Xa Effects of the Second World War on Finland before the Winter War
After German attack on Poland and subsequent declarations of war by Britain and France it was decided in a Finnish Cabinet meeting to implement the various measures wargamed in 1938 to merchant traffic. First measure was the effective nationalization of Finnish Merchant Marine by subordinating the private firms to KAMERTO (Kauppamerenkulun toimikunta, Committee on Maritime traffic, OTL measure of 1944) directly under Cabinet control. Code books and the associated equipment to effect traffic control had been distributed for all major Finnish merchant ships during previous spring.
In expectation of a situation similar to what was expected in the First World War the merchant traffic in Finnish hulls towards southern Baltic was halted on 1 September 1939 to escape any dubious privateering efforts by German Navy, which were experienced in the North Sea. Instead, the liner ships (mainly SEAL and SPAL liners together with some of the old Hog Islanders) in the Baltic were escorted out of the Baltic in a convoy protected by 2. Destroyer Squadron. One SPAL cargo liner was deliberately left to the Baltic partially due to it's effective electric cranes.
Due to shortage of artillery pieces in the Finnish Army the armament purchased and scheduled to be installed into Finnish merchants was not installed but instead utilized on land, the exception being AA-machineguns which were installed on the liner remaining in the Baltic. Although the 105/50 DP guns were not in many ways ideal ground weapons this measure put a total of 54 105mm field guns into Finnish Army service with improvised carriage by Christmas 1939.
The remaining six guns reserved for merchant were put onboard a rather curious vessel intended to exploit possible limits on merchant traffic. M/S Finnmerchant - a SPAL liner fitted with extra accomodation for service for merchant marine cadets - was requisitioned as armed merchant cruiser equipped with 6x 105/50 DP guns and eight anti-aircraft machineguns. This measure was taken in preparation for organizing neutral convoys and to carry sensitive cargoes if need to be. In practice the ship was defenceless against submarines and capable of only symbolic resistance against surface raiders. The ship was named "Susi" (Wolf), a name chosen mainly to have the least problems with radio transmissions. In addition, the most powerful icebreaker "Sisu" could not enter the Baltic due to the war and by November 1939 was in Narvik being equipped with it's wartime armament.
The Finnish trade in the Baltic was to be carried out by older tramp ships and liner ships normally serving solely Finnish-British traffic which were deemed as expendable. Initially a few ships were sent with export cargoes towards Great Britain but as they were captured by German U-boats this traffic was altogether cancelled.
The two new, fast tankers M/T Kiisla and Tiira constructed instead of SKIL liners proved to be invaluable as they could be used prop up meagre Finnish POL supplies with domestic hulls. In order to ensure speedy delivery M/T Kiisla was used against the accepted policy of keeping the best hulls outside the Baltic delivering her large cargo directly to Helsinki in October 1939. She escaped in a nick of time outside the Baltic just before German minelaying on Falsterbo Riff cut off the Baltic from the World Ocean in November 1939. Afterwards the emergency construction of oil tanks and rail tankcars provided enough capability that Finnish supply could be fulfilled through Norwegian route.
Thus the pattern which was to last for the first period of the Second World War was formed for Finnish foreign trade: The Baltic served as a route for exports and imports to Germany and Denmark and the transit of supplies arriving through Norwegian harbors. The most important Finnish exports to Germany were the various metal supplies, such as copper, chromium, chromium alloys, molybdeum etc, while most important Finnish imports from German sphere in the initial period of the war was coal to ensure production of Finnish metal industries and energy supply. The most important exports to Denmark were forestry products while the most important imports were food products.
The Norwegian ports, particularly Narvik, served as outlets of Finnish trade to the world ocean. In order to increase port capacity KAMERTO sent heavy lift ship M/S Ukko to increase crane capacity until the port facilities could be improved. The other heavy lift ship M/S Pekka was sent to Luleå, terminus of Narvik-Luleå railroad in order to rapidly improve crane capacity. By end of November M/S Ukko was sent to Lyngefjord in order to begin operation of an emergency port there. The plan was to operate a shuttle truck service to Kaulinranta, the northern terminus of Finnish rail network, some 400km's away in order to facilitate larger volume of imports and exports. Petsamo was deemed to be too close to Soviet Union for this kind of operation. By beginning of the Winter War the necessary equipment had been prepared to be sent to Lyngefjord but the distruption due to war put the plans largely on hold.
