The Lords of the North

Be interesting to see how World War II shapes up in this ATL.

Indeed, but first we must see how World War I plays out. All we know for certain is three things: 1. Finland becomes a monarchy. 2. The Soviet Union exists and has the power to drive the Finns into the sea at some point in the future. 3. The Soviets are not so powerful they can dispute Sweden getting the Aalands during Finlands downfall.
 
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Interlude 1 - A Launch


August 27th, 1936.


The August morning was a disappointment to many. A nearly impenetrable fog hung low on the banks of the Aura River in Turku. Looking carefully around, one could see large low buildings and shapes of ships. Powerful industrial cranes and ship masts pierced the fog here and there: many of the cranes moved, telling to the observer that under the omnipresent blanket of fog, the banks the ancient waterway were full of activity. The port city, Finland's oldest and still one of the most important, looked simultaniously drab and mysterious.


In his spacious office overlooking a long strech of the river downstream, Verner Weckmann paced about in an agitated mood. The recently appointed managing director of the Crichton Vulcan shipyards would in a few hours put in his most important official appearance to date – and it was certain everything would need to gooff without a hitch. Today, the nation's eyes and ears were turned towards this part of Turku under his purview.


Outside, ordinary police and heavily armed MPs were guarding a perimeter set up during the previous night. Along the Linnankatu street running from the Market Square to the harbour grey-clad Suojeluskunta militia was also highly visible, lining the street for almost its full four-kilometer lenght. Even this early in the morning, people were starting to gather behind this thin grey line, slowly forming small groups. Some had red flags. Every flagpole in sight, though, was flying the Finnish white-and-blue, with its lion rampant in the upper left corner. For those who could see it through the fog, the most impressive such specimen could be spied in the mast of the Suomen Joutsen, a four-masted steel barque serving as the Navy's school ship, now temporarily moored next to the shipyards in front of the old Crown Granary.


Even though Weckmann had not seen the full project unfold, he knew its specifics by heart. His would still be the ultimate responsibility if something was out of kilter. Soon, though, the Ministry of Defence would relieve him of the burden: even if he was proud of what his company had achieved, he was more than happy to settle back to working with more mundane projects. A general strike and two shipyard strikes had already delayed the project thus far; new workers' protests had already been threatened even for this day. That several strong units of armed men now occupied the surroundings of the huge shipyard was not merely for making the occasion seem more important and martial. This was, after all, only months after the May Day Riots that culminated in fatalities as the Helsinki shipyards were placed under martial law.


After 11 am., one could see official cars ferrying in guests of honour, politicians, generals, foreign dignitaries and military attachés. They filled up a temporary, festively colored stand built at the riverbank under one of the impressive cranes. Next to it, the Navy Band was already playing light, mood-building music: it was not, yet, a time for the hard-hitting stuff. Weckmann had a quick last-minute meeting with some of his engineers and foremen, making sure everyone knew what they were doing.


As if on schedule, at some minutes before noon the sun could be seen peering through the clouds: the few rays that reached the guests had a decidedly ethereal quality. In the part of the stand reserved for the press, cameras were being held out. And now a murmur went through the crowd as an elegant white ship's bow pierced the fog on the river. Slowly, the Royal yacht Suometar was moored on the temporary quay by its crew of handpicked sailors. The band struck up the national anthem, Maamme. On the gangway, the gray-haired Charles raised his hand in salute to the waiting crowd. The press would later call him ”beaming”, though that would have been very much out of character. He was followed by Queen Margaret and Prince Wolfgang, the heir apparent.


There were speeches, more music, salutes. The King sat with Hans Kalm, the Riigivanem of Estonia and Ulrich von Hassell, the German Ambassador. All three were by all accounts in high spirits even before the actual launch. Finally the protective tarpaulins over the looming bulk of a ship next to the stand were dropped. Here was, now freshly painted in Navy gray, the coastal cruiser Ilmarinen. It was the first of its class. With a main armament of six 152 mm Bofors guns and a large collection of smaller-caliber AA guns it would be the most powerful warship in the Royal Finnish Navy. Two more, now under construction, would follow. Together with the recently-built fleet of submarines and minelayers, in a few years the Coastal Fleet would be a force to recon with.


In the pictures published in the Helsingin Sanomat the following day, Weckmann appears with the King, Kalm and von Hassell. Even when he smiles, it is a nervous sort of smile. Later he recalled von Hassell making a joke about setting him up in a wrestling match with an Austrian if he doesn't cheer up. Not a sort of proposal one would expect an ambassador to make, but one has to remember that Weckmann was an Olympic champion, winning his laurels against the Austrian Rudolf Lindmayer at Athens in 1906. Only later did Weckmann start to wonder if von Hassell might have also meant his quip as a very oblique reference to the Anschluss, at that point only a few months in the future.


Weckmann's worries were, in the end, unfounded. After Charles had smashed a bottle of champagne to the side of the Ilmarinen, the ship slid gracefully into water. And floated. After that the festivities slowly winded down, and by 6 pm the fog had fully cleared to make way for a beautiful, warm late summer evening. It was high summer in the Kingdom of Finland. When the Social Democrats staged a mass protest at the Market Square against ”militarism” and engaged in a bloody scuffle with the militia, it was not known on board the Suometar, which was returning to Helsinki by way of a detour through the pictoresque Turku Archipelago, resplendent in Nordic summer charm.
 
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And in only three years this kingdom will be fleeing the Red menace.

Finalnd seems strong but there are cracks in the foundation. General strikes, Mayday riots, and a brawl between militias and protesters. It would seem that the civil war was won but there was no triumph so to speak.

