The Kalmar War: A Swedish "Son My" in Skåne in 1612

During 300 years, counting from the beginning of the 16th century until 1814, no less than eleven wars were fought between Sweden and Denmark. Vilhelm Moberg mentions in his article "How history is falsified" that the bloodiest of the eleven wars was The Kalmar War the years 1611-13, "which on both sides was conducted in the cruellest manner."

Moberg tells of a Swedish letter he found in a Danish work on the Kalmar War, dated 13 February 1612 and written by the commander-in-chief of the Swedish side, "den nyblivne, 17-årige koningen Gustav II Adolf." The letter was addressed to his cousin Duke Johan, and "describes in expressive terms a campaign that the king has just undertaken through Skåne."

He tells of how his troops have managed to completely destroy and ruin 24 large Scanian churches and their populations in the space of just two weeks. With pleasure and triumph in his tone, Gustavus Adolphus describes how his men-of-war had - "rampaged, plundered, burned and slaughtered all at our own will". The letter writer points out that the Swedes "had no resistance from the enemy" - which is easy to believe, since this enemy consisted of defenceless civilians, including women and children.

Among other things, the young Swedish king burned down the Vä in the Gerds herd, the southernmost part of the present-day urban area Kristianstad - then a newly built fortress town where the survivors were forced to move by the Danish king.

Song My-massacre, or Son My as it is known today, was a mass murder of 347 to 504 unarmed South Vietnamese citizens by US soldiers during the Vietnam War on 16 March 1968. The victims were civilians and the majority of them were women and children.

Testimony from Salvadore LaMartina, one of the platoon members, shows the utter brutality of the massacre: "Did you obey your orders? Yes, sir. What were your orders? Kill anything that breathed.”

But we do not need to look to distant lands to find historical examples of the mass murder of innocent men, women and children. It happened in Skåne 404 years ago, or about 18 generations.

"The parallel between the two slaughters of defenceless people is quite striking. Gustav II Adolf's servants had to kill "all according to our own will". They had been given complete freedom by their king to ravage and kill. And one wonders how many people had escaped alive in the 24 churchyards in Skåne after the deed was done?" - Vilhelm Moberg

This King Gustav II Adolf is considered one of the greatest campaigners in world history who renewed the art of war, which has made him known as "the father of modern warfare" (Williamson, David (1988)). Debrett's Kings and Queens of Europe. London. Page. 128. ISBN 0-86350-194-X)). He was honoured in 1633 by the Swedish Parliament with the name Gustavus Adolphus the Great, and in contemporary propaganda he was called The lion from the north.

But as Moberg notes, "It was a 17-year-old youth who triumphantly described this massacre and who was ultimately responsible for it..."

Sweden's royal saint, Gustav II Adolf, still virtually sacrosanct today, thus began his heroic journey with genocide in the land of the enemy. Now it is a historical fact that his opponent in the war, Christian IV of Denmark, had earlier ravaged Småland with fire and death, but he was obviously surpassed by Gustavus Adolphus with his cruel rampage in Skåne. And unlike the Swedish king, Kristian IV was not adorned with a saintly halo.

Image: the Kalmar War illustrated on a 19th-century tapestry, made as a replica of a 17th-century tapestry destroyed in the fire at Fredriksborg Castle in 1859.

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