IFS Insights: The BOAC Leuchars-Bromma Service 1939-1945
The British Overseas Airways Corporation's Scandinavian Service, which operated between the UK and neutral Sweden, provided the means by which a large number of Allied clandestine operations and activities could be carried out during the Second World War.
On 24 August 1939, the United Kingdom government, in conjunction with its newly established and publically-owned airline, the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), established a regular scheduled weekly passenger and freight air service between Croydon aerodrome near London and the four Nordic capitals with the Norwegian coastal city of Stavanger; it would be known as the Scandinavian service.
BOAC’s Scandinavian Service (1939-45), which operated between the UK and neutral Sweden, provided the means by which a large number of Allied clandestine operations and activities could be carried out during the Second World War. Moreover, its transport of thousands of tons of Swedish-manufactured steel ball-bearings to Britain during the same period, was vital for its aircraft manufacturing industry.
In this issue of IFS Insights, Matthew Knowles looks into how the Scandinavian service became significant for the Allies and particularly so for Britain, Norway and neutral Sweden over the course of the war.
