Thanks for that reminder, Der. Didn't know that Britain had actually declared war on Finland in 1941 after their part in operation Barbarossa. Wiki says that the Finns only participated to reclaim disputed territory lost in the Winter War, and refused to go further than those lines. They were promised part of Leningrad after the planned occupation - H!tler wanted to raze it to the ground and expel the population. The decision for the siege rather than pushing for direct occupation was so that they wouldn't be obliged to feed the population. Over a million perished in what's considered possibly the most deadly siege in history.
Anyway, you probably already knew that. I wondered if anyone knew a bit more about the Finnish part in it. Everyone seems to be very coy about it, at least in the wiki article. Seems likely that there was more involvement than they're claiming... Pointers to further info welcome.
cheers,
I
*****
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Finnish_participation Finnish participation
Hitler with Finland's Marshal Carl Gustav Mannerheim and President Risto Ryti meeting in Imatra in 1942
By August 1941, the Finns advanced to within 20 km (12 mi) of the northern suburbs of Leningrad at the 1939 Finnish-Soviet border, threatening the city from the north; they were also advancing through East Karelia, east of Lake Ladoga, and threatening the city from the east. The Finnish forces crossed the pre-Winter War border on the Karelian Isthmus by eliminating Soviet salients at Beloostrov and Kirjasalo, thus straightening the frontline so that it ran along the old border near the shores of Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga, and those positions closest to Leningrad still lying on the pre-Winter War border.
According to Soviet claims, the Finnish advance was stopped in September by resistance in the Karelian Fortified Region,[46] but in August 1941 Finnish troops had already received orders to halt the advance after reaching their goals, some of which lay beyond the pre-Winter War border. After reaching their respective goals, the Finns halted their advance and started moving troops to East Karelia.[47][48]
For the next three years, the Finns did little to contribute to the battle for Leningrad, maintaining their lines.[49] Their headquarters rejected German pleas for aerial attacks against Leningrad[50] and did not advance farther south from the Svir River in occupied East Karelia (160 kilometres northeast of Leningrad), which they had reached on 7 September. In the southeast, the Germans captured Tikhvin on 8 November, but failed to complete their encirclement of Leningrad by advancing further north to join with the Finns at the Svir River. On 9 December, a counterattack of the Volkhov Front forced the Wehrmacht to retreat from their Tikhvin positions in the Volkhov River line.[2]
On 6 September 1941, Germany's chief of staff, Alfred Jodl, visited Helsinki. His main goal was to persuade Mannerheim to continue the offensive. In 1941, President Ryti told the Finnish Parliament that the aim of the war was to restore the territories lost during the Winter War and gain more territories in the east to create a "Greater Finland".[51][52][53] After the war, Ryti said: "On 24 August 1941 I visited the headquarters of Marshal Mannerheim. The Germans aimed us at crossing the old border and continuing the offensive to Leningrad. I said that the capture of Leningrad was not our goal and that we should not take part in it. Mannerheim and Minister of Defense Walden agreed with me and refused the offers of the Germans. The result was a paradoxical situation: the Germans could not approach Leningrad from the north". There was little or no systematic shelling or bombing from the Finnish positions.[24]
The proximity of the Finnish border – 33–35 km (21–22 mi) from downtown Leningrad – and the threat of a Finnish attack complicated the defence of the city. At one point, the defending front commander, Popov, could not release reserves opposing the Finnish forces to be deployed against the Wehrmacht because they were needed to bolster the 23rd Army's defences on the Karelian Isthmus.[54] Mannerheim terminated the offensive on 31 August 1941, when the army had reached the 1939 border. Popov felt relieved, and redeployed two divisions to the German sector on 5 September.[55][page needed]
Subsequently, the Finnish forces reduced the salients of Beloostrov and Kirjasalo,[56] which had threatened their positions at the seacoast and south of the River Vuoksi.[56] Lieutenant General Paavo Talvela and Colonel Järvinen, the commander of the Finnish Coastal Brigade responsible for Ladoga, proposed to the German headquarters the blocking of Soviet convoys on Lake Ladoga. The idea was proposed on their own behalf, bypassing both Finnish Navy HQ and General HQ. The Germans responded favorably and informed the slightly surprised Finns – who apart from Talvela and Järvinen had very little knowledge of the proposition – that transport of the equipment for the Ladoga operation was already arranged. The German command formed the international naval detachment (which also included the Italian XII Squadriglia MAS) under Finnish command and the Einsatzstab Fähre Ost under German command. These naval units operated against the supply route in the summer and autumn of 1942, the only seasons in which the units were able to operate before freezing waters forced the lightly equipped units to be moved away. Changes in front lines made it impractical to re-establish these units later in the war.[24][40][57][58]
[...]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Controversy_over_Finnish_participation Controversy over Finnish participation
Almost all Finnish historians regard the siege as a German operation and do not consider that the Finns effectively participated in it. Russian historian Nikolai Baryshnikov argues that active Finnish participation did occur, but most other historians have been silent about it, most likely due to the friendly nature of postwar Soviet–Finnish relations.[113]
The main facts counting in favour of the former view are: (a) the Finns mostly stayed at the pre-Winter War border at the Karelian Isthmus (with small exceptions to straighten the frontline), despite German wishes and requests, and (b) they did not bombard the city from planes or with artillery and did not allow the Germans to bring their own land forces to Finnish lines. Baryshnikov explains that the Finnish military in the region was strategically dependent on the Germans, and lacked the required means and will to press the attack against Leningrad any further.[114]
on September 17, 2026, 10:19 pm