Sten's fighter pilot career, 1929 - 1942.
Sten had joined the Cavalry at a young age and soon advanced to a Lieutenant there, after much riding and military life.
The Swedish army decided to set up an air force 1926. Because of the escalating international tension during the 1930s the Air Force was reorganized and expanded from four to seven squadrons in 1932 and a serious search for pilots ensued.
Sten, being an able cavalry officer saw an opportunity to get away from tending to the horses and applied.
He received Swedish military pilots license number 72 in 1930 and a civilian licence No. 507 in 1933. Since all pilots had to carry a license I suppose that this number indicated how many that had received their wings before him.
Sten, 25 years old in 1930
Sten was always happy with the bottle and that didn't change with his flying status, for sure.
His father had a large 1927 Buick family car. Sten totally demolished the car when he drove it off the road and into a mountain side when totally drunk in 1932. He did seriously injure his knee, an injury that he aggravated in an aeroplane crash in 1933. First class pilot, or not, he limped a little for the rest of his life.
The offical file photograph of Sten's crashed airplane in 1933.
One wing was broken, the enginee crankshaft was bent and the engine mount was ruined. It was sold for scrap.
As I entered the army, years later, I met a few of the old officers who still remembered my uncle Sten.
I also was given a few newspaper clippings about when he got into trouble with the authorities.
This story relates to an event that took place in 1933, at the Jungbyhed flying school in southern Sweden:
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A very popular and pleasant Fokker pilot was Lieutenant Sten Rosholm from Karlshamn. As a civilian he was first in line to inherit his father's meat processing plant and used to say:
“In my civilian life I makes sausages and in my military life I tow sausages (targets), but to eat sausages, that I will never do.”
The only “problem” with our friend Rosholm – seen strictly from a military point of view – was that he didn't seem to strive for any military glories but was quite happy with joking and enjoying life, in general.
The summer of 1933 we were all stationed at the F3, near Kristianstad for target shooting and bombing exercises. One Saturday night most of us got an irrestible urge to go to the city for some girl watching, or more. Lieutenant Rosholm was on station-service duty so he, obviously, could not go.
We dragged out the official squadron military motorcycle, complete with side car, and set off. Much later when it became time to return, who did we meet in such a compromising situation but the on-duty Lieutenant Rosholm.
“But what meets my eyes,” he said, “the Chief of the guard with our official motorcycle?”
“Yes, Lieutenant.”
“… and we also have the fire department chief here, as well?”
“Yes, Lieutenant.”
.. and the man in the side car is the on-guard NCO?”
“Yes, Lieutenant.”
“... but where is your official badge?” (A large silver plate medallion to be carried around the neck, while on duty.)
“Here, Lieutenant”, says the guilty and hauls the medallion out of his pocket.
“I see. Well, I have my badge in the pocket too.” “Could I get a ride back with you. Surely, we can all make it on the motorcycle if we squeeze together on the seat.”
(Leif Staverfelt 1977)
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All pilots were issued a service pistol, to be carried at all times when on duty. One story about his pistol occurred while they were based on the island of Gotland.
Being quite far north on the globe, summer sunrises were early. Sten often partied late and was not very enthused when awoken by the birds singing outside his open window in the morning.
He took the pistol and, unbelievable as it may sound, hit a bird in the tree.
Unfortunately, any shot that early in an otherwise quiet morning would draw the attention of the guard. After a frantic search for enemies, it was determined that Sten was the guilty shooter and also had pistol with a magazine that missing a few cartridges.
He got written up and got another black mark, adding to many, on his record,
Eventually, after a few far more serious misadventures, he was demoted and barred from all future flying. That was still years away, then.
WW2 had started in August 1939. Sweden was ill prepared, it had all of 170 aeroplanes and probably no greater number of qualified pilots as it stood then.
Finland was invaded by Russian troops on November 30 that same year. The Finns started an immediate mobilization and young patriotic Swedes soon joined, too.
The Swedish free brigade was assembling on an island just off the coast of Finland near Helsinki. Some 8 200 Swedes volunteered to fight the Reds, fortunately only 12 of of the volunteers died in Finland. The Finns lost some 30 000 soldiers during the three month war, the Russians over 500 000.
The war ended badly for both the Finns and the Russians after a peace accord the following March. Russia was deemed to have invaded illegally and was promptly kicked out of The League of Nations, the precursor to The United Nations, which was formed later, in 1946.
Sten was by this time stationed on the island of Gotland and, again, doing routine recognizance flights only.
No war there.
Early one December morning, he and another officer friend decided to join the Swedish brigade in Finland. They took off long before sunrise and found their way north to Finland, about a three hour flight for them.
They landed, taxied up to the commanding officer's office, stepped out of the aeroplanes, saluted and stated.:
“Captain Rosholm and fighter aeroplane number 86, reporting for duty.”
Not so fast, the aeroplane belonged to a neutral nation, Sweden, and was certainly not the property of any “Captain Rosholm” who was still on active Swedish duty.
A diplomatic row developed, soon calmed with the order to Sten and his officer friend, still in Finland to:
“Fly your aeroplanes back to your Gotland air base and report for duty.”
(Leif Staverfelt 1977)
---------------
All pilots were issued a service pistol, to be carried at all times when on duty. One story about his pistol occurred while they were based on the island of Gotland.
Being quite far north on the globe, summer sunrises were early. Sten often partied late and was not very enthused when awoken by the birds singing outside his open window in the morning.
He took the pistol and, unbelievable as it may sound, hit a bird in the tree.
Unfortunately, any shot that early in an otherwise quiet morning would draw the attention of the guard. After a frantic search for enemies, it was determined that Sten was the guilty shooter and also had pistol with a magazine that missing a few cartridges.
