Back story time. My grand father served in the Swedish Ski Troops (title I was told) during the second world war. Before he passed, he told a few stories of him being stationed in the artic circle guarding the boarder between Sweden and Norway. The twist to this story is that he said he never fought the Germans. Instead he and others would actually meet up with the occupying patrols and swap food rations because the weather conditions were so harsh. The only other details he would add to the story was that the German units were comprised of old men and young kids. Apparently that was the post for weaker populations of the Army.
I've tried finding information on this story but haven't found anything. Any information is appreciated. Thank you
Your grandfather's formation was probably Skidlöparbataljonen (the Skiing battalion) of I19 Norrbottens Regemente, the original 'ranger' battalion of the Swedish army, set up in 1910. In 1943, it was expanded into three Kårjägarbataljoner (Corps Jäger Battalions), II., V. and XIX. (raised from the original). These formations were integral to the Swedish 'fria kriget' (free war) doctrine - they were not intended to fight as battalions, but rather split up into platoons or even squads and infiltrate behind enemy lines to do recoinnasance, raid enemy supply and transport lines and harass enemy rear formations, akin to the Finnish long-range Sissi patrols that they used successfully during the Continuation War (sweden studied the Finnish experiences closely and many of their innovations made it into Swedish doctrine). There are unconfirmed but persistent rumours that Swedish troops did patrol in German-occupied Norway, linking up with Norwegian MILORG resistance fighters to swap information and recoinnasance.
The Swedish military intelligence C-byrån (the C-bureau) under Colonel Carlos Adlercreutz certainly maintained close contacts with the Norwegian resistance and with informers in Norway - when a German ship offloaded a large batch of maps of Sweden in scale 1:100 000 in April 1943, the Norwegian customs official handling the ship reported it to C-byrån. Likewise, when the German 25. Panzer-division moved from the Oslo region to the Trondheim region, its new location shows up in Swedish staff reports two days after the first units started arriving.
The German occupation forces in Norway demanded that Sweden maintain the telegraph and telephone lines that the Norwegian radio and telephone monpolies had rented for communiation with the continent, as they ran through Sweden. Sweden agreed and immediately started wiretapping them. The Germans used the T52 Geheimfernschreiber (secrets remote typewriter), which was similar to the Enigma, but even more advanced to encrypt the messages. The Swedish mathematician Arne Beruling managed to break the code and between May 1940 and June 1942, Sweden could read 90-95% of the messages sent between Germany and Norway, including information about the German Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Information was passed on to the British Ambassador in the Soviet Union, Stafford Cripps who passed through Sweden on a trip back to Great Britain - however, Stalin ignored the warning, as he did with many others. The Germans learned that the Swedes had broken the T52, probably through the Finnish intelligence, with which the Swedish intelligence frequently swapped information. Sweden did crack the Z machine in april 1943 and the Dora machine in 1944, when a German deserter brought a working example with him to Sweden.
Speaking of deserters, until November 1942, Swedish authorities routinely sent German deserters back to Norway, and at least 15 have been confirmed having been executed. After hat, no deserters were sent back, and roughly 500 made their way to Sweden.
On the other hand, the German intelligence on the Swedish armed forces were at times quite haphazard - while the German military Attaché in Stockholm, Bruno von Uthmann, seem to have had pretty reliable information, it seems like he was not in the loop as he in his reports after the war states that no German plans were ever made against Sweden, being ignorant of the contingecy plan for an invasion of Sweden that was created by Generalleutnant von Schell of the 25. Panzer-division in Norway during Spring 1943. Both von Schell and Major Karl Ogilvie that was responsible for Fremde Heere West (Foreign Armies in the West)'s section on Sweden notes that Sweden lacks any mechanised or armoured units - despite Sweden raising three armoured brigades Spring 1943, of which two were ready by July 1943 and fielding around 140 tanks each. By January 1944, all three were fully trained and field the intended 185 tanks each.
Swedo-German tensions across the border had four peak occasions. The first one was during the German invasion of Norway, when Sweden conducted a nearly total mobilisation and moved 400 000 men to the border, causing the Germans some concern both over the numbers and how quickly the Swedish railway system had been able to move these troops. Combined with the staunch Swedish refusal to let the Germans transport weapons, ammunition and reinforcements to Dietl's hard-pressed mountain troops (and militia rased form the crews of the sunk destroyers) at Narvik in April and May 1940. This ended with the Allied withdrawal from Narvik on the 8th of June 1940 as the Allies needed their troops in France.
The second occasion was during early 1942, when the Germans reinforced their garrison in Norway, moving some experienced troops (which had winter training) to Norway, which combiend with the big Swedish winter exercise in February 1942 and Sweden mobilising 200 000 men along the border caused some concern that Germany wanted to pressure Sweden to open up its railways to help aid supplying the German troops on the Eastern Front and would go to war if denied.
The third occasion was during July and August 1943, when the Germans reinforced the 25. Panzer-division and its commander Generalleutnant von Schell made a contingency plan for an invasion of Sweden should the Allies land in Norway and Sweden take their side. At the same time, Sweden felt strong genough (and that the Germans were weakened enough) to cancel the transit agreement, which since June 1940 had allowed unarmed German soldiers to travel over Swedish railways to and from Norway on leave. Sweden mobilised some 300 000 troops, including two armoured and one motorised brigade to combat any German incursion. However, by then the Germans had lost at Kursk and the Allies had landed in Sicily, and the 25. Panzer-division was needed elsewhere and was moved to the Eastern Front shortly after.
The fourth occasion was in May 1945, when Sweden mobilised troops for the potential Rädda Norge (Save Norway) operation, which would have pitted some 300 000 Swedish troops along with some 15 000 Norwegian 'police' (in reality trained and equipped like regular Swedish infantry from the roughly 70 000 Norwegian refugees in Sweden) against the roughly 100 000 frontline and 300 000 rear area German troops in Norway, in case the Germans in Norway refused to surrender. Thankfully, the Germans did surrender and no Swedish attack was necessary. Your grandfather's tale of old men and young boys fit well with the third line or rear area troops that made up the majority of the German forces in Norway, especially towards the end of the war, as the Germans continiously moved the best of their troops in Norway to the frontlines to replace the casualties.
Sweden and Germany were not at war, and as you say, Swedish and German units did meet and sometimes even fraternise over the border. Swapping of rations were common in such situations and were known to happen between enemies in war, so I find your grandfather's story likely. The German commander in Norway, General von Falkenhorst, met several times with the Swedish Överbefälhavare (supreme commander) General Thörnell in order to ease tensions and make sure no incidents got out of hand.