Finland was the only nation with an elected and democratic government to fight on the German side in WWII. Despite being small, poorly armed and made up of conscripts, the Finnish army was probably the most effective fighting force at the time, managing with practically no outside help to keep the mighty Red Army at bay for more than three months during the Winter War of 1939-40.

In 1944, the devastating Soviet mass attack against the Finnish Army involved the largest artillery assault of the entire WWII theater of operations up until this point. Nevertheless, the Finns eventually managed to halt the attack.

Most English books on Finland in WWII concentrate on the brief Winter War and make very little mention of the country's involvement in the remainder of the war, where it fought for more than three years alongside the Germans against the Soviet Union, and later against Germany in the Lapland War.

This book examines this extremely important, highly dramatic and often overlooked and misunderstood chapter of WWII to a broad, English-reading audience. Building on the latest historical research, Claes Johansens ground-breaking work explains how the Finnish war effort was planned and executed, how it was connected to the overall events of the era, and how the waging of a total war can affect a modern democratic society militarily, politically, diplomatically and on various levels of civilian life.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Preface
• Pronunciation, abbreviations and important suffixes
• PART ONE: The Winter War - 30 November 1939 – 13 March 1940
  • I Prelude
  • II Two Armies
  • III The First Month of the War
  • IV The Second Month of the War
  • V The Third Month of the War
  • VI Endgame in March
• PART TWO: The Interim Peace - 13 March 1940 – 25 June 1941
  • I Little Country – What Now?
  • II Brothers in Arms
  • III The Finnish Choice
• PART THREE: The Continuation Wa - 25 June 1941 – 19 September 1944
  • I Reconquests and More
  • II Crossing the Border
  • III PoW Camps and Internment Camps for Civilians
  • IV Trench War
  • V The Volunteers
  • VI Peace Negotiations in Trouble
  • VII The Soviet Steamroller
• PART FOUR: The Last War – And the Peace - (1944–1945)
  • I The Lapland War
  • II The Post War Era
• APPENDICES
  • Appendix I: Structure of a typical Soviet infantry division during the Winter War
  • Appendix II: The deployment and tasks of the Red Army at the start of the Winter War
  • Appendix III: Comparison between a typical Finnish and a typical Soviet infantry division at the outbreak of the Winter War
  • Appendix IV: Order of battle for the Finnish Army at the outbreak of the Winter War
  • Appendix V: Soviet and Finnish forces on the Karelian Isthmus on 1 February 1940
  • Appendix VI: Soviet and Finnish forces at the Viipuri Front on 1 March 1940
  • Appendix VII: The Soviet General Staff’s operational plan for an isolated attack on Finland, made in the autumn of 1940
  • Appendix VIII: Order of battle for the Soviet and Finnish forces along the border on 1 July 1941 (from south to north)
  • Appendix IX: Mannerheim’s Order of the Day 10 July 1941 (translated from Swedish, the language in which it was originally written)
  • Appendix X: Order of battle for the Red Army before the offensive on the Karelian Isthmus, June 1944
  • Appendix XI: Order of battle for the Finnish Army before the Soviet offensive in June 1944
  • Appendix XII: President Ryti’s letter to Adolf Hitler dated 26 June 1944
  • Appendix XIII: Soviet and Finnish order of battle on the Karelian Isthmus before the fighting at Tali and Ihantala
  • Appendix XIV: Finnish-German forces during the fighting at Tali and Ihantala
  • Appendix XV: The Soviet Petsamo-Kirkenes offensive in October 1944
• Notes
• Place Names
• Literature, Audio, Video and DVD
• Maps