A sign which the Germans left in Muonio, Lapland, written on it: 'As thanks for not demonstrating brotherhood in arms!'
Date
15 September 1944 – 27 April 1945
(7 months, 1 week and 5 days)
Location
Suursaari (Gogland) and Lapland
Result
Finnish victory
Belligerents
Germany
Finland Minor air support: Soviet Union[a]
Commanders and leaders
Lothar Rendulic
Mathias Kräutler
August Krakau
Hjalmar Siilasvuo
Aaro Pajari
Ruben Lagus
Strength
214,000[b]
75,000[c]
Casualties and losses
~1,000 dead
~1,300 missing
~2,000 wounded
~4,300 total casualties[8]
774 dead
262 missing
2,904 wounded
3,940 total casualties[8]
v
t
e
Campaigns of World War II
Europe
Poland
Phoney War
Finland
Winter War
Karelia
Lapland
Denmark and Norway
Western Front
1940
1944–1945
Britain
Balkans
Eastern Front
Italy
Sicily
Asia-Pacific
China
Pacific Ocean
South West Pacific
Franco-Thai War
South-East Asia
Burma and India
Japan
Manchuria and Northern Korea
pre-war border conflicts
Mediterranean and Middle East
Africa
North Africa
East Africa
Mediterranean Sea
Adriatic
Malta
Middle East
Iraq
Syria–Lebanon
Iran
Southern France
Other campaigns
Americas
Atlantic
Arctic
Strategic bombing
French West Africa
Indian Ocean
Madagascar
Coups
Yugoslavia
Iraq
Italy
Romania
Bulgaria
Hungary
French Indochina
v
t
e
Nordic states, 1939–1945
Denmark
Weserübung
Denmark
Norway
Valentine (Faroe Islands)
Safari
Isefjord
Bornholm
Finland
Winter War
Continuation War
Silver Fox
Orator
Lapland War
Tanne Ost
Iceland
Fork
Norway
Altmark incident
Weserübung
Denmark
Norway
Alphabet
Heavy water sabotage
Claymore
Kirkenes and Petsamo
Gauntlet
Fritham
Gearbox
Gearbox II
Leader
Zitronella
Attacks on Tirpitz
Petsamo–Kirkenes
Finnmark
v
t
e
Finland (1939–1945)
Winter War
Interim Peace
Continuation War
Moscow Armistice
Lapland War
v
t
e
Military operations, Arctic 1941–1945
Continuation War (1941–1944)
Silberfuchs
Rentier
Platinfuchs
Polarfuchs
RAF, RN, Fleet Air Arm
Benedict
EF
Orator
Svalbard (1941–1945)
Gauntlet
Fritham
Gearbox
Gearbox II
Zitronella
Haudegen
Lapland War
Birke
Nordlicht
Associated articles
British occupation of the Faroe Islands
Petsamo–Kirkenes offensive
Liberation of Finnmark
v
t
e
Lapland War
Nordlicht
Suursaari Island
Olhava
Tornio
Rovaniemi
Petsamo–Kirkenes offensive
During World War II, the Lapland War (Finnish: Lapin sota; Swedish: Lapplandskriget; German: Lapplandkrieg) saw fighting between Finland and Nazi Germany – effectively from September to November 1944 – in Finland's northernmost region, Lapland. Though the Finns and the Germans had been fighting together against the Soviet Union since 1941 during the Continuation War (1941–1944), peace negotiations between the Finnish government and the Allies of World War II had been conducted intermittently during 1943–1944, but no agreement had been reached.[9] The Moscow Armistice, signed on 19 September 1944, demanded that Finland break diplomatic ties with Germany and expel or disarm any German soldiers remaining in Finland.
The Wehrmacht had anticipated this turn of events and planned an organised withdrawal to German-occupied Norway, as part of 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 Soviet Union to push German troops out of Finnish territory. After a series of minor battles, the war came to an effective end in November 1944, when all of the German troops had reached Norway or the border area and took fortified positions. The last German soldiers left Finland on 27 April 1945, shortly before the end of World War II in Europe.
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 and entering northeastern Lapland during the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive. The military impact was 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, but it remained formally at war with the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom until ratification of the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty.
^Gebhardt 1989, pp. 2–4.
^Ziemke 2002, pp. 391–401.
^Jowett & Snodgrass 2012, p. 16.
^Zabecki 2015, p. 1552.
^Jaques 2007, p. 792.
^Elfvengren 2005, pp. 1124–1149.
^Kurenmaa & Lentilä 2005, pp. 1150–1162.
^ abAhto 1980, p. 296.
^Reiter 2009, pp. 134–137.
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