SE-BAC Douglas DC-3-214
(c/n 1975)
When war broke out in 1939, Sweden elected to stay
neutral, and surprisingly was not subjected
to the
Blitzkreig. (Well, there are many reasons, but we won't go into
that). Anyway, to safely fly
their civil aircraft these
were painted with large "neutrality" markings, as seen on SE-BAC above.
Despite this,
the last of the pre-war batch of DC-3s to be delivered, SE-BAF, was
shot down by
the Luftwaffe on
the night of 27 August 1943 whilst the aircraft was en route from
Scotland to
Sweden. This act
was not admitted by Germany until 1951 although, in retrospect, it was
probably
justified. After
all, neutral aircraft, theoretically, should only have been travelling
between neutral
countries. SE-BAC
above was sold to Karhumaki Airways in Finland in 1954 as OH-VKB.