The Viggen in fiction - here is some translated to english

[Farks]

I took the time to translate some of the parts featuring the Viggen in the book Operation Garbo to English. I left the comments open for any suggested improvements or language errors (spelling, grammar, etc).

 

 

Viggen excerpts from Operation Garbo

[Rudel_chw]

Thanks a lot ... seems really nice, will read it tonight :thumbup:

[Mikke_EAF331]

The Operation Garbo series of books was (is still actually) really good, especially the first two books, I remember reading the first one just months before the fall of the Soviet Union, the book is about how SU launches an attack on Sweden as a try to keep SU from falling apart.

It is also gives a good idea on what kind of resources Sweden had in the late 80's early 90's, not just in the air but on land and on/in water as well.

 

Another book worth reading, if you can find it and can read swedish, is "Slaget om Gävle", IIRC there's not as much flying in that one though.

[Goblin]

"Slaget om Gävle"

 

Thanks for the tip!

Never heard of that one, but I lived in Gävle when I read Op. Garbo when I read about the Russians rolling past Hemlingby, where I lived. I felt like looking out the window to make sure it wasn’t for real... ;) Very good books! Back then I was a high school student and couldn’t afford to buy the books. Found them at an old bookstore a few years ago, so I have them in my bookshelf.

[Rudel_chw]

On 5/9/2020 at 8:34 PM, Farks said:

I took the time to translate some of the parts featuring the Viggen in the book Operation Garbo to English.

 

The OP hasn't been on this Forum almost since the time he started this thread. By any chance, does anyone has an english translation of the complete books?  or even the swedish version but on e-book format so I can try to translate it?  ... thanks for any help with this 

[bb5000]

I have the triology as e-book in Apple Books on my IPAD .All 3 books cost ~230 SEK.Author : Harry Winter (a pseudonym). In Swedish.

Edited May 10, 2024 by bb5000

[renhanxue]

You can purchase the ebooks in Swedish on Adlibris, here's part 1 for example: https://www.adlibris.com/se/e-bok/operation-garbo-del-1-9789187709586

It's... pretty cheesy, to be honest. The authors' prejudices are glaringly obvious at times and certain parts are just the authors directly telling you their political talking points. But the authors were active military personnel and it does provide a pretty good insight into what the Swedish armed forces of the late 1980's expected the Big Soviet Invasion to look like. That does include various flights of fancy though that have later proven to be complete nonsense, like the Polish art sellers that the military was convinced were out to assassinate Viggen pilots (no traces of such things have ever been found in Polish intelligence archives; the Poles did have agents in Sweden but they were few and mostly interested in emigrated dissidents), TIR trucks being used for intelligence gathering (that doesn't seem to have been a thing either; the trucks popped up in weird places mainly because the drivers were smuggling stuff for their own profit), all kinds of wacky submersible vehicles being forward deployed on Swedish territory (no such things ever seem to have existed), etc etc. That does a lot to increase its authenticity as a historical snapshot of the military's world view at the time, but it's also kinda funny to read in retrospect.

Edited May 10, 2024 by renhanxue

[Rudel_chw]

3 hours ago, bb5000 said:

I have the triology as e-book in Apple Books on my IPAD .All 3 books cost ~230 SEK.Author : Harry Winter (a psuedonym). In Swedish.

 

Hi, thanks a lot for the tip, I went to the iBook store but unfortunately this book is not available on my country's version of the iBook Store.

 

48 minutes ago, renhanxue said:

You can purchase the ebooks in Swedish on Adlibris, here's part 1 for example: https://www.adlibris.com/se/e-bok/operation-garbo-del-1-9789187709586

 

Thanks a lot for the link, I tried to purchase the Book 1 as it was pretty inexpensive, only US$ 5 (I intended to buy the other two parts of the trilogy after confirming that I could actually translate it to english), but sadly this store only sells within sweden, Norway and Finland ... even for items that dont require shipping, like e-books   

 

48 minutes ago, renhanxue said:

... the authors were active military personnel and it does provide a pretty good insight into what the Swedish armed forces of the late 1980's expected the Big Soviet Invasion to look like. 

 

I was interested on this book precisely to gather such insight, hoping to find inspiration for my Kola map missions  

 

Thanks a lot anyway for all the help 

 

Eduardo

[Otulf]

Good evening all!

 

I can reccomend a book called "Den trettonde Bomben" (The thirteenth bomb) in English, written by Mats Svensson

It´s a fictional book about a  modified 37 Viggen among many other things... It is the first book in a trilogy. (Also a bit cheesy at times)

Interesting and bit creepy plot. I do not know if It´s translated!?

The other two books is called: "De tolv majestäterna" (The twelve majesties) in English and "Det elfte budet" (The eleventh commandment) in English.

ISBN:

978-91-7903-522-8 (The thirteenth bomb)

978-91-8018-437-3 (The tweleve majesties)

978-91-8018-637-7, (The thirteenth Commandment)

I think the first book is fairly good. The second and the third book is not as good as the first. (This is of course my personal subjective opinion as a reader).

 

I can also add a recommendation about books that describes subjects regarding renhanxues post above:

A book about what renhanxue describes is called "Guide till Spionernas och underrättelsetjänsternas Sverige" (A guide to the spies and intelligence services Sweden)

ISBN 978-91-7329-178-1

There is also a complete chapter about the paintingsellers etc. in a book called "Svenskt flyg under kalla kriget" (Swedish aviation during the cold war)

ISBN 978-91-7329-134-7

I can also recommend a book called "Om Svensk signalspaning under kalla kriget (About Swedish signalreconnaissance during the cold war).

ISBN 978-91-7329-149-1

All above books is written in Swedish and I do not know if they have been translated.

I apologize for any grammatic-,writing- and spelling errors since English is my second language and I am not very good at it.

 

Best regards:

Otulf