Met

To the ancient Greeks, meteors meant “things in the air”; to modern Swedes, “things in the air” do not necessarily mean meteors. Although meteors are more plentiful in midsummer than at any other time of the year, Swedish military authorities had ample reason to doubt whether the ten flashing things that passed over their country during the last two months were of celestial origin. Fragments grounded near Sundsvall were identified by experts as having come “from a bomb, probably radio-controlled.” If the Swedish authorities knew who fired the bombs, they were not saying. But the public unanimously thought of Russia’s new Baltic coastline. After another half-dozen things had flashed across the sky of middle Sweden last week, military authorities prescribed “special alertness” for amateur astronomers and laymen. The Tatter said: “The Russians are getting fresh.”