported to the Swedish authorities. West Germany apologized diplomatically for the violation.
  • April 13, 2011: A possible foreign submarine was located in Baggensfjärden near Nacka . The MTS-M2 Division of the Swedish Army is investigating the incident. During the investigation, the object was identified as a canoe surrounded by ice.
  • 11 September 2011: One person contacted the armed forces because of a perception outside the port of Gothenburg . The navy dispatched ships to locate the object.
  • October 17, 2014: A suspected damaged submarine was searched in the Stockholm archipelago . Encrypted broadcasts on an emergency frequency used by Russian units were recorded. It could be communication between a submarine and a military base in Kaliningrad . Shortly thereafter, the Swedish military admitted that they had deliberately misreported details, on the grounds that they had kept foreign services in the dark about what the Swedish Navy had learned. After the investigation was completed on November 14, 2014, the Swedish government found that Swedish territorial waters had been undoubtedly violated by a smaller underwater vehicle. She spoke of a "gross and unacceptable" incident.
In June 2016, the Swedish Defense Minister announced that it was a Swedish submarine.

controversy

The submarine incidents in Sweden were discussed controversially by politicians and the media. On the one hand, there are indications of the activity of foreign military forces within Swedish territorial waters (e.g. the stranding of S-363s or lanes on the seabed), on the other hand, most of the known information is based on reports from intelligence services, military counterintelligence services and government circles.

Due to the incomplete evidence, some of the incidents are unclear. Individual commentators believe that NATO submarines are responsible for various incidents. It is sometimes further assumed here that submarines of the NATO countries penetrated the Swedish territorial waters with secret Swedish toleration in order to suggest a threat from the east to the Swedish population, which should have led to the abandonment of the neutrality policy. This tacit approach would have meant a breach of Swedish policy of neutrality. The origin of recorded noises associated with submarines is also the subject of discussion. A number of the recordings could be of natural origin, from schools of fish, nets or civilian vessels. When a Soviet submarine ran aground off the Swedish coast in 1981 and was unable to maneuver, the Soviet Union could not deny the identity of its submarine, but claimed that the penetration into Swedish territorial waters was due to a navigational error by the commander.

The question of whether S-363 was spying on the Swedish lines of defense (which is suggested by the submarine's advanced position) or whether the submarine, as its captain claims, was lost (as was the failure of the electronic Suggest navigational instruments of the submarine and stranding in a maneuvering position impossible for submarines). It remained unclear whether the submarine was equipped with nuclear weapons. The Swedish military found high doses of radiation when they examined the stranded submarine.

In an interview with Sveriges Television in 2000, the former US Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger stated that as a result of the incidents, the Swedish coastal protection was regularly checked with the help of US and British submarines in consultation with the Swedish government. Ola Tunander , professor at the Norwegian Institute for Peace Research , deduced from this and from other evidence that a large part of the invading submarines could be attributed to the NATO countries, and suspected a measure of psychological warfare with the aim of weakening the Swedish policy of neutrality . The Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme had realigned this; He called on smaller states to work towards a policy of détente on the part of the great powers instead of simply behaving in a passively neutral manner. A complete implementation of this doctrine could no longer be achieved because Palme was assassinated on February 28, 1986.

Cultural influence

The events between 1982 and 1983 form the basis for the novel Der Feind im Schatten ( Den orolige mannen ) by Henning Mankell , published in 2009 and later filmed in the third season of the crime series about Commissioner Wallander . He describes the affair as one of the most drastic incidents in the political history of Sweden. Mankell's play Politics , which premiered in autumn 2010, also addresses the submarine affair.

