Thanks for comments and compliments, colleagues!
backstory: With the increasing tensions in Europe after the end of the Second World War, the Swedish High Command became concerned about Soviet Naval units closing off the Baltic with a combination of fast attack craft and the new Sverdlov cruisers. While budget restraints, especially during the period of Sweden's secret nuclear program, would inhibit sufficient funding for new warship construction, members of the
Kustartilleriet suggested that airpower could be something of an equalizer. Heavy guided anti-ship missiles were still a few years in the future, but with the rapid development of the J 29, the now-surplus J-21 and J-21r could be adapted as a stop gap anti-shipping force.
In 1950, forty of the final production J-21A3 series were transferred to the island of Gotland, and began training pilots in surface attack techniques. While the threat of another European war remained in potential, another threat would emerge in the early nineteen fifties that was
horribly real: Kraken. Though the British Royal Navy would successfully counter the monsters in the North sea and North Atlantic, these by-products of Neu Atlantis-Nihon's horrible biological experiments* would decimate first the fishing industry in the Baltic, and as the creatures grew rapidly in size during the early 'fifties, larger commercial vessels as well. The successful development of the
pansarskydd/antikraken raket would prove vital to curbing the menace. The later J-21r was also adapted to the work, some fifty eventually being transferred to
the
Kustartilleriet in 1953, where they would serve alongside their older siblings until the last Kraken was dispatched during its attack on Malmö in 1961. Below, and image of a pair of J-21r's attacking a Kraken off the city of Oxelösund in 1958.
j21r-rockets by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
* See
The Secret World War, 1947-1958: A report to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe by Clark Yo jr. (GPO 1965), and
The Horrors I was Not Responsible for by Wen Yo. (University of the Southern Arctic Press, 1977)
many thanks again to all and in particular our fearless leader, Greg, for providing the image I so hideously modified for my own nefarious ends.
