Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-01-09
Sweden Taking
.WarPreCautiOn
By AXE Molmstroem

STOCKHOLM.-The Swedes, I'M
comfortably close to Russia and
feeling the growing world tenseness,
have not slackened their efforts to
protect themselves against a total
war.
During World War II, many forth
f1cations were blasted into the in
Vulnerable islands and reefs off the
rocky coasts of Sweden; the noun
tains are still the mainstay of de-
tense against the new weapons.
The Swedish mountains are not
high, but they are mostly granite.
Most of the. cities are built on rock.
Gray granite is everywhere. Thus
it is relatively easy to put Swedish
industry and public utilities in
bombproof shelters.
Many of the wartime shelters are
now used as garages, storage space
and repair shops. The Stockholm
shelters are a good source of in
come for the city which has let
them to private enterprise.
The blasting of mountain halls
for industries began during the war
and now is being organized on even
greater scale. A committee was
formed in 1s4B to plan for the shell
tering of strategic industries in the
mountains and much already has
been done.
Protection Plans Secret
Naturally, Sweden is saying
nothing about what it may be do
ing in the building of coastal shell
tiers for its new 10,000-ton cruisers,
its U-boats and other naval craft,
its torpedo batteries, forts and
warplanes.
But secrecy is less rigid for indus
trial mountain halls and storage
tanks, especially for oil, which are
blasted into coastal rocks in many
places. The new storage tanks are
protected against air attacks and are
almost f1reproof.
Several important plants produc-
ing weapons, ammunition, airplanes
and motors already have. moved at
least some of their most vital ma
chinery into the mountains.
A typical example is the Bolinder-
Munktell airplane motor and tractor
factory at Torshaella in South Gen.
trail Sweden. Outside the mountain
one sees only red shack, conceal
ing hole in the rock. A hallway
leads to number of caves, each SO
yards long, 1853 yards wide and 6
yards high.
The walls are painted and en-
livened by Photographic murals and
inches with artificial flower pots.
Temperature and moisture are regu-
lated automatically and the ma
chimes are driven by electricity.
Public utilities, which in Sweden
are owned almost exclusively by the
State and communities, also are
placed in the mountains. There is
a special government committee for
such installations, and a community
which plans to build a water works
or power station in rock is given
a grant from the state for the ad-
ditional costs. However, it is not ex-
pensive to build in the mountains,
Shelters for Hospital
Gothenburg, Sweden's second city,
now is building water and electrical
plants in its mountains with the aid
of government grants totaling about
$3.50, 900.
Stockholm is regarded as one of
the few targets in Sweden for an
atom bomb attack and hence the
capital is working hard to find pro-
lection in its mountains. A subway
system is being constructed and
large shelters blasted for the trans,
public utilities and the population.
The new city archives building
stands with its eight lowest floors
in a rock in the center of the city.
The largest building in Stock
holm is the new southside hospital
which dominates the southern ap-
preach to the capital. It has its own
powerhouse, naturally built into
rock, and has large shelters for g.
500 blasted into the granite.
Distributed by the Associated Press)