Key battles in WW1/WW2

Lapland War

The Lapland war was a rather brief engagement between Finnish and withdrawing German troops. However the Germans were once an ally of Finland since 1941 because of there same hate for their common enemy which was the USSR which they both hated the idea of Communism and its socialist ideology. When Germany went to war in 1941 against the Red army Finland also engaged with the war to.

As the Finnish just like all Axis allies of Germany relied on its performance militarily and if they performed terribly it could be enough to disrupt the alliances and defect to the opposing side. Which the Romanian and Bulgarians did in August 1944. And this is where the war begins. After Finland was defeated multiple times in battles they signed the armastice with them. And there was still 100,000 or so German troops still in Finland and according to the demands of Stalin, it was to make all German troops in Finland be disarmed and withdraw. Within the span of 2 weeks. Many didn't want to leave but they didnt have a choice but to. And German troops receiving orders from Berlin to withdraw quick as they possibly could. Until Stalin got impatient and ordered the Finnish to start using military force to accelerate their withdrawal. Many resented because they literally were just Allies 4 minutes ago. But the Soviets would impose harsh punishments to Finland if they disobeyed. But Soviets did order air support for the Finnish troops.

However on the German side they were not suprised by the Finnish defection. And ordered the remaining troops to hold onto the important Iron and Nickel mines they needed to build their machinery and their armoured vehicles. With that situation the Lapland war had begun. The Soviets gave the Finnish air support and some troops to make the Germans withdraw faster but the Red army didnt have any reserved to give because most of their men had been focused towards the main front against Germany. German withdrawal was swift but there was brief engagements of conflict at villages and towns at River streams.

An important battle for Tornio happened in Early October and as expected resulted in Finnish victory and the Germans retreated further. Then in the battle for Rovaniemi in mid October after the German retreat, the town had been burned to the ground by the scorched earth tactics and resulted in a second victory. Then for the largest battle of the Lapland war was the battle for Muonio the largest settlement in Lapland which was a large town near the Swedish-Finnish border. The Germans despite their weakening strength were able to hold their positions long enough they could retreat from Lapland. Then eventually they invaded Norway where the Norwegian resistance grew larger. And thus the Lapland war had come to an end and Germany despite suffering some casualties was able to successfully withdraw their troops from Lapland.