Why- Finnish

[jmatchlock]

In a nutshell, Finland fought three wars during the 1939 to 1945 time period.

The first was when Russia attacked in November 1939 and lasted until March 1940 when a ceasfire was declared. Finland had fought the Soviet Union to a standstill. A negoiated agreement allowed the Soviets to take about 10% of Finland territory. These battles were fought in the winter, hence the name "Winter War".

In June 1941, Finland "allowed" the Germans to move across Finnish territor to attck the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa. The Soviets attacked Finland again and the Finns fought to regain thier lost territory, which they did. The war then entered a static phase for Finland. You hear from many sources that Finland was a member of the Axis powers. That is not true, Finland never signed a treaty with Germany like Bulgaria, Romania, etc did. I guess one could say that Finland used the "an enemy of my enemy is my friend" philosophy. The Finns looked at this war as a continuation of the Winter War hence the name "Continuation War".

The Soviets attacked again in the summer of 1944 and this attack streached Finland to the max. Many heroic battles were fought at great cost to both sides. Again, Finland used diplomacy to save their country. Another peace treaty was signed with the Soviets that stopped they war.

There were many harsh requirement that Finland had to abide by because of that treaty. One of which was that they had to expel the Germans from Finnish territory. The Finnish army was reduced in size to pre-war standards at that time also. The Germans were basically in northern Finland or Lapland, hence the "Lapland War ".

I hoppe that I have explained this well. I hope some of our Finnish members could add some to this subject. The political side of Finlands wars were fought just a hard and brilliantly as the military side.

Here is a link to the Kev Os 4 website history of Finnish wars.

http://www.kevos4. com/Part% 201%20The% 20Winter% 20War%20Backgrou nd.htm

From a reenactors standpoint, this allows Finnish reenactors to fight Russians in early war, mid and late war uniforms and also Germans.

Hope this helps.

John