Could the whole story be the result of not being aware of the Swedish minority in Finland, the Swedish Finns? No, that can actually be ruled out. Because it says "the sector adjacent to Kandalaksha" and we know that Margelov´s recon battalion belonged to the Soviet 122nd Rifle Division. That division indeed fought against the Swedish Volunteer Corps (abbreviated SFK) during the Winter War. There were several firefights between this division and the SFK. In fact, the Swedes took a number of war trophies from this division, some of which still today are on display within the Swedish Army.
A Soviet Degtyaryov light machine gun (DP) captured in Finnish Lapland by the 4th Ranger Company ("Grafström Company") of the 2nd Combat Group of SFK. Most of the soldiers in this company were volunteers from the Swedish Army´s K 4 Cavalry Regiment. The DP is preserved by K 4:s successor, the Army Ranger Battalion in Arvidsjaur.Then there are six Swedish books with extensive accounts of the Swedes that were actually captured by the Soviets. There were three such incidents. Twice Swedish volunteer pilots were taken prisoner. Only once were Swedish infantrymen captured. This single incident, known as "Öjstad´s patrol", matches with Margelov´s account on several points. The three points where the accounts contradict can mostly be explained:
1. According to the Russian side six Swedes were taken prisoner. If one takes into account only the Öjstad patrol this is incorrect, as only four men from that patrol were captured alive (one of them soon died of wounds). But the two pilots that were captured were taken in the same area. Thus a total of six and, judging from the accounts of the pilots, the Soviet Captain that captured them may also have been Margelov.
2. Actually, only three of the captured were officers, one a 1st lieutenant and two were 2nd lieutenants. Considering the time lapse between 1940 and the occasion when the general was interviewed this can be simply an error of human nature.
3. None of the six Swedes belonged to the Swedish general staff. However, one of the captured officers, Arne Jung, was the nephew of Swedish Army Chief of Staff Helge Jung (later he became Sweden´s chief of defence). Margelov learned about the status of the Swedes from the NKVD (the later KGB). They may either have given Margelov the wrong idea or it may have evolved within Margelov through old age/vanity.
By a strange twist of fate I also stumbled upon the grave of one of the Swedes killed in the ambush. When the ambush started there were eight in the patrol. Immediately, the patrol leader Öjstad fell, soon two more - one being Private Linus Johansson, a miner from Arjeplog who, like most of his comrades, had done his military service at the K 4 Cavalry Regiment. I had no idea who Johansson was when I noticed his gravestone in Arjeplog. I was there, in the Arjeplog cemetary, with not the slightest intention of searching for Swedish volunteers. In fact, I was there to take part in the burial of a Soviet soldier, an escaped POW who succumbed to nature during his attempt to reach freedom in Sweden. I wrote about this story for Armchair General some years ago and it can still be read online here.
I stumbled upon Johansson´s grave on my away from the fresh grave of Soviet POW escapee Aleksey Matveyev - their graves are just some meters apart. Incidentally, Matveyev and Johansson are typical for their nations, like Smith in the UK. From comparing Russian and Swedish sources I reckon the following could be considered as two new facts to have emerged, previously unknown outside Russia:
1. The Swedish estimates about the Soviet force that killed/captured the eight men strong Öjstad patrol were low. The surviving Swedes stated they thought they had fought against 60 Soviets or perhaps one company. Margelov makes it very clear that he used three companies for the ambush. Even if only one of these companies actually fired at the Swedes one can safely say that the Swedish survivors did not exaggerate about the opposing force...
2. We now know the identity of the unit that ambushed the Swedes: the Separate Reconnaissance Ski Battalion of the 596th Rifle Regiment of the 122nd Rifle Division.
The Russian statement that the fight was "fierce" (see previous posting) does not prove anything conclusively, but it makes the statement of the Swedish survivors that they fought till they expended their ammunition ring true.
There is to my knowledge nothing to support the Russian statements about how the incident is supposed to have affected Swedish government policy. But, at any rate, it is pretty interesting that there is such a view in Russia.
The fact that the Soviet battalion that the Swedes met was commanded by the later most legendary and long-serving Soviet airborne general might not just be considered a curiosity. According to the accounts about Magelov´s career he seems to have been fundamentally affected by his experiences in Finland. After the Winter War and until Gorbachev´s era virtually nothing was written or even said in the Soviet Union about the Winter War. Even less about Swedish participation in it. But, during most of the Cold War, the man in charge of the Soviet Union´s largest elite force, General Margelov, knew very well that Swedes too participated in the Winter War.
This all sounds like something one could make a TV documentary about, or even a movie. Well, there are already two relevant movies. In the Norwegian WWII blockbuster "Max Manus" all the winter fighting scenes depict the main character´s experience of fighting as a Norwegian volunteer in the SFK in Lapland. There were 727 Norwegian volunteers in the SFK. Here is a trailer with some of these scenes (sorry, taken down after this was written):
The same year "Max Manus" was released, 2008, Russian TV showed an 8-part TV-film about General Margelov called "Batya", also marketed as "Desantny batya" ("Airborne Dad"). I have not been able to watch it, but I did find this clip from it, depicting the young Margelov during the Winter War (sorry, now down):
Swedish volunteers are not mentioned in this clip, which is mostly about NKVD-men harassing Margelov because of his respect for Finnish soldiers. But perhaps one of you readers has seen more of this series and can use the commentary function of this blog?
Of Öjstad's patrol, only four men were captured alive, and one of them soon died of wounds.
ReplyDeleteHow about the three remaining survivors, were they returned to Sweden afterwards in the exchange of prisoners, like the two F19 pilots Per Sterner and Arne Jung? If yes, have they published their memoirs, and could their accounts cast any light on the "general staff officers" story?
Cheers,
Hannu M, Helsinki
Yes, the three rangers were returned in conjunction with the pilots. Sadly they wrote no memoirs but their statements to reporters can be read in the books "Umeås blå dragoner" (the regimental history of K 4) and "Det svenska vinterkriget" by Leif Björkman. See also "Från Salla till Hangöudd" by Anders Grafström.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Lars
Since I wrote this blog post some 5 years ago I have written about this ambush in my two latest books. My latest book, "Jan och Nordens frihet" features a friend of Torbjörn Öjstad, Jan Danielsen, who is still alive at the time of writing these words.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I'd regard anything written in Soviet history about WW2 as highly unreliable.
Soviet partisan operations in northern Finland focused on terrorizing the remote villages with little or no military value, but according to official records, these attacks were high-value military targets and resulted in high Finnish casualties and material losses.
In reality, in these attacks hundreds unarmed civilians were massacred and raped as only a small detachments 2nd line Finnish soldiers, if any, were actually positioned in these villages.
Few years ago, Finnish TV (YLE) interviewed one (decorated) Russian WW2 officer that took part in these attacks. They even got him to meet one of the survivors, who, child at the time, survived the attack because his dead mother was lying on top of him.
Of course the Russian kept his line about the garrison and denied any civilians being killed. Such are the "heroes" and "legends" of their Great Patriotic War, who needed NDVD troops in the 2nd wave to keep attacking. If Germans/Finns did not shoot you, your own people would.