The good sent for export through Norwegian ports comprised mainly of paper, cellulose and plywood, comparatively high value goods for which the demand and thus price in Western countries was rising. The increase in price somewhat but not fully compensated the lack of export volume available through emergency measures. A decision was made to mostly export these goods to United States in order to obtain maximum number of US dollars for Finland. Very important in sense of barter trade was the export of services - merchant marine transportation, to be exact, by KAMERTO. Finland, Great Britain and France entered negotiations on the issue of Finnish merchant marine in September 1939. KAMERTO approved the utilization of highly sought cargo liner capacity on time charter basis, as there was more volume available than needed for purely Finnish use. This brought a steady trickle of British pounds for Finland which could be used for purchases within the Pound Zone.
Altogether, Finnish economy would be on life support but not doomed because of the war, the Finnish politicians thought by October 1939 when Moscow called Finland for negotiations on security issues.
Xb - Material purchases made before the Winter War
While Finnish Defence Forces were, in large, better equipped and most importantly better trained than forces of most of the other European democracies the scale of equipment was not satisfactory for a large scale combat in a World War. First step for large scale increase in armaments was taken in 1938 as the Basic Procurement Law (Perushankintalaki) was approved in the Finnish Parliament. However, due to lack of urgency, and the difficulties of purchasing arms and machinery tools in 1938-1939 the program had already been delayed significantly by September 1939.
There had been an option of a large loan raised from the US market which would have been extremely useful in emergency purchases of military supplies but due to lack of urgency the matter was allowed to lapse and Finnish purchasing personnel operating in the US had to resort on clearing trade. (First two paragraphs as in OTL)
Only the coming of the Second World War put true urgency on Finnish weapon purchases. Germany was allied with Soviet Union and waging a war against two major powers which made scope of purchases very limited. German political leadership was also expecting Finland to join Soviet sphere which made any long-term trading agreements impractical. However, with barter deliveries of chromium alloy steel from Tornio deliveries of coal was quaranteed to Finland as well as 134 20mm FlaK 38 AA-guns. The delivery of these AA-guns was, however, delayed and only 30 were delivered before beginning of the war and 20 in the first days of war for total number of 50. For the Navy 14 towed passive arrays were delivered as promised. The negotiations on Polish war booty were stalled by Germans. The most important deliveries were those not as visible. German machinery tools (which largely utilized specialized alloys) were delivered to Finland in schedule through Sweden and would greatly boost Finnish military production during the war.
Purchases from Great Britain were stalled by coming of the Second World War and delivery of the goods cancelled. However, as negotiations for utilization of Finnish Merchant Marine proceeded the deliveries were continued and before start of the Winter War the remaining Vickers 6 ton tanks were already in Finland, bringing the grand total to Finnish armored might to 36 tanks without armament or radios.
While the purchase of purely military equipment from the United States was delayed the Finnish Embassy used the dollar funds coming from continuing paper exports for good by purchasing a number of dual-use articles. Among the most significant was the purchase of 10 000 trucks. An innovative delivery arrangement had to be quickly devised during the Winter War for these trucks to be delivered in time to have an effect in the conflict.
Other important supplies were arriving by the Mediterranean route as well. The deal KAMERTO had made with French and the British made it possible to employ the Mediterranean route for purchases made from Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy and Spain instead of lengthy and risky rail transport through warring, Soviet-allied Germany. Among the purchases were 60 000 7.62x53R rifles from Yugoslavia, 36 40mm Bofors AA-guns from Hungary and 7 12" coastal artillery guns from Tunisia (to be used in rather special way)
The Fascist Italy was willing to provide military supplies. Most important pre-war purchase was procurement of 25 Fiat G.50 fighters. Due to Nazi-Communist alliance and the chaos in German rail communications it was decided that instead of transshipment of planes via rail through Germany a cargo liner was dispatched both to deliver the barter goods and the planes in time. The 25 planes purchased were delivered by old Hog Islander "Finntrader" to Göteborg for assembly by SAAB just one day before the Winter War began and would be in service before end of the year. The negotiations for further purchases were well underway, to be paid in barter trade.
(in OTL many of the purchases were delayed by transportation difficulties due to reliance upon land transport as well as French halting some of the transports. ITTL stronger negotiation position acquired by Finns will make weapon transportation faster and simpler.The purchases listed here are OTL purchases whose transportation is accelerated due to faster transportation...)
SS Margareta of Rederiet Nordström sinking after a torpedo hit in 1939. The ship was typical of Finnish tramps which suffered heavily already during the first phase of the war.
