Lapland War

The Lapland War (Finnish: Lapin sota; German: Lapplandkrieg; Swedish: Lapplandskriget) is a name used for the hostilities between Finland and Germany between September 1944 and April 1945. It carries its name since it was fought in the northernmost province of Finland, Lapland.

Prelude

As early as the summer of 1943, the German high command began making plans for the eventuality that Finland might make a separate peace agreement with the Soviet Union. The Germans planned to withdraw their forces northward in order to shield the nickel mines near Petsamo. During the winter of 1943-1944, the Germans improved the roads from northern Norway to northern Finland by extensive use of POW labour (many captured in southern Europe and still in summer uniform; casualties were high), and they accumulated stores in that region. Thus the Germans were ready in September 1944, when Finland made peace with the Soviet Union.

Progress of Operations

While German ground troops withdrew northward, the German navy mined the seaward approaches to Finland and with Operation Tanne Ost attempted to seize Suursaari Island in the Gulf of Finland. The sailors on Finnish ships in German-held ports (including Norway) were arrested, and at the Baltic sea German U-boats sank several Finnish civilian vessels. Although some Wehrmacht and Finnish army officers tried to organize relatively peaceful withdrawal, fighting broke out between German and Finnish forces even before the Soviet-Finnish preliminary peace treaty was signed. Fighting intensified when the Finns sought to comply with the Soviet demand that all German troops be expelled from Finland.

The Finns were thus placed in a situation similar to that of the Italians and of the Romanians, who, after surrendering to the Allies, 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.

Finnish general Hjalmar Siilasvuo, the victor of Suomussalmi, led the operations against the Germans, striking first at Kemi-Tornio, and in October and November 1944 drove them out of most of northern Finland. Hard battles were fought at Tankavaara and Kaunispää where the Germans made a stand to cover their retreat towards Norway.

Most of the civilian population of Lapland, totalling 168,000 persons, was evacuated to Sweden and Southern Finland prior to start of the hostilities with the exception of the inhabitants of Tornio area. The evacuation was carried out as a cooperative effort of German and Finnish authorities.^[1] However, they conducted severe scorched earth warfare, burning most buildings in the province. The town of Rovaniemi was destroyed completely, all important bridges demolished and the roads extensively mined.^[2][3][4]

Consequences

In their retreat the German forces under General Lothar Rendulic devastated large areas of northern Finland using scorched earth tactics. More than one-third of the dwellings in that area were destroyed, and the provincial capital of Rovaniemi was burned to the ground. All but two bridges in the entire Lapland were blown up and roads mined. In addition to the property losses, estimated as equivalent to about US $300 million (in 1945 dollars, which today 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 crimes, and they sentenced him to 20 years in prison.)

The last German troops were expelled in April 1945. By that time only 600 Finnish troops, mostly fresh recruits, 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 3000 WIA for the Finnish troops, and 950 KIA and about 2,000 WIA for the Germans. 1300 German soldiers became POWs, and were handed over to the Soviet Union, according to the terms of the interim peace agreement.^[5]

Trivia

The Finnish Air Force fought the Lapland war with two national symbols. The pre-war insignia was changed to the current roundel in 1st April, 1945. The last war sorties were flown during April 1945.

See also

• History of Germany
• History of Finland
• Operation Tanne Ost
• World War II

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