*** Welcome to piglix ***

Operation Silberfuchs

Operation Silver Fox
Part of Continuation War and World War II
Silverfox1.jpg
A German column during the advance on Murmansk, 1941
Date 29 June – 17 November 1941
Location Arctic, Lapland, Northern Russia
Coordinates: 64°00′00″N 26°00′00″E / 64.00000°N 26.00000°E / 64.00000; 26.00000
Result Soviet victory
Belligerents
Nazi Germany Germany
 Finland
 Soviet Union
 United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Nazi Germany Nikolaus von Falkenhorst
Nazi Germany Eduard Dietl
Nazi Germany Hans Feige
Finland Hjalmar Siilasvuo
Soviet Union Markian Popov
Soviet Union Valerian Frolov
Soviet Union Roman Panin
Strength
Nazi Germany Mountain Corps Norway
Nazi Germany XXXVI Corps
Finland III Corps
Soviet Union 14th Army
Soviet Union 7th Army
Casualties and losses
21,501 Germans
~5,000 Finns
Unknown
Murmansk is located in Russia
Murmansk
Murmansk

Operation Silver Fox (German: Silberfuchs) was a joint GermanFinnish military operation offensive during World War II. Its main goal was to cut off and ultimately capture the key Soviet port at Murmansk through attacks from Finnish and Norwegian territory.

The operation had three stages. Operation Reindeer (Rentier) was the initial advance by German forces from Norway to secure the area around Petsamo and its valuable nickel mines. The follow-up operations, Operation Platinum Fox (Platinfuchs) from the north by Mountain Corps Norway and Operation Arctic Fox (Polarfuchs) from the south by XXXVI Mountain Corps together with units from the Finnish III Corps, aimed to cut off and capture the vital port of Murmansk afterwards in a pincer movement. Albeit the German-Finnish force was able to make some ground, Murmansk was neither cut off, nor taken, and continued to operate throughout the war.

Finland gained independence from Russia in the Finnish Civil War between German supported nationalists and Russian Bolshevik supported communists in the aftermath of World War I. Tensions between the new anti-communist republic and the newly established Soviet Union remained high during the early interwar years. Following a number of brief skirmishes between Finnish nationalists and the Soviet Union in Karelia, an agreement was reached regarding the border of the two countries. During the following years Soviet-Finnish relations remained stable, but still cool, and a 10-years non-aggression pact was signed in 1932.


...
Wikipedia

...