The Lapland War (Finnish:
Lapin sota) were the hostilities between
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
and
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
between September 1944 and April 1945, fought in Finland's northernmost
Lapland ProvinceThe Province of Lapland is one of the Provinces of Finland. The municipalities in the province cooperate in a Regional Council, which also makes it the Region of Lapland. It borders the Province of Oulu and the Region of North Ostrobothnia in the south...
. While the Finns saw this as a separate conflict much like the
Continuation WarThe Continuation War The Continuation War The Continuation War was the second of two wars fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War II....
, German forces considered their actions to be part of the Second World War. A peculiarity of the war was that the Finnish army had to demobilise their forces while fighting the German army off their lands. The German forces retreated to Norway and Finland managed to uphold its promise to the Soviet Union.
Prelude
Since June 1941 Germany and Finland had been at war with the Soviet Union, co-operating closely in the
Continuation WarThe Continuation War The Continuation War The Continuation War was the second of two wars fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War II....
. As early as the summer of 1943, the German high command began making plans for the eventuality that Finland might make a
separate peaceThe phrase "separate peace" refers to a nation's agreement to cease military hostilities with another, even though the former country had previously entered into a military alliance with other states that remain at war with the latter country...
agreement with the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
. The Germans planned to withdraw their forces northward in order to shield
the nickel minesThe Finnish nickel deposits were found in the Petsamo area near the Barents Sea. Until the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, this was the northernmost part of Finland. In 1934 it was estimated that the deposits contained over five million tons of nickel...
near
PetsamoPechengsky District is a district of Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located to the north-west of the Kola Peninsula. It borders with Finland and Norway and shares the shore of the Barents Sea by the Rybachi Peninsula, which is included into the district...
.
During the winter of 1943-1944, the Germans improved the roads from northern
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
to northern Finland by extensive use of
POWA prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a combatant who is held in continuing custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
labour. Casualties among the POWs were high, due in part to the fact that many of the POWs had been captured in southern
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and were still in summer uniform. In addition, the Germans surveyed defensive positions and accumulated stores in the region.
Thus they were ready in September 1944, when Finland declared the
Moscow ArmisticeFinland and the Soviet Union signed the Moscow Armistice on September 19, 1944, ending the Continuation War. The Moscow Armistice should not be confused with the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, which ended the earlier Winter War between the two states....
with the Soviet Union.
Progress of operations
While German ground troops were reorganised for withdrawal to the north, the German navy mined the seaward approaches to Finland and attempted to seize the island of Gogland in Operation Tanne Ost. Sailors on Finnish ships in German-held ports (including Norway) were interned and German submarines sank several Finnish civilian vessels.
The Soviets demanded all German troops to be expelled from Finland. The Finns were thus placed in a situation similar to that of
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
and
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
, who, after signing peace accords with the
AlliesIn general, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose. In English usage, those who share a common goal and whose work toward that goal is complementary may be viewed as allies for various purposes even when...
, had to fight to free their lands of German forces. The Finns' task was complicated by the Soviet demand that the major part of Finnish armed forces must be demobilized at the same time, even during the campaign against the Germans. General
Hjalmar SiilasvuoHjalmar Fridolf Siilasvuo was a Finnish general who led troops in the Winter War, Continuation War and Lapland War...
, the victor
of SuomussalmiThe Battle of Suomussalmi [suo.mus.sal.mi] was fought between Finnish and Soviet forces in the Winter War. The action took place from around December 7, 1939 to January 8, 1940....
, led the Finns against the Germans under General
Lothar RendulicGeneraloberst Dr. Lothar Rendulic was an Austro-Hungarian and Austrian Army officer of Croatian origin who served as a German general during World War II. He commanded the 14. Infanterie-Division, 52. Infanterie-Division, XXXV Armeekorps, 2. Panzer-Armee, 20...
.
"The Autumn manoeuvres"
During the first couple of weeks the withdrawal of Germans and advancing of Finnish troops was organised jointly by the headquarters of both armies, which was kept secret from the Soviets. The Germans fell back according to a common timetable, and the Finns attacked and fired at the empty trenches. After two weeks the Russians realised this, and demanded heavy actions immediately.
Invasion of Tornio
Fighting intensified when the Finns made a risky invasion from the sea near Tornio October 1 1944. Heavy fighting lasted for a week, and the Germans had to withdraw.
On the beginning of the
TornioTornio is a municipality in Lapland, Finland. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . It borders to the Swedish municipality of Haparanda...
invasion Finnish troops took about one hundred Germans as prisoners of war. To get them free Rendulic ordered to capture Finnish civilians as hostage. Starting on the 1st of October 1944, Germans imprisoned 132 persons in the town of
KemiKemi is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located very near of the city of Tornio. It was founded in 1869 by royal decree, because of its proximity to a deep water harbour.Kemi is located in the province of Lapland. The town has a population of...
and 130 in
RovaniemiRovaniemi is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and the centre of commerce of Finland's northernmost Province, Lapland. It is situated close to the Arctic Circle and between the hills of Ounasvaara and Korkalovaara, at the confluence of the Kemijoki River and its...
, 24 of them being women. Rendulic sent general major Mathias Kräutler as a messenger to the headquarters of the Finnish attack troops in Tornio, delivering a letter to lieutenant colonel Wolf Halsti: POWs are to be freed or the hostages will be shot and the Kemi pulp mill burned down.
