In the most recent weekly episode (24 July 1942) Indy talked about Churchill’s plans to land in northern Norway. So that made me wonder, did Finland have any plans in case the Allies landed in Northern Norway since it would be close to Finland itself? Would they intervene or leave it to Germany? Did they even have the manpower for such an intervention?
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Depends a lot on how it would be done. Finland had been looking for a way out for quite a while. However no real options existed as the Soviets simply could not be trusted. Western intervention would have resolved a lot but then both the Soviets (out of spite and imperialism) and the Nazis (out of revenge) could have taken reprisals against Finland.
Then there is this: Uuden tutkimuksen mukaan Suomi pyysi Yhdysvaltain miehitystä vuonna 1943 saadakseen rauhan ja Yhdysvallat jopa harkitsi asiaa | Yle Uutiset | yle.fi ~ According to a new research Finland requested to be occupied by the USA in 1943 and the USA even considered it.
Main research paper: The Problem of the Finnish Separate Peace, US Initiatives, and the Second Front in 1943 | Faravid – Historian ja arkeologian tutkimuksen aikakauskirja “The Problem of the Finnish Separate Peace, US Initiatives, and the Second Front in 1943”
However as it seen that the German troops withdrawing from the Norway would end up in the Germany or France and that starting such an operation would give hard lessons to the Germans on how to defend it was perceived that even trying it would have jeopardized the Operation Overlord. For the Allies it was better to have more Germans in Norway.
There was also the problem with the Soviets. The USA was not sure if the Soviets tried to roll over into Finland despite of the potential US occupation.
There are more studies which kind of touch the subject a bit like (in Finnish so reader beware):
https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/136171?show=full
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Thank you for the information, it’s pretty interesting. I knew the situation was complicated which is one of the reasons I wondered if they had any plans. Would they stay with the Axis or go over to the Allies or neither. Because if it was up to Mannerheim he might have gone over to the Allies or just stayed out of it since he was pretty pessimistic about a German victory. But I don’t know what his thoughts on it was. Either way it was a delicate situation which is why I was curious about Finnish plans to begin with. But thank you for the information, I’ll go through it.
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Just remember that Mannerheim was merely the CiC of the armed forces in Finland. Political leadership - and especially the parliament - were still above him in matters such as this. So while his opinion certainly would have mattered he alone could not have decided anything. Not at least until Ryti resigned and Mannerheim was elected as the president in mid-1944. Even then it would required convincing the parliament to go along.
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Yes that’s why I said “if it was up to him”
Since the parliament and other political leaders were initially enthusiastic about a war to take back land with German assistance. That’s yet another thing that made me curious as to what Finland would’ve actually done.
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As indy mentioned in one of the episodes about the winter war in Finland: through a determined fight the Finns won the right to exist as an Independent nation. I worked with Finland in the 80’ and as a Dane we have a strong bond to our Nordic brothers. 
They must have been felt betrayed by UK and France early on, so I Guess they just had a pragmatic day by day approach to the overall strategies, because it was out of their control anyway.
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