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Military history of Finland during World War II
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The military history of Finland during World War II covers the history of Finland from 1939 to 1945. Finland fought three wars: the Winter War alone against the Soviet Union, the Continuation War with Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union, and the Lapland War against Germany. In the end, Finland managed to defend its independence and democratic constitution but had to cede nearly 10% of its territory, including its second largest city, Viipuri, to the USSR.
809, Russia conquered Finland from Sweden in the Finnish War.
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The military history of Finland during World War II covers the history of Finland from 1939 to 1945. Finland fought three wars: the Winter War alone against the Soviet Union, the Continuation War with Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union, and the Lapland War against Germany. In the end, Finland managed to defend its independence and democratic constitution but had to cede nearly 10% of its territory, including its second largest city, Viipuri, to the USSR.
Background
In 1809, Russia conquered Finland from Sweden in the Finnish War. Finland entered a personal union with the Russian Empire as a grand duchy with extensive autonomy. During the period of Russian rule the country generally prospered. However, in the early twentieth century Russia tightened its grip on Finland, causing wide-spread resentment. When revolution broke out in Russia in 1917, Finland declared independence. In 1918, the Finnish Civil War broke out between the generally right-wing government supporters and left-wing rebels. The war ended with the victory of the government forces, supported by Germany, and the expulsion of Russian troops.
During the inter-war period, the relationship between Finland and the Soviet Union was tense. Some elements in Finland maintained the dream of "Greater Finland" which included the Soviet-controlled part of Karelia. The proximity of the Finnish border to Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) caused worry in the Soviet leadership.
On August 24, 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret clause of the agreement, Finland was part of the Soviet sphere of influence. On October 12, the Soviet Union started negotiations with Finland concerning parts of the Finnish territory, Karelian Isthmus, the Gulf of Finland islands and Hanko. No agreement was reached. On November 26, the Soviet Union accused the Finnish army of shelling the village of Mainila. On November 30, the Soviet Union attacked Finland. The attack was judged illegal by the League of Nations and, as a result, the Soviet Union was expelled from that body on 14 December.
Course of the war
Winter War
The Soviet forces arrayed against Finland greatly outnumbered the Finnish army. The Red Army enjoyed over a twofold advantage in the number of troops and even greater advantage in equipment, including a virtually complete air supremacy. The Soviet leadership also established a puppet regime, called the Finnish Democratic Republic, in an occupied border town in the hope that this would encourage the former "reds" of the Finnish Civil War to defect or to rebel. The time needed for the defeat of Finland was estimated as two to four weeks.
The war, however, unfolded very differently. The country united against the aggressor and the puppet regime failed to have a noticeable effect. The Finnish army were fighting on their home turf in winter conditions with which they were very familiar. The high morale of Finnish troops, their flexible and creative strategies, the difficult terrain and harsh weather caused significant problems for the Red Army. The Soviets were routed in several key battles, the Battle of Suomussalmi being a classic example. The war lasted for months rather than weeks, casualties mounted and the international prestige of the Soviet Union suffered. Finland negotiated for aid from Great Britain, France and Sweden. The two major powers sent some material aid, the most important being modern fighters that arrived just as the war was ending. Great expectations had been placed on Sweden as many hoped they would join the war on Finland's side. In the end aid was limited to materials, money and volunteers. Despite sending one third of its meagre force of fighters and the largest volunteer contingent from a single country during the 20th century, failure to fulfill the high early expectations created resentment in Finland, noticeable in the countries' otherwise close relations to this day.
By March 1940, sheer exhaustion led to the situation where both parties were willing to negotiate for a peace treaty. The Finnish Army was running out of even the most basic material, and the Soviet Union wanted to end the costly war that had become an international embarrassment. Nevertheless, Finland was the loser and in the Moscow Peace Treaty, the Finns had to make significant territorial concessions.
Interim peace
The period of peace following the Winter War was widely regarded as temporary even when peace was announced in March 1940. A period of frantic diplomatic efforts and rearmament followed. The Soviet Union kept up intense pressure on Finland, thereby hastening the Finnish efforts to improve the security of the country.
Defensive arrangements were attempted with Sweden and Great Britain, but the political and military situation in the context of the Second World War rendered these efforts fruitless. Finland therefore turned to Nazi Germany for military aid. As the German offensive against the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) approached, the cooperation between the two countries intensified. German troops arrived in Finland and took up positions, mostly in Lapland.
Operation Barbarossa began on June 22, 1941. On June 25, the Soviet Union launched a massive air raid against Finnish cities, after which Finland declared war and also allowed German troops stationed in Finland to begin offensive warfare. The resulting war was to be called the Continuation War.
Continuation War
During the summer and autumn of 1941 the Finnish Army was on the offensive, retaking the territories lost in the Winter War. The Finnish army also advanced further, especially in the direction of Lake Onega, (east from Lake Ladoga), leading to the occupation of Russian East Karelia (it never had been a part of Finland - or even, before 1809, of Sweden-Finland). This caused Great Britain to declare war on Finland on December 6. The German and Finnish troops in Northern Finland were less successful, failing to take the Russian port city of Murmansk.
In September 1941, the Finnish army took defensive positions. This led to a long period of relative calm in the front line, lasting until 1944. During this period, especially after the major German defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad, intermittent peace negotiations took place. These negotiations did not lead to any settlement.
On March 16th, 1944, the president of the United States of America, Franklin D. Roosevelt, called for Finland to disassociate itself from Nazi Germany.
On June 9, 1944, the Red Army launched a massive attack against Finland. The fact that the enemy had vast numerical superiority, and had managed to surprise the Finnish army, led to a retreat approximately to the same positions as the Finns were holding at the end of the Winter War. Eventually the Soviet offensive was fought to a standstill (see Battle of Tali-Ihantala) while still tens or hundreds of kilometres in front of the main Finnish line of fortifications, the Salpa Line.
