Strange ...... Finland never signed the Tripartite Pact! One of the reasons the battle of Norway started was to push through to northern Finland to help you defend your country ...... in reality Germany and the Soviet Union had planned to split Finland in two - but once operation Barbarossa started a pact with Germany was really just a flag of convenance to help fend of the Russians, so much so that Risto Ryti resigned rather than honor the agreement with Germany.
Once a peace of sorts was agreed with the Soviets, didn't Finnish troops then turn on the German troops in Lapland and defeat them by mid 1945?
Apart from joining Germany against Russia Finland does not appear to be remotely an Axis power infact far from it - Finland was in a no win position and did well to retain it's democracy after the war.
Perhaps there was no formal agreement paper, but German, Finland, Italy, Japan etc. were brothers in arm.
Someone might say that it is not honorable to be Nazi-German ally, but small nations like Finland will have to make things like that in order to survive.
The Germans went away from Lapland and during that time some classes between the Finns and the Germans took place.
Yes, Finland's independence remained and it is a miracle when the neighboring country was not so peace willing Soviet Union.
These numbers aren't even close if you are framing them over the course of the entire war. The Royal Navy alone lost 278 major warships and over 1,000 smaller ones.
This is inaccurate as well. Why would they have sent the BEF in the first place if they were not hoping to fight the war on the continent? No France = no war on the continent. They were chased back to England and France quickly fell as a result of the German blitzkrieg....a style of warfare that had never been seen in all of history, not from a lack of resolve.
Interfered? LOL....bailed them out is a more appropriate description. Mussolini's campaign through Albania in an attempt to conquer Greece in the fall of 1940 was an absolute disaster and Hitler had to send in the Wehrmacht to salvage the situation. This unwelcome diversion set the timetable for Barbarossa back from the original launch date of May 15, 1941 to June 22....5 critical weeks that would likely have enabled the Germans to take Moscow before the onset of the Russian winter in late 1941. Instead, logistical issues coupled with the brutal weather stalled the Nazi advance just a few miles from the Soviet capital and the rest is history.
As Red already so eloquently explained, Finland was never technically a member of the Axis. They did have to pay a price in terms of reparations to the Soviet Union (a sellout to Stalin) and were therefore considered to be co-beligerants in their conflict with the USSR but they were never part of the Axis (although their soldiers were allowed to enlist in the Waffen SS). Finland was a mightily compromised land and was indeed lucky to have survived the war at all as a sovereign nation.
I meant the British and German navy losses that occurder during the battle of Norway in 1940.
British leaders sent their troops to France.
Ordinary English soldier probably thought that why he should sacrifice his life because of France.
True, the Italian army-with a few exceptions- failed completely, but who can blame them.
Mussolini wanted war, Italian people did not.
Finland had some good luck and a lot of will to defend to ourselves.
