page_title: Bertil Berthelsson
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Bertil Berthelsson / Career
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: Kommendör (senare viceamiral) Bertil Berthelsson English: Captain (later Vice Admiral) Bertil Berthelsson
context_page_description: Vice Admiral Alfred Erik Bertil Berthelsson was a senior naval officer in the Swedish Navy. Berthelsson served as Captain of the Coastal Fleet, as Chief of the Naval Staff, as Chief of the Coastal Fleet and as commanding officer of the Naval Command South.
context_section_description: Berthelsson was commissioned as a naval officer in 1926 with the rank of Fänrik. After service as a Fänrik on the coastal defence ship Sverige with Göran Wahlström as executive officer and long voyage with the cruiser HSwMS Fylgia to South America, Berthelsson began his training as an air scout. During the 1930s, he came during a number of different tours of duty to deal with the air operational issues in the navy, during which he served for a year 1933-34 in the Air Staff. During the same period, he underwent training as a torpedo officer with tours of duty on the destroyers Ehrensköld and Klas Horn. These tours were a good preparation for Berthelsson's passing of the Royal Swedish Naval Staff College's General Course in the winter of 1932-33, which was followed by a Staff Course in the winter of 1934-35. This laid the foundation for decades of work in staff service - on board and ashore - as well as in various investigations. In 1936-37 he served on the coastal defence ship Sverige as an adjutant in the Winter Squadron (Vintereskadern) and in 1937 on the cruiser Gotland as an adjutant of the School Department. This was followed by service in the Naval Staff, among other things as a press officer until the spring of 1939. The contact with the press that he thereby received, he maintained throughout his subsequent service, which benefited him during work in various investigations.
  In the spring of 1939, Berthelsson took over as flag lieutenant (flaggadjutant) in the Coastal Fleet with Rear Admiral Gösta Ehrensvärd as commander and Captain  Helge Strömbäck as Captain of the Fleet (Flaggkapten). During the mobilization in the autumn of 1939 and the subsequent years of emergency preparedness, Berthelsson performed one of his superiors' highly esteemed work. It was above all the development of the ships' tactics and the torpedo's effort, both with ships and aircraft, that he had to devote his strengh to, but at the same time he had to convey to daily press and radio events and developments to keep in touch with the public. Among other things, he also participated in the publication of various defense magazines and books, which were published by various main authors. After three years in this position, Berthelsson got a long-awaited position as ship captain on the destroyer Karlskrona during the summer of 1942, followed by a similar command on the destroyer Stockholm in 1943. He was largely allowed to conduct escort service in the Baltic Sea for shipping protection against German sea and air forces and Russian submarines, in which he was involved in several incidents. However, in the autumn of 1942, Berthelsson had already taken up the position of teacher in tactics at the Royal Swedish Naval Staff College and in 1943 was appointed Commander 2nd Class. During his three years as a tactics teacher, the reorganization of ship tactics began, which was conditioned by new weapons and on-board radars, which came to strongly influence the ships' way of behaving both at sea and in the bases. His pioneering work also came to fruition in the 1943 naval inquiry into naval warfare, where he served as secretary with Rear Admiral Gunnar Bjurner as leader. The type of ship, the armored destroyer, which was launched at the time, can be said to have served as a model for the Halland-class destroyers who began to be planned and built in the late 1940s and the Östergötland-class destroyers during the 1950s. His diligent efforts to keep the navy with destroyers at sufficient numbers were a marked feature of his business. Berthelsson's good handling of investigative issues led him to be appointed as an expert in the 1945 Defense Committee as an assistant to the then Rear Admiral Stig H:son Ericson, who was the navy's representative. The inquiry's work led to the Defence Act of 1948.
  Berthelsson's longing for a tour of sea duty was satisfied in the autumn of 1947, when he took over as destroyer division commander with base aboard Visby. This annual command was followed by a year as captain of the cruiser HSwMS Tre Kronor. It was important to design
caption: Berthelsson as Captain circa 1951-54.
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