After German attack on Poland and subsequent declarations of war by Britain and France it was decided in a Finnish Cabinet meeting to implement the various measures wargamed in 1938 to merchant traffic. First measure was the effective nationalization of Finnish Merchant Marine by subordinating the private firms to KAMERTO (Kauppamerenkulun toimikunta, Committee on Maritime traffic, OTL measure of 1944) directly under Cabinet control. Code books and the associated equipment to effect traffic control had been distributed for all major Finnish merchant ships during previous spring.
In expectation of a situation similar to what was expected in the First World War the merchant traffic in Finnish hulls towards southern Baltic was halted on 1 September 1939 to escape any dubious privateering efforts by German Navy, which were experienced in the North Sea. Instead, the liner ships (mainly SEAL and SPAL liners together with some of the old Hog Islanders) in the Baltic were escorted out of the Baltic in a convoy protected by 2. Destroyer Squadron. One SPAL cargo liner was deliberately left to the Baltic partially due to it's effective electric cranes.
Due to shortage of artillery pieces in the Finnish Army the armament purchased and scheduled to be installed into Finnish merchants was not installed but instead utilized on land, the exception being AA-machineguns which were installed on the liner remaining in the Baltic. Although the 105/50 DP guns were not in many ways ideal ground weapons this measure put a total of 54 105mm field guns into Finnish Army service with improvised carriage by Christmas 1939.
The remaining six guns reserved for merchant were put onboard a rather curious vessel intended to exploit possible limits on merchant traffic. M/S Finnmerchant - a SPAL liner fitted with extra accomodation for service for merchant marine cadets - was requisitioned as armed merchant cruiser equipped with 6x 105/50 DP guns and eight anti-aircraft machineguns. This measure was taken in preparation for organizing neutral convoys and to carry sensitive cargoes if need to be. In practice the ship was defenceless against submarines and capable of only symbolic resistance against surface raiders. The ship was named "Susi" (Wolf), a name chosen mainly to have the least problems with radio transmissions. In addition, the most powerful icebreaker "Sisu" could not enter the Baltic due to the war and by November 1939 was in Narvik being equipped with it's wartime armament.
The Finnish trade in the Baltic was to be carried out by older tramp ships and liner ships normally serving solely Finnish-British traffic which were deemed as expendable. Initially a few ships were sent with export cargoes towards Great Britain but as they were captured by German U-boats this traffic was altogether cancelled.
The two new, fast tankers M/T Kiisla and Tiira constructed instead of SKIL liners proved to be invaluable as they could be used prop up meagre Finnish POL supplies with domestic hulls. In order to ensure speedy delivery M/T Kiisla was used against the accepted policy of keeping the best hulls outside the Baltic delivering her large cargo directly to Helsinki in October 1939. She escaped in a nick of time outside the Baltic just before German minelaying on Falsterbo Riff cut off the Baltic from the World Ocean in November 1939. Afterwards the emergency construction of oil tanks and rail tankcars provided enough capability that Finnish supply could be fulfilled through Norwegian route.
Thus the pattern which was to last for the first period of the Second World War was formed for Finnish foreign trade: The Baltic served as a route for exports and imports to Germany and Denmark and the transit of supplies arriving through Norwegian harbors. The most important Finnish exports to Germany were the various metal supplies, such as copper, chromium, chromium alloys, molybdeum etc, while most important Finnish imports from German sphere in the initial period of the war was coal to ensure production of Finnish metal industries and energy supply. The most important exports to Denmark were forestry products while the most important imports were food products.
The Norwegian ports, particularly Narvik, served as outlets of Finnish trade to the world ocean. In order to increase port capacity KAMERTO sent heavy lift ship M/S Ukko to increase crane capacity until the port facilities could be improved. The other heavy lift ship M/S Pekka was sent to Luleå, terminus of Narvik-Luleå railroad in order to rapidly improve crane capacity. By end of November M/S Ukko was sent to Lyngefjord in order to begin operation of an emergency port there. The plan was to operate a shuttle truck service to Kaulinranta, the northern terminus of Finnish rail network, some 400km's away in order to facilitate larger volume of imports and exports. Petsamo was deemed to be too close to Soviet Union for this kind of operation. By beginning of the Winter War the necessary equipment had been prepared to be sent to Lyngefjord but the distruption due to war put the plans largely on hold.
