June 20, 1944 – World War II: The Soviet Union demands unconditional surrender from Finland
On June 10, 1944, the Soviet Union launched theVyborg-Petrozavodsk Offensive against Finland. At the height of theSoviet offensive, the Finnish government asked for negotiations. On June 20,the Soviets called for surrender, which Finland deemed as an unconditionalsurrender, which it then rejected.
(Taken from Soviet Counter-attack and Defeat of Germany – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Europe – Vol. 6)
Finland and Germany InJune 1941, Finland had joined Germany in attacking the Soviet Union (albeit notas a member of the Axis) with the aim of regaining lost territory in the WinterWar (separate article), and perhaps asecondary motive to gain a little more territory in support of “Greater Finland”. With these objectives, the Finnish Army madeno attempt to attack Leningradfrom the north, and rejected the urging by the Germans who were positioned westand south of the city.
For Stalin, however, Finland was a German ally, and shared Hitler’splan to destroy the Soviet Union. By spring 1944, the Finnish Army at Kareliawas isolated and in a precarious situation after the Red Army drove back theGermans from Leningradinto the Estonian border. The Soviet HighCommand then made preparations to knock Finland out of the war, which wouldalso improve the strategic position of the Red Army as it continued its driveto the west.
In June 1944, the SovietLeningrad and Karelian Fronts, with a combined 550,000 troops, 10,500 artillerypieces, 800 tanks, and 1,600 planes, attacked the Finnish Army (which wasoutnumbered 2:1 in personnel, 5:1 in artillery, 8:1 in tanks, and 6:1 inplanes) in the Karelian Isthmus and eastern Karelia. The Soviets broke through the Finns’ firsttwo defense lines, taking eastern Karelia and Viipuri (Vyborg), and by July 1944, had pushed backthe Finns 60 miles (100 km) to the third line (VKT Line). There, the Red Army advance was stopped, withthe Finns greatly benefiting from the recently delivered German anti-tank weaponsthat halted the Soviet armored spearheads.
In late August 1944, Finlandfeared that its forces could not withstand another major Soviet offensive, andsued for peace. The Soviets accepted,and on September 4, a ceasefire came into effect. Two weeks later, an armistice was signed,where the Soviets imposed harsh conditions which the Finnish governmentreluctantly accepted, including that Finland pay war reparation, cedeterritory, lease territory for a Soviet naval base, and force the Germans fromFinnish territory. Regarding the laststipulation, the Finns did turn against the Germans, who were still occupyingnorthern Finland.
Belorussia[1] During the Soviet counteroffensives of 1943, German Army Group Centerhad generally denied the Red Army any significant breakthroughs, although theSoviets did recapture Bryansk in August 1943 andSmolensk thenext month. For Stalin, Smolenskwas crucial, as it commanded the main road to Moscow, which the Germans could again use toattack the Soviet capital (but which by now was unlikely). The Red Army used two Fronts comprising 1.2million troops, 20,600 artillery pieces, 1,400 tanks, and 1,100 planes to expelGerman Army Group Center (with 850,000 troops, 9,000 artillery pieces, 500tanks, and 700 planes) from Smolensk and surrounding territory, advancing up to160 miles (260 km) to the west. Even so,the Soviets failed to break through German lines east of the upper Dnieper River.
However, by summer 1944, German Army Group Center’ssituation was precarious and its flanks vulnerable, especially in the southbecause of the Red Army’s rapid recapture of most of Ukraine. By then, German Army Group South held only asmall section in northwest Ukraine.
Hitler surmised that the nextmajor Soviet offensive would be made through northwest Ukraine, as this gave the Soviets the shortestroute to Berlin. But unbeknown to Hitler, Stalin and theSoviet High Command had focused their 1944 summer offensive mainly atrecapturing Belarus. Here, the Soviets utilized “maskirovka” (militarydeception) to a very high degree, including deploying large formations in thesouth while simultaneously building up forces in the central sector. These deceptions were highly successful, asHitler became so convinced that the main Soviet attack would be in Ukraine that he stripped German Army Group Centerof weapons in favor of German Army Group South – some 30% of the artillerypieces, 50% of tank destroyers, and nearly 90% of tanks were moved. By the time of the Soviet attack, German Army Group Centerarmor would be outnumbered by a 12: 1 ratio.
