Yes Ruy, you're right : the Swedish word "stridsuppdrag" corresponds more "COMBAT sorties"; as we know many sorties can be non-combat. On the other hand often the context is perfectly clear and the author(s) can only mean COMBAT sorties. In such (frequent) cases it is legitimate to write "sorties" only. Swedisch stridsvagnar = (battle) tanks, main battle tanks. Strid means combat. Eldstrider = gun battles = Feuergefechte.

Nevertheless we ALWAYS must be very careful when translating "obvious" things. Remember that the German wen is not when in English but whom, the German wer is not where but who, the German wo ist not who but where... I guess those old Englishmen had two bad ears each when the Saxon invaders came. And the English "eventually" is virtually never to be translated with "eventuell" in German (but with "schliesslich", "am Ende") and correspondingly in other languages like French. This is one of the main pitfalls for language students during their examination.

Yes, the French language proved its vast superiority over Anglo-Saxon in England after Guillaume le Conquérant took over following the Hastings victory! No... in fact in most cases everybody will adopt the words in the language in which they appeared first and conquered the world : this is true of many French words in aviation (fuselage, aileron...) and, for ex., of many US words in electronics and computer technology : transistor, microprocessor, PC, laser etc. Even a few German words made it : Panzer, Stuka, Blitzkrieg (a word invented in Britain it seems), but also Bauhaus. Too bad X-rays were discovered by a German, Röntgen, and in Germany they say Röntgenstrahlen for X-rays, but no foreigner is able to pronounce this name correctly so they cowardly chose les rayons X instead. The French invention "manche à balai" (broomstick) was too difficult for foreigners so it became a joystick (!) etc.