Blade Runner Turns 30

Hm, how is it possible that the 30th anniversary of "Blade Runner" seems to go unnoticed? As I wrote some weeks ago, on March 9 it will be exactly 30 years since the principal photography for BR started.

If anyone part of the production reads this, please comment about how you feel about the significance of BR now, 30 years on.

BTW I today came to think of a link between the coming Nazinaut movie "Iron Sky" and "Blade Runner". Both take place in 2018. But surely, someone must have realized this before me, like years ago. I reckon its some kind of tribute to Scott from the people behind "Iron Sky".

Swedish Vounteers Incoming

Just recently got this interesting new book about Swedes at war in Finland 1939-40 written by Martina Sprague. Hope to be able to read it in March and then review it here.

"The Battle for Arctic Europe"

A couple of years ago I was notified that a Polish publishing house wanted to translate Slaget om Nordkalotten which translates as "The Battle for Arctic Europe". I just learnt it will be out in the shops in Poland on Tuesday.

Here is the cover of the Polish translation:

The cover photos feature: OSS NORSO paratroopers bound for Norway; a OSS "Sepals" base in Sweden; the interior of a British Hurricane found on the Russian Kola Peninsula and Soviet soldiers together with a RAF pilot from New Zealand, also on Kola.

I wrote this book together with James F. Gebhardt in the 1990s. It was published the first time in 1999 by Historiska Media. It has sold something like 40,000 copies all editions included.

I learnt about the intention of the Polish company Bellona to publish our book. But this was something like two years ago. Poland was hit badly by the global financial crisis and virtually all publishing plans in Poland were affected, i.e. put on hold or terminated. There was a deal but nothing happened, and I started thinking there would be no Polish version.

Well, it was a pleasure to today learn that after all it will be available in Polish, starting on Tuesday, February 8, 2011.

The title Europa Pólnocna 1939-1945 means "Northern Europe 1939-1945". This may seem a bit strange but it is evidently published in a series called "Wars and Campaigns" and I reckon each book will cover one geographical area. The book is focused on WWII above the Arctic Circle, i.e. in Arctic Europe, but as the book at least gives a rough idea of the fighting also in southern Norway and Finland I suppose the Polish title is OK.

Here is the Polish publisher´s page about the book.

There is more about Poland and Poles in Swedes at War, not least about the amazing Swedish-born Polish Habsburg Princess who became a Polish partisan in early 1940. So I hope that book too will eventually appear in Polish.

Wehrwolfs in the Arctic?

Ukrainian authorities have just announced that "Wehrwolf", Hitler´s most eastern headquarters, is to be adapted for more tourism.

I understand that the Red Army already during the war "permanently" sealed the underground parts of Wehrwolf complex. Will these parts too be opened, I wonder? Is there just concrete down there or could there be some history worth seeing?

The fascination with werewolves in the Third Reich is definately an intriguing subject. I recently wrote a chapter on the subject of Wehrwolfs in the Arctic. To be precise: in the area where Norway, Sweden and Finland converge. A friend in the Swedish police located two detailed Swedish police reports from 1945 on the subject. Thanks to above all a British friend in Arctic Norway I was able to find the truth, I believe, behind these reports. This chapter is in a manuscript I am still working on.

BTW I stumbled upon a genuine German advertisement for a vacuum cleaner called "Vampyr". It was in a German newspaper published in Sweden.

Raoul Wallenberg, OSS and NKVD

The link between Raoul Wallenberg and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) may have been the main reason for the way he was treated by Soviet state security (NKVD to KGB). For more about this view see Swedes at War.

Today historian Susanne Berger has an astounding article about Wallenberg in Sweden´s most important newspaper, Dagens Nyheter. Berger argues that Sweden needs to do more and Russia needs to declassify more: "We know crucial documentation is available, but we are not allowed to see it, nor do we get adequate official help from the Swedish government to obtain access to it."

Yes, there is an English version of Berger´s text. The Swedish text is not (yet) online.

Susanne Berger is a former consultant to the Swedish-Russian Working Group that investigated Wallenberg's fate in Russia from 1991-2001.

Guarding the Border in 1941

Here are three Swedish soldiers in 1941, guarding the Swedish-Finnish border by Haparanda. An image never before published, from the collection of fellow author Göran von Knorring.

No, the SMG is not a MP 40, its a Swedish one, but I am not quite sure which one. The hand grenades may look German, but are Swedish.

Does anyone know the exact spot? Surely that border marker is gone, or?

Saluting Keith Bonn

Keith Bonn, Kit, thank you so very much for believing in the importance of translating Svenskar i krig (Swedes at War). I am so sad you did not live to see the review of Swedes at War in the January issue of Armchair General. An excerpt:

"Patricia Bonn, editor in chief for Aberjona Press, a company founded by the late Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Keith Bonn, has done military history enthusiasts a great service by publishing this English translation of Westberg and Gyllenhaal´s 2004 book Svenskar i krig 1914-1945."

Let me here just add that Swedes at War is a revised and slightly expanded version of the Swedish manuscript. There are also several new photos in the English-language version, and the size of the illustrations is generally larger.

Many thanks also to Patricia Bonn and the book´s translator, Carl Gustav Finstrom. The energy and amount of time you put into this project is astounding.

The Armchair General review of our book is not online, but this short recommendation is.

Meanwhile, in Sweden, our book has again become available from the largest online seller. It has been out of stock for months for some reason I do not understand.