By June 1944, the Red Armyhad massed four Army Groups (1st, 2nd, and 4th,Belorussian Fronts, and 1st Baltic Front) for the recapture of Belorussia. The offensive was codenamed OperationBagration[2]and had a combined force of 2 million troops, 5,800 tanks, 33,000 artillerypieces, and 7,800 planes. Opposing thisforce was German Army Group Center, with 600,000 troops, 500 tanks, 2,600artillery pieces, and 600 planes – with reinforcements later arriving, thesenumbers would rise to 1 million troops, 1,300 tanks, 10,000 artillery pieces,and 1,200 planes.
On June 22, 1944, Soviet forcesattacked, and broke through the German lines all across the front, encirclingGerman units in several areas, including Minsk,the Belorussian capital, where 100,000 German troops were trapped, of which60,000 were captured and 40,000 killed. The German difficulties were further compounded because Hitler forbadeany retreat, and ordered that all positions be held at all costs, and turnedinto “fortresses” even if they fell behind enemy lines. By mid-July 1944, the Red Army had seized allof Belarus,pushing back the Germans 450 miles to the 1941 border. More critically, the Soviets established bridgeheadsacross the Vistula River leading to the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland’scapital. This Soviet victory was emphatic, thorough, and complete, and itsstrategic implications were wide-ranging: the German frontlines in the EasternFront from north to south were broken permanently; the German Army Groups lostphysical connections with each other; German Army Group North faced the dangerof being cut off in the Baltic region; and the regions comprisingGerman-controlled Poland, East Prussia, and even Germany itself, were nowthreatened. The Red Army suffered heavylosses: 770,000 troops (180,000 killed or missing, 340,000-590,000 wounded andsick), 2,900 tanks, 2,500 artillery pieces, and 800 planes. German manpower losses totaled 400,000 troops(26,000 killed, 110,000 wounded, and 264,000 missing and captured). However, Red Army formations could easily berestored to full strength, because of the Soviet Union’snumerical superiority and industrial capacity, while German material losseswere becoming difficult to replace because of increasing difficulty inprocuring raw materials.
In support of OperationBagration, in mid-July 1944, Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front launched theLvov-Sandomierz Offensive in the south, whichcaptured Lvov and the whole northwest Ukraine, and thrust to the VistulaRiver at Sandomierz, establishing abridgehead and threatening to advance to Warsawfrom the southeast. The Wehrmacht thuslost all its territories in the Ukraine.
Baltic StatesWith its capture of Belarus,the Red Army was poised to recapture the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia,and Lithuania. The Soviet position in the Baltic region wasgreatly enhanced during the course of Operation Bagration, when in July 1944,the 1st Baltic Front, holding the northern flank, recaptured much ofLithuania and then reached the Gulf of Riga on the Baltic Coast. This feat effectively cut off German ArmyGroup North in Estonia and Latvia.
In September 1944, threeSoviet Army Groups (1st, 2nd, and 3rd BalticFronts) opened the Baltic Offensive: Tartu and southeast Estonia were retaken, and another Soviet advancereached Riga, Latvia’s capital. German forces,which still held much of Latviaand Estonia,including the region west of Narva, faced the danger of being outflanked andcut off. In September 1944, in OperationAster carried out by the German Navy, German Army Group North was evacuatedfrom Estonia and Latvia, and landed in the CourlandPeninsula south of Riga. Here, the German force, which Hitler soon renamed Army Group Courland,resisted successive Red Army offensives until the end of World War II in Europe. It wouldonly be on May 9, 1945, one day after Germany’s unconditional surrenderto the Allies, that the 200,000 German troops in the “Courland Pocket” surrendered to the Red Army.
[1] Modern-day Belarus.
[2] Named after Russian General Pyotr Bagration, who fought againstNapoleon’s invasion of Russiain 1812. The operation on Belaruswas conceived during Allied talks in the Teheran Conference (November-December1943), by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister WinstonChurchill, and Stalin. The “Big Three”Allied Powers agreed to launch a coordinated simultaneous attack from west andeast of Germany, which wasrealized with Operation Overlord, the Anglo-American amphibious landings in Normandy, Franceon June 6, 1944, and Operation Bagration two weeks later.
