Retreating Reds Torch Tallinn; Blaze Brightens Baltic Sky

[Globalization41]

Stockholm, Sweden, United Press, The New
York Times, Thursday, August 28, 1941:
[Late Wednesday, U.S. time] The entire city of
Tallinn, besieged capital of Estonia and most
beautiful city of the Baltic States, was being
devoured by flames early today in a devastating
application of Russian "scorched earth" tactics,
according to reports reaching Stockholm. ...
Not only the important port but all the
residential and business areas of the city of
133,000 inhabitants, on the Gulf of Finland
opposite Helsinki, were said to be a mass of
flames as German forces closed in on it from
the south and east. ... The Russian radio was
quoted by newspaper Aftonbladet as saying that
when the Germans entered the city they would
find "only burning, smoking debris." ...
Various Baltic reports told of the sky lighted
by fire over Tallinn. At first it was believed
only the port section was ablaze, but later
accounts said that the flames, which German
bombers help to spread, had covered the entire
city. The Soviet radio was quoted by the
Aftonbladet as saying: "Not only Tallinn but
all Estonia is burning. There is not even a
sack of oats left. All shale and oil plants have
been destroyed. The counter-revolutionaries
and friends of Germany have been liquidated."
... The Soviet announcer said the Russians had
abandoned Tallinn, but thus far the Germans
had not entered the capital "because it is very
difficult to take a burning city." ... ... The
New York Times, Wednesday, August 27,
1941: Helsinki dispatches told of a great fire,
visible [in Helsinki] 50 miles across the Gulf of
Finland from the direction of Tallinn, as the
German land encirclement of the city was
supported by heavy aerial bombardment. ...
... Helsinki, Finland, Associated Press, The
New York Times, Wednesday, August 27,
1941: A Finnish communique reported today
that the Russians were being forced out of
Viborg [70 miles northwest of Leningrad] on
the Karelian Isthmus by heavy Finnish
bombing. ... Twenty-two civilians were killed
and 59 injured when a high-flying Russian
plane bombed the little coastal town of Borgae,
near Helsinki. The town was described as
having no military importance.

Berlin, United Press, The New York Times,
Wednesday, August 27, 1941: German and
Hungarian forces were said in a Budapest
communique, confirmed in Berlin today, to
have stormed across the Dnieper and into the
Eastern Ukraine after breaking Marshal
Semyon Budenny's defense lines along the
eastern bank. ... The crossing of the Dnieper
was announced after reports of the capture of
Berislav [about 50 miles north of the entrance
to the Crimean peninsula, 140 miles east and
slightly north of Odessa, and almost 300 miles
south-southeast of Kiev] in bloody house-to-
house fighting. ...The important Ukrainian
industrial city of Zaporozhe [110 miles
northeast of Berislav and 40 miles south of
Dniepropetrovsk], 15 miles across the lower
Dnieper on the railroad line from Crimea to
Kharkov [290 miles north-northeast of the
Crimea] and Moscow [about 415 miles north
and slightly east of Kharkov], also was
reported seized. ... There had been no German
crossing of the lower Dnieper, but the D.N.B.
said German artillery had fired across the river
and destroyed an armored train and a mounted
railroad gun. Direct hits were said to have
been scored on a munitions train. ... One
unofficial report indicated that a German force
had crossed the Dnieper around Chernigov, 80
miles north of Kiev and 60 miles south of
Gomel. ... In the "annihilation" of the two
Soviet rifle corps and a tank corps near Uman,
[about 115 miles] below Kiev, the entire staff
command of the Russian forces was said to
have been captured. ... German spokesman
denied reports that Col. Gen. Karl Rudolf von
Rundstedt, commander in chief of the German
Armies smashing into the Ukraine, had been
killed in action. "General von Rundstedt is
enjoying good health and sends his greetings,"
they said. ... ... The New York Times,
Wednesday, August 27, 1941: Moscow
reported that the Red Army was fighting
stubbornly in the Kingisepp [60 miles southeast
of Leningrad] region of the Leningrad [400
miles northeast of Moscow] sector, and in the
Dniepropetrovsk and Odessa areas. The
Germans were said to have lost 80,000 men,
killed or wounded, before they were able to
take Gomel

