WORLD WAR TWO REGGIANE Re 2000

WAGING
NEUTRALITY

s Europe plunged into

war in 1939, Sweden was
poorly equipped to defend
itself. The country had adopted a
policy of armed neutrality at the end
of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 a
stance it maintains to this day.
In common with many other
nations in the aftermath of World
War One, Sweden greatly reduced
its military budgets in the 1920s,
placing its faith in the collective
security of the League of Nations.
Any threat was perceived as coming
from the Soviet Union, not Europe.
In 1930 a defence commission
was set up to examine further
defence cuts. When its findings
were presented five years later the
international situation had changed
completely. Gone were cutbacks,
rearmament was the order of the
day. A new defence policy was
announced on June 11, 1936,
increasing expenditure by about
30%. The air
force was the big
winner;
its budget

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Torsten Nilsson describes

Swedens search for
a fighter to defend its
airspace during World
War Two

was more than doubled.

Sweden had the capability to
build military aircraft, but in the
1930s this was very limited. The
national railway workshops had
an aviation division, ASJA (AB
Svenska Jrnvgsverkstderna AB,
Aktiebolaget, equating to limited
company) which made trainers
and light bombers under licence
at Linkping. In 1937 the famous
munitions manufacturer AB Bofors
founded its own aircraft works,
Svenska Aeroplan AB (SAAB) at
Trollhttan.
This was not a time for rivalry
and the Swedish government
demanded that the two companies
cooperate, initially through a joint
venture. In 1939 they merged,
maintaining the name
SAAB,
with a headquarters
in
Linkping. The
first
types manufactured
under
licence were

the
twinengined
Junkers
Ju 86K
bomber,
designated B
3 (bomber, third
type) and the singleengined Northrop
8A-1 (B 5) dive-bomber.
In May 1940, SAABs first
original design was ready for
testing; the single-engined B 17
reconnaissance/bomber, and not to
be confused with the Boeing B-17.

Searching for a
fighterBombers were the

priority of the 1936 policy, but

fighters were also needed. SAAB
conducted several design studies,
but the resulting J 21 (J for Jakt,
fighter) a radical, twin-boom
pusher came into service after the
war. A stop gap design, the J 22,
was produced by the Swedish
Air Board and the prototype
had its maiden flight in

September
1942 with the first
deliveries taking place in October
the following year. But this did
nothing to help the countrys
immediate needs.
In early 1939 the American
Seversky Aircraft Corporation
conducted a sales tour of Europe.
(In October that year Seversky was
renamed as Republic Aviation.)
After demonstration flights in
Sweden in April, a contract for
Seversky EP-1 fighters was signed.
Known as J 9s in Swedish service,
the first consignment of 20 was
shipped in January 1940 and they
were assembled at Malmen (aka
Malmsltt), where the air force
museum is today. Some of the
large wooden crates that
the EP-1s were

Top left

A Swedish Air Force

J 20, demonstrates its
retracted, Curtiss-like,
undercarriage.
Left

Impressive line-up of
J 20s, perhaps at F 10
Malm.

Parked side by side, only a trained eye

would spot the differences between the
Seversky EP-1 and the Re 2000.
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WORLD WAR TWO REGGIANE Re 2000

countries were interested, including
Britain which ordered 300 in January
1940.
Parked side by side, only a trained
eye would spot the differences
between the Seversky EP-1, which
began development in 1935, and
the Re 2000. The Italians had
expressed a desire to build the EP-1
under licence before the Falco
was developed, and may well have
gone as far as examining the plans
and specifications. Mussolinis
government had a strict policy of
only acquiring indigenous products,
so no order could be placed with
the Farmingdale, New York-based
company. There was another US
connection: the Falco was designed
by Antonio Alessio and Roberto
Longhi the latter had spent several

Above and right

At first sight, these two

formations could be of
the same type of aircraft.
Above, a pair of Swedish
Air Force Seversky J 9s,
right a pair of Reggiane
J 20s painted with the
lightning bolt of F 10.
Below right

Reggiane J 20 31
in which Sgt Harry
Nordlund was shot
down on April 3, 1945.

delivered in later became summer

cottages in the local countryside.
With the German invasion of
Swedens neighbour, Norway, in
April 1940, another way had to be
found to get the remaining EP-1s
to Malmen. After negotiations with
Britain and Finland it was agreed
they could be shipped through the
Royal Navy blockade to the ice-free
Arctic harbour of Petsamo in the
extreme north of Finland. Bridges
along the 430-mile (700km) stretch
of road between Petsamo and the
Swedish border were reinforced.
From the frontier the fighters were
transported by truck and railway a
further 776 miles to Malmen. Sixty
EP-1s were delivered before the US
imposed an arms embargo on all but
Great Britain in July 1940 following
the German invasion of Norway.

