ABSTRACT
Traditional Scandinavian neutrality was shattered by the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939 and Nazi Germany’s occupation of Denmark and Norway in 1940. Britain prevented the Germans from extending their occupation of Denmark to Iceland, which became an independent republic in 1944, or to Greenland (77). The Finns, hoping to regain the territory the USSR had seized, joined Germany in attacking it in 1941. Only Sweden remained neutral throughout the 1939-45 war.
