Swedish Interests in T2K Poland

[Adm.Lee]

They could also conduct several coastal raids all over the Baltic Coasts.

True, but raid for what They may have more of what matters than anyone around.

I read up on the 16th and 17th centuries Poland and the Baltic years ago, I recall the biggest trade items then was Polish/Ukrainian grain headed up the Vistula to Danzig, for sale to Netherlands and Denmark. Maybe something like that could resume after a while. That could get the Swedes involved in supplying whatever faction emerges along the Baltic coast, like XI Corps and the Polish Free Congress.

[Legbreaker]

If the Swedes were to assist the Danes in withdrawing, it may put them in the unwanted position of having to supply similar support to the Pact. Better for the Swedes to stay well out of it if they want to retain their neutrality.

[Mohoender]

True, but raid for what They may have more of what matters than anyone around.

I was thinking of raids conducted by individual commanders much in the way of the Viking a 1000 years before just because it could be fun and would create an interesting situation.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

I'm sure I read somewhere that there was some law in Switzerland that required large numbers of citizens to keep a military issue weapon in their home, the premise being that they would then form a Home Guard type of organisation in time of conflict / tension

A quick check of wiki would suggest that's still the case for every male under the age of 30...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Switzerland

If I'm reading it correctly, that article suggests there are nearly three quarters of a million assault rifles in private possession in Switerzland (420,000 military issue and 320,000 non military issue). (I know wiki isn't always 100% accurate and there might be a problem with ammo supplies, but that's still a lot of guns...)

Just a follow up on the topic, here's a YouTube video about a Swiss man who's done his time in the Swiss Army. Ignore the hype in the title and just take a look at what the gentleman in question has in his gunsafe (you want the sound on to hear his comments).

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=6nf1OgV449g

[Antenna]

I use Australia during WWII as a basis for my arguement that Switzerland cannot sustain an active military strength of 625,000 for long.
Australia in the early 1940s had a total population of a little over 7 million (approximately the same as Switzerland today). It had 724,000 men serve during WWII in the army, 39,650 in the navy (as at June 1945) and 216,900 in the RAAF (air force) for a total of approximately 1 million, or about 14% of the total population.
The military had to be downsized during the war, even though plans had been for an even larger force, because there simply wasn't the manpower to support it.

I don't understand where you are finding 625,000 trained soldiers From what I can see, in July 2009, "the armed forces consist of 134,886 people on active duty, of which 4,230 are professionals, with the rest being conscripts or volunteers". There are a further 77,000 reserves. It seems very doubtful that anyone not in the military will be given a military weapon, although it is possible they would have sporting rifles, shotguns, etc.

Further research shows the military in 1995 with a strength totalling 400,000 (including inactive reserves)- closer, but still less than 2/3rds.

Adding the 480,000 civil defence personnel strength to the 625,000 military strength and we've got more than a million in service, or approximately 16% of the total population - a higher percentage than Australia was able to support 50 or so years before.

Furthermore, using current figures, "Swiss agriculture meets sixty-five per cent of the domestic food demand". In a T2K scenario when large scale trade effectively ceases with the outside world, a much larger percentage of it's population will be forced into agricultural production and therefore unavailable for military service.

To sum up, it just doesn't seem feasible for Switzerland to field a strong military for more than a few weeks in a 12 month period. Even training time would be restricted due to the pressing need to feed the population.

In the mid 80's there was 625.000 soliders when sweden went to war.
Nowdays we got 4 bdes of armor

Antenna

[Medic]

I honestly doubt, the Swedes would go conquering parts of Poland, bcause they are lacking something important in TW2k - Finnish Infantry that was the real powerhouse in their military until the Swedes lost Finland to Russia in their last war. They haven't fought a war since - they had to trade with Nazi Germany during WWII, because their military preparedness could be described by the fact, had the Germans invaded, the Swedes would have had ammunition for their AAA for about 17 minutes after which they'd been throwing rocks at the enemy planes.

More seriously speaking, Finland in TW2k has enough to worry about by itself with still some pressure existing on the eastern border. Finns do have good readiness stores militarywise and probably with the TW2k timeline, the eastern border as well as most of the Gulf of Finland would be mined (and on land, there would be mixed fields of AT and APERS mines, especially the already banned sakaramiina which is practically 60 gram drilling charge of trinitrotoluene, equiped with a three-fingered mechanical detonator - enough to pop off toes but leave the guy still burdening the enemy medical support).