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Italian lookalike
During 1938 Officine Meccaniche
Italiane-Reggiane, a subsidiary of
the famous Caproni organisation,
developed a new fighter, the Re
2000 Falco (Hawk), for the Italian
Air Force. Despite its good flight
characteristics, no contract was
forthcoming and the Re 2000 was
offered for export in 1939. Several

years working in the USA, for

Bellanca and Curtiss-Wright.
As deliveries of EP-1s ground to
a halt, Sweden entered into hasty
negotiations with Britain, Germany,
Japan and the USSR to purchase
fighters, but these were unsuccessful.
Turning to Italy, Sweden signed an
order for 60 Re 2000s in November
1940.

On April 3,
1945 an alarm
was received
that a foreign
aircraft had entered
Swedish airspace
near Simrishamn, in
the extreme southeast of
the country, and a group of
J 20s were sent eastwards from
Malm to intercept. At the controls
of J 20 31 was 22-year-old conscript
Sgt Harry Nordlund who had been a
fighter pilot since 1943. During this
time, he had amassed a large number
of flying hours and twice had made
forced landings without injury to
himself.
Intercepting aircraft that had
entered Swedish territory was
usually an uneventful routine.

Left

Refuelling a J 20.
Below and bottom

A quartet of Malm-based
J 20s, all carrying a
lightning bolt on the
fuselage.

Defending
integrity

Deliveries of the new type, which

was designated J 20, were made in
May 1941 and were completed in
February 1943. It was well liked by
its pilots and its 1,020hp (760kW)
Piaggio radial provided a top speed
of over 310mph (500km/h), making
the J 20 at the time the Swedish Air
Forces fastest aircraft.
All of the Re 2000s were stationed
at F 10; the newly built airfield at
Malm was ideally placed to protect
Swedens southern borders with
occupied Norway and Denmark to
the west and Germany to the south.
Defending Swedens neutrality was
not a passive operation. Up to the
end of World War Two F 10 staged
28,000 scrambles and hundreds
of foreign aircraft were seen off or
guided down to on Swedish airfields.

Defending Swedens neutrality was not a passive operation. Up

to the end of World War Two F 10 staged 28,000 scrambles and
hundreds of foreign aircraft were seen off...

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WORLD WAR TWO REGGIANE Re 2000

Right

Seversky EP-1 2134

53 on display at the
Flygvapenmuseum.
Bottom

The Flygvapenmuseums
Reggiane J 20 2340
40 in F 10 colours.
ALL IMAGES COURTESY
FLYGVAPENMUSEUM MALMEN

Normally the Swedish fighters flew

to the side or diagonally in front of
the interloper. Pilots would rock
their wings to get the attention of
the intruder and then point to the
way out of national airspace and the
incident would be over.
At 12:24 hours a message was
received from Nordlund saying
that he had been hit by fire from
the German aircraft he had been
requested to intercept. Three minutes
later he reported: Ive been hit by
fire from a Dornier Im heading
to Rinkaby. (This was a stand-by
airfield northeast of Malm.) Once
in contact with Rinkaby, Nordlund
said: I cannot land, Im baling out.
This message was repeated once, then
communication was broken.
From a nearby observation post, the
J 20 could be seen at an altitude of
about 1,600ft (500m) when suddenly
black smoke shot out of it and it
plummeted to the ground, killing its

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FALCO SURVIVORS
Two Reggiane Re 2000s survive, the
Flygvapenmuseum (Swedish Air Force
Museum) having the only complete
specimen. In April 2012 the wreckage of a
Re 2000 was found by Italian divers near
Porto Venere on Italys northwestern
coast. The wreck was salvaged and taken
The Flygvapenmuseums Re 2000 showing off
into the care of the Italian Air Force
an exposed fuselage structure from its days as
an instructional airframe at Malm. Behind is a
Museum at Vigna di Valle, northwest of
Junkers Ju 86K-4.
Rome.
The Flygvapenmuseums example, 2340, was delivered by rail from Italy and assembled
at the Central Workshops at Malmen. It was issued to F 10 at Malm on August 14, 1942.
After the war 40 remained at F 10 as an instructional airframe and sections of its skin
were removed as a teaching aid. It was transferred to the Historical Airplane Collection
at Malmen which later became the Flygvapenmuseum. www.flygvapenmuseum.se

pilot. There is no reason to believe

that Nordlund had not followed
the rules of engagement regarding
territorial violations. Nordlund

became the first Swedish pilot to die

as a result of enemy fire over Swedish
territory; he died defending his
countrys integrity.