Operation Silver Fox

Operation Silver Fox
Part of Continuation War and World War II
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
Germany  Finland	Soviet Union  United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Nikolaus von Falkenhorst Eduard Dietl Hans Feige Hjalmar Siilasvuo	Markian Popov Valerian Frolov Roman Panin
Strength
Mountain Corps Norway 2nd Mountain Division 3rd Mountain Division XXXVI Corps 169th Infantry Division SS-Division Nord (mot.) Finnish 6th Division Panzer-Abteilung 211 III Corps Finnish 3rd Division Panzer-Abteilung 40	14th Army 14th Rifle Division 52nd Rifle Division 104th Rifle Division 122nd Rifle Division 1st Tank Division 88th Rifle Division Grivnik brigade 1st Polar Rifle Division 7th Army 54th Rifle Division
Casualties and losses
21,501 Germans ~5,000 Finns	Unknown
Murmansk Murmansk, port and administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, in the Russian North

Operation Silver Fox (German: Silberfuchs) was a joint German–Finnish 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.