Winter War: What did Germany do?

What was the role of Germany in the Winter War / Russo-Finnish War (1939-1940)? Generally, it is rather absent in the portrayals, yet a closer look reveals that Germany was not as neutral. In various cases it took a rather pro-Soviet stance as well. This is related to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, but also due to Germans concern that the Allies might get a foothold in the North.

Cover design by vonKickass.

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Müller, Rolf-Dieter: An der Seite der Wehrmacht: Hitlers ausländische Helfer beim „Kreuzzug gegen den Bolschewismus“ ; 1941 - 1945. 1. Aufl, Links: Berlin, 2007.

Stahel, David (Ed.): Joining Hitler’s Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge ; New York, NY, 2018.

Kistle, Thomas William: Finland in Nazi Germany’s war strategy 1939-1945, University of Monata: 1968.

Karnisky, Robert Brian: On War and the Winter War, Florida State University: 2007.

Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume II. Politics and Ideology. Cambridge University Press: UK, 2015.

The Cambridge History of the Second World War, Volume I: Fighting the War. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2015.

Maier, Klaus A.: Die Errichtung der Hegemonie auf dem europäischen Kontinent. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: Stuttgart, 1979 (Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, Bd. 2).

Wagner, Gerhard (Hrsg.): Lagevorträge des Oberbefehlshabers der Kriegsmarine vor Hitler 1939-1945. J. F. Lehmanns Verlag: München, 1972.

Sprague, Martina: Swedish volunteers in the Russo-Finnish Winter War, 1939-1940. McFarland & Co., Publishers: Jefferson, N.C. ; London, 2010.

Stoker, Donald: The Naval War in Baltic. In: Baltic Security & Defence Review, Volume, 11 (2009), Issue 2.

#WinterWar,#GermanyAndTheWinterWar,#WinterWarGermany

[Perkelenaattori]

Germany withheld a shipment of 35 Italian Fiat G50 fighters that Finland bought for its extremely fledgling airforce.

[baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis]

Yes the germans helped Finland in 1918 and Finland helped Estonia who helped Latvija who was being invaded by the germans. So clearly the 1918 was free for all.

[loganholmberg]

I like to see more on the continuation war and the German exit from Finland. Everyone talks about the winter war but very few talk about what happened to Finland throughout the rest of WW2.

[RapidAssaultEuro]

Using gunfire to bleep out swears made my heart skip a beat!

[dylandepetro]

This is why I subscribed to this channel in the first place. You cover topics, battles, and logistics of wwii that not many documentaries cover. And what most wwii documentaries do cover is just the same old regurgitated bs that everyone should already know about wwii. So thank you for adding some variety, clarification, and color to the information of wwii that is already out there. :)

PS; keep up the good work.

[finlandatwar]

Awesome video.
It seems many people are confused by Germany and Finland during the Winter War. Many thinking that they helped out while everyone else didn't.
Germany did a lot to hinder the movement of supplies and volunteers to Finland.

[adamgonzalez]

Taking notes from the winter war here in Texas

[tak]

The British-French help offer for Finland would have ended up just taking over Narvik and the Swedish iron mines, which is why Sweden said no. Although Norway had already agreed to let the Allies on their land. That's also why Finland asked for help from them only once in December 1939 and never after that.

[AtlasAugustus]

Understandable that they wanted nothing to do with jeopardizing the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact because of the buildup of surprise and forces on the German-Soviet border. This was of the highest priority for Hitler and the OKW.

[AlexanderSeven]

What I think is really important here is that nobody really cared about Finland in this war:
- Soviet Union was trying to secure it's borders at all costs, treating Finland as just a territory which could be used by Germany in the upcoming war to attack Leningrad
- Germany was trying to prevent UK/France from occupying northern territories so they could not block German logistics
- UK/France were thinking how to prevent Germany from controlling northern territories, and not involve themselves too much or too early in the upcoming war
- Sweden was trying to maintain neutrality at all costs
- US didn't want to get involved in European wars at that point

[lennipulkkinen]

Also a nice vid that covers an topic not many People even talk about

[dreamcast]

Wish this video went even more in depth always wondered about this thanks so much for the upload

[robert_trumpeteer]

great camera angle! and sources too ofcourse haha :P

[eemeliissakoff]

I really like your thumbnails! (And of course the video itself)

[blackore]

In Markku Palokangas' Military small arms in Finland 1918-1988 there is no weapons that would have been imported from Germany during the winter war. So, if anything was ordered, it was cancelled pretty quickly.

Stig Roudasmaa notes in his book, Steel helmet in the finnish defence forces, that Finnish government approached German Government in January 1940 about possibility of purchasing military equipment, including steel helmets, but was directed to Neutral Hungary instead.

Stalin himself seems to have believed that Germans had been covertly supporting Finland, alongside western powers, as evidenced in Ohto Manninen's and Oleg A. Rzheshevski's book Puna-armeija Stalinin tentissä, while official Soviet propaganda Emphasized Britain and France as Main backers of Finland such As in M. Markov's Finljandija. (Of course propaganda seems to have changed after operation Barbarossa happened, when "Imperialist powers" became friends, and Germany was rewritten to be the main backer of Finland the whole time.)

[clazy]

The autobiographical novel Kaputt, by the Italian war correspondent Curzio Malaparte, has a fascinating account of the Continuation War. His description of Russian war horses frozen in the shallows of Lake Ladoga is unforgettable.

[thomaszhang]

Germany is a Husky confirmed.

P.S. I saw you on Wolfpack345’s Type XXI video today. Cannot believe your are his fan too - Dönitz had been busy lately :D

[henrykissinger]

Can you make a video on the german invasion of Denmark, and Danmarks reasoning for it’s premature conditional surrender.

[VladKepes]

The Wikipedia entry suggesting Italian arms, is either true or false. Finland bought a lot of weapons from Italy, including 81 mm mortars, 20 mm and 76 mm AA-guns, rifles, hand grenades etc. There is the possibility that some of these were clandestinely successfully shipped via Germany, though they did everything to prevent this. Italian rifles they were not, as I found googling a source saying that the first Carcano M91 rifles only arrived in April 1940, after the armistice.

I would also like to point out that Finnish-German relations had already started to seriously deteriorate in March 1939 when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, and which Finland of course considered highly illegal. Relations worsened obviously even more with the German invasion of Poland, a country that Finland generally had had warm relations with in the 1920s and 1930s. The pro German Svinhufvud losing the presidential election to Kyösti Kallio in 1937 had already earlier marked a downturn in German-Finnish relation. The highly religious Kallio didn't apparently find Hitler anything more than a godless bully. Economically during the 30s Germany's role in Finland had lessened; the most import and export partners of Finland were Britain and Sweden, with Germany some years even falling below the Netherlands as 4th. The military leadership in Finland, though sometimes pro German, was not necessarily pro nazi at all. Because of the Treaty of Versailles, the biggest military contacts of Finnish officers were to Sweden, Britain and France, especially before 1936.

All this meant that Germany had little reason in being friendly towards Finland, and in some instances Finland itself acted against nurturing good relations.

[topittaja]

Nice video. Even as a finn I really didnt know much about Germany during the Winter War. It is alway more about Germany during the Continuation War. Would be interesting to see a video about the Germans in the Northern Finland, their attacks on the Soviet Union up in the North etc.