It’s something no one really likes to talk about. It has a… tortured history to it.
The Finns started out being invaded by the Soviets (and were thus supported, at least morally, by the Western powers). Then, the Sovs and Finns made peace (on bad terms for the Finns). Then the Soviets and Nazis went to war with each other, and the West backed the Soviets, because fuck the Nazis. The Finns, however, saw their chance to revenge their prior loss, and invaded the Soviets at the same time, making the Western allies (reluctantly) oppose them.
In this, the Finns insisted they were not allies with the Nazis, but ‘co-belligerents’; they never embraced Nazi ideology or cooperated on matters other than fighting the Sovs, but either way, they contributed to Nazi advances, which is pretty fucking abominable, regardless of the motivation. They signed a separate peace with the Soviets near the end of the war, with even worse terms than their original peace.
Finns don’t like talking about it, because they get defensive about being grouped with the Nazis. Soviet apologists try to avoid the subject, because they know that anyone who digs too deep uncovers the conflict being started by unprovoked Soviet imperialism. The West doesn’t like talking about it, because it runs counter to the narrative of liberal democracies banding together against the Nazis in WW2, and also exposes the way we failed to back Finland against the initial Soviet invasion.
That’s a funny question, because there’s an answer in two (short) parts.
The guy who helped found the Finnish air force was a Swede, who, in 1918, before the Nazis came into existence, sent the Finns a plane with a swastika on it - a sign for good luck that he had been using for almost 20 years at that point. The Finns, from that point on, kept the swastika as a sign of their air force.
When the Soviet Union’s unprovoked attack started the Winter War we were basically left on our own by nearly everyone. With our minimal stocks of ammo and weapons we managed just barely to stop the onslaught. The Finnish army’s capabilities had suffered under severe budget cuts for almost the entire 1930’s. The Soviets were well aware of this and decided to use it to their advantage.
When the Interim Peace began, our leaders were certain that sooner or later Stalin would attack again to finish the job. So we started to frantically rebuild and restock our army and seek allies wherever we could find them. Unfortunately the only one whose interests aligned with ours was Germany. Fighting against the Soviets alone was not an option anymore, so we allied ourselves with Hitler’s Germany. No formal treaties of alliance were made, but that’s just a technicality.
Most of our leaders were not very enthusiastic about this (it is well documented and confirmed by several reliable sources that our supreme commander Mannerheim despised Hitler) but Germany was our best and only bet.
When the Continuation War began, our offensive to regain the lost territories and “liberate the Finnic people of East Karelia” did undoubtedly help the Nazi war effort. We both went out to crush a common enemy, but as a nation we did not embrace Nazism in any way. There were of course some who did, but there were very few of them.
Hitler requested us to complete the encirclement in the siege of Leningrad but our troops stopped at the old border. We also refused to cut the railroad supply line from Murmansk, which was vital for the Soviets due to the US aid arriving from the north (the US had informed us via diplomatic channels that blowing up the railroad would be really, really bad for us in long term).
Hitler’s trust in our alliance was wawering due to these denials and so the Germans requested that we send them a battallion of “fine Aryan examples” to fight with Waffen SS and Wehrmacht against the Soviets in the eastern theatre of war. We called them the “Deposit Battallion”. My grandma’s cousin was one of these men, I met him several times when I was a kid and he most certainly was not a Nazi. He told us that if you had showed any “Nazi enthusiasm” in your home regiment, you were automatically disqualified from the Deposit Battallion selection. The leadership did not want to send them any whackjobs who would bring Nazi ideology back home.
The Deposit Battallion was deployed in Ukraine with the SS Division Viking , alongside other foreign volunteers. My grandma’s cousin never shared any stories from the war. “They are not for children, or anyone for that matter.”
Germany gave us more than 200 000 troops to defend Lapland and a vast number of equipment and ammo. Without the troops and material the Soviets would have crushed us.
One can call us “Nazi belligerents” or “Nazi allies”, it does not make any difference. When presented with only one viable option, one tends to choose it even if it was one they would rather not make. In retrospect our leaders chose correctly and we remained independent.
Had we known about the true scope of the Nazi atrocities before joining forces, would we have been able to reject them? I fear that the tides of war would have still forced us to join the side of the fascist monsters.
Oof, well my lack of war history is showing.
It’s something no one really likes to talk about. It has a… tortured history to it.
The Finns started out being invaded by the Soviets (and were thus supported, at least morally, by the Western powers). Then, the Sovs and Finns made peace (on bad terms for the Finns). Then the Soviets and Nazis went to war with each other, and the West backed the Soviets, because fuck the Nazis. The Finns, however, saw their chance to revenge their prior loss, and invaded the Soviets at the same time, making the Western allies (reluctantly) oppose them.
In this, the Finns insisted they were not allies with the Nazis, but ‘co-belligerents’; they never embraced Nazi ideology or cooperated on matters other than fighting the Sovs, but either way, they contributed to Nazi advances, which is pretty fucking abominable, regardless of the motivation. They signed a separate peace with the Soviets near the end of the war, with even worse terms than their original peace.
Finns don’t like talking about it, because they get defensive about being grouped with the Nazis. Soviet apologists try to avoid the subject, because they know that anyone who digs too deep uncovers the conflict being started by unprovoked Soviet imperialism. The West doesn’t like talking about it, because it runs counter to the narrative of liberal democracies banding together against the Nazis in WW2, and also exposes the way we failed to back Finland against the initial Soviet invasion.
Why did the Finnish air force have a swastika as an emblem though? I’m not being fucky, I’m honestly curious.
That’s a funny question, because there’s an answer in two (short) parts.
The guy who helped found the Finnish air force was a Swede, who, in 1918, before the Nazis came into existence, sent the Finns a plane with a swastika on it - a sign for good luck that he had been using for almost 20 years at that point. The Finns, from that point on, kept the swastika as a sign of their air force.
That Swedish guy later became a Nazi sympathizer.
You are pretty much correct.
When the Soviet Union’s unprovoked attack started the Winter War we were basically left on our own by nearly everyone. With our minimal stocks of ammo and weapons we managed just barely to stop the onslaught. The Finnish army’s capabilities had suffered under severe budget cuts for almost the entire 1930’s. The Soviets were well aware of this and decided to use it to their advantage.
When the Interim Peace began, our leaders were certain that sooner or later Stalin would attack again to finish the job. So we started to frantically rebuild and restock our army and seek allies wherever we could find them. Unfortunately the only one whose interests aligned with ours was Germany. Fighting against the Soviets alone was not an option anymore, so we allied ourselves with Hitler’s Germany. No formal treaties of alliance were made, but that’s just a technicality.
Most of our leaders were not very enthusiastic about this (it is well documented and confirmed by several reliable sources that our supreme commander Mannerheim despised Hitler) but Germany was our best and only bet.
When the Continuation War began, our offensive to regain the lost territories and “liberate the Finnic people of East Karelia” did undoubtedly help the Nazi war effort. We both went out to crush a common enemy, but as a nation we did not embrace Nazism in any way. There were of course some who did, but there were very few of them.
Hitler requested us to complete the encirclement in the siege of Leningrad but our troops stopped at the old border. We also refused to cut the railroad supply line from Murmansk, which was vital for the Soviets due to the US aid arriving from the north (the US had informed us via diplomatic channels that blowing up the railroad would be really, really bad for us in long term).
Hitler’s trust in our alliance was wawering due to these denials and so the Germans requested that we send them a battallion of “fine Aryan examples” to fight with Waffen SS and Wehrmacht against the Soviets in the eastern theatre of war. We called them the “Deposit Battallion”. My grandma’s cousin was one of these men, I met him several times when I was a kid and he most certainly was not a Nazi. He told us that if you had showed any “Nazi enthusiasm” in your home regiment, you were automatically disqualified from the Deposit Battallion selection. The leadership did not want to send them any whackjobs who would bring Nazi ideology back home.
The Deposit Battallion was deployed in Ukraine with the SS Division Viking , alongside other foreign volunteers. My grandma’s cousin never shared any stories from the war. “They are not for children, or anyone for that matter.”
Germany gave us more than 200 000 troops to defend Lapland and a vast number of equipment and ammo. Without the troops and material the Soviets would have crushed us.
One can call us “Nazi belligerents” or “Nazi allies”, it does not make any difference. When presented with only one viable option, one tends to choose it even if it was one they would rather not make. In retrospect our leaders chose correctly and we remained independent.
Had we known about the true scope of the Nazi atrocities before joining forces, would we have been able to reject them? I fear that the tides of war would have still forced us to join the side of the fascist monsters.
Super interesting, thx for the info.