Silberfuchs company
Occupation of Petsamos and attempted occupation of Murmansk
| date | June 1941 to November 1941 |
|---|---|
| place | Norway , Finland , Soviet Union |
| output | Occupation of Petsamos and Sallas, failure of another operation |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
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| Troop strength | |
| approx. 68,000 | unknown |
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Company Silberfuchs was an operation of the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War on the Eastern Front in northern Scandinavia . The primary objective was the capture of the Soviet port city of Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula by attacks from Finnish and Norwegian territory . The successful defense against the attack enabled the Soviet Union to land urgently needed war material from the USA and Great Britain in the port of Murmansk for the rest of the war .
Planning and preparation
In January 1941, the German officer Erich Buschenhagen was sent to Finland to investigate the possibility of Finnish-German cooperation against the Soviet Union. Since July 1940, Germany plans had emerged to the nickel mines of Petsamo as the only relevant source of Germany for this war-important commodity in case of another armed conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union to occupy ( company reindeer ). In February 1941, an agreement was reached regarding the plans for the Silberfuchs company and German soldiers were relocated to northern Finland by the Norwegian Army Command. The troop transfers were planned under the code names Blaufuchs I and Blaufuchs II and took place in June 1941. The German army group consisted of four divisions : the 169th Infantry Division , the 6th SS Mountain Division "North" , and the 2nd and 3rd Mountain Infantry Division. In addition, two tank departments ( Panzerabteilung 40 and 211 ) were assigned to the operation. In total, the number of attackers was 68,000 German soldiers and 190 aircraft. In addition to the German troops, the Finnish 3rd and 6th Divisions, as well as some other independent Finnish border units, were to take part.
After securing Petsamos phase should be initiated two and three: Company Platinum Fox and company arctic fox . Within the company Platinfuchs it was planned that the 2nd and 3rd Mountain Infantry Division under Eduard Dietl, together with some Finnish border units, would advance directly to Murmansk and take the city. Similarly, the Arctic Fox company should begin further south . Here the XXXVI. Mountain Corps (consisting of the remaining German and the Finnish 6th Division) under General Hans Feige together with the Finnish III. Corps (consisting of Finnish border units and the Finnish 3rd Division) under General Hjalmar Siilasvuo to retake the city of Salla and then advance towards Kandalaksha , in order to block the way to Murmansk.
The operation was planned as a blitzkrieg , Dietl predicted: "We will be in Murmansk in three days."
execution
Company reindeer
Operation Rentier began on the same day as the Barbarossa case (attack on the Soviet Union), June 22, 1941. Two divisions of the Norway Mountain Corps moved into Petsamo and the commander, Mountain Troop General Eduard Dietl, began reorganizing the units for the next phase. At the same time the XXXVI. Army Corps under General of the Infantry Hans Feige on the Arctic Fox company.
Platinfuchs company
Operation Platinum Fox began on June 29, 1941. The 2nd and 3rd Gebirgsjäger Divisions under Dietl crossed the border together with some Finnish border units. Opposite them were the Soviet 14th and 52nd Divisions and a number of ad hoc units that were formed from marines from the Soviet Northern Fleet in the course of the operation . The operation had to contend with great difficulties from the beginning: The arctic terrain was very difficult for ground troops and slowed the advance immensely. Furthermore, the Germans did not have accurate maps and so had to advance mostly through unknown terrain over open fields. Nevertheless, the advance was initially successful. The Germans were able to push back the Soviet units at the Titowka River and at the neck of the fishing peninsula . After that, the German troops advanced to the Liza River against fierce Soviet resistance . At the beginning of July, however, the advance had to be stopped due to supply problems. The Germans now had to hold a 57 km long front line through difficult terrain. All further attack attempts in July failed. Dietl therefore demanded further reinforcements. These were granted to him by transferring the 6th Mountain Division . He was also assigned the 388 Infantry Regiment and the 9 SS Regiment from Norway.
Constant attacks by Soviet and British ships on German transport and supply ships prevented the 6th Mountain Division from arriving before October. Nevertheless, Dietl started a new offensive on September 8th. This ended in a disaster: the two SS regiments, which had not been trained for arctic warfare, suffered heavy losses without any gain in land. While the supply situation for the German attackers continued to deteriorate, the Red Army received increasing supplies of troops and material. On September 22, 1941, after several unsuccessful attempts to cross the river Liza or to widen the bridgehead over the river, Dietl saw that the platinum fox company had failed; Murmansk remained in Soviet hands. The front line largely froze for around two years, until the German divisions, as part of the Nordlicht company, withdrew to Norway at the end of 1944. The total German losses during Operation Platinfuchs were 10,300 men (dead, wounded and missing).
