Boden and the World War II Mobilization

For those of us living in Boden (Sweden), the World War II mobilization caused us great concern. For those of us up in northern Sweden, the town was already very much a military town at the time of my birth in 1932. When World War II broke out, I was only 7 years old.

Despite my young age, I still have very strong memories of the time both before and during the World War II mobilization in the fortress town of Boden. Boden was considered Sweden’s largest military town with many different regiments and General Staff Office.

Beginning around 1936 we kids started to realize more and more that there would be a future war. At the same time as the Berlin Olympics in 1936 there were many sports events at the regiment I.19 in Boden, and even in many other large regiments in Sweden. Boden held military parades with all of the regiments. Some regiments in attendance were I.19, A8, A5, ING3, Int 3, and S1B.

The parades were both frequent and long. It was I.19’s Military Band Orchestra that would meet and lead the way for these military parades. For several hours they would play marches while all of the regiments would be marching with their soldiers, generals, fortress commanders and staff.

It was September 1, 1939 when Germany launched the attack on Poland that started World War II. I remember at school that morning my teacher came into our classroom weeping in front of us children. She was so upset that she threw herself on the floor and had to be taken care of by the other teachers. At the time, us students did not understand much about what was happening to our teacher, but we were later told that she lost both relatives and friends in Warsaw, the place that was bombed by the Germans.

The outbreak of World War II and the mobilization had a major impact on us as children. Our father chose to spend as much time as he could with his family during this time. He would read books to us in the evenings and play fun songs on the family piano. A common fear was that the German occupation would come to our town, and these fears increased during April, 1940 when both Norway and Denmark experienced the German occupation.

Music Lessons during World War II Mobilization

During the years of the war I started to take piano lessons from my father Einar at our home. At that time we were living in the regimented area on the E-residence at I.19. Our family had both a piano and a grand piano and my older brother Lasse and I were the ones who did the most practicing. These lessons with my father were never on a set schedule, as my father had a busy schedule as a conductor for I.19’s Military Band Orchestra, traveling both in Boden and also around the county.

After only two rounds of piano lessons, I decided to give up. I just felt like there were so many other things that I could be doing during this time. But my father had a love for music, and he arranged it so that I could borrow a used flute from the Military Band Orchestra. My father even arranged for me to have music lessons under teacher Ruben Lindvall for about 5 years, and there were even times when both Ruben and I played together in Boden Orchestra Society under my father Einar’s management.

Around the E-residence at I.19, our home, barracks started being built as well as makeshift shelters for the horses during the autumn weeks in 1939. At night, there were often large fires that could be seen both around the camps and away on the sport field. One of the main reasons that these fires were built was to make special places for soldiers to wax their skis, for country skiing, this was an important sport for the military and also an important part in their duty as soldiers.

A new ski battalion had been set up and soon it was filled by both newcomers and mobilized soldiers. There were many different uniforms all around us. As kids, we would often go from “sjukan”, the disease camp, to “markan” , the coffee shop. At the coffee shop, we would get buns and thermoses filled with coffee, then we would take these items back to the sick soldiers who were on the ground floor of the fifth barrack.

For us boys, there was always a daily reminder of the world war II. Sometimes when we would visit friends we could see the large maps where their fathers, who were officers, were following the front lines. On these large maps, the officers would use flags and pins to keep track of the front lines of the war. Even for us as children, the war was always present and the Finnish front as well as all of the setbacks were followed very closely. The Russian terror was never far from our minds.

As schoolchildren, we had to pass over the barrack square of I-19. For us, as well as our family members, we had to have specific access control bills to show to the armed guards at the gates. Aside from the wooden guard shelters, the guards now also got small steel bunkers.

In just one short month our school, Lundagård school, had been taken over as an army camp. For the rest of that school year, we went to school at the Central school that was located down in the Boden town center. During this time, every family received a ration. Each month, ration cards were given to the families and we would use those ration cards to get a variety of supplies. Some of the supplies rationed included gasoline, tobacco, textiles, and a vast majority of foods. Even after the war ended in 1945, we were still receiving rations.

As kids, we would also take part in special exercises that were conducted in complete darkness. In the dark, children could be found performing mock air raids with spot light searches, special mobile deliveries, and disposal of fictitious injuries, (where we would place a large paper label marked “damage” on each of the victims).

When the Russians attacked Finland, Swedish volunteers rushed to their aide. There was even a special Swedish aviation division of the Finnish Winter War that was equipped. As kids, we took our bikes over to Boden’s only airfield. Between the regiments A8 and ING3, so we could see the war planes and bomber B.3 and S18 up close.

Military Music in Boden During World War II Mobilization

As I mentioned before, my father and the Military Band were often away due to the military shows, ceremonies, or dining room gigs they were performing at. In addition to these, they would also perform shows at the camps that were located at the northern fronts. As kids, we would often look at barracks square when the Military Band Orchestra played march music two times a week, usually between the hours of 8:00 and 9:00 when the companies were also being trained to march to the band. The concerts in the big park at the 19s regimental area would continue during the summer and each concert would provide a lot of excitement for us. We were not about to miss even one of these concerts.

