A Swedish Tiger

First of all sorry for not posting in a long time life have been very busy lately. Since I have not seen any good sites with swedish militaria with english description I will continue to post!

Anyway I want to show you the most popular swedish ww2 symbol and still is popular today. The symbol was designed by Bertil Almqvist who got the assignment from SIS (States information board). They used the symbol for a vigilance campaign to urge the public to stay silent about everything that could harm the neutral Sweden, mostly things regarding the swedish defence and military. 

The symbol and slogan is very clever, "En svensk tiger" in swedish. In one hand it could mean "A swedish tiger" but there is another meaning and the intention was "A swede stay quiet" well it does not seem fun and not much sence if you do not understand swedish, however I will try to explain. Tiger and to stay quiet is the same word in swedish.

This is a pin version of the symbol, it says "Jag" wich means "I" and the the tiger means to "stay silent", "I stay silent". As you can see mine is a bit worn but notice the swedish colours on the tiger!

There were not only pins you could also see them as signs hanging at cafés

HMS Sverige, armor plated ship token

HMS Sverige (F-boat) was an ironclad ship launched 1915. It was the first of its kind with its armour plating making it really heavy. The ship was demobilized in 1947, put out of service in 1953 and was scrapped 1958.

Commemorative token made of the used armor plates from ship Sweden. It says Sverige wich ofcoruse was the ships name and then SPF = Svenska pansar fartyget (Swedish armor plated ship).

Officers Target shooting association badges

Quick background history. The association was founded the 5/2 1859 following a petition signed by Prince Oscar II. The first competition with prizes was held on 21/4 1859, 37 officers participated.

These are shooting award badge from the association. I actually own two of them and on their sides it is stamped Bronze 1917 and the other Bronze 1919. In other words they are quite old but surley there are other variants than these cause the association is still active today. Anyway the front says: Gustaf V (5th) sweden's king and the back: Officers target shooting association in Stockholm.

If you want to know more I suggest their official webpage:
http://www.omf.nu/default.cfm?page=Historik

Unique Lieutenant Shooting Badges

This time I got a treat for you. I picked up five shooting badges (3 engraved) at a local fleamarket and when I got home I looked at them and saw that they belonged to the same Lieutenant! What makes them unique? Well you can sort of follow the history of this soldier through these. For example on the first badge it says second lieutenant and the later ones just lieutenant so we know he gained ranks. On top of all they are old aswell!

The complete set of five only three engraved other two blanks.

Front says: Oscar duke of Östergötland colonel in royal first life grenadier regiment

Back says: Royal first life grenadier regiments officer corps target shooting union

Engraving: Second Lieutenant E. Bille 6 hits in the rotating plane with revolver 1901 14/7 

Engraving: Lieutenant E. Bille 5 hits in the figure with revolver 1903 30/9

Engraving: Lieutenant E.Bille for 40 points with rifle 1904 11/9

Home Guard - badges

The home guard was established 1940. The home guard was split into different units consisting about ten men each. The members were usually ex military men or hunters, people with weapon experience so to say. Their purpose was to protect and defend factories or help people in case of war. At the beginning of the war the volunteers was poorly equipped. Most of them had clothes from home, a rifle and a military cap. But as the war progressed and more volunteered they even got their own uniforms.

cap badge m/1940

Arm badge m/1940 for use on different uniforms. Note both the stiched and printed badge.

A rare find!

Hello all,
Today I want to show you a rare estate find! It is a trial model of a military lantern and the ones I have seen before are in museums. Sadly I do not know much about it but I thought someone would enjoy some pictures of it.

Handlykta försöksmodell/40 (wich basically means hand lantern trialmodel/1940)

Inside view with lantern, 4 extra candles and some replacement plastic windows for the lantern.

Signal corps - finnish border and other exploits

The signal corps was created in 1937 to primarily serve the senior staff  with communication or "information transfer". If you would do well in peace times and show your proficiency as a signaller you could be awarded a badge in bronze, silver or gold.

The middle badge is made from actual silver and this particular one is dated 1940. The last one in gold is probably plated in silver since it says 925 on the back but no hallmark. This could of course vary from badge to badge not all was made from silver and if they were they might be dated differently, just to clearify.

One of the bigger achievments the signal corps did during the war to send special forces to Tornedalen at the finnish border. Their purpose was to report the progress of the war and if we would get attacked by soviet. During 1944 the following stab signal joints was stationed there:

• 12. distribution station comp and 12. distribution cable comp 
• 14. distribution station comp and 14. distribution cable comp
• 26. temporary signal comp

The signal corps would also help to evacuate refugee finnish children to sweden in 1944.

These are cufflinks with the text "finnish border 1944". They source is unknown but I guess they are post war commemorative pieces given by some veteran association. Most likely are rare piece that was made in low numbers.