| Lapland War | | Part of World War II |
German Withdrawal From Finland 1944. | | | | Combatants |
Germany |
Finland | | Commanders | | Lothar Rendulic | Hjalmar Siilasvuo | | Strength | | 200,000 | 60,000 | | Casualties | 950 killed
2,000 wounded
1,300 captured | 774 killed
3,000 wounded
262 missing | 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. Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000,000 Total dead: 50,000,000 Military dead: 8,000,000 Civilian dead: 4,000,000 Total dead 12,000,000 World War II (abbreviated WWII), or the Second World War, was a worldwide conflict...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (430x625, 64 KB) Summary Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Lapland War ...
Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...
Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ...
National anthem Sámi soga lávlla Languages Sami, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Russian Area ca. ...
Casus belli is a modern Latin language expression meaning the justification for acts of war. ...
The areas ceded by Finland to the Soviet Union after the Continuation War. ...
Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany_1933. ...
Image File history File links Flag_of_Finland_(bordered). ...
Lothar Rendulic (November 23, 1887 – January 18, 1971) was a Colonel General in the Wehrmacht during WWII. Rendulic was born on in Wiener Neustadt, Austria to a Croatian family (Croatian spelling of the surname is Rendulić). He entered the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1910 and served during World War I...
Hjalmar Fridolf Siilasvuo (1892 - 1947) was a Finnish general who led troops in the Winter War, Continuation War and Lapland War. ...
Combatants Soviet Union1 Poland Germany1 Italy (to 1943) Romania Finland (to 1944) Hungary Commanders Aleksei Antonov Ivan Konev Rodion Malinovsky Kirill Meretskov Ivan Petrov Alexander Rodimtsev Konstantin Rokossovsky Pavel Rotmistrov Semyon Timoshenko Fyodor Tolbukhin Aleksandr Vasilevsky Nikolai Vatutin Kliment Voroshilov Andrei Yeremenko Matvei Zakharov Georgy Zhukov Fedor von Bock Ernst...
Combatants Germany Romania Finland Italy Hungary Slovakia Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler General (later MareÅŸal) Ion Antonescu Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Joseph Stalin Strength ~ 3. ...
Battle of the Baltic concerns the German and Soviet battle for the control of the Baltic sea during World War II. Categories: | | | | | ...
Combatants Germany Spanish Blue Division Soviet Union Commanders Wilhem von Leeb Georg von Küchler Kliment Voroshilov Georgiy Zhukov Strength 725,000 930,000 Casualties Unknown 300,000 military, 16,470 civilians from bombings and an estimated 1 million civilians from starvation The Siege of Leningrad (Russian: блокада Ленинграда (transliteration: blokada Leningrada...
Combatants Germany Romania Soviet Union Commanders Erich von Manstein Ivan Petrov Filipp Oktyabrskiy Strength 350,000+ 106,000 Casualties at least 100,000 killed, wounded or captured (Including Romanians) 95,000 captured, 11,000 killed The Battle of Sevastopol was fought from October 30, 1941 to July 4, 1942 between...
Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Fedor von Bock Georgi Zhukov Strength ~ 1,500,000 ~ 1,500,000 Casualties 250,000 700,000 The Battle of Moscow refers to the defense of the Soviet capital of Moscow and the subsequent counter-offensive against the German army, between October 1941 and January...
The formation of the Rzhev salient during the winter of 1941-1942. ...
Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Fedor von Bock, Friedrich Paulus Semyon Timoshenko Strength 300,000 men, 1000 tanks, 1500 aircraft 640,000 men, 1200 tanks, 1000 aircraft Casualties 20,000 killed, wounded or captured 207,057 killed, wounded or captured, 652 tanks, 1,646 guns, 3,278 mortars, 57,626...
Combatants Germany Italy Hungary Romania Slovakia Soviet Union Commanders Maximilian von Weichs Friedrich Paulus # Erich von Manstein Hermann Hoth Italo Garibaldi Gusztav Jany Petre Dumitrescu Constantin Constantinescu Vasiliy Chuikov Aleksandr Vasilyevskiy Georgiy Zhukov Semyon Timoshenko Konstantin Rokossovsky Rodion Malinovsky Strength German Sixth Army German Fourth Panzer Army Romanian Third Army...
Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Kurt von der Chevallerie M. A. Purkayev Strength ~20,000 (on 19 Nov) 100,000 (on 19 Nov) Casualties 17,000 killed or wounded, 3,000 captured 30,000 killed or wounded Situation after the initial Soviet advance. ...