He got written up and got another black mark, adding to many, on his record,
Eventually, after a few far more serious misadventures, he was demoted and barred from all future flying. That was still years away, then.
WW2 had started in August 1939. Sweden was ill prepared, it had all of 170 aeroplanes and probably no greater number of qualified pilots as it stood then.
Finland was invaded by Russian troops on November 30 that same year. The Finns started an immediate mobilization and young patriotic Swedes soon joined, too.
The Swedish free brigade was assembling on an island just off the coast of Finland near Helsinki. Some 8 200 Swedes volunteered to fight the Reds, fortunately only 12 of of the volunteers died in Finland. The Finns lost some 30 000 soldiers during the three month war, the Russians over 500 000.
The war ended badly for both the Finns and the Russians after a peace accord the following March. Russia was deemed to have invaded illegally and was promptly kicked out of The League of Nations, the precursor to The United Nations, which was formed later, in 1946.
Sten was by this time stationed on the island of Gotland and, again, doing routine recognizance flights only.
No war there.
Early one December morning, he and another officer friend decided to join the Swedish brigade in Finland. They took off long before sunrise and found their way north to Finland, about a three hour flight for them.
They landed, taxied up to the commanding officer's office, stepped out of the aeroplanes, saluted and stated.:
“Captain Rosholm and fighter aeroplane number 86, reporting for duty.”
Not so fast, the aeroplane belonged to a neutral nation, Sweden, and was certainly not the property of any “Captain Rosholm” who was still on active Swedish duty.
A diplomatic row developed, soon calmed with the order to Sten and his officer friend, still in Finland to:
“Fly your aeroplanes back to your Gotland air base and report for duty.”
Fokker F 9 (1928)
A court marshal was to follow and did. The outcome was, however, filed away. Sweden had far too few pilots to let any one go out of duty to go to jail then.
Sten continued flying recognizance flights out of Gotland. But not for very long. He soon lost his wings.
Now, the no-war was at a new routine as far Sweden and Russia were concerned. The Finnish winter war had ended.
Every sunrise, a lone Russian aeroplane would fly down the east coast of Gotland, starting at the northern tip. It had a large hole in the bottom, obviously for an aerial camera.
Sten or one of his colleagues routinely scrambled to intercept the enemy, which obediently would turn out to sea, only to return farther south, some half our later.
Some time after the beginning of this dance, Sten got a bit annoyed, let this be stopped.
He used the not so impressible capabilities of his double wing Fokker aeroplane, equipped with one single machine gun and – shot down the unarmed Russian observation plane.
Not good – the female pilot parachuted out of the burning aeroplane. She broke her leg in a hard landing and became safely ensconced in a Swedish hospital. This pilot had some very clear ideas of who had shot her down. She gave the identification letters from the aeroplane and also described Sten's facial features clearly. He had many red dimples from a recent bout with adult onset smallpox. They flew open cockpit aeroplanes, remember, and had been very close more than one morning in the past.
She was soon returned to Russia on a Russian aeroplane, especially sent in to pick her up.
Now Sten was in serious trouble.
The ensuing court marshal brought out the records of all his misdeeds, mostly involving alcohol. The newspapers had a hey day, telling about how lil ole neutral Sweden had bravely defended itself but also gone too far.
Sten, who was a captain at the time, lost one star, and became a Lieutenant again. He was promptly sent back to the regular army in Northern Sweden to keep guard against the Germans, who had occupied all of Norway.
Sten was a stern officer, earning the respect of his men, some of whom I met in later years. The duties were probably boring beyond belief, live in tents and walk a few kilometres of scraggy mountainous terrain against invading Germans, far north of the Arctic circle, in constant daylight in summer and constant darkness in the wintertime.
Sten with troop in the Summer in Northern Sweden
Sten, being a personal acquaintance of Hermann Göring, the chief of the German air force had a good time. Görings first wife, Carin, was from Kalmar where Sten was stationed for several years.They first met around 1929 when Sten was asked to chauffeur Hermann Göring and his wife in a military car. They then met regularly during Göring's visits to Sweden, where Göring had spent considerable time in his youth. In the early 1920s, he was living in Stockholm and working for the Swedish airline, Svenska Lufttrafik.
Sten was more than a closet Nazi, he was a real one. This wasn't a problem in Sweden then, it was a well known fact that a great number of the officers were German and Nazi sympathizers.
I can well understand why Sten was, eventually, placed so far out of harms way in the north. He spoke fluent German and soon made friends with the Germans who were equally bored on the other side of the Norwegian – Swedish border.
They took turns partying in each other's camps as the years, four in all, wore on. No bullets were ever fired and not much of military value ever happened.
Some 20 years later, in 1955, Sten had located three of his German officer friends from the Norwegian border, now living in East Germany.
He travelled there by tourist bus, entered East Germany by a regular bus, illegally of course, and, again, caused a diplomatic row.
After a few days with his German friends, it was time to return to, then, West Germany. Since Sten had no documentation allowing him to visit East Germany, he certainly had no such papers for leaving. He got a ride across river Oder in a motor boat that was intercepted by the East German border control.
It all came down to a “diplomatic misunderstanding” and Sten returned to Sweden some time later, not by tourist bus but by train. He hated the Communists with even greater fervour after that event, he even forced me to change out of my red swim trunks one summer day. Nothing “red” was allowed in his line of sight.
Before his return, we had read in the Swedish newspapers about this “Swede who was retained by the East Germans.” Only later did we find the name. Our very own Sten.
Sten Rosholm 1905-11-04 - 1982-12-03
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To learn more about Sten and other memorable persons in my life, buy my memoirs "The Seasons of a Man" here
https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bengt+lindvall+the+seasons+of+a+man
https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bengt+lindvall+the+seasons+of+a+man
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