Halsti phoned the head of the Finnish III Army, lieutenant-general
Hjalmar SiilasvuoHjalmar Fridolf Siilasvuo was a Finnish general who led troops in the Winter War, Continuation War and Lapland War...
, who denied all bargains and deals with the Germans. Halsti delivered the message, and added that if anything happens to the hostages or to the mill, he will personally give command to shoot all the German POWs his troops have, and all the German staff and all the patients of the German military hospital in Tornio, situated in the area the Finns had captured.
The adamant attitude of the Finns got the Germans to drop the threats and the hostages were released unharmed on October 11, near
RovaniemiRovaniemi is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and the centre of commerce of Finland's northernmost Province, Lapland. It is situated close to the Arctic Circle and between the hills of Ounasvaara and Korkalovaara, at the confluence of the Kemijoki River and its...
. During those ten days the case was published and carefully followed by the Finnish press, and this caused the general attitude of the Finns to turn against former fellow-soldiers. The anti-German attitude became common when Rendulic ordered his troops to use scorched-earth tactics, which caused the infrastructure of Lapland being demolished and most of the villages burned down.
Germans pull-out to Norway
Siilasvuo followed the Germans, while they regularly made a stand to cover their retreat towards Norway. Motorized German troops were left behind to secure the main forces, defending their positions with heavy firepower. When the Finns arrived they tried to bypass German posts with time consuming and back-breaking marches through marshland and forests. Knowing this, the Germans quickly pulled out, and blowing the bridges behind drove to the next defensive post planned and equipped beforehand.
Most of the civilian population of Lapland, totaling 168,000 persons, was evacuated to Sweden and Southern Finland with the exception of the inhabitants of
TornioTornio is a municipality in Lapland, Finland. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . It borders to the Swedish municipality of Haparanda...
area. The evacuation was carried out as a cooperative effort of German military and Finnish authorities prior to the start of the hostilities. Hundreds of Finnish women who had been engaged to German soldiers or working for the German military left with the German troops, meeting diverse fates.
Consequences
In their retreat the German forces under General
Lothar RendulicGeneraloberst Dr. Lothar Rendulic was an Austro-Hungarian and Austrian Army officer of Croatian origin who served as a German general during World War II. He commanded the 14. Infanterie-Division, 52. Infanterie-Division, XXXV Armeekorps, 2. Panzer-Armee, 20...
devastated large areas of northern Finland using
scorched earthA scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
tactics.
Some 40–47% of the dwellings in the area were destroyed, and the provincial capital of
Rovaniemi was burned to the groundThe Battle of Rovaniemi was an event during the 1944 Lapland War. The actual fighting between the Finnish Armoured Division and the troops of the German Twentieth Mountain Army took place to the south of the town of Rovaniemi...
, as well as Savukoski and Enontekiö villages. Two-thirds of the buildings in the main villages of Sodankylä, Muonio, Kolari, Salla and Pello were demolished. 675 bridges were blown up and all main roads were mined. 3,700 km of telephone lines were destroyed.
In addition to the property losses, estimated as equivalent to about US $300 million (in 1945 dollars, which is equivalent to $3.15 billion in 2005 dollars), about 100,000 inhabitants became refugees, a situation that added to the problems of postwar reconstruction. (After the war the Allies convicted Rendulic of
war crime.War crimes are "violations of the laws or customs of war"; including "murder, the ill-treatment or deportation of civilian residents of an occupied territory to slave labor camps", "the murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war", the killing of hostages, "the wanton destruction of cities, towns...
s, and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, although he was released of charges concerning the scorching of Lapland. He was released after six years.)
The last German troops were expelled in April 1945. By that time only 600 Finnish troops, mostly fresh
recruit--76.5.69.30 01:14, 8 October 2009 --76.5.69.30 01:14, 8 October 2009 --76.5.69.30 01:14, 8 October 2009 --76.5.69.30 01:14, 8 October 2009 --76.5.69.30 01:14, 8 October 2009...
s, were left facing them due to the Soviet demand for demobilisation of the Finnish army. Because of this, the latter half of the Lapland War is known in Finland as the Children's Crusade.
Military casualties of the conflict were relatively limited: 774 KIA, 262 MIA and about 3,000 WIA for the Finnish troops, and 1,200 KIA and about 2,000 WIA for the Germans. 1,300 German soldiers became
POWA prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a combatant who is held in continuing custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
s, and were handed over to the Soviet Union, according to the terms of the
armisticeFinland and the Soviet Union signed the Moscow Armistice on September 19, 1944, ending the Continuation War. The Moscow Armistice should not be confused with the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, which ended the earlier Winter War between the two states....
with the Soviets. The extensive minings by Germans caused civilian casualties for decades after the war, and almost one hundred minesweepers were killed on duty.
See also
- History of Germany
The history of Germany begins with Germania, the name given by the Romans to the area north of the Danube and east of the Rhine up to the Vistula, which was inhabited mostly by Germanic tribes and some Celts, with Slavic tribes arriving centuries later. The victory of the Germanic tribes in the...
- History of Finland
The land area that now makes up Finland was settled immediately after the Ice Age, beginning from around 8500 BCE. Most of the region was part of Kingdom of Sweden from the 13th century to 1809, when it was ceded to the Russian Empire becoming the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland...
- Operation Tanne Ost
Operation Tanne Ost was a German operation during World War II to capture the island Suursaari in the Gulf of Finland before it could fall into Soviet hands...
- World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
External links