Finding a submarine was “like (looking for) Jesus”, Swedish Rear Admiral Anders Grenstad said this week. “Everyone knows who he is, but no one has seen him.”
The Swedish military spent seven days searching the waters around the 30,000 islands of the Stockholm archipelago. But on Friday morning, they finally called off the hunt for a supposed foreign submarine in an operation that has been tinged with farce throughout.
A picture of a mysterious black-clad individual – reported by some media as possibly being a Russian spetsnaz special forces soldier – turned out to be Ove, a local fisherman.
A story by Swedish tabloid Expressen on “heavily armed troops” involved in the search was illustrated by a picture that was actually a boat full of reporters from Dagens Nyheter.
Sverker Göransson, supreme commander of Sweden’s armed forces, also raised eyebrows with his choice of language when discussing the case. “This is very serious. It is plainly and simply fucked up that something or someone is inside Swedish territory right now,” he said on Tuesday.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016105282
October 27, 1981
The U 137 incident. On the evening of October 28, 1981, a fisherman residing in the eastern part of the Karlskrona archipelago phoned in to the Swedish Coast Guard and reported that a submarine had run aground in Gåsefjärden, 30 km from the town centre of Karlskrona. Originally, it was not taken seriously because of its location, as Gåsefjärden is a very difficult terrain to navigate in, as well as being a "dead end". Nevertheless, the fisherman was right, and the vessel was found to be of Soviet origin. The grounded submarine generated intense media interest, and Swedish military forces were put on high alert following suspicions that the Soviet Union would try to recapture the vessel. After several rounds of interrogation, the conservative/Liberal government led by Thorbjörn Fälldin decided to release both the vessel and its crew. This marked the beginning of the "submarine hunts" (ubåtsjakter), as nicknamed by Swedish media.
October 1–13, 1982
The Hårsfjärden incident. After a long period of submarine incidents, the Swedish Navy sets a trap by sealing off an area with mines and sensors. A foreign submarine is then recognized to have entered the trap, and the navy responds in force with major forces stationed nearby. A reported 44 depth charges and 4 naval mines are detonated, trying to sink the submarine, but it is later determined that it avoided the trap or fled at an early stage. This incident triggers the appointment of a parliamentary committee under the leadership of Sven Andersson, which—partly due to the efforts of Carl Bildt—blames the Soviet Union, thereby escalating tension with Moscow. Later research has cast doubt on many of the conclusions of the committee, with some of the sound recordings from the purported submarine now believed to have come from a civilian ship.[6] The entire incident is now hotly disputed, with some arguing the submarine may have been of NATO origin.[7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_submarine_incidents
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