Figure 1.-- |
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Finland was involved in World War II almost from the beginning. The Finnish war experience was one of the most unusual of the War. The Finns fought with and against both the Sovietrs and NAZIs at different stages of the War. Finland was actually involved in three different wars: the Winter War (1939-40), the Continuation War (1941-44), and the Lappland War (1944-45). After seizing eastern Poland as part of a deal with the NAZIs, Russia next turned on Finland in the Winter War. The Allies almost sent forces to aid the Finns. The Red Army energed victorious from the Winter War (1939-40), but at considerable cost. The poor showing of the Red Army was noted by Hitler. After the NAZI's launched Operation Barbarossa (June 1941), Finland joined the Germans to regain the territory lost in the Winter war. The Finns refer to this as the Coninuation War. The Finns refused, however, to go beyond the lost territory, much to Hitler's despleasure. This was a major reason that the NAZIs failed to capture Lenningrad. The Finns also refused to turn their Jews over to the NAZIs, despite repeated German demands. Finally as the War went against the NAZIs, the Finns fought the Germans in the Lappland War.
Finland was part of the Russian Empire. Thus Finns fought with the Tsarist Army when war broke out (August 1914). The most noted Finnish soldier involved in the War was Gustaf Mannerheim. He was promoted to Major General (1911). He was the commander of the Emperor's Uhlans of the Guard which was deployed in Warsaw. Perhaps because he was not Russian he had good relations with the Poles. He was thus in Poland when World War broke out. He fought against the Austrians, first as a brigade commander and then as the commander of the 12th Cavalry Division. He was awarded the the Cross of St George, the highest Tsarist military decoration (1914). He was promoted to Lieutenant-General and and commanded the 6th Cavalry Corps deployed on the southern front. With the collapse of the Russoan Army and the Bolshevick Revolution (Icyober 1917), Mannerheim made his way back to Finland (December 1917). Finland had declared its independence. The result was chaos. There were 40,000 Russian soldiers in Finland and the Bolsheviks were contesting the streets with the new Government. Mannerheim was the highest ranking Finnish Tsarist officer. The Finnish Senate assigned Mannerheim the responsibility of forming a Finnish national army and establishing order. Mannerheim's used his troops to disarm the Russian garrisons in the north. When the revolutionary Red Guards attempted to seize power in the south, civil war broke out. Fighting lasted 3 moths. Mannerheim's White Army emerged victorious (May 1918). After this achievement, Mannerheim's relations with the Senate souered. The primary issue was the Sente's generally pro-German policy. Germany's defeat of the Russians had made Finnish independence policy. Mannerheim believed that a pro-German policy left Finland vulnerable if Germany lost the War in the West, which of corse is precisely what transpired. Mannerheim resigned and left Finland. He was able to influence Allied policy toward Finland.
When Germany capitulated (November 1918), the political situation shifted and Mannerheim was called back (December 1918). He was appointed regent. (Finland was still theoreticlly a dependency of the Russian monarchy.) Finland's held its first presidential election (Summer 1919). Mannerheim was defeated by K.J. Ståhlberg. Mannerheim participated in creating the constitution of the Republic of Finland (July 1919). Mannerheim wanted Finland to fight the Bolshevicks in the Russian Civil War. He failed in this effort and retired to private life. He worked with charities, including the Red Cross. He founded the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare (1920).
Finland joined the League of Nations. The Government gave little attention to the military. The country maintained only a small army and did not have modern airplanes or tanks.
NAZI Foreign Minister Ribbentrop and newly appointed Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov on August 23, 1939, signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. At the time of the signing, British and French delegations were in Moscow trying to reach an understanding with Stalin. He was convinced, however, that they were tring to draw him into a war with Hitler. The two countries which until that time had been bitter foes, pledged not attack each other. Any problems developing between the two countries were to be delt with amicably. It was last for 10 years. The Pact shocked the world and the purpose was immedietly apparent. It meant that Germany could attack Poland without fear of Soviet intervention. Thus after defeating Poland, Germany did not have to fear a full-scale European war on two fronts. What was not known at the time was that there was a secret protocol to the pact which in effect divided Eastern Europe betwen the two countries. This protocol was discoered after the end of the World War II in 1945. The Soviets continued to deny this protocol until 1989. The NAZIs 8 days after signing the Pact invade Poland on September 1, 1939, launching World War II. Although the Soviet's did not enter the War against Britain and France, the Soviets were virtual NAZI allies as they provided large quantaies of strategic materials, especially oil. Communist parties in Britainand France opposedthe war effort. The Communst Party in America opposed President Roosevelt's efforts to expand defense spending and assist Britain and France
It was the Soviet Union not Germany that first struck after the invasion of Poland. Only 2 months after seizing eastern Poland, the Soviet Union on November 30, 1939 invaded Finland, launching the Winter War. Stalin sought a security belt to the west. Finland was the next step in that process. Soviet planes and naval vessels bombarded Finish cities. Roosevelt called in the "rape of Finland". [Freidel, p. 324.] Former Ameican President Herbert Hoover, who had organized American relief efforts for Belgium during World War I, headed voluntary war relief for the Finns. (The President hoped that Hoover would work with Mrs. Roosevelt to work on Government sponsored civilian war relief for the Allies. Such was Hoover animosity toward Roosevelt that he refused. If he had agreed, he suely would haave eventually headed American World War II relief efforts. [Freidel, p.325.] The Finns and Soviets reached a peace agreement in March 1940. The Soviets got the security belt they wanted around Lenningrad. The Soviet invasion of Finland had significant repercussions. The Allies for a time considered actively aiding Finland, but the Germans offensives in the West soon made that impossible. The Red Army energed victorious from the Winter War (1939-40), but at considerable cost. The poor performance of the Red Army in Finland was a factor in Hitler's decission to attack the Soviet Union before Britain had been defeated.