The eastern front at the time of the Second Rzhev-Sychevka Offensive. ...
Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Erich von Manstein Hans von Kluge Hermann Hoth Walther Model Georgiy Zhukov Konstantin Rokossovskiy Nikolay Vatutin Ivan Konyev Strength 2,700 tanks 800,000 infantry, 2,000 aircraft 3,600 tanks 1,300,000 infantry, 2,400 aircraft Casualties German Kursk : 50,000 dead, wounded...
Combatants Axis Soviet Union Commanders Günther von Kluge Andrei Yeremenko, Vasily Sokolovsky Strength 850,000 men, 8,800 guns, 500 tanks, 700 planes[1] 1,253,000 men, 20,640 guns, 1,430 tanks, 1,100 planes[1] Casualties (Soviet est. ...
Combatants Axis Soviet Union Commanders Erich von Manstein Rokossovsky, Konev Strength 1,250,000 men 12,600 guns 2,100 tanks 2,000 planes 2,650,000 men 51,000 guns 2,400 tanks 2,850 planes Casualties Low est. ...
The 1943 Battle of Kiev resulted in a Soviet victory, forcing the German invaders of the Soviet Union to retreat further. ...
Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Erich von Manstein, Wilhelm Stemmerman (Gruppe Stemmerman), Hermann Breith, III Panzerkorps Georgi Zhukov, Nikolai Vatutin (1st Ukrainian Front), Ivan Konev (2nd Ukrainian Front), Strength 56,000 70 tanks and assault guns In packet only but much large with relief troops 200,000 500 tanks Casualties...
Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Erich von Manstein (Army Group South) Hans-Valentin Hube (First Panzer Army) Georgi Zhukov Nikolai Vatutin (1st Ukrainian Front) Ivan Koniev (2nd Ukrainian Front) Strength 200,000 500,000 Casualties ? ? 357 tanks The Battle of the Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket, also known as Hubes Pocket...
During World War II, Operation Bagration was the general attack by Soviet forces to clear the Nazis from Belarus which resulted in the destruction of the German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat for the Wehrmacht during the war. ...
Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Josef Harpe (Heeresgruppe Nordukraine) Ivan Koniev (1st Ukrainian Front) Strength 370,000 men 340 AFVs 4,800 guns 1,200,000 men 1,979 AFVs 11,265 guns Casualties 350,000 men 520 AFVs 198,000 men 1,285 AFVs The Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive[1...
Combatants Red Army Wehrmacht Heeresgruppe Südukraine, Romanian Army Commanders Marshal Semyon Timoshenko Generaloberst Friessner Strength 1,341,200, 1,874 tanks and assault guns ca. ...
Combatants Wehrmacht i. ...
Combatants Axis Soviet Union Commanders General Otto von Lasch Marshal Vasilevsky Marshal Rokossovsky Strength 130,000 250,000 Casualties 50,000 60,000 The Battle of Königsberg was the last battle of the East Prussian Operation. ...
Combatants Soviet Union Poland Germany Commanders Georgiy Zhukov Ivan Konev Konstantin Rokossovskiy Vasiliy Chuykov Adolf Hitler †Gotthard Heinrici Helmuth Reymann Ernst Kaether (one day) Helmuth Weidling # Karl Dönitz # Wilhelm Mohnke # Strength 2,500,000 soldiers, 6,250 tanks, 7,500 aircraft, 41,600 artillery pieces [1] 1,000,000...
The Eastern Front at the time of the Prague Offensive. ...
Combatants Germany, Finland Soviet Union Commanders Nikolaus von Falkenhorst (Armee Norwegen) Roman Panin (Northern Front) The original plan for operation Silver Fox. Operation Silver Fox (Unternehmen Silberfuchs) was a German operation during World War II. Its main goal was the capture of the Soviet port at Murmansk through attacks from...
Combatants Finland Germany Soviet Union Commanders Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Strength 250,000 (total 530,000) Finns[1] + 100,000 (total 220,000) Germans 650,000 (total ???) [2] Casualties 58,715 dead or missing 158,000 wounded 1,500 civilian casualties[3] 200,000 dead or missing 385,000 wounded...
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. ...
The battle of Tornio October 1 - October 8, 1944 was the first major engagement between Nazi Germany and Finland in the Lapland War; although hostilities had already begun elswere (see Tanne Ost). ...
The town of Rovaniemi destroyed by the Germans The Battle of Rovaniemi was an event during the Lapland War. ...
Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...
Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ...
The Province of Lapland is one of the Provinces of Finland, and a part of the larger geographical area of Lapland, which spans over four countries. ...
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. 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ...
The phrase separate peace refers to a nations 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. ...
The Finnish nickel deposits were found in the Petsamo area at Barents Sea, which until the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, was the northernmost part of Finland. ...
The area of Petsamo (Pechenga in Russian) in northern Lapland, indigenously inhabited by Samis, came to Finland in 1920 and to the Soviet Union in 1944. ...
1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ...
Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...
Geneva Convention definition A prisoner of war (POW) is a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. ...
World map showing the location of Europe. ...
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 on 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. 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. ...
Hogland (Russian: Гогланд; Finnish: Suursaari; Swedish: Hogland) is an island in the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, located some 180 km west of Saint Petersburg and 35 km away from the coast of Finland. ...
The Baltic Sea The Gulf of Finland is an arm of the Baltic Sea that extends between Finland (to the north) and Estonia (to the south) all the way to the city of Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. ...
The Baltic Sea is located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. ...
U-boat is also a nickname for some diesel locomotives built by GE; see List of GE locomotives October 1939. ...
Image:Wehrmacht 20 April 1939 Birthday Parade. ...
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. Look up ally in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
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. Hjalmar Fridolf Siilasvuo (1892 - 1947) was a Finnish general who led troops in the Winter War, Continuation War and Lapland War. ...
Combatants Finland Soviet Union Commanders Colonel Hjalmar Siilasvuo General Dashitsev Strength Three regiments and separate battalions, 11,000 men Two divisions, one tank brigade (cca 45,000-50,000 men) Casualties 900 killed, 1770 wounded 27,500 killed and missing 85 tanks 537 trucks 1,620 horses 138 guns 6...
The battle of Tornio October 1 - October 8, 1944 was the first major engagement between Nazi Germany and Finland in the Lapland War; although hostilities had already begun elswere (see Tanne Ost). ...
Most of the civilian population of Lapland, totalling 168,000 persons, was evacuated to Sweden and Souther 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] A scorched earth policy is a military tactic which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. ...
City Rovaniemi (1960) Administrative Province Province of Lapland Historical Province Laponia Area - Total - Land - Water Ranked 5th (municipalities), and 1st (cities) 8,016 km² 7,601 km² 415 km² Population - Total (01/2006) - Density Ranked 13th 58,500 7. ...
 'Victory in Lapland', Finnish soldiers setting up a Finnish flag on the Norwegian border Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (600x698, 92 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Lapland War Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (600x698, 92 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Lapland War Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to...
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.) Lothar Rendulic (November 23, 1887 – January 18, 1971) was a Colonel General in the Wehrmacht during WWII. Rendulic was born on in Wiener Neustadt, Austria to a Croatian family (Croatian spelling of the surname is Rendulić). He entered the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1910 and served during World War I...
A scorched earth policy is a military tactic which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. ...
The town of Rovaniemi destroyed by the Germans The Battle of Rovaniemi was an event during the Lapland War. ...
Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ...
2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
In the context of war, a war crime is a punishable offense under International Law, for violations of the laws of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. ...
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. Recruit (from the French recrue, from the verb recroître to grow again, i. ...
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]. Geneva Convention definition A prisoner of war (POW) is a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. ...
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. The Finnish Air Force (FAF) (Finnish: Ilmavoimat) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. ...
Sortie is a term for deployment of one military aircraft or a ship for the purposes of a specific mission, whether alone, or with other aircraft or vessels. ...
 Municipality of Ivalo destroyed by Germans Image File history File links Ivalontuhottuakylaa. ...
Image File history File links Ivalontuhottuakylaa. ...
Ivalo is a town in Inari Municipality, in Finnish Lapland, situated a few kilometres to the south of Lake Inari. ...
See also This article gives an overview of the History of Germany. ...
The land area that now makes up Finland was settled immediately after the Ice Age, beginning from around 8500 BC. Finland was part of Kingdom of Sweden from the 13th century to 1809 when it was ceded to Russia and became the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. ...
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. ...
Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000,000 Total dead: 50,000,000 Military dead: 8,000,000 Civilian dead: 4,000,000 Total dead 12,000,000 World War II (abbreviated WWII), or the Second World War, was a worldwide conflict...
External links - Pictures from Wars during Finland´s independence:The War of Lapland (maps, photos from front, songs and radio speeches)
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