Arado Ar 196 in Swedish Service

On 11 February 1943, an Arado Ar 196A-3 floatplane coded DH+ZF Werke Nr. 1006 flew over Swedish territory. It was spotted by a Swedish cruiser which fired warning shots, forcing it to land. The pilot Uffz. Ludwig Hammer and observer Helmut Abramowski were interned pending an investigation as to why they overflew neutral Sweden’s territory. Although espionage was suspected, it could not be proven and both men were released and returned to Germany.

This particular Ar 196 was built at the S.N.C.A. de L’Ouest factory in St. Nazaire in France in 1942, one of around 20 that the St. Nazaire factory produced before production was moved to Fokker. After being interned by Sweden, it was stored at Karlskrona until 1945.

In March 1945, the British SIS (Secret Intelligence Service – now MI6) stationed a group of observers in remote parts of Lapland to report on the retreat of the 21st German Lapland Army from Finland into Norway. A company controlled by SIS – AB Kontinentagentur, purchased the Arado Ar 196 to ferry supplies to the observers. The aircraft was registered SE-AOU, operating in this role until the end of the Second World War.

With the end of the war, the Russian Legation in Stockholm wanted to impound the aeroplane. To avoid this happening, it was illegally flown to Norway, after posting a flight plan from Stockholn to Karlstad. After its arrival in Norway, it was used by the Royal Norwegian Air Force for a year on the West coast.

In 1946 it was sold to the Swedish company AB Ahrenbergsflyg. It received a new registration SW-AWY, but this was first incorrectly applied as SE-ADU. The aircraft crashed in 1947 and the wreck was re-discovered in 2006.