WWII nuts, What was Sweden/Scandanavia's role?

[CheckRaise]

^
I figured a fellow finn would have appreciated the pic... Guess I was wrong...

[Kipru]

It's a great pic and says all you need to know about the wars, but we ain't the same anymore. Now, in this context, it seems just bragging when you said you made it, if it would have been done by some other nationality i would have honoured . Maybe you should post it to some finnish humor sites also, i bet it would be a hit.

Joululahjaidea

[CheckRaise]

Oh, I didn't mean to state that I made the picture. It has been around the internet for awhile, I simply google searched for it. I have no clue who originally made it, and therefore couldn't give credit to whomever it is due.

[Tron_fdc]

Pffft like Finland would be hard to conquer. All you need to do is throw a 3 day rock concert with some ear splitting speed metal bands, and halfway through carpet bomb it. Problem solved....you just took out 3/4's of their capable fighting forces.



This was actually a pretty neat history lesson though...I had no idea Finland played that large of a role in WWII. Any lingering tensions with Russia, seeing as you're right beside them?

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

Pffft like Finland would be hard to conquer. All you need to do is throw a 3 day rock concert with some ear splitting speed metal bands, and halfway through carpet bomb it. Problem solved....you just took out 3/4's of their capable fighting forces.

Or just let the lead singer of one of those bands re-enact, his brain eating fetish.


[/quote]This was actually a pretty neat history lesson though...I had no idea Finland played that large of a role in WWII. Any lingering tensions with Russia, seeing as you're right beside them?[/quote]


I think the interesting history lesson that should be discussed here was the relationship between the Nazi's and the Swiss.

http://switzerland.isyours.com/e/swi...uide/wwii.html

No European country remained truly neutral during WWII. Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland all worked to some extent with the Axis. In Switzerland, the people who lived through the war wanted to believe that it was their army and fortifications that kept the Nazis out. Historical research and documents clearly show that if the Nazis wanted to invade Switzerland, it would have been quick and relatively easy. The reason Germany spared its tiny neighbor to the south was because Switzerland proved much more useful as an independent state than as a satellite. The Swiss made many useful weapon components (aluminium for the Luftwaffe, spark plugs for jeeps taken from the Russians, timing devices for bombs, among other things), and thus their factories were not bombed every night. The Swiss National bank bought gold from the Reichsbank, the Reichsbank was given Swiss francs in exchange, and used them to buy cobalt, nickel and tungsten from the other “neutral” countries. The Turks, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish, who were all under heavy pressure from the Allies not to accept direct gold payment from the Reichsbank, then exchanged the Swiss francs for gold. The problem was that the German gold came from the Belgian National bank reserves (not from concentration camps as some sensationalists would have it) and the neutrals knew it. Finally, the Swiss allowed trains to carry food and non-weapon supplies from Germany to Italy, with dozens of trains every day on their way to Africa. But did Switzerland have any other choice? Probably not. Totally surrounded by the Axis, most of its coal supply came from Germany every week, and all of its exports had to go through Axis controlled territory. For a landlocked country with no natural resources, this meant the Swiss had to work out some form of accomodation with their neighbors. The problem is that the postwar generations have been raised to believe that it was the Swiss army, and not the country’s usefulness to the Germans, that protected it from the wrath of war. The Swiss are now coming to terms with this part of their history, as for example the people of France and Japan have. As a foreigner, it is best to avoid passing judgment on them and giving lessons, at the risk of offending your hosts.

[Kipru]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

Pffft like Finland would be hard to conquer. All you need to do is throw a 3 day rock concert with some ear splitting speed metal bands, and halfway through carpet bomb it. Problem solved....you just took out 3/4's of their capable fighting forces.
...
Any lingering tensions with Russia, seeing as you're right beside them?

LOL, rest of us could be dealt with arrangaging one rally competition with free koskenkorva as grand price and a goaltending try-out camp by some randon NHL team.

Well i guess it varies depending where in Finland you live. I live in eastern Finland, near the border and here it is pretty big issue. People don't like them because they flood all the roads with their car transport trucks (they haven't invented harbours yet), and the richest buy all the summer cottages near lake Saimaa. The russian population in Finland is growing now that we will soon be out of work force and i bet this is becoming a major issue.

The finnish politics after the war has always been a bit afraid of Russian, so there really isn't any proper converstaion about our true relations with them. But i think most of us have someking of "ryssäviha"= "hate of russians" in us, the history has thougth us something.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Kipru

LOL, rest of us could be dealt with arrangaging one rally competition with free koskenkorva as grand price and a goaltending try-out camp by some randon NHL team.

Well i guess it varies depending where in Finland you live. I live in eastern Finland, near the border and here it is pretty big issue. People don't like them because they flood all the roads with their car transport trucks (they haven't invented harbours yet), and the richest buy all the summer cottages near lake Saimaa. The russian population in Finland is growing now that we will soon be out of work force and i bet this is becoming a major issue.

The finnish politics after the war has always been a bit afraid of Russian, so there really isn't any proper converstaion about our true relations with them. But i think most of us have someking of "ryssäviha"= "hate of russians" in us, the history has thougth us something.

Was it a hatred of, or a fear of?

We know that during the cold war, that one of the key strategies for the Soviets was to send at least a full army group and probably 2 into Finland, and Nato I believe had plans to re-enforce Finland, so any fighting between the Warsaw pact and Nato, would pretty much leave Finland as a smoking ruin.

[Fredrik]

Originally Posted by fotze

Hey Sweden, you are in the wrong thread, here is one for you.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=50485

Hehe, I´m going there saturday... To by my first stuff from IKEA... Hehe... The last of the swedes...