And yet after centuries of antipathy and war between Stockholm and the Russian Bear, Sweden joined NATO only two years ago in March 2024.

Hi Doc Sarvis

Indeed. The Nordic countries all benefited from neutrality during WWI (Finland excepted as it was part of the Russian Empire). Finland's Marshal Mannerheim was a Czarist military officer, then became their country's greatest military leader.

Only Sweden benefitted from neutrality in WWII. And neutral Sweden secretly helped the Norwegian resistance against the Nazis while secretly helping the Finns, who worked with the Wermacht against the Soviet Army. Overtly, Sweden traded with the Third Reich.

In neighboring Finland, the highway signs are written in three languages: Finnish, Swedish, and English.

The brain works in strange ways, Doc Sarvis.

Every time I hear a Philip Glass composition I think of a musical conductor that I know.

Der Fuhrer was thrilled to learn about Otto Skorzeny's plan of switching signs and using English-speaking commandos in US Army MP uniforms to confuse our boys.

Ike said Otto Skorzeny was the "most dangerous man in Europe."

Meanwhile, FDR asked about the progress of the Manhattan Project -- so concerned was he about a German win at the Battle of the Bulge he thought of dropping one of those new-fangled science bombs on the Bosch.

And captured Nazi commandos in US military uniforms were hastily tried and executed, probably at the brigade level.