Abstract
ACCORDING to the August issue of the Anglo-Swedish Review, General Ivar Holmquist, Commander -in-Chief of the Swedish Army, has recently declared that, without going into technical details, he was sure that the Swedish soldier was one of the best in the world. What he lacked was only battle experience, but he was at least partly likely to make up for this by his excellent physique. Moreover, the nerves of the soldiers were in good order, they did not suffer from war weariness, the material was in first-class condition and had not been worn out by war, nor had the elite troops been decimated. Although it was deplorable that so much of the country's labour and resources had to be used for military purposes, the effort was not altogether wasted. For the general health of the nation it was important that the young men of twenty should receive one year's excellent physical training in the open air. During a recent tour of inspection among the mountains of Lapland, he was pleased to see with what vitality and enthusiasm these young men carried out a march of 13 miles in alpine terrain rising from 1,000 to 3,000 feet and then delivered an attack down a mountain slope carrying the heavy equipment of machine-guns and trench mortars which had been conveyed on sledges during the march.
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Health of the Swedish Army. Nature 150, 371 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/150371c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/150371c0