The Soviet attack on Finland was followed by a series of other aggressions. Although it is the NAZI aggressions that are most commonly addressed in World War II histories, the Soviet Union compiled nearly as long a list of aggressions as the NAZIs. Operating within secret protocols to the Non-agression Pact, Hitler and Stalin were in fact close partners in the waging of aggressive war. The Great Patriotic War fought against the NAZIs after the 1941 German invsion came to be an icon in Soviet history. Left unsaid was the fact that Hitler and Stalin were partners in the virtul partition of Europe.
The Treaty of Moscow (March 1940) did not end Soviet demands on the Finns. The Soviets interfered in domestic Finnish politics as they did in the Baltics. They ordered the Finns to renove Vainö Tanner from the government. The Soviets used Finnish Communists to cause public disturbances. The Suomen-Neuvostoliiton rauhan ja ystavyyden seura (SNS--Finnish-Soviet Peace and Friendship Society) was a Soviet-controlled communist-front organization. Some Finns joined thinking thatthe Communists were about to take power. They began to defy the Finnish government and carried out a range of subversive activities. The Government banned the SNS (August 1940). The Soviets also began to make demands not specified in the Treaty of Moscow. They demanded that the Finns demilitarization the Aland Islands, an archipelago at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia between Finland and Sweden. They demanded control of the Petsamo nickel mines. Then they demanded the right to send troop trains through Finnish territory to the Soviet base at Hanko without any limitations. The Finns while banning the SNS complied with the Soviet demands. And the Finns saw the Soviets demands as identical to the tactics the Soviets used before invading the Baltic Republics. The Finns justifiably begin to fear that they would be the next target. The Finns began to resist further demand, however, after negotiations with the Germans led them to believe that they could rely on German assistance if the Soviets attacked again.
There is good reason to believe that Stalin was indeed planning a takeover of Finland. Soviet Foreign Minister Viacheslav Molotov visited Berlin for bilateral discussions on a range of bilateral issues (November 1940). Finlnd was high on the Soviet agenda. Molotov told Hitler that the Soviet Union planned to crush Finland. Hitler who was at the time moving German troops into Finland vetoed any such action.
The Finns attempted to negotiate defensive alliances with other countries. There was considerable sypathy for the Finns. The League of Nations had expelled the Soviets, but effective support or alliances did not prove feasible. The Sweedes who bordered Finland on the west were best position to help, but they were intent on remaining neutral and in case of a major Sovit attack, Swedih assistance would not be asequte. The Finnbs wanted assistance from Britain and France, but the Allies had been unable tgo help Poland when the NAZIs attacked and German control of the Baltic mean that Allied support was not feasible. In addition the Allies hard pressed by the NAZIs were reluctant to tak on the Soviet Union, although before the Soviet offensive in the West, they came very close to doing so.
There was only one county willing and capable of providing effective militart assistance--NAZI Germany.
Hitler for strategicic and racial reasons was sympathetic toward the Finns. After the occupation of Norway (April 1940) and success in the West (May-June 1940), Hitler began negotiations with the Finns. To preclude further Soviet demands on Finland the Germans agreed to an informal understanding (August 1940) which was formalized the next month (September 1940). Finland gave the Germans the right to move troops through its territory. The obstensibe reason was to support German operations in northern Norway. This also had obvious potential consequences for the Soviet Union. An additional aggreement permitted the Germans to station troops in Finland. The Soviets protested. And substantial German forces began arriving in Filand during early 1941. The details of these agreements were not widely publicized, but most Finns were releived to see German soldiers arriving in their country because they understandably feared another Soviet attack. In addition, many Finns especially those displaced still hoped to recover the territory seized by the Soviet Union in the Winter War.
