Why Do Finnish

[Jmatchlock]

In a nutshell, Finland fought three wars during the 1939 to 1945 time period.

The first was when Russia attacked in November 1939 and lasted until March 1940 when a ceasfire was declared. Finland had fought the Soviet Union to a standstill. A negoiated agreement allowed the Soviets to take about 10% of Finland territory. These battles were fought in the winter, hence the name "Winter War".

In June 1941, Finland "allowed" the Germans to move across Finnish territor to attck the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa. The Soviets attacked Finland again and the Finns fought to regain thier lost territory, which they did. The war then entered a static phase for Finland. You hear from many sources that Finland was a member of the Axis powers. That is not true, Finland never signed a treaty with Germany like Bulgaria, Romania, etc did. I guess one could say that Finland used the "an enemy of my enemy is my friend" philosophy. The Finns looked at this war as a continuation of the Winter War hence the name "Continuation War".

The Soviets attacked again in the summer of 1944 and this attack streached Finland to the max. Many heroic battles were fought at great cost to both sides. Again, Finland used diplomacy to save their country. Another peace treaty was signed with the Soviets that stopped they war.

There were many harsh requirement that Finland had to abide by because of that treaty. One of which was that they had to expel the Germans from Finnish territory. The Finnish army was reduced in size to pre-war standards at that time also. The Germans were basically in northern Finland or Lapland, hence the "Lapland War ".

I hoppe that I have explained this well. I hope some of our Finnish members could add some to this subject. The political side of Finlands wars were fought just a hard and brilliantly as the military side.

Here is a link to the Kev Os 4 website history of Finnish wars.

http://www.kevos4.com/

From a reenactors standpoint, this allows Finnish reenactors to fight Russians in early war, mid and late war uniforms and also Germans.

Hope this helps.

John

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi John, thanks for the post.

A couple of my comrades in the UK have taken up doing Finnish as a secondary impression.

We had some lads come over from Finland and Russia to England the past two years to attend a show, "Military Oddssey", where they did Finnish Army.

Cheers, Ade.

[Simon O.]

One of which was that they had to expel the Germans from Finnish territory

The Soviets demanded the Germans were to have left Finland within 2 weeks, an impossible demand. The Germans had known this was on the cards and had thus drawn up two plans, Birke (birch) and Nordlicht (Northern lights). As soon as as the Finnish\Soviet agreement came into effect Birke was put into action. It called for the XXXVI and XVIII korps to pull back from their long held positions in Russia, through most of Finnish Lappland and into new defensive lines not too far from the Norwegian border though still in Finland. The Northernmost XIX Korps was to stay where it was because of the highly important Nickel mines. A strategic resource the Germans felt they had to hold on to.

Removing a quarter of a million men and the many tens of thousands of tons of supplies and equipment takes time, more so due to the sparse and poor nature of the roads in the area. Railways only covered a small portion of the way so most of the route the Germans had to take, confined to two dirt roads most of it, was covered by foot, horse and vehicle. On top of that the Soviets were busy attacking at various points, mostly in the area of the XXXVI korps which complicated matters.

Neither the Germans nor the Finns it seems wanted to come to blows but the length of time it took for the Germans to move towards Norway combined with Soviet pressure meant that the Finns had to be seen to be doing something and that started in earnest on the 1 Oct.44 almost a month after the Finnish Soviet agreement.

There followed various clashes during the first weeks of October but the German pull out continued more or less as planned though perhaps speeded up a little in the Kemi and Tornio areas close to the Swedish border. What really changed things was the Soviet attack against the XIX Geb.Korps on the Murmansk front and a change of heart as to the importance of the Nickel mines. This lead to the Nordlicht plan being implemented which meant the complete evacuation of all German troops to a new line anchored on the tri-border area between Finland, Sweden and Norway.

The Germans occupied a previously prepared defensive line called the Sturmbock stellung at the end of oct designed to give a buffer zone in Finland whilst German units pulled out of Northern Norway and whilst the new defensive line in Norway was prepared.

The last German troops left Finnish soil at the end of April 1945, quite according to plan.


Some people talk of the Finns 'expelling' the Germans or chasing them out of Finland as if this was done by force of Finnish arms, this is a myth. They might have speeded things up a little at one or two points but overall the German move into Norway went according to plan with the exception of the Soviet attack on the Murmansk front.

As far as the Lappland war goes it was unnecessary and a waste of lives, but that was part of the price Finland had to pay if it was to avoid the fate of the likes of Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.

[Michael Root]

The military history of Finland during WW2 was very unique, some very interesting subject matter for any serious student.

*Helsinki being one of only 3 European capitals never to be occupied during the war, London and Moscow being the others.

*A tolerable (hands off) relationship between Finnish Jews & Germany and some who served as soldiers even being awarded German decorations.

*Germany's scorched earth policy against Finland as it withdrew.

[Simon O.]

*Germany's scorched earth policy against Finland as it withdrew.

As well as the Northern parts of Norway it evacuated. Harsh for the civillians but an effective tactic in that it created a large buffer zone between their new lines of defence and the Soviets whom it was believed would continue further into Norway. The 6-7 month long winter, sparse population and poor infrastructure increased the effect of the tactic.

[regular122]

That was an excellent summary Simon. While I am familiar with the Winter War, the later operations I was not aware of some of the details you provided. Thanks for filling us in. Steve