The good sent for export through Norwegian ports comprised mainly of paper, cellulose and plywood, comparatively high value goods for which the demand and thus price in Western countries was rising. The increase in price somewhat but not fully compensated the lack of export volume available through emergency measures. A decision was made to mostly export these goods to United States in order to obtain maximum number of US dollars for Finland. Very important in sense of barter trade was the export of services - merchant marine transportation, to be exact, by KAMERTO. Finland, Great Britain and France entered negotiations on the issue of Finnish merchant marine in September 1939. KAMERTO approved the utilization of highly sought cargo liner capacity on time charter basis, as there was more volume available than needed for purely Finnish use. This brought a steady trickle of British pounds for Finland which could be used for purchases within the Pound Zone.
Altogether, Finnish economy would be on life support but not doomed because of the war, the Finnish politicians thought by October 1939 when Moscow called Finland for negotiations on security issues.
Xb - Material purchases made before the Winter War
While Finnish Defence Forces were, in large, better equipped and most importantly better trained than forces of most of the other European democracies the scale of equipment was not satisfactory for a large scale combat in a World War. First step for large scale increase in armaments was taken in 1938 as the Basic Procurement Law (Perushankintalaki) was approved in the Finnish Parliament. However, due to lack of urgency, and the difficulties of purchasing arms and machinery tools in 1938-1939 the program had already been delayed significantly by September 1939.
There had been an option of a large loan raised from the US market which would have been extremely useful in emergency purchases of military supplies but due to lack of urgency the matter was allowed to lapse and Finnish purchasing personnel operating in the US had to resort on clearing trade. (First two paragraphs as in OTL)
Only the coming of the Second World War put true urgency on Finnish weapon purchases. Germany was allied with Soviet Union and waging a war against two major powers which made scope of purchases very limited. German political leadership was also expecting Finland to join Soviet sphere which made any long-term trading agreements impractical. However, with barter deliveries of chromium alloy steel from Tornio deliveries of coal was quaranteed to Finland as well as 134 20mm FlaK 38 AA-guns. The delivery of these AA-guns was, however, delayed and only 30 were delivered before beginning of the war and 20 in the first days of war for total number of 50. For the Navy 14 towed passive arrays were delivered as promised. The negotiations on Polish war booty were stalled by Germans. The most important deliveries were those not as visible. German machinery tools (which largely utilized specialized alloys) were delivered to Finland in schedule through Sweden and would greatly boost Finnish military production during the war.
Purchases from Great Britain were stalled by coming of the Second World War and delivery of the goods cancelled. However, as negotiations for utilization of Finnish Merchant Marine proceeded the deliveries were continued and before start of the Winter War the remaining Vickers 6 ton tanks were already in Finland, bringing the grand total to Finnish armored might to 36 tanks without armament or radios.
While the purchase of purely military equipment from the United States was delayed the Finnish Embassy used the dollar funds coming from continuing paper exports for good by purchasing a number of dual-use articles. Among the most significant was the purchase of 10 000 trucks. An innovative delivery arrangement had to be quickly devised during the Winter War for these trucks to be delivered in time to have an effect in the conflict.
Other important supplies were arriving by the Mediterranean route as well. The deal KAMERTO had made with French and the British made it possible to employ the Mediterranean route for purchases made from Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy and Spain instead of lengthy and risky rail transport through warring, Soviet-allied Germany. Among the purchases were 60 000 7.62x53R rifles from Yugoslavia, 36 40mm Bofors AA-guns from Hungary and 7 12" coastal artillery guns from Tunisia (to be used in rather special way)
The Fascist Italy was willing to provide military supplies. Most important pre-war purchase was procurement of 25 Fiat G.50 fighters. Due to Nazi-Communist alliance and the chaos in German rail communications it was decided that instead of transshipment of planes via rail through Germany a cargo liner was dispatched both to deliver the barter goods and the planes in time. The 25 planes purchased were delivered by old Hog Islander "Finntrader" to Göteborg for assembly by SAAB just one day before the Winter War began and would be in service before end of the year. The negotiations for further purchases were well underway, to be paid in barter trade.
(in OTL many of the purchases were delayed by transportation difficulties due to reliance upon land transport as well as French halting some of the transports. ITTL stronger negotiation position acquired by Finns will make weapon transportation faster and simpler.The purchases listed here are OTL purchases whose transportation is accelerated due to faster transportation...)
SS Margareta of Rederiet Nordström sinking after a torpedo hit in 1939. The ship was typical of Finnish tramps which suffered heavily already during the first phase of the war.
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