Berlin, By Telephone to The New York
Times, By C. Brooks Peters, Wednesday,
August 27, 1941: In the Southern Ukraine the
Germans claim that all the territory west of the
Dnieper, excepting still beleaguered Odessa, is
now in their hands. The penetration of the
Eastern Ukraine, they add, directly threatens
the Donets River industrial region, which, it is
believed in Berlin, will soon feel the
destructive blows of German guns. ... In
another special communique from
Reichsfuehrer Hitler's field headquarters, the
Supreme German Command announced that the
"mass" of the 22nd Soviet Army had been
trapped and destroyed east of Velikiye Luki
[250 miles south of Leningrad, 275 miles west
of Moscow], between Lake Ilmen [100 miles
south of Leningrad] and Smolensk [230 miles
west-southwest of Moscow]. ... Between Lake
Ilmen and the Gulf of Finland, before
beleaguered Tallinn, and on the Finnish front,
the Germans report that their operations
continue to progress successfully. ...
According to the communique, German
bombers dealt telling blows on Russian troop
concentrations east of Kiev and badly damaged
the railroad networks west of Moscow and in
the Leningrad area. ... [In the Southern
Ukraine] the Russians appear to have offered
stubborn resistance and in some places to have
been subdued only in hand-to-hand fighting.
... South of Lake Ilmen the Russians are
reported to have used strong formations of
their air force in an endeavor to halt the
German advance. In Russian air attacks on
German artillery batteries and marching
columns in this sector, seven Soviet planes are
said to have been shot down. ... According to
D.N.B. the Russians [Tuesday] lost 98 planes.

Rome, By Telephone to The New York
Times, Wednesday, August 27, 1941: In
Croatia those who are condemned to death
will be shot instead of hanged.

Berlin, By Telephone to The New York
Times, By C. Brooks Peters, Wednesday,
August 27, 1941: On the basis of an
authoritative military statement made here
today, the German forces that reportedly have
established bridgeheads across the lower
Dnieper and are deployed east of that river
appear to have taken Zaporozhe, an important
Russian city on the eastern bank. ...
Moreover, the official news agency D.N.B.
declared tonight that German forces had cut the
Leningrad-Moscow railroad line. ... In battles
that continued for several days, the city of
Velikiye Luke [250 miles south of Leningrad,
275 miles west of Moscow] is reported to have
been captured after fierce fighting. In these
operations, "exceptionally high and bloody
casualties of the enemy" were indicated [in a]
German report by the fact that more than
40,000 dead were left on the battlefield. ...
Today foreign correspondents saw the
customary weekly preview of the German
newsreel. Among the pictures flashed on the
screen were some of Herr Hitler visiting the
troops in the Ukraine. It was interesting also
to observe the number of horses the Germans
appear to be using in all sectors of the 1,500-
mile front. In all the fields shown in the
newsreel, except one, the grain had been
harvested.

Washington, Associated Press, The New York
Times, Wed., August 27, 1941: Secretary of
the Navy Frank Knox said today that he wished
the Russian Government would permit
American observers to go up to the front lines.
"So far this has been a very private war," he
told reporters at a press conference. "I wish
you fellows would try to work on Joe Stalin to
get some observers up to the front."

[Stay tuned for late breaking war bulletins.
... Globalization41.]

[Topspeed]

G41,

Unbelievable...US was so well informed what was going on..I thought they were busy regrouping in Hawaii islands.
The old town in Tallinn seems to me being in perfect order. They must have rebuilt it 100 %. When germans scorched they must have been more thorough..ever visited Rovaniemi ?


JT


Below scorched Rovaniemi in 1945. Not necessasy to mention a house is a handy thing when temperatures reach -40 degrees celsius, like they sometimes do in Rovaniemi.

[Globalization41]

I looked up Rovaniemi on the internet, but
couldn't find much other than it's been a
continuos settlement since the Stone Age
and that it had been rebuilt in 1946 as a result
of being destroyed by German troops in
World War II. I'm not sure why the Germans
would want to burn down a town in northern
Finland; maybe they were in a grouchy mood
when Finland withdrew from the war?

Rovaniemi

Globalization41

[Topspeed]

G41,

That's pretty much it. http://www.rovaniemi.fi may tell ya more ( webcam ! ).

They had a camp 1,5 km away from where I live here now. They built a stylish Alp style barrack too...still in tact...the town part is called Alppila after that house !

Pretty much everything north from Kemi was burned. Pelkosenniemi in the Eastern Lappland was not burned. Then houses here and there.

I think it was because Finlands president had promissed that we are gonna fight to the last man standing to get some military stuff in the sommer 1944. President Risto Ryti resigned and we made peace with the SU.


Just to inform you..here about 70 km away is a 7 000 years old village...found in the 60ies when waterplants were being built.

I was really amazed..people lived in heated semidetached houses..right just after Saberteeth tigers had vanished. Fishing nets and amberbuttons, boomerangs, bows and arrows all this kinda stuff have been found and a fortified village/square. Some kinda tradecenter before Egyptian time...and I tought we were somehow primitive as a kid because we were all so poor !

Just makes me think what all may have happened in that village. The coastline was 70 km east from here and 50 meters higher then..earth was rising rapidly after ice age and weather was milder..lot milder..plants were different and so on.