In 1984 a Finn living in Sweden published the satirical Finnish-language novel Probably a U-Boot ( Todennäköinen sukellusvene ) under the pseudonym Klaus Viking . The text was later translated into Swedish by Paul Jansson under the title 'Sannolik u-båt'. The novel describes Swedish culture and politics from the point of view of a Finnish immigrant who constructs a dummy submarine and tows it through a restricted military area. The text reflects the astonishment of Sweden's neighbors at the repeated submarine hunts.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sweden's Defense Policy 2016 to 2020 from June 1, 2015
  2. ↑ Army chief does not rule out war , January 26, 2016
  3. ↑ Swedish State Chancellery: Perspektiv på ubåtsfrågan (SOU 2001: 85), Stockholm 2004.
  4. ↑ a b c Christian Allerman: Ubåtsincidenter och främmande undervattensverksamhet - en tillbakablick och ett försök till summering (English: Submarine Incidents and strange underwater operations - a retrospective and an attempt at summation) . In: Kungl. Örlogsmannasällskapet (Ed.): Tidskrift i Sjöväsendet . No. 1, Karlskrona, 2007, pp. 35-41. ISSN  0040-6945 .
  5. ↑ Bertil Malmberg: Några minne pictures från ubåtsincidenter (ger .: Some recollections of submarine incidents) . In: Kungl. Örlogsmannasällskapet (Ed.): Tidskrift i Sjöväsendet . No. 1, 2007, pp. 47-48. ISSN  0040-6945 .
  6. ↑ Björn Hamilton: En sovjetisk ubåtskrankning i Danziger Gatt år 1976 (English: A Soviet submarine violation in Danziger Gatt in 1976) . In: Kungl. Örlogsmannasällskapet (Ed.): Tidskrift i Sjöväsendet . No. 1, 2007, pp. 44-46. ISSN  0040-6945 .
  7. ↑ Håkan Neckman: Personliga minne pictures från ubåtsincidenter (ger .: Personal recollections of submarine incidents) . In: Kungl. Örlogsmannasällskapet (Ed.): Tidskrift i Sjöväsendet . No. 1, 2007, pp. 48-51. ISSN  0040-6945 .
  8. ↑ Ubåten i Hårsfjärden var skolskepp - May 19, 2008
  9. ↑ Lars Hansson: De döljer sanningen om ubåtsjakten (English: trans_title = They hide the truth about the submarine hunt) . In: Expressen , December 4, 2007. Archived from the original on June 6, 2008 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved October 19, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.expressen.se 
  10. ^ Emil Svensson: Under den fridfulla ytan (Under the calm surface) . Marinlitteraturföreningen, 2005, ISBN 91-85944-09-2 .
  11. ↑ Mikael Holmström: UBat slank ut oupptäckt (Swedish) . In: Svenska Dagbladet , February 9, 1990. 
  12. ↑ Omprövning av ubåtsfrågan (SOU 2001: 85). (PDF) Regeringskansliet , March 27, 2014, p. 220 , archived from the original on March 27, 2014 ; accessed on August 30, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Är det en ubåt? . In: Aftonbladet , June 5, 2011. 
  14. ^ Lennart Spetz: Marinens report: "Ubåt" var en flotte . In: Nacka Värmdö Posten , May 26, 2011. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 5, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nvp.se 
  15. ↑ Främmande i Göteborgs Hamn Ubat . Sveriges Television AB. September 15, 2011. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  16. ↑ Misstänkt ubåt utanför Göteborg - September 15, 2011  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: dead link / hd.se  
  17. ↑ Sweden steps up hunt for 'underwater activity' . In: The Local . Retrieved October 18, 2014. 
  18. ↑ Sweden boosts forces to search for 'foreign underwater activity' . In: Reuters . Retrieved October 18, 2014. 
  19. ↑ SvD avslöjar: Skadad rysk ubåt söks i skärgården . In: Svenska Dagbladet . Retrieved October 18, 2014. 
  20. ^ Army made false statements (Swedish), Swedish TV SVT, October 20, 2014.
  21. ↑ Här är bildbevisen på kränkningen Swedish TV SVT, November 14, 2014.
  22. ↑ Mats Eriksson: Misstänkt ubåtsljud kom från svensk källa. In: sverigesradio.se. June 11, 2016, Retrieved June 20, 2016 (Swedish).
  23. ↑ Försvarsministern Commentary on avslöjande om ubåt. In: sverigesradio.se. June 11, 2016, Retrieved June 20, 2016 (Swedish).
  24. ↑ Intervjun med Weinberger ( Memento from March 20, 2004 in the Internet Archive ), svt.se , March 7, 2000
  25. ^ Ola Tunander: Some Remarks on the US / UK Submarine Deception In Swedish Waters in the 1980s (PDF) International Peace Research Institute, Oslo. Retrieved November 10, 2010.
  26. ^ Ola Tunander: The secret war against Sweden: US and British submarine deception in the 1980s . Psychology Press, September 24, 2004, ISBN 978-0-7146-5322-8, (accessed November 10, 2010).
  27. ↑ Heike Vowinkel: The two faces of Olof Palme , Die Welt, February 27, 2011.
  28. ↑ Mankell på väg att lämna deckarna - August 11, 2009 . In: Ystads Allehanda , Skånemedia AB, August 11, 2009. Archived from the original on October 19, 2014. 
  29. ↑ Palmepjäs av Mankell i Stockholm . In: Dagens Nyheter , Bonnier AB, August 17, 2009. 

literature

  • Swedish State Chancellery: Perspektiv på ubåtsfrågan. Hanteringen av ubåtsfrågan political and military . Submarine Inquiry Committee Final Report , Stockholm 2001, (Swedish with English summary), ISBN 91-38-21548-9 .
  • Ola Tunander, The Secret War Against Sweden - US and British Submarine Deception in the 1980s , Routledge, London & New York, 2004, ISBN 978-0-7146-5322-8
  • Milton Leitenberg, Soviet Submarine Operations in Swedish Waters: 1980-1986 , Praeger 1989, ISBN 0-275-92841-1

Web links

See also