Vesa Nenye - Finland at War - The Continuation and Lapland Wars 1941-45

1–6 October

The Finns conduct a stealth landing, starting the battle of Tornio. Over the coming days the bridgehead is heavily reinforced and all German counter-attacks repelled. The loss of Tornio accelerates the withdrawal of the whole German Twentieth Mountain Army.

2 October

German forces are ordered to destroy all industrial and military property and infrastructure in Lapland.

5 October

Soviet members of the Allied Control Commission arrive in Finland. The German high command orders General Lothar Rendulic to withdraw all his troops to Norway and take up positions at the Lyngen Fjord.

7 October

Mannerheim approaches Sweden to help with the refugee problem in the north.

8 October

Finnish troops liberate the town of Kemi.

9 October

Churchill and Stalin meet in Moscow. Finland remains outside the Soviet sphere of influence. The defeated German 7th Mountain Division escapes from Group Lagus.

13 October

German forces in Lapland are ordered to destroy all civilian property and any possible shelter the Finns could use during the oncoming winter.

16 October

Finnish forces liberate the ruined town of Rovaniemi.

19 October

The Allied Control Commission presents the Finnish government with its first list of war criminals.

20 October

The Finnish Armoured Division occupies the ruined village of Sodankylä. The Soviet Union and Yugoslavian resistance forces capture Belgrade.

23 October

Finnish troops reach the German fortifications at Tankavaara, but fail to displace German forces there.

28 October

Bulgaria makes an armistice agreement with the Allies.

30 October

Minister Tanner forbids the handing of Jewish refugees to Germany. German troops withdraw from Muonio village.

31 October

The German high command orders the troops at Tankavaara to withdraw. Following pressure from the Soviets, a law is passed in Finland disbanding all Civil Guard organisations.

1 November

The disbanding of the Finnish wartime army begins. Peacetime formations are to be in place by 5 December.

7 November

Roosevelt is re-elected for his second term as President of the United States of America.

17 November

President Mannerheim appoints the second government of Prime Minister Juho K. Paasikivi.

20 November

Finnish forces reach the border at Utsjoki.

22 November

The Soviet Union returns the first prisoners of war.

23 November

Lotta Svärd, the women’s paramilitary organisation, is disbanded.

5 December

Peacetime strength is reached in the Finnish armed forces; former soldiers have returned to civilian life. The Allied Control Commission approves Finland to take loans from the US government.

16–26 December

German forces launch the Ardennes offensive.

17 December

Agreement is reached on the amount of Finnish war reparations.

20 December

Mannerheim makes it clear to the Soviets in a letter that, going forward, Finland and the Soviet Union do not have common military goals.

27 December

Soviet forces surround Budapest.

23 January

Soviet troops reach the Polish-German border.

13 February

Soviet forces conquer Budapest.

15 February

British forces reach the old France-German border on the Rhine.

3 March

The Finnish government belatedly notes that the country has been in a state of war with Germany since 15 September 1944.

17 April

President Mannerheim appoints the third government of Prime Minister Juho Paasikivi.

18 April

German resistance in the Ruhr collapses.

20 April

Minister of the Interior Yrjö Leino hands the persons on the list drawn up by the Allied Control Commission to the Soviets.

25 April

The final shots of the Lapland War are fired in Kilpisjärvi.

27 April

Siilasvuo informs Mannerheim that all German troops have been evicted from Finnish territory, and declares the Lapland War over.

30 April

Hitler commits suicide.

8 May

Nazi Germany surrenders.

6 August

The US drops a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima.

6 August

The Soviet Union acknowledges Finland diplomatically.

9 August

The US drops a nuclear bomb on Nagasaki. The Soviet Union declares war on Japan.

10 August

Japan surrenders unconditionally.

18 August

The US recognises Finland diplomatically.

12 September

Mannerheim resigns for health reasons.

19 September

The Allied Control Commission receives recommendations that Karelia should be returned to Finnish control. The ceded lands remain in Russian hands to date.

8 October

The Soviet Union extends the deadline for Finland to pay its $300 million war reparations. The reparations will finally be repaid in full in September 1952.

15 November

The Finnish war crimes trials begin in Helsinki. Former president Risto Ryti is among those sentenced.

12 December

The US grants Finland its first national dollar loan.

Parliamentary elections end the reign of terror by the Red VALPO (secret police).

28 January

1951 Marshal of Finland, Gustav Mannerheim, dies in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The 1940 truce between the Soviet Union and Finland, which concluded the conflict known as the Winter War, came at a high price for Finland. Nearly 10 per cent of the country’s total pre-war territory had to be relinquished and some 12 per cent of the population had to be evacuated from the ceded lands. According to the terms of the Moscow Peace Treaty, the Soviet Union gained control of the whole Karelian Isthmus including Finland’s second biggest city, Viipuri. Two other major towns, Käkisalmi and Sortavala, were lost, along with the part of Karelia north of Lake Ladoga. Further north, the lands east of Suojärvi, Salla and Kuusamo were similarly forfeited. On the Barents Sea, Kalastajasaarento (the Rybachy Peninsula) now belonged to the Soviet Navy, which had also demanded the leasing of Hanko harbour on the southernmost tip of Finland. The Soviet Navy’s grip on the Gulf of Finland was further tightened when strategically important Suursaari and several other large islands were handed over.

The Soviets’ victory had cost them dearly; even the most conservative estimates cite over 200,000 killed with post-war Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev claiming that the total fatalities resulting from the Winter War had exceeded one million men. The Finns buried 24,918 of their countrymen, while 9,562 of the total 43,557 wounded would remain permanently disabled.