The Military Band Orchestra During World War II Mobilization

The Military Band Orchestra would play a lot. They could often be heard playing at parks, hospitals, numerous detention centers, and other places. The orchestra was not only heard in Boden, but also at other regiments like F21 and Lv7 in Luleå. They could also be heard at the Ranger School in Kiruna and at the border posts. But the Military Band did not only play for happy occasions, there were many large accidents, like the Armajärvi accident, where many people died. When this happened, there would be a special commemoration where the Military Band Orchestra would play as a tribute to those who had passed away.

During the war years, the I.19´s Military Band Orchestra would spend every Christmas Eve playing at the various regimental canteens from eleven o’clock to six o’clock , As children, we were allowed to participate in the carols and it helped to create a sense of home for those who did not get permission to go home for Christmas. When we would go down to town, or anywhere else we would go with our parents, the Boden city would be filled with men, both soldiers and officers, all in uniform. You would never see a civilian man in the regiment area, everyone wore uniforms and you could see both older and newer uniforms.

Much of the modern German weapons, motorisation and uniforms partly influenced the Swedish military development. Then in 1940 came the so-called German “flat caps” and uniforms that had a shirt and a tie. At first, these uniforms were worn by the officers and NCOs, later on others were able to wear these uniforms too.

Even though the national and Sweden were held in high regard, there was always a fear in everyone’s mind that there would be a fast outbreak of war. Communist terror was widespread and the Journal of the Northern Lights Flame was blown apart by an explosive around 1940 by a captain from the I.19 regiment and two young officers from the Ing.3 regiment.

Even as kids, we were of the opinion that it was the good natured captain along with our officers were the ones who lead the group that blew up the Northern Lights Flame in Luleå. Of course, this lead to several deaths and to our surprise the captain that always seemed so good-natured ended up in prison.

And let’s not forget that the county hospital, known as “Garnis”, just near by the I. 19 regiment, was a military hospital that was built in the tick’s birth. It remained an entirely military hospital until the 50th century, so there is a lot of military history there. Usually the regimental doctors for the different units consisted of both managerial and consultants in both surgery and medicine.

There were also other doctors and physicians that were battalion and company doctors. When there were large military exercises you could see these doctors, many of whom lived in I.19, participating in the field exercises at field hospitals, fastener sites, medical tents, and more. When the doctors participated in these exercises they would always wear their uniforms.

The music that was played during the war touched us in many different ways. People felt both a feeling of love and a feeling of homesickness when they would hear music like Adinsells “Warsaw Concerto” and especially the French chanson “Over the rooftops of Paris”, and of course there were many other songs like this as well. The big song hit was Marlene Dietrich’s recording of “Lili Marleen”. This song was a product of Germany but oddly enough was sung on both sides of the fronts, much like the song “Silent Night” during World War I.

As young men, it was the Glenn Miller Orchestra that was all the rage. In swedish it was “Somewhere in Sweden”, “Letter to a field postcode”, and various other songs that could cause people to feel emotions ranging from homesickness and war weariness to love.

After about 1942 or 1943, we as school children sensed that the war was about to turn. But one thing that was hard for us was that Sweden was not only still surrounded by the Germans, but the Germans special trains with German soldiers went through Sweden to get to Germany. As you can imagine, many Swedes were very upset by this. One thing in particular that was a thorn to the Allies were the shipments of Swedish iron via Luleå harbour. These shipments were vital for the German warfare and Engelbrecht Division’s move through Sweden from southern Norway to northern Finland around 1941.

The German rail transport, which went right through the Boden Fortress, caused a lot of concern among those of us who lived in Boden and elsewhere. The trains would stop at the second station in Boden, Boden South, which was not far from our own home. As children, this made us very curious and we would watch as the train stopped for catering and other things.

Finally, there was peace. This peace caused us to feel great joy, and after so much sadness this new joy felt a bit unreal. We knew that it wouldn’t be long before the barracks would be dismantled and we could start eating well again. We couldn’t wait to taste exotic things like bananas again. Even though we were happy, we knew that there was always the risk of another war outbreak, as the Pacific War between the Americans and the Japanese was still going on.

After the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki about six months later, the war ended and we were truly at peace. In the end, it took about two years for the military to end and the rations to stop. There was a large shortage of goods, especially fabric, and during those war years we did not always had fresh milk, sometimes only powdered milk was at hand.

As a child, one of my most special memories was of the Red Cross trucks and buses that came to Boden at the beginning of the war. They brought small Finnish refugee children, only 5-6 years old, small solitary little creatures. Each child had a name tag attached to their clothing with a safety pin and they had a small personal bundle or sometimes a little doll. Most of the officers’ families at I.19 had at least one refugee during the war years. I met my first love during that time, 7-year old Sirkka-Liisa-Potiainen, a little girl who quickly taught herself Swedish.

Many of the Finnish war children who came to Boden were quickly integrated into school with the rest of us children. They seemed to love school and did not want to go home during leisure time or even when the war was over. For many families, both in Finland and Sweden, there was great sadness and drama when these children had to leave.

The soldiers experienced other conditions because of the war. For the military, there were declines in wages and benefits that they had previously had were now lost. For example, the relatively cheap rent that they had in the spacious officer’s homes and the riding horses that they were able to use, (along with their families), were no longer available to them.

Something else that many soldiers experienced was losing their status in social groups, for instance Officers who were previously in the first social group were now considered just like anybody else. In other words, after World War II, social groupings were completely taken away and no one was above anyone else.