Salla Museum of War & Reconstruction

Lapland War | Wikipedia audio article

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Lapland War

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SUMMARY
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The Lapland War (Finnish: Lapin sota; Swedish: Lapplandskriget; German: Lapplandkrieg) was fought between Finland and Nazi Germany effectively from September to November 1944 in Finland's northernmost region, Lapland, during World War II. Although Finns and Germans had been fighting the Soviet Union (USSR) together since 1941 during the Continuation War, the Soviet Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive in the summer of 1944 forced Finnish leadership to negotiate a separate peace agreement. The Moscow Armistice demanded Finland break diplomatic ties with Germany and expel or disarm any German soldiers left in Finland after 15 September 1944.
The Wehrmacht had anticipated the turn of events and drawn up plans for an organised withdrawal to German-occupied Norway called Operation Birke (Birch). Despite a failed offensive landing operation by Germany in the Gulf of Finland, the evacuation proceeded peacefully at first. The Finns escalated the situation into warfare on 28 September after Soviet pressure to adhere to the terms of the Armistice. The Finnish Army was required by the USSR to demobilise while at the same time pursuing German troops out of Finnish soil. After a series of minor battles, the war came to an effective end in November 1944 when German troops had reached Norway or its vicinity and took fortified positions. The last German soldiers left Finland on 27 April 1945 and the end of World War II in Europe came soon after.
The Finns considered the war a separate conflict because hostilities with other nations had ceased after the Continuation War. From the German perspective, it was a part of the two campaigns to evacuate from northern Finland and northern Norway. Soviet involvement in the war amounted to monitoring Finnish operations, minor air support as well as entering north-eastern Lapland during the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive. Military impacts were relatively limited with both sides sustaining around 4,000 in total casualties—although the Germans' delaying scorched earth and land mine strategies devastated Finnish Lapland. The Wehrmacht successfully withdrew and Finland upheld its obligations under the Moscow Armistice, although it remained formally at war with the USSR and the United Kingdom until ratification by the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty.