Swedish Neutrality:

Swedes have always defended their neutrality vigorously. Early in the war, with Germany and German occupied territories surrounding them, the Swedes had to make some concessions.  


Early in the war, Malmo and areas near the Baltic Sea were blacked out to avoid giving navigational aid to the Allied bombers. After a number of accidental bombings of Swedish territory, it was deemed safer to leave the lights on so the bombers could see they were approaching a neutral country. While this helped the navigators plot their courses, there was a downside. German night fighters would fly south and west of the bomber stream so individual bombers would be silhouetted against the lights of Southern Sweden.


Of course, the Swedes were perfectly within their rights to shoot down Allied aircraft in their airspace. Apart from legalities, there was always the chance of another accidental bombing of Swedish territory. Not only that, but the mines the Allies were laying in the Baltic Sea were killing Swedish, as well as German mariners.

None the less, given the late stage of the war, I wonder at what level in the chain of command was the decision made to use deadly fire rather than warning shots against F/L Charlton and his crew.


From Bruce Lewis: Aircrew, p146-147:
Yet the most memorable moment on that mission was when our bomber stream flew over Malmo, blatantly breaking through the airspace of neutral Sweden. What a sight it was! After nearly five years of total "Blackout" both at home and on the Continent, it is almost impossible to describe the wonder of looking down on a city bathed in light. Houses with twinkling windows, streets lined with illuminated shops, highways picked out by marching rows of lamps, traffic with headlights blazing, neon signs, illuminated docks, and perhaps most strange of all, an airport aglow with light. It was a fairyland in a world at war.

The Swedes made a gesture, as they had every right to do. They fired obsolete flaming onions that burst 10,000 feet below us. We spotted some ancient biplane fighters that wisely kept their distance from our 402 Lancasters, but flashed their Aldis lamps in 'warning'.  On the way back, around 0300, it seemed most of the inhabitants, including the Swedish armed forces, had gone to bed. The activity died down and the lights extinguished.

From Murray Peden: A Thousand Shall Fall, p446:
Since the Swedes were neutral, I was looking for no trouble from the ground. I thought they might fire a few rounds, a thousand feet below us, as a token demonstration against our violation of their air space. What the Swedes actually did was subject us to some very heavy and accurate flak of a particularly scary kind. This was the "flaming onion" type, a glowing red ball which seemed to move toward the aircraft at a leisurely pace for several seconds and then suddenly whistled past like the mill tails of hell. Inwardly, I cursed the Swedes with every piece of profanity I could lay my tongue to. They knew damned well that they were not going to be molested, and a few token rounds a thousand feet below us, together with a protest through diplomatic channels, would have been quite adequate for face saving purposes, instead of trying to kill us. I would have been delighted to act as Master of Ceremonies if Bomber Command's next raid had been 3,000 tons on Stockholm.