18. September 1905
Swedish planning:
At Stockholm the situation was recounted; in the heat of the moment the declarations of war had been issued and these had been cheered by almost everybody but by now with orders of mobilization going out the mood seemed to be changing.
There had been voices of concern and warning mainly based on the British and German positions which had urged the Swedish King and Government to let Norway leave the Union.
By now however the Government had the majority of the Storting support or at least consent to its stance.
Also the German Kaiser had issued statements to the effect of Sweden rightfully having to stop the Norwegian revolution.
Already there had been news of mostly industrial workers rejecting the call-up and a few had been detained awaiting trial.
This had partly been done to send a warning to the Socialdemocrats and Socialists who both called for a general strike to stop the war against the Norwegian brother.
There also seemed to be activity on the political far left with the Socialists and mostly the Youth Organization which had an anarchist stint organizing rallies against the War.
The General staff began pressuring the Government for action before the eruption of strikes widespread consciental objections and Great Powers intervention would happen.
More importantly planning had to be reworked; the contingency plan had been an amphibious landing up the Oslo Fiord behind the border and Glommen fortified line to break this by unloaded artillery firing and infantry assault in the rear of fortifications.
An element of the plan being blocking of the Norwegian Navy within the southern Oslo Fiord at Melsomvik Base barring its operational capabilities.
Troops of three Infantry Regiments, Cavalry and Artilley had been assembling at Strömstad south of the border with Norway shortly following the declaration of war on Norway but by dragging Denmark into the fray the scene had changed.
Instead of a substantial superiority at sea for Sweden that had changed into the hands of the Norwegian – Danish alliance.
Though Russia was out of the equation three older armoured ships were and had to be held in place at Karlskrona Navy Base to deter any Russian or other powers designs within the Baltic or possibly attack the Danish blockade or defend in case of a Danish attack across the Oeresound which also called for at least a Fördelning/Army Division to guard that area.
At least a fleet in being would be necessary to maintain and also to prompt the Danish Navy to not move all its ships into the Kattegat and Skagerrak.
The necessity of retaining units within the Baltic being that should the Danes mine the Bealts as had been prepared by the presence of Mineships and guarding the possible minefields with Warships shifting forces through the Baelts would be difficult and effectively necessiating planning for an assault on the Danish main Navy base at Copenhagen if communications by sea were to be continued during hostility.
As not all Danish warships were expected to take part in the blockade of Swedish west coast ports or mobilized some six armoured ships could be encountered.
These could be grouped as three old ships Lindormen, Gorm and Odin (namesake of Swedish Oden Artillery Ship there being more as all three Scandinavian countries were looking to Norse Mythology for naming ships or in the case of Denmark and Norway sharing a Navy hero Tordenskjold) making at best 12 knots; two armed with 2- 6” guns and one a casemat ship with 4- 9,4” guns the latter with limited use due to design.
All having cast iron armour were only of limited use as floating batteries for the defence of Copenhagen.
The other three ships were still old ones making at best 13 knots; one due to displacement in its day being classified a Battleship Helgoland armed with 1- 12” and 4- 10” guns another Tordenskjold armed with 1- 14” gun and 4- 4,7” guns and the last Skjold armed with 1- 9,4” gun and 3- 4,7” quickfire guns. Of these only the last two had steel armour and only the last being up to the standard of the day and age.
There was also the old of Second Schleswig War fame Rolf Krake the first European turret ship having been at anchor since 1896.
While of differing designs and mainly obsolete the ships still counted as an obstacle to leaving the Baltic. At least they could form a static and a mobile element in the defence of Copenhagen Navy Base.
Even if the Danes wouldn't consider using them in an offensive role against the Swedish in the Baltic they could still be blocking the Öresund to Swedish traffic in cooperating with mining the Sund.
The Danish Navy Base at Copenhagen had seen ongoing improvements since 1848 of rebuilt fortifications in concrete at the mouth of port to the major Middelgrundsfortet outside the port armed with five 30,5cm guns (12”).
The Trekroner Fort at the entrance of port had five old 29cm (11”) guns and seventeen 15 and 17cm (6” and 6,7”) guns.
Other batteries were placed on the coast and at Holmen Navy Base.
In the present state of war the Forts would be manned and alert.
Within the fortress would be some 50,000 Danish Army troops; at present an assault upon Copenhagen would be out of the question when resources necessary for an amphibious assault were at Strömstad close to the Norwegian border.
400 km's to the north of Copenhagen.
Protection of the Amphibious capability was necessary to keep as much pressure on the Allies as possible; lose it and the Allies would be able to deploy their Navy units much more freely.
The Swedish main Naval force would have to force its way from Göteborg to Strömstad to make the amphibious assault commence and even then the whole plan might be in jeopardy.
There was the Swedish Submarine presence but deployment of Hajen outside the Göteborg skärgärd (arqipelago) had been rejected due to the frailty of the craft and its lack of speed; any Allied vessel deployed would be able to outrun it making its operational value close to moot though probably no countermeasures apart from ramming and dropping hand-bombs upon it would be present. Of course should it be forced to surface it would risk artillery fire.
Hajen's real value was in deterring the Allied force from approaching the Göteborg skärgärd too closely thus shielding the Swedish Navy Base there from attack.
The Swedish alternative was assaulting the Norwegian fortifications which had been calculated to be costly in light of the actions reported from fighting in Manchuria between Japanese and Russian Armies though the exact numbers were still up for scrutiny.
As only the Norwegians would be opposing that alternative seemed promising; digging parallels in preparation for it was ongoing.
