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).

Sweden - Finland, "war" international match 1940

In February 11, 1940 in the middle of the raging winter war a match of bandy was played between Sweden and Finland. It went down in history more commonly known as the "war international". It came to symbolize the struggle Finland fought to survive as an independent nation. The location of this event was Stockholm Olympic Stadium and the entry fee was 5 SEK. Not only was it a huge audience the current king Gustav V was also there to enjoy the match awell. It is important to know the whole occation was created to benefit the Finnish red cross but also strengthen the bond between both countries. Even though it was war the people had a good time and the crowd was cheering for both teams, I am not that interested in sport but this is how sport should be played in my opinion. Sweden wins against Finland 2-1 but more important it was a financial success 475 000 SEK was raised for the cause!

A clip from the event can be seen on this page!
http://www.svtplay.se/klipp/1127977/nar-finlands-sak-var-var

This is the front cover of the schedule that was given that day. Note that mine is also signed by the players!

Stay athletic and march!

In 1940 Swedish Walking Association created and organized the “national march“. The purpose was to enchance the swedish people health and patriotism during ww2. These events repeated several times during the years 1940-45. There was a entry fee of 25 cents(öre). Those who did the predetermined march in a good amount of time was given the national march pin in bronze, silver or gold depending on the time.

The three grades of swedish walking association march pin. Note the bronze award is slightly bigger than the others.

In 1941 the finnish people wanted to compete against swedes. A national march match between Sweden and Finland was created and took place in May 4-25, 1941. Not only was it a match between the countries but a support for Finland during the winter war. 

A commemorative pin to the swedish/finnish competition

There where several criterias that had to be achieved:

• Adults had to be born in 1928 or earlier, if you were a child born later than 1931 you would not be allowed to patricipate.

• The walking distance was 15 km for the male competitors. You would have to do it in less than the maximum time 2 hours, 20 minutes.

• For the female competitors (and young boys born in 1928-31) the distance was 10 km. You would have to do it in less than the maximum time 1 hours, 40 minutes.

If you would meet the criteria and did the march under maximum time you got the chance to buy this pin in favor of Finland support.

The final score was calculated in relation to the countries population. Finland won the event with ground breaking 1,507,111 participants against the swedish 1,008,352 participants.

These are the so called march cards were the officials wrote times counted during the marches. 

They came in both swedish and finnish.

If someone is interested in how the national march looked like. Kulturarv Östergötland has a short video http://www.kulturarvostergotland.se/Article.aspx?m=336004&a=336928

As a fun side note. In the mid/late 90s the national march was resurrected in favor of cancer research. So I did that march in 97 (I think) and was given a national march pin!