Operation Birke (Operation Birch) was a German operation late in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in Finnish Lapland to protect access to nickel.

Background

Finnish attempts to find an acceptable exit from the

Continuation War The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet-Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, as part of World War II.; sv, fortsättningskriget; german: Fortsetzungskrieg. A ...

in spring 1944 alarmed the Germans, who had sizable stores in Northern Finland. In April 1944, the Germans started a feverish effort to recon and construct defensive positions against possible advances from the south.

Plan

The name Birke was assigned for the operation on 9 April 1944. Its primary task was to provide protection to the then vital nickel mining operations at Petsamo (now Pechenga, Russia). Orders for the operation were prepared meticulously in extreme detail. It consisted of several phases, the first of which would be triggered by the code phrase "''Birke anschlagen''" (mark the birch for felling), would consist of evacuation of military stores and preparation for later phases. The second phase, which would be keyed to the code phrase "''Birke fällen''" (fell the birch), would consist of the actual military withdrawal to the first fortified position by using a scorched-earth policy. The final planned phase, keyed to the code phrase "''Birke zerkleinern''" (crush the birch), would send German units towards strong positions around Rovaniemi while a delaying action would be fought. Ahto (1980) p. 38-41

Operation

The first phase of the operation was started on 3 September 1944 after thr Finns had informed the Germans of their intentions. Though the plan had called for two weeks for evacuations before the second phase, the Germans pressed ahead and started the second phase of the operation early on 4 September. 20th Mountain Army managed to evacuate sizeable amount of the war material and get the withdrawal towards Norway well underway under the Operation Birke.

Results

Since the existing German stocks of nickel were deemed sufficient and new deposits had been located in Austria, the importance of holding Petsamo region or Finnish Lapland decreased considerably. At the same time, the logistical and military difficulties of defending Northern Finland were realised. Those factors made it possible for the Germans on 4 October 1944 to gain Hitler's approval for moving from Operation Birke to Operation Nordlicht (Operation Northern Light) and abandon Northern Finland and fortify to

Lyngen Lyngen ( se, Ivggu suohkan; fkv, Yykeän komuuni) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lyngseidet. Other villages include Furuflaten, Lattervika, Nord-Lenang ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. Lunde (2011) p. 342-343

References

Bibliography