Challenge: Finland vs. Japan in WW2

Ekima

Banned
I think finns fighting japanese would be the most awesome WW2 battle ever. But how can we make it happen? Finland and Japan are half the world apart and both Third Reich's allies.

Any ideas?
 
I think finns fighting japanese would be the most awesome WW2 battle ever. But how can we make it happen? Finland and Japan are half the world apart and both Third Reich's allies.

Any ideas?
If the Reds had won in the Finnish Civil War, and Finland became a Soviet Republic, its plausible some Finnish majority military units will end up being formed (by accident if not on purpose). Station them in the Far East (where its cold, but dubious loyalty will not be a problem :p), and they can see action in some of the Soviet-Japanese border clashes.

And there's my answer to your challenge! :)
 
Finland and Japan being on opposite sides in ww2 is not that unlikely, given how friendly Finland was towards the US, Japan's rival. However, this probably wouldn't produce any actual clashes between Finnish and Japanese troops. For that, you need a radically different background to ww2. Perhaps ther russian empire survives the war and the revolution of 1917 almost intact, but Finland still gets a greatly increased authonomy. This way there can be a Finnish army that is not hostile to the Russians. Later, Russia and Japan fight against eachother in a ww2 equivalent conflict, and a Finnish expeditionary corps is shipped to the far east to join in the fighting.
 

Sumeragi

Banned
Well...... Have a lot of POWs being captured in one of the Soviet-Japanese border clashes, then forcing them to fight for the Red Army could work. After all, there are the cases of Koreans being forced to fight in the Kantogun, Red Army, and the German forces, ending up in Normandy of all places.
 
If the Reds had won in the Finnish Civil War, and Finland became a Soviet Republic, its plausible some Finnish majority military units will end up being formed (by accident if not on purpose). Station them in the Far East (where its cold, but dubious loyalty will not be a problem :p), and they can see action in some of the Soviet-Japanese border clashes.

And there's my answer to your challenge! :)

Ninja'd (somewhat):)

I see that you had a similar ideea to mine, but you choose to go with an all red victory. I didn't consider this option because I think a red Finland would be much closer to Russia (to the point of becoming just another SSR), and thus any red finnish troops would be only ethnically finnish, but doctrinally soviet/russian. I think a white victory (in both countries) would have a greater chance of producing a Finnish army like the one in OTL.

Of course, your scenario has a greater chance of producing a world war 2 like in OTL:)
 
If Finland is a member of the Allies, which isn't entirely out of the realm of possibility, I can see a small Finnish expeditionary force involved in the Pacific Theater. Maybe a Finnish brigade serves in India or Burma? (Finns fighting in Manchuria would be even cooler, but I can't see Stalin allowing that.)
 
Ninja'd (somewhat):)

I see that you had a similar ideea to mine, but you choose to go with an all red victory. I didn't consider this option because I think a red Finland would be much closer to Russia (to the point of becoming just another SSR), and thus any red finnish troops would be only ethnically finnish, but doctrinally soviet/russian. I think a white victory (in both countries) would have a greater chance of producing a Finnish army like the one in OTL.

Of course, your scenario has a greater chance of producing a world war 2 like in OTL:)
Heh, as they say, great minds think alike. ^_^

You raise a good point on how an independent/autonomous Finnish army would be more, well Finnish, than my Red Finns. A few things to think about though. First of is that while the Finnish troops will undoubtedly be indoctrinated by the Russians, these Finnish units will have a large amount of Finnish Red Guard veterans, with their experience and training from their civil war, which they will probably put more faith in than Soviet training. Second is that the Finland's army was famous not for strategic level actions, but for small unit level actions. Which is also what the IJA was more well known for (banzai charges, night attacks etc). So while at the divisional and corps level things will be run by the Russians. At the platoon and company level which is a lot harder to micromanage, combat will have a much more Finnish feel to it.

I'll say both our answers work well for fulfilling the challenge though. :)
Well...... Have a lot of POWs being captured in one of the Soviet-Japanese border clashes, then forcing them to fight for the Red Army could work. After all, there are the cases of Koreans being forced to fight in the Kantogun, Red Army, and the German forces, ending up in Normandy of all places.
Poor guys, they probably ended up spending years saving up money to go back to Korea only to return just in time to be drafted in the Korean War. :p
 

Sumeragi

Banned
Poor guys, they probably ended up spending years saving up money to go back to Korea only to return just in time to be drafted in the Korean War. :p
Almost all of them settled in the US, although there is the example of my second cousin/fiancé's grandfather, who was conscripted into the KPA and then switched to fight for the ROKA, after all that mess (never mind his superior at the Kantogun was my own paternal grandfather).
 
Almost all of them settled in the US, although there is the example of my second cousin/fiancé's grandfather, who was conscripted into the KPA and then switched to fight for the ROKA, after all that mess (never mind his superior at the Kantogun was my own paternal grandfather).
Wow, thats really interesting! Hope that story has a happy ending tho.
 
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