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Continuation War 1941–1944

Timeline

June 17, 1941 - Finland declares general mobilization.

June 22, 1941 - Germany launches the invasion of the Soviet Union, code-named Operation Barbarossa.

June 25, 1941 - Soviet aircraft bomb Helsinki and other targets in Finland.

June 25, 1941 - Prime Minister Jukka Rangell states that Finland is at war.

June 26, 1941 - Finland joins Germany in the invasion of the Soviet Union. Finnish troops push across the old Finnish-Russian border into Soviet Karelia. This is followed by a prolonged trench warfare phase.

June 1944 - War has raged in Europe for five years. The siege of Leningrad is lifted, and the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union agree that the Russians launch a massive offensive on the eastern front, while the Western Allies land forces on mainland Europe.

June 6, 1944 - The Western Allies land in Normandy on the northern coast of France. The Soviet Union unleashes a full-scale offensive on the Finnish front. Retreating Finnish troops engage in heavy fighting on the Karelian Isthmus.

August 18, 1944 - Enemy attack is repulsed in Ilomantsi.

September 4, 1944 - Finland stops fighting. An armistice comes into effect.

September 19, 1944 - The armistice is signed in Moscow.

Finland Enters Alliance with Germany

Relations between Finland and the Soviet Union remained tense after the Winter War. Finland had been compelled to cede large areas of land to the Soviet Union under the terms of the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940.

Elsewhere In Europe, war engulfed new areas when the Germans occupied Denmark and Norway in the spring of 1940. In the summer, Soviet troops marched into the Baltic countries, i.e., Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

By the fall of 1940, Finland found itself in an increasingly precarious situation sandwiched between Germany and the Soviet Union, two great powers that were both engaged in a war. Of its neighboring countries only Sweden was determined to remain neutral.

Finland began to inch closer to Germany, from where it bought grain and weapons, and allowed German forces to transit through Finnish territory to the occupied Norway.

When Hitler gave an order to plan the invasion of the Soviet Union, he expected Finland to support Germany's military effort. Finland, on the other hand, wanted to retake the territory it had lost after the Winter War, and therefore took a positive attitude toward the Germans’ proposal.

Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. A week earlier, Finland had declared a general mobilization and succeeded in mustering an army of 530,000 men. A total of 45,000 civilians were evacuated from the borderlands.

Dragoons on the move, destination Ilomantsi. (Photo: Finnish Defense Forces Photo Archive)

Initial Finnish Advances

Finland was not yet ready to formally join Germany in the invasion of the east, but a couple of days after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, Soviet aircraft bombed Helsinki and several other locations in Finland. Prime Minister Jukka Rangell stated that Finland was again at war.

Finnish forces crossed the border into the Soviet Union on several fronts on July 25. Movement in Ilomantsi sector was hampered by strong fortifications that the Red Army had constructed in the areas that the Soviet Union had occupied under the terms of the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940.

In the easternmost reaches of old Ilomantsi near the village of Kuolismaa, Major General Woldemar Oinonen's men came across an enemy formation of special interest. Group Oinonen was opposed by the Red Army’s 126th Rifle Brigade formed of Finnish-speaking Soviet nationals and Finnish communists who had left Finland for the Soviet Union. The brigade was under the command of Valter Valli, an ethnic Finn who had defected to Russia in 1918, risen through the ranks to Red Army Major and managed to survive Stalin's purges in the 1930s.

The Finns did not stop after retaking the lost territory and, spurred by the Germans’ success, crossed the old border into Soviet Karelia, where they occupied the town of Petrozavodsk and stopped only after reaching the shores of Lake Onega in the north and the Svir River in the southeast.

Soviet Counterattack

The first phase of the war was characterized by Finnish advances. It ended in the fall of 1941 and was followed by a period of stagnation called trench warfare phase, which lasted until the beginning of the Soviet all-out offensive on the southern front in June 1944.

The winds of war turned against Germany during the summer of 1944. The siege of Leningrad was lifted, and the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union agreed that the Russians launch a massive offensive on the eastern front, while the Western Allies land forces on mainland Europe.

The Western Allies landed in Normandy on the northern coast of France on June 6. Soon afterward, the Soviet Union began an all-out offensive on the Karelian Isthmus.

The Finns’ first line of defense collapsed under the onslaught. The defenders were forced to abandon the occupied areas and engage in fierce defensive actions. After three weeks of confusion, the Finns reconsolidated their defenses and halted the Russian advance around Tali and Ihantala in the largest battle in the history of the Nordic countries.

Generals Ruben Lagus, Aleks Airo and Erkki Raappana exchange opinions in the 14th Division headquarters in Raappana's cabin. (Photo: Finnish Defense Forces Photo Archive)

Focus Shifts on Ilomantsi

With the Red Army's avenues of advance blocked on the Karelian Isthmus, the Russians shifted the focus of the offensive to the north of Lake Ladoga and Ilomantsi sector in late July and early August. In the opening phase of these last major battles of the Continuation War, the defending force of 13,000 Finnish soldiers enjoyed a numerical superiority of 2,000 men. Later estimates have suggested that the strength of the Russian forces increased to 20,000 men after the arrival of reinforcements, which, however, reached the front only after one week of fighting and were therefore unable to be of significant help to the attacker. The Finns had by that time gained the upper hand and were mostly in control of the situation.

This time they also had material superiority in terms of artillery pieces and ammunition. Aerial activity of both sides was intense, with over one hundred aircraft participating in the battle at its peak in early August.

Enemy forces that had advanced deeper into Ilomantsi were halted at the Ilajanjoki River on Niemijärventie road axis and at Öykkösenvaara on Leminahontie road. The third axis of attack was from the direction of the present-day easternmost point of continental European Union toward Hattuvaara. This threat was checked on Polvikoskentie road in the vicinity of Sikrenpuro brook.

Enemy is Pocketed

A major part of the attacking forces was encircled and destroyed. By the time an armistice came into effect on September 4, the Finns had pushed most enemy units back across the present-day border.

The commander behind the success of these encirclement operations was Mannerheim’s trusted man Major General Erkki Raappana, who had won his spurs as the commander of the 14th Division in Rukajärvi sector during the preceding phases of the Continuation War.

Despite massive material losses sustained by the Red Army, the Finns recovered in the pockets large numbers of serviceable guns, mortars, tanks, light weapons, and other material that was put to good use in military training still decades after the end of the war. A considerable number of horses was also retrieved.

A burnt-out hulk of a Russian tank, recovered from Lutikkavaara pocket. (Photo: Finnish Defense Forces Photo Archive)

Crushing Terms of Peace

The Finnish victories contributed to Stalin's decision to agree on starting peace talks with Finland. Even though the Soviet Union had dropped the demand for a conditional surrender, it dictated heavy conditions for peace.

On September 4, Finland stopped fighting and an armistice came into effect. In the Moscow Armistice signed two weeks later, Finland was compelled to return to the post-Winter War borders and relinquish to Soviet control the territories that were left beyond this border.

Finland was further forced to pay massive war reparations to the Soviet Union, to cede Petsamo on the Arctic Ocean, and to lease Porkkala Peninsula west of Helsinki to the Soviet Union for use as a military base. Porkkala was returned to Finnish control in 1956.

Lapland War

The terms of the peace treaty also required that the Finns expel German forces from their territory. After Germans refused to withdraw, war broke out between Finland and Germany. During this conflict, known as Lapland War, the Finns pushed their former allies through northern Finland into Norway.

Retreating Germans burned down the town or Rovaniemi as a revenge and resorted to systematic scorched earth tactics that left most of Lapland a wasteland. Lapland War ended on April 27, 1945.