Royal Norwegian Saab J-21R

[Bungle]

Hope you don't mind, I added this to the Finished kits thread but, of course, that doesn't attract comments. Posted again.

SAAB J-21R - Royal Norwegian Airforce - A What if story......

Norway 1946

Due to the poor weather conditions during the Autumn of 1944 and early 1945  the invasion of France had stalled to such an extent that a stand-off, much like that in WWI, now ensured. However the Allied offensive in the Mediteraen was begining to put a strain on the Axis forces in Europe. Gains in Greece and the near capitulation of Italy had caused the German high command to move divisions southward to defend the southern flanks. This meant the 27 divisions stationed in Norway and Denmark were reduced to 18 by April 1946.

A believer in Admiral Wegener's declaration that WWI was lost due to allowing the British to control the North Sea, Hitler was wary of the Strategic importance of the Norwegian/Swedish peninsular and its gateway to the Baltic. The loss of the Scharnhorst and Tirpitz underlined his desparation to defend these terrotories but pressure on his Eastern front and the Allies threatening the Balkans and southern Europe were stretching his swindling resources.

With his Navy scattered in the Atlantic ports Norway did not look such a glittering prize and with the export of Iron Ore drying up from an increasing belligient Sweden more troops and aircraft were removed to fight on the Eastern Front.

Sweden

Sweden wished to ensure its continued neutrality through a policy of armed strength during World War II but were effectively denied access to foreign weapons. An enterprising nation, Sweden impounded aircraft landed on their soil, both Allied and Axis. These aircraft were often strippeddown by Swedish engineers and engines, technical and design ideas were re-engineered into home grown aircraft.

During the invasion of the Scandanvian countries around it Sweden remained neutral but as the war progressed became uneasy with its relationship with Germany.It had allowed German troops to travel on its railways from the Norwegian to Finnish borders and even allowed heavy guns to be moved to Finland for their war against the Russians. From the very start of the war Sweden had been the main supplier of iron ore to German factories and now the British government was trying to sweet talk Sweden into changing their loyalties.

FORTITUDE-NORTH

The goal of FORTITUDE-NORTH was to convince the German chiefs of staff that the initial Allied offensive in the west would be to invade and free Norway from German occupation. Once this intermediate objective was obtained, the Allies would then secure ports and airfields in southern Sweden by convincing Sweden to join the war effort on the side of the Allies. Having gained the basing and staging rights the Allies required in Sweden, they would then launch their next assault into Denmark. Following the liberation of Denmark, the Allies would then begin the drive for Berlin.

Operation FORTITUDE-NORTH got underway in early 1944 and set about fooling Hitler into believing that a large invasion force was being marshalled under General Sir Andrew Thorne on the outskirts of Edinburgh. False message intercepts and sufficient Q-Light deceptions fed the Germans information that Norway was the focus of the Allied command. The attack, of course, never took place, France being the optimal target.

Now in 1946 General Thorne's understudy Colonel R. M. MacLeod was instructed to re start Operation Fortitude-North for real.

Invasion of Norway

The invasion of Norway began on 10th May 1946. The Allied plan called for utilizing two invasion sites within Norway. The southern landing at Stavanger would be a British/US effort to seize airfields for land-based fighters to utilize while combat forces were built up to six divisions within 3 months. A combined British/US and Norwegian assault would also occur at Narvik to secure rail and roadway lines of communication within northern Sweden.

To this extent the new Fourth Army consisted of the British 7th Army at Dundee, the British 2nd Light Corps at Sterling and the US 43rd Corps in Northern Ireland. The US 43rd Corps consisted of the 22nd, 15th and 18th Infantry divisions and was training for its role as a follow-on force for the Normandy invasion but its role was changedfor its particion in the Stavanger attack. The British 2nd Light Corps was to lead the Stavanger assault and consisted of the  Highland 45th Division, 113th Infantry Brigade and the 38th Commando Division that would make the initial assault. The British 7th Army would make the attack on Narvik and consisted of the US 45th Division with 4 US Ranger battalions from Iceland and the British 32nd Lowland Division with the rememnants of the Norwegian Brigade that would lead the Narvik assault.

The early morning attack on Narvik took the Occupying army by surprise and believing this to be the only invasion force German reinforcements were hurriedly sent from the South. That evening the Special Boat Service and Norwegian resistance set about disabling the defences on the Jaeren beaches. The landings were completed that night and again the german resistance was minimal, with German troops falling back towards Oslo and north wards to where the Americans making their push South. In three days the under strength German army were on the verge of capitulating caught between to armies and being squeezed across the border into Sweden.

Swedish mission.

On the day the Invasion began Victor Mallet, the British Ambassador in Stockholm made a presentation to the Swedish Government. In his presentation he requested the Swedish government consider the five following requests
1. The right of Allied aircraft to land at Swedish airfields and refuel and re-arm after combat operations.
2. The right of the Allies to conduct survey and reconnaissance flights over Sweden.
3. Permission to send British experts to consult Swedish counterparts about the transportation of supplies between Norway and Sweden, should the Germans vacate Norway.
4. The right for Allied naval vessels to use the ports of Malmo, Goteburg and Karlskrona to aid the blockade of the Baltic Sea
5. Sweden to break all diplomatic and commercial ties with Germany.

It took the the Swedish Prime Minister, Per Albin Hansson, less than a few hours to refuse the request, though he had already put to the Riksdag the proposal to cut the commercial and transportation links with the Reich. Hansson wished to preserve the neutrality of Sweden but unfortunately the damage was done. German spies and sympathisers communicated the Allied proposal back to an enraged Hitler. When Swedish troops disarmed fleeing German troops who had crossed their border and refused them passage to Germany Hitler concluded that Sweden had in fact sided with the Allies and his rage reached new heights.

Blitzkreig.

On May 17th, one week after the invasion of Norway two squadrons of Arado Ar234B bombers of Kampfgeschwader14 took off from Northern Germany. Another two Squadrons of Arados left Denmark two hours later with escorts of Messerchmitt ME262 fighter/bombers. In a perfect Pearl Harbour type scenario the Arado's were able to attack the Swedish Navy at Karlskrona unopposed and caused considerable damage to the docks and sinking one frigate in the main channel out of the port.

The other squadrons had less success Gotenburg remained untouched as a flight of RAF Meteors recently based at Bergen had assumed the attack was to be on Norwegian targets and had intercepted the German aircraft over the Skagerrak. Malmo did not go unscaved. The attack mainly hit the fishing fleet and the surrounding docks and fish processing factories. The smaller Naval dockyard was left untouched.

In the meantime the flights of me262's attacked the airfields at Hagshult, Halmstad and Karlsborg causing great damage to the runways and destroying several obsolete aircraft on the ground. At the end of the attack all but three of the Greman aircraft returned home, Sweden lost one naval vessel with five damaged, seven obsolete Saab 17 and 18 aircraft and the RAF lost one Meteor over south west Sweden, damaged it managed to land on a motorway just south of Vanersborg. The plane was interned and the pilot returned to the UK.

Given a bloody nose Sweden refused to react. It rejected the Allied demands and declared in forceful terms its neutrality to both the Allied and Axis powers. It did stop the trade with Germany but continued to intern all foreign military equipment from both sides but returned, unarmed, any combatants found on their soverign soil.

Norway liberated

22nd July 1946 German officer in charge Colonel Karl Schenk surrender his forces in Norway to the Norwegian forces. His senior officers had fled to Denmark with the remaining 10% of his forces, a further 18% surrendered with him. The rest were either dead, wounded, already captured or returned home by the Swedes. The Norwegian government in exile returned from London to set up government in Oslo.

Swift negotiation were made with Sweden and an entant cordial was entered into between the two countries. While keeping her neutrallity the Swedish government offer to help equip the Norwegians so that she could defend herself against any further aggression as the Allies moved on to invade Denmark. In doing so Sweden released the majority of the interned heavy equipment that it had no use for and also offered to 'sell' several of their new Saab J-21 fighters on a 'lend-lease' aggreement.


Saab J-21

The original design studies began in 1939, based around the use of a "borrowed" Bristol Taurus engine. The project remained dormant until 1941. Swedens neutrallity forbade it from purchasing foreign built aircraft so it again turned to its own industrial complexes to design and build a radical new air defence aircraft.  The low-wing monoplane Saab 21 fighter was ultimately designed round a copied version of the Daimler-Benz DB 605B engine and featured innovations such as tricycle landing gear, heavy forward-firing armament, ejector seat, and a twin-boom pusher layout.

The advantages of a pusher design, are that the view forward is unobstructed and armament can be concentrated in the nose, while a major drawback is difficulty in escaping from the aircraft in an emergency, as the pilot could get drawn into the propeller blades. SAAB deliberated between systems that would eject the pilot, or jettison the propeller or the engine, (via a system of explosive bolts). and eventually installed an early non-patented ejector seat developed by Bofors for the purpose and tested in 1943.

The first of three J-21 prototypes successfully flew on 30 July 1943. A total of 54 J-21A-1 fighters constructed at the main plant in Trollhättan were delivered from December 1945, followed by 124 and 119 examples respectively of the J-21A-2 with revised armament and the J-21A-3 fighter-bomber. Most of the J-21 were stationed in Northern Sweden fearing a threat from Finland or Russia more likely than from Germany in the south. In 1946 the internment of an RAF Gloster Meteor allowed the Saab engineers access to their first jet technology and by August an extensively redesigned J-21 with over 50% airframe, tailplane and wing changes and fitted with a  copied de Havilland Goblin turbojet came into service with the Swedish airforce.

In early September as Copehagen was liberated by the Allies the Royal Norwegian Air Force took delivery of the first of ten Saab J-21R turbojet fighters.












Sorry no build thread

[Brian da Basher]

It's a good thing I have no shame, because if I did, I'd just let my own (or maybe more accurately "pwned") project just linger unfinished in the face of such outstanding whiffery.

Not only did you pick the perfect aircraft, but you took it to the next level with the camo scheme, markings and backstory! That incredibly cool gunpod is the icing on the cake!

Love it, Bungle!

Brian da Basher

[Taiidantomcat]

That looks great! 

[Doc Yo]

Beautiful build, Bungle!