Arctic Fox Company
The platinum fox and arctic fox companies started on the same day. For the latter, the XXXVI. Attack Army Corps under General Hans Feige Kandalaksha from Salla , and then advance further from the south on Murmansk. The Finnish III. Corps, consisting mainly of the Finnish 3rd Division, take the cities of Kiestinki and Uchta in two groups , then advance on Kem and Loukhi and interrupt the railway line to Murmansk there . The Finnish troops were therefore under German command. Here, too, the German troops had problems with the difficult terrain from the start. In addition, the SS division "North" turned out to be very unsuitable for arctic warfare. Opposite the Germans were three Soviet divisions (the 122nd Rifle Division, the 104th Rifle Division and the 1st Panzer Division).
The German advance began slowly, against heavy resistance Salla was taken on July 8th. The Germans were then stopped at the cities of Alakurtti and Kayrala, and further attacks in July failed. The Finnish troops in the south coped much better with the terrain and advanced quickly. Opposite them stood the Soviet 54th Rifle Division. The Finns surrounded several Soviet units and inflicted great losses on them. On August 7th, Kestenga was captured and the advance further east continued. The attack on Ukhta, however, was repulsed and the Soviets moved several units (including the 88th Rifle Division) into the area. Due to the good progress made by Finland, the SS division "North" was moved south to support the Finns. On October 30, a new offensive began east of Kestenga, in which a Soviet regiment was surrounded. The fighting lasted until November 13th. Due to diplomatic pressure from the USA , Finland stopped its attack on November 17th.
During the Finnish advance, the Germans began a new offensive in the north in early August, which the Soviets threw back to their old border fortifications from 1939 on the River Voyta by September. After several frontal attacks against the heavily fortified Soviet positions had brought only minor gains in terrain, this offensive was also discontinued at the end of September. Operation Arctic Fox ended.
consequences
The failure of the Silberfuchs company influenced the progress of the war. While all other Soviet lines of battle had collapsed, the Red Army was able to hold the northern front. The final German defeat in Finland was triggered by various factors, mainly because the terrain prevented the rapid advance. One of the main means of the Blitzkrieg tactic of breaking through enemy lines was thus inapplicable. Another problem was that the northern theater of war was not managed by the Army High Command, as was the case with Operation Barbarossa , but directly by the Wehrmacht High Command . Reinforcements were not planned here and an effective coordination of the action with that of the Finnish allies did not take place. Especially the SS units from Norway, which were designed more as police units, did very badly. Ultimately, the German leadership viewed the northern front as a secondary theater of war from the start. The few reinforcements and the poor supply were also reasons why the operation failed.
The port of Murmansk could not be captured, so that war material from the USA and Great Britain could continue to be landed there. How important this material was for the warfare of the Soviet Union can be seen from the fact that the temporary interruption of the Northern Sea route after the sinking of many ships of the Northern Sea Convoy PQ 17 set the Soviet attack planning in the north back by almost two years.
See also
literature
- Mann, Chris M. & Jörgensen, Christer (2002), Hitler's Arctic War . Hersham, UK: Ian Allan Publishing Ltd, ISBN 0-7110-2899-0 .
- Ueberschär, Gerd R. (1983): Warfare and Politics in Northern Europe . In Boog, Horst; Forster, Jürgen; Hoffmann, Joachim; Klink, Ernst; Müller, Rolf-Dieter; Ueberschär, Gerd R. The attack on the Soviet Union . Volume IV. Military History Research Office. German publishing company. Page 810–882. ISBN 3-421-06098-3 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ ff Hitler ödesdigra krig i Norge, p 85 Stockholm 2008. - Northern fronts: Asbjørn Jaklin. ISBN 978-91-37-13113-9
- ↑ Jaklin, Nordfronten, p. 81
- ↑ Jaklin: Nordfronten, p. 80 f.
- ↑ Mann & Jörgensen (2002), pp. 82–87.
- ↑ a b Mann & Jörgensen (2002), p. 87.
- ↑ Ueberschär et al. (1983), pp. 814-821
- ↑ Mann & Jörgensen (2002), pp. 88–94.