I know Germany had troops in Finland, was there an agreement or policy that Germany did not launch any major attacks aimed at Murmansk?

Out of the Foxholes Questions
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Great Videos! Please keep up the great work!

Thanks Scott

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Great question and a very heartfelt welcome to the forum. Let me/us know if any queries should arise.

Best Regards,
Chew

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Germany had control over military operations taking part in Northern Finland - so by and large the answer to the question would be ‘no’. The Germans had nothing preventing them from launching major attacks aimed at Murmansk. In fact this is exactly what they did several times, unsuccessfully. So no political things prevented that from the German side.

However… Several other factors acted against this. First… the terrain was very unforgiving, supply routes were very limited. Second… the Finns prohibited the Germans from taking action against the Soviets from Finland until Finland actually joined the war so the Germans never really had a change to launch surprise attack. Third… the Germans were not truly accustomed to the conditions in Lapland - not in the endless forests nor in the rocky & treeless areas further up. Fourth… the Germans had to keep a plenty of forces in garrison duty in Norway which diluted their forces a lot.

Then perhaps the more interesting & political part… the Germans had to rely quite a bit on the Finnish forces attached to the Germans as the Finns could more easily operate in the prevailing terrain conditions. However the Finnish goals for the war were not the same as what the Germany had - and due to political reasons (i.e. the USA) the Finnish leaders made sure that the Finnish forces would not take part to advances to the Murmansk or against the Murmansk rail

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Awesome Response! thanks

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