The dire situation in 1944 had led to Finnish president Risto Ryti giving Germany his personal guarantee that Finland would not negotiate peace with the Soviet Union for as long as he was the president. In exchange Germany delivered weapons to the Finns. After the Soviet invasion was halted, however, Ryti resigned. Due to the war, elections could not be held, and therefore the Parliament selected Mannerheim, the Finnish commander-in-chief, as president and charged him with negotiating a peace.
The Finnish front had become a sideshow for the Soviet leadership, as they were in a race to reach Berlin before the Western Allies. This, and the heavy casualties inflicted on the Red Army by the Finns, led to the withdrawal of most troops from the Finnish front. On September 4, 1944 a ceasefire was agreed, and the Moscow armistice was signed on September 19. In the armistice agreement Finland was obliged to expel German troops from the country. This led to the Lapland War.
Moscow armistice
The Moscow armistice was signed by Finland and the Soviet Union on 19 September 1944 ending the Continuation War, though the final peace treaty was not to be signed until 1947 in Paris.
The conditions for peace were similar to those previously agreed in the 1940 Moscow Peace Treaty, with Finland having to cede parts of Karelia, part of Salla and islands in the Gulf of Finland. The new armistice also handed the whole of Petsamo over to the Soviet Union. Finland also agreed to legalize communist parties and ban fascist organizations. Finally the armistice also demanded that Finland must drive German troops away from its territory, which was the cause of the Lapland War.
Lapland War
The Lapland War was fought between Finland and Nazi Germany in Lapland, the northernmost part of Finland. The main strategic interest of Germany in the region were the nickel mines in the Petsamo area.
Initially the warfare was cautious on both sides, reflecting the previous co-belligerence of the two countries, but by the end of 1944 the fighting intensified. Finland and Germany had made an informal agreement and schedule for German troops to withdraw from Lapland to Norway. The Soviet Union did not accept this "friendliness" and forced Finland to take a more active role in pushing the Germans out of Lapland, thus intensifying hostilities.
The Germans adopted a scorched-earth policy, and proceeded to lay waste to the entire northern half of the country as they retreated. Some 100,000 people lost their homes, adding to the burden of post-war reconstruction. The actual loss of life, however, was not catastrophic. Finland lost some 1,000 troops and Germany about 2,000. The Finnish army expelled the last of the foreign troops from their soil in April 1945.
Post-war
The war had caused great damage to infrastructure and the economy. From the autumn of 1944, the Finnish army and navy performed many mine clearance operations, especially in Karelia, Lapland and the Gulf of Finland. The sea mine clearance lasted until 1950. The mines caused many military and civilian casualties, particularly in Lapland.
As part of the Paris Peace Treaty, Finland was classified as a belligerent and fascist power. The Soviet Union imposed heavy war reparations on Finland and took the Porkkala area near the Finnish capital Helsinki as a military base. The reparations were initially thought to be crippling for the economy, but a determined effort was made to pay them. They were actually paid off years in advance, in 1952. Porkkala was returned to Finnish control in 1956.
In subsequent years the position of Finland was unique in the Cold War. The country was heavily influenced by the Soviet Union, but retained democracy and a market economy. Finland entered into the YYA Treaty with the Soviet Union, which in theory guaranteed mutual assistance, but the Soviet Union largely respected Finland's wishes to remain uninvolved in the Cold War. Arms purchases were balanced between East and West until the fall of the Soviet Union.
Assessment
Finland and Nazi Germany
During the Continuation War (1941-1944) Finland was co-belligerent with Nazi Germany, and dependent on food, fuel and armament shipments from Germany. The country did, however, retain a democratic form of government. During the war Germany and Finland were united by a common enemy, the Soviet Union, yet Finland kept her army outside the German command structure despite numerous attempts to tie them more tightly together.
Finnish Jews were not persecuted, and even among extremists of the Finnish Right they were highly tolerated, as many leaders of the movement came from the clergy. Of approximately five hundred Jewish refugees, eight were handed over to the Germans, a fact for which Finnish prime minister Paavo Lipponen issued an official apology in 2000. The field synagogue operated by the Finnish army was probably a unique phenomenon in Europe.
Approximately 2600 to 2800 Soviet prisoners of war were exchanged for 2100 Fennic prisoners of war from Germany. In November 2003 , the Simon Wiesenthal Center submitted an official request to Finnish President Tarja Halonen for a full-scale investigation by the Finnish authorities of the prisoner exchange In the subsequent study by professor Heikki Ylikangas it turned out that about 2000 of the exchanged prisoners joined the Wehrmacht, but among the rest there were about 500 political officers or politically dangerous persons, who most likely perished in concentration camps. Based on the a list of names, there were about seventy Jews among the extradited, although they were apparently not extradited based on ethnic grouping.
When the Finnish Army occupied Russian East Karelia between 1941 and 1944, several concentration camps were set up for Russian civilians. The first camp was set up on 24 October 1941, in Petrozavodsk. Around 4,000 of the prisoners perished due to malnourishment, 90% of them during the spring and summer of 1942.
During World War II, Finland was in many ways a unique case. It was the only country which fought successfully against both sides under the same leadership. It was the only European country which bordered the Soviet Union in 1939 and was still unoccupied in 1945. Of all the European countries fighting in World War II, only three European capitals were never occupied: Moscow, London and Helsinki. It was a country which sided with Germany, but in which native Jews and almost all refugees were safe from persecution. It was the only co-belligerent of Nazi Germany which maintained democracy throughout the war. It was also the only belligerent in mainland Europe to do so.
See also
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