The Finnish-German Lapland War (15) Sep 1944 - 27 Apr 1945

[Ike_FI]

During the continuation war I know that in Inari the Germans were welcomed by at least some of the local people as protectors against the Soviets.

No doubt about that, the Finnish army lacked men to guard the full length of eastern border and the Germans provided protection from feared Soviet terror attacks (try phrase "soviet partisans" lapland in Google for details).

[instant karma]

I understand that Soviet fighter planes would attack civilians on the ground.

[Antti V]

I understand that Soviet fighter planes would attack civilians on the ground.

Yes they did. I don´t know did they attack in Lapland (hardly) during wars but in Karelian Isthmus they did that continuously during civilan evacuations in Winter War as well during summer 1944.
For example total about two hundred civilian from Vyborg was killed or wounded by fighters when town was evacuated during December-February in Winter War.

[Tiwaz]

They also liked to attack anything with big red crosses. I guess it made aiming easier.

[Hanski]

...and as this became clear to the Finns, they gave up marking hospitals with the red cross signs to avoid them being deliberately targeted.

[Hanski]

After a pause of more than a year, I am reviving this thread by posting a photo of the burning Rovaniemi, scanned from the History of the Continuation War.

The caption:
The Germans have set Rovaniemi in fire, and the Finns can guess the extent of the coming destruction from the opposite bank of the river.

[Hanski]

Regarding those events we discussed in this thread before at length, the History of the Continuation War is quite laconic:

As the Finnish troops approached Rovaniemi, there were only a small number of German delaying troops remaining in the borough. They had commenced the demolition of the borough. An explosion of an ammunition train in the railyard of Rovaniemi, however, somewhat confused the plans, and the bridge of Suutarinkorva to the north from Ounasvaara still remained undemolished. Otherwise, the German retreat kept progressing as planned.

The Jaeger Battalion 5 arrived in the evening of 14 October at the proximity of the bridge, which was still intact. An attack made to conquer the bridge failed, and the Germans blew it up.

Cheers,

Hanski


The caption of the photo below:

Finnish troops advanced into the borough of Rovaniemi while it was still aflame.

[Tom Houlihan]

Nice photos, Hanski!! You beat me to the punch, though. I was going to toss a couple of photos on here my self.

That view of the city from across the river is, well, awe inspiring. Almost Rome-ish!

[Hanski]

In all fairness, due credit must be publicly given precisely to Tom, who recently contacted me by PM and thus inspired me to scan these photos.

About these photos, I fully agree: they are quite dramatic, and they do convey the idea of warfare in Arctic darkness. In the lower photo, you can barely recognize the sihouette figures of soldiers carrying their rifles, it is technically blurry, no flash used, but there is an air of brutal business being done!

Hanski

[Tom Houlihan]

Never mind...

It didn't work, again....

I'll see if I can't get someone to delete this.

[Hanski]

In late 2002 we debated on this thread whether Rovaniemi was destroyed accidentally by an ammunition train exploding at the railyard in the borough centre, or whether it was deliberately burned setting it in fire house by house.

When you look at the photo above of the burning Rovaniemi, which explanation seems more likely to you? Does that area in flames look like resulting from a series of artillery shell explosions, or from systematic fire-setting?

I have scanned below the photo from the back cover of the book Lapin ilmailuhistoria I (The Aviation History of Lapland, part I) by Jaakko Alakulppi, 1999, a piece of very systematic historical research and plenty of references on various aspects of the subject.

Unfortunately, the technical quality of a scanned back cover photo is poor, but I hope it still serves our purpose of discussion.

The caption goes: The capital of Lapland, the borough of Rovaniemi, after the burning of Lapland in the autumn of 1944. A Finnish Ju-88 is roaring along at low altitude towards the North over the devastated borough approximately above where the present-day bus station is. On the background rises the Ounasvaara mountain -- it is a northern morning and there is smoke lingering in the inversion layer.

Indeed, the picture has been taken after snowfall, in a direction opposite to the one above of Rovaniemi in flames. You can clearly see against the snow the numerous chimnies standing - all that is left from burnt wooden buildings. You can also spot a length of fence, numerous spruce and pine trees standing erect with their branches and needles intact, but no broken trees, no trees stripped of their branches, no craters visible after explosions. If indeed there had been a serious of explosions setting the borough aflame, you would expect the shock waves and shrapnels having caused an entirely different visible result.

So, how did Rovaniemi buildings catch fire...?

Hanski

[Tom Houlihan]

Hanski, what's the orientation of that photo? I want to try to orient it to the map I have. Thanks....

[Hanski]

The aircraft is heading towards due North, and the camera has been aimed towards East (or slightly North-East) from the starboard side. My guess would be the flight altitude is about 200-300 ft, and the location is above the West side of wartime Rovaniemi borough centre, or indeed on the spot of the present-day bus station (which I believe can be found in the linked maps of some previous posts).

Hanski

[Tom Houlihan]

Kiitos!

[Hanski]

I am posting here two overlapping maps of Rovaniemi, which Tom kindly sent me, with the North on top. Obviously they show the destroyed buildings of old Rovaniemi borough as contours, plus the remaining buildings in black. The "inverted L"-shaped building can be used to locate the parts when joining the map into one.


As an old Rovaniemian, I must say these maps have plenty of interesting details -- never seen these before.

Thanks, Tom!