Operation Tanne Ost - Lapland War

I found this on wikipedia, I thought it was interesting so I posted


Operation Tanne Ost ("Fir East") was a German operation during World War II to capture the island Suursaari (Swedish Hogland, Russian Gogland) in the Gulf of Finland before it could fall into Soviet hands. Suursaari was especially important because it worked as a lock in the Finnish Gulf guarding the minefields keeping the Soviet Baltic Fleet in Kronstadt.
The operation was initially planned with another operation to capture the Åland Islands (Tanne West), which was not carried out.
On September 15, 1944, a first wave of 1400 men from both the Wehrmacht and the Kriegsmarine were loaded on ships in Tallinn. Before the assault the German commander tried to negotiate with the Finnish commander on Suursaari, as he thought the Finns might leave without resistance. The negotiations were a complete failure and the invasion had to begin. When the German ships approached Suursaari the Finnish crew on the island opened fire. However most of the troops made it to the beaches, but there the difficulties continued, somewhat because of the Finnish defense being much more numerous than expected. Two Finnish patrol boats were trapped in Suurkylä harbor and sunk. After sunrise the Soviets made bombing runs on the German ships and later bombed both German and Finnish positions in the island. A second wave of troops was withdrawn before they could land. Finnish Navy motor torpedo boats sank several German vessels. After that German ships decided to leave because they failed to make radio connection to the landed troops. The operation ended in a complete failure, with the Finns capturing 1,231 German prisoners.
Soviet Air Force made three attacks against German positions and ships. The attacks also caused some Finnish casualties. Germans didn't let the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen support the invasion, as Soviet air threat in the area was shown by these attacks.
This operation marked the beginning of hostility between German and Finnish troops, known as the Lapland War. Before this, the Germans had conducted their withdrawal from Northern Finland without incident.

 

hows your German ?

14.– 15.9.1944
Ostsee

Dt. Landungsoperation »Tanne Ost« gegen die finn. Insel Suursaari durch Einheiten der 3. und 25. Minensuch- Flottille, 13., 21. und 24. L-Flottille, 7. Artillerieträger-, 1. R- und 5. S-Boot-Flottille. Für die 5. S-Flottille ergibt sich die Aufgabe, den Stützpunkt Kotka der finnischen 1. S-Flottille durch Minen zu sperren. Am 14.1. werfen S 116, S 85, S 110, S 120 die Minensperre «Schnellschuss», die aber den deutschen Vorstoß nicht zu decken vermag. Starker finn. Widerstand, Angriffe sowj. Flugzeuge und finn. Schnellboote zwingen zum Rückzug der Landungsflotte. Das Unternehmen auf Hogland (= Suursaari) scheitert, die gelandeten Truppen müssen sich am 15.9. ergeben (1231 Gefangene, darunter 175 Verwundete). —Am 15.9. wird vor Suursaari das dt. Räumboot R 29 von dem finn. Schnellboot Taisto 5 torpediert und versenkt. R 76 wird nach Treffern durch finn. Geschütze aufgesetzt, aber später geborgen. Außerdem gehen die MFP F 173, F 175 und F 177 verloren.

from Jürgen R.'s extensive Chronology of the War at Sea

from the 5th S-Flottille besides their mining ops to keep then Soviets and Finns at bay they were also used in rescuing of any German military personell. This really was the start of the long German retreat out of the northern sphere of Finnland and neighboring isles some of the bloodiest fighting on the Ost Front happened in the area all through the fall of 44

 

nicht sehr gut, und du? thanks for the xtra info and pics

 

Tali no problem, the main point of the Soviet air attack and the Finnish torpedo Boots was to smash through and eliminate the German landing barges that were trying to rescue the German military. this was also the case of the other Finnish Isles going on through October/November the Soviets were quite apt to targeting these slow moving obstacles. Had a friend that was part of a Kriegsmarine Flak unit stationed and was hastily removed and saved to get back to Prussia for defense of this part of the Reich. As I have always had a keen interest in the Km Schnellboots did some research a number of years ago on the 5th S-flottille and operations in this area of conflict and while mining in the sometimes narrow channels would go on the prowl for Soviet MTBs and Soviet subs. this small unit is someway played a major role in the retreat of the German military during the Kurland battles.

it is rather obvious in your initial posting that the Germans were not entirely aware or did not think through their intel that the Finns would be so strong in their reaction to the retreat of German forces, another German blunder that cost many lives

 

Yeah, what a waste of precious resources for the Wehrmacht. I guess the operation might have been necessary, if they wanted to contain the Soviet Baltic fleet. They should have used a larger force once they realised the Finns wouldn't give them the island. The whole undertaking of the operation seemed haphazard.

 

ah but Tali it is what happens afterward as I said earlier that really gets the Baltic region aflame. Bridgehead Kurland by Franz Kurowski is an interesting read from the German point of view.

by the way my friend served as Kanonier of a 8.8cm Flak while in Marine-Flak Abteilung 239. His background of which he had a good 1-2 years was in the development of Kriegsmarine radar..........thanks for the salute too.

 

I found this really cool website on this battle and others of the Lapland war.

Finnish navy in Continuation War, year 1944