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As always, geography plays a role in war. And this affected Sweden's ability to remain neutral in the War. German priorities were primarily ficused west toward France and Britain an East toward the vast Eurasian Steppe, meaning Poland and the Soviet Union. Even when the Air war intensified (1942). American and British bombdrs did not have to cross Swedish air space to get at the Reich. And Sweden did not have an Arctic Ocean coast, so was not involved in the Arctic convoy campaign which after the NAZI inasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941) delivered supplies to the Soviet port of Murmansk. Sweden supplied raw material (especially iron ore) and manufactured goods (especially ball bearings) to the NAZI war economy until late in the War. It was the main contributor of iron ore to the NAZI war economy--over 40 percent of the Reich's iron ore used to produce steel--the single most important metal in weapons manufacture. The iron ore was seasonally delivered by merchant shipping across the Baltic Sea. The iron ore was mined in northern Sweden and primarily shipped from the port of Luleå down the Gulf of Bothnia to the German north Baltic ports (May to Novenmber). Luleå, however froze over during the Winter. Sweden's ‘Iron Ore Line' from Luleå to Kiruna was extended all the way into Norway because of the ice-free harbor at Narvik (1903). As a result, much of Sweden's iron ore was delivered through the Norwegian port of Narvik. This would lead to the German invasion of Norway (1940). So as the Germans were getting what they needed from Sweden, they did not invade the contury. Without Swedish iron ore, Hitler could not have launched World War II, but Sweden like Finland also had the Soviet threat to be concerned with.
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