They just made a visitors center there.

regards,

Jukka T / Oulu / Finland

[Globalization41]

One certainly cannot fault Finland for
abandoning Germany in 1944, especially
given that Finland avoided being "swallowed"
by the Red Army. Besides, Hitler changed
the equation for the Finns when he declared
war on the United States. Had he not made
that mistake, the U.S. Congress would not
have declared war on Germany. Asia would
have been America's priority for war capacity
and production. Stalin would not have
benefited from the diversion of America's war
against Hitler, which was given priority over
Asia. The balance of power would have been
less favorable for the Soviet Union. Stalin
and Hitler would have eventually stalemated.
Heroic Finland would not have been forced to
strategically withdraw from the anti-Soviet
alliance. ... Finland's role during the Hitler era
is pretty much omitted by current American
conformist historians to the point that it would
now be considered revisionist not to
significantly omit Finland from the history of
World War II. I only discovered the Finland
factor in the mid-'80s when I researched
1941 by obtaining copies of contemporary
newspapers.

Soviets Purging Rich Peasants in Baltic
Republics

Nazi-Soviet Tension Increasing Hourly;
Abnormal Military Activity Reported;
German Dive Bombers Gathering in
Rumania

Germans Deny Invasion of Russia Has
Begun

Finland Orders General Mobilization;
Anitaircraft Guns Suddenly Appear on
Tops of High Buildings

Nazis Pressured Swedes for Troop
Transit Prior to Soviet War

Soviets Execute 1,500 Ukrainian Political
Prisoners

Russians Set Vast "Sea of Fire"
to Bar Finnish Advance Toward Leningrad

Finns Recapture Viborg

Soviets Order Volga-German Population
Exiled to Siberia

Nazi Noose Tightens About Leningrad

Finns Reject British Warning

Britain & Canada Declare War on
Finland, Hungary, & Rumania

Finns Told War with Soviet Union Must
Continue

British War Declaration on Finland
Distresses Swedes

Hitler and Hirohito Telegraph
Congratulations to Finns on Finland's
Independence Day

Globalization41

[Topspeed]

Never heard of that Sea of Fire thing. During the summer a forest is very volatile and may be set afire at the slightest misusage of a safetymatch.

Harri, anybody confirmation to that Isthmus fire ?

Well G41 it is very hard for us to omit the " Finland Factor " or the Soviets interest to attack us for safety reasons as they keep on calling it.

Finland was part of Sweden to until ( for some hundred years i guess ) 1809 and then from 1809-1917 part of Russian Empire.
It also had to be seen from that perspective. Those biggies pretty much have always taken us as "untermenschen" or simple peasants were as curiously the Germany never did at least in that extent...maybe because the Hansestadt commercial brotherhood..it was always easier for them to do business with locals and not through the emperors. Could that be right ? I'd like to think so. I think Finland also never did very good on political circles for being straight forward type people.

I liked that Hirohito gave such a gesture. OTOH USA declared war on us on our independence day was not so liked. Germany and Japan wanted to say: " We help you to get Carelia back ! "
We believed. USA wanted to say. " U R norty get back to your place !" We did not understand that.

[Globalization41]

Currently, I'm rearranging my archives. I'll be
on the lookout for fighting on the Isthmus. ... I
do know that Stalin called for setting forest
fires in his July 1941 speech laying out his
strategic vision for fighting the Nazi invasion.

Stalin Gives Rare Radio Broadcast

Globalization41

[Globalization41]

The United States did not declare war on
Finland. ... Britain declared war on Finland a
day before Pearl Harbor. At that time a
convoy of Japanese troops were openly
closing in on Singapore. It was well known
that Britain would soon be at war with Japan.
It appeared probable that America would be
drawn in also with a Japanese assault on the
U.S. possession of the Philippines. I suspect
that the timing of Britain's war declaration on
Finland may have been to grease the path for
an American war declaration on Finland if
Hitler declared war on America. But Finland's
plight was well documented in 1941 America
and war was not declared.

Globalization41

[Topspeed]

I see that was December 6th then..and 1941 already ?

I think world did not know that we had fought with Soviet-Russia already in the 1920ies in so called "Olonets ( Aunus ) war" to liberate those folks there..and since Leningrad is near the Russians were offended..what makes a 200 000 000 people be afraid of a nation of 3 millions ? I really wonder that..did they think we'd just run over them ....: ) Hardly..but they tought we are just a snack for them.

Winter War was our finest hour. I guess the paraller war with Germans during Barbarossa blurred the vision pretty badly. It is very clear that our leaders had no glue how big a help west was gonna give the Soviets in aeroplanes ( 15 000 or was it more ) and stuff.

I think had we fought to the last man standing the war had lasted a year more..then maybe the swedes had entered to help us..or not. Then there would have been only Soviets left to inhabit Finland. Since there was no way getting back Carelia..we did wisely when surrendering.