Aage Sandqvist 
Pilot in the Danish Brigade in Sweden during the Second World War 
Danish-Swedish Aviation History

During the second half of World War II, Sweden began to provide confidential assistance to its two neighbours, Norway and Denmark. This aid was in the form of so-called police camps, where refugees from these two German occupied countries could gather and prepare for a return to their homelands, when the Germans were expected to give up. In the home countries, these police forces were to restore order in society, and this motivation from neutral Sweden was tolerated by the Germans. But as time went on, the character changed from being police forces to becoming more and more regular military troops, although with simple weapons. The so-called Danish Brigade eventually consisted of nearly 5, 000 Danish refugees, who were placed in various camps around Sweden.

Among these Danish refugees, were slightly more than a dozen Danish pilots, who were secretly placed in pairs on different Swedish airbases. They eventually gained access to Sweden’s foremost military aircraft, namely the Saab B17 dive-bomber. In the last days of the war, these pilots gathered at the F7 Såtenäs airbase on the shores of Lake Vänern, where they formed the Danish Brigade’s Air Unit. Its main purpose was to support the Danish Brigade’s return to Denmark. One of these pilots was the author’s father, Lieutenant Carlo Hjalmar Sandqvist. Carlo is the ‘Pilot in the Danish Brigade in Sweden during the Second World War.’

This book presents inside views of the Danish resistance movement and German concentration camps in Denmark during World War II, and a dramatic escape. It describes the Danish Brigade in Sweden – a secret organization in which Sweden trained up to 5, 000 Danish refugees as ‘police troops’, eventually a paramilitary organization. It also presents the secret Swedish military plan for ‘Saving Denmark’ in the last year of the war.

Despre autor

I was born in Denmark on June 1, 1939, and my childhood
was somewhat unusual, partly because of the prevailing war
situation, and partly because I lived on Aalborg Airport after the
war until I was 12 years old. In 1951 my family emigrated to
Canada, and I became a Canadian citizen when I turned 18. My
studies took me to the University of Maryland, USA, where I
obtained a doctorate in astronomy. Here I also met my wife,
who was then a Swedish exchange student. In 1971 we moved
to Sweden, where we later had three children, and I eventually
became a Swedish citizen. My career as an astronomer culminated in my becoming a professor of astronomy at Stockholm
University, where I am now a professor emeritus.

Aage Sandqvist