Operation Polarfuchs (ii)

Arctic fox

'Polarfuchs' (ii) was a German unrealised contingency plan for the occupation of Sweden (10 March 1943 onward).

The creation of such a plan, largely by the staff of Admiral Otto Ciliax, heading the Marinekommando 'Norwegen', was ordered by the Wehrmachtführungsstab (operations staff of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) and its possible implementation allocated to Generaloberst Nikolaus von Falkenhorst’s Armee 'Norwegen'.

Had it been attempted, 'Polarfuchs' (ii) would have comprised, clockwise from the north, an airborne assault on the iron ore mining centre of Kiruna by forces from Narvik in northern Norway; a land advance on Boden from Harapanda in Finland at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia; amphibious assaults on Söderhamm from the Åland islands group, on the island of Gotland from German-occupied Lithuania and on Göteborg from German-occupied Denmark; land advances toward Karlstad and along Sweden’s south-west coast from Oslo; and an armoured thrust toward Sundsvall from the area of Trondheim and Røros in Norway. Elements of these assaults would then have combined for the final stages of the invasion, aimed at the seizure of Norrköping, Uppsala and Stockholm.