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F2 was a seaplane base for the Swedish Air Force from 1926 to 1949, after 1949 the base was used as a search and rescue base, where the Swedish Air Force stationed it's Catalina aircraft.

The SAR organization were active on the base until 1966 when the remaining Catalina aircraft where moved inland to Barkaby airfield.

Now, some of you reading this may have noticed the part where I mentioned "remaining Catalina aircraft", with the subtlety of an anvil going through a church window during sunday mass.

(Sorry, I have had a long day at work anf thought the phrasing was funny)

You see, whenever someone mentions Catalina aircraft with regards to Sweden, military historians immediately starts paying attention, as they know what is comming.

The Catalina affair.

During the cold war, Sweden flew signals intelligence flights against along the Soviet border in a DC3. The plane was shot down by the Soviets despite flying outside their airspace.

When the air force noticed that the air craft was missing, they sent out an SAR mission with two Catalinas, these departed from F2, one of the Catalina rescue planes were shot down, but the crew were rescued by the West German cragoship Münsterland.

This photo shows the base as it looked about 20 years prior to these events.

The photo was taken by the company Ahrenbergsflyg and is licensed as CC-BY