German military discussions with the Finns began after the signing of the military cooperation agreementi (September 1940). The Finns were primarily interested in German military equipment and support to prevent aSoviet invasion. It is not clear just when the Finnish Government agreed to participate in the German invasion of the Soviet Union. As far as we can tell, this was not involved in the 1940 agreements. The Germans had to be concerned with security. The German plans for the attack on the Soviet Union envisioned by December 1940 Finninish military participation. Hitler did not permit his generals, however, to infrm the Finns and initiate talks until several months later (April 1941). [Weinberg, pp. 127-128.] The Finns kept their army outside the German command structure even after entering the War, despite pressure from the Germans for greater control. It is not altogether clear what the Finnish war gains were and what if any was agreed to with the NAZIs. It is certain that they wanted the lost territory. If they planned to acquire ant additional territory, we do not know. In all probability give earlier NAZI successes, the Finns seem to have believed that the NAZIs were going to succeeed in one massive blow.
The poor showing of the Red Army in the Winter War was noted by Hitler. The Battle of Britain in many ways changed the course of the War. An invasion of Britain was impossible without air superiority. Hitler, fearing a cross-Channel invasion, decided that the only way to force the British to seek terms was to destroy he Soviet Union. He began shifting the Wehrmacht eastward to face the enemy that he had longed to fight from the onset--Soviet Russia. The nature of the War changed decisevely in the second half of 1941. The Germans invaded Russia in June 1941, launching the most sweeping military campaign in history. The Soviets were surprised and devestated. Stalin ignored warnings from the British who as a result of Ultra had details on the Germna preparations. Stalin was convinced that they were trying to draw him into the War and until the actual attack could not believe that Hitle would attack him. The attack was an enormous tactical success. The Soviets were surprised and devestated. The Soviet Air Force was destoyed, largely on the ground. The German scaptured 3.8 million Soviet soldiers in the first few months of the campaign. No not knowing the true size of the Red Army, they thought they had essentally won the War. German columns too the major cities of western Russia and drove toward Leningrad and Moscow. But here the Soviets held. The Japanese decission to strike America, allowed the Sovierts to shift Siberian reserves and in December 1941 launch a winter offensive stopping the Whermacht at the gates of Moscow--inflicting irreplaceable losses. The army that invaded the Soviet Union had by January 1942 lost a quarter of its strength. Hitler on December 11 declared war on America--the only country he ever formally declared war on. In an impassioned speech, he complained of a long list of violations of neutality and actual acts of war. [Domarus, pp. 1804-08.] The list was actually fairly accurate. His conclusion, however, that actual American entry into the War would make little difference proved to a diasterous miscalculation. The Germans who months before had faced only a battered, but unbowed Britain now was locked into mortal combat with the two most powerful nations of the world. The British now had the allies that made a German and Japanese victory virtually impossible. After the Russian offensive of December 1941 and apauling German losses--skeptics began to appear and were give the derisory term " Gröfaz ".
The NAZI's launched Operation Barbarossa (June 22, 1941). Finland joined the Germans only 3 days later (June 25). Actually the Finns claim that the Soviets initiated hostilities with air attacks on Finnish cities. Prime minister Rangell then declared in a sppech to Parliament that Finland was at war with Soviet Union. I'm not sure if any historian has fully accessed the motives of the Finnish Government. Surely the desire to recover the lost territory was the primary factor. There may have been other factors such as the view at the time that the Stalin and the Skviet Union was a mortal threat to Finnland. Finland joined the Germans as a co-beligerent but not an ally or member of the Axis. The Finns refer to this as the Coninuation War. The Finnish Army innitiated an offensive om the cease-fire line (June 30). The Finns refused, however, to go significantly beyond the lost territory, much to Hitler's despleasure. This was a major reason that the NAZIs failed to capture Lenningrad.
Finland's record with regard to its small Jewish community is one of the most laudable in Europe. Finland was dependent upon Germany for food and arms during the War. Even so, the Finish Government refused repeated orders by Heinrich Himmler to deport the 2,000 Finnish Jewish to the death camps for tthe NAZI Final Solution. The only exception was eight Jews. Finish police refused to cooperate with the Gestapo which demanded the Jews be turned over. As a result, nearly all the Finnish Jews survived the War.
Finally as the War went against the NAZIs, the Finns fought the Germans in the Lapland War. Under the terms of the Finnish-Soviet Armistice (September 19, 1944), the Finns had to expel German military units still fighting on Finnish territory. This meant primarily the Germans still fighting in the north after the failed attempt to take Murmansk. Hitler refused to allow the German units to withdraw. Thus the Finns had to fight the Germans in the far north. Fighting began (September 27). The fighting deagged on until the last remananent of the German Army in Finland withdrew into occupied Norway (April 27, 1945).
Domarus, Max. Hitler Reden und Proklamationen 1932-45 Vol. 1-2 (Neustadt a.d. Aisch: Velagsdruckerei Schmidt, 1962-63).
Fridel, Frank. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Rendezuous with Destiny (Little Brown: Boston, 1990), 710p.
Weinberg, Gerhard L. Germany and the Soviet Union, 1938-1941 (Leyde, 1954).
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