I can see that there might be enough to support a puppet giovernment, but I doubt most of these discontent Finns will like the reality of a People's Republic.

Anschluss is still on the table, so A-H still fell apart. For that matter it is sooner. Here I was hoping for a surviving Habsburh realm.

Interesting handle for an Estonian leader.

Oh a prominent leaderof the OTL German Resistance makes an appearance!

So KJing Karl is not the beaming type?

Will we see a visual of the Finnish royal banner?
 
To end the long, long hiatus and force myself to keep on working with this TL, here is a small update. Hope there is someone still interested with the story...



5.2. Rails

"Löfström's Eastern Army took Kouvola on April 26th. The textbook attack planned by the ex-Tsarist general took the Red defenders by surprise, and the important rail hub fell in mere days. For now, at least, the Reds' rail connections east were severed, and the flow of potential aid from Petrograd stopped.

In part, some credit for the succesful operation is due to the use of the now-famous "A-squads", the groups of infiltrators dressed in misleadingly nondescript uniforms, sneaked inside the Red lines in the cover of darkness before the attack. The inspiration, as well as the moniker, came from Alfons Arlander's actions during the Battle of Tampere. These dedicated, if often decidedly reckless men performed sabotage and caused panic and mayhem behind the enemy lines. As the Red discipline was already lacking and the troops prone to ill-informed action, the "A-squads" were a force multiplier for Löfström's troops. There is indeed some indication that the final Red rout along the eastbound railway was directly due to false orders and news spread by White infiltrators..."

"Already at this point, though, the meticulous Löfström was behind the schedule Mannerheim had laid down for his spring offensive. On the 29th, Löfström's forces should have already been on the move against the next objective, Lahti, that laid along the railway between Kouvola and Hämeenlinna. But the general would not move until he had secured Kouvola and was sure he was leaving behind strong enough forces to stop a potential counterattack from the east. Löfström's animosity to his superior manifested these days in him giving very broad and unclear answers to Mannerheim's messages asking about the disposition of his forces. For various reasons that have been the cause of a lot of debate by later historians, Mannerheim either decided that Löfström was close enough to taking Lahti or that the loss of Kouvola had weakened the Reds enough that he could begin his attack against the next main objective standing between him and the capital: Hämeenlinna.

On May 2nd, therefore, the bulk of the White Army again moved south along the railway. An armored train captured from the Reds at Tampere had been quickly repaired to act as the vanguard of this attack; behind them followed Mannerheim's dedicated "breakthrough units", the legendary 7th Battalion and the 2nd Swedish Volunteer Brigade (Winge's Brigade). Mannerheim based his plan on the idea that the Reds would still be in disarray after losing Tampere, especially as Kouvola fell so apparently easily to the Eastern Army. Like before Tampere, the White General was adamant in his belief that the Red troops "did not have the stomach for a fight" and would collapse under a decisive attack, even by smaller but well-disciplined forces. So far, everything the Whites had experienced during the war supported his estimation of the enemy..."

"In Hämeenlinna, some 13 000 Red troops were waiting for the White attack they thought was inevitable. There was disarray, certainly, especially in the days after Tampere fell. But by mid-May, a semblance of order had been reintroduced, in no small part due to the arrival of fresh troops from Helsinki, both Finnish Reds and Russian volunteers. The city defences were officially under Evert Eloranta, now dubbed "Supreme Commander of the Central Front", but again like in Tampere in reality an experienced Russian officer was making and implementing most of the defensive plans. That man was Colonel Mikhail Svetchnikov, the former commander of the Russian 106th Division. Under Svetchnikov served a small cadre of experienced Russian officers and NCOs, who had in a few weeks built a passable defensive perimeter for the old fortress town. The Red defenders had one definite advantage, and that was the fact that they had a lot of artillery available, moreso than in Tampere. Also, the guns mostly had trained Russian crews manning them. Svetchnikov had organized his artillery into strong batteries and intended to keep their existence as hidden as possible until the enemy was close enough for them to rain murder on their heads.

The White army assaulting this Red stronghold numbered 18 000 men. While great strides had been made in terms of discipline and battle readiness, it was still mostly a green conscript force. The victory at Tampere had boosted the morale a great deal, but on the other hand the men had been advancing fast, mostly on foot, since and before Tampere and the fatigue of the troops was starting to show. Mannerheim, who seldom got a full night's sleep, has often been described as "a man possessed" in his energy for keeping up the fast advance. Some say that as a cavalry commander, he had inflated expectations on how much ground should be covered in a day or in a week by this essentially infantry force..."

"...Mannerheim's orders for Mexmontan had been to simply "cover the western flank". Major The General had been left with a force of 2 100 men to defend the railway from Tampere towards the port town of Turku. It is now quite certain Mannerheim expected Mexmontan to arrange his troops into a defensive formation somewhere along the 20 km strech between Humppila, Urjala and Kylmäkoski. But Mexmontan had different plans. Having spent time in Mannerheim's HQ he had sensed that the General considered him a military nobody, a man with limited skill and vision. The idea stung him. He was an experienced military professional. He had been the Commander of the Finnish Guard, and the strongest candidate for the overall command of the White Army before Mannerheim came striding in from Petrograd and sidelined him. It was time to show his mettle, he though as he reconstrued his plan from a defensive to an offensive one: he would advance along the railway towards Turku and take the town between the two centers, Loimaa. After that, he believed Mannerheim would see what he could do with even limited troops and give him an important part in the final drive for the capital..."

Väinö Linna: Between Tampere and Helsinki, Norstedts, Stockholm, 1975.





There was soup. With meat, for no small wonder. It was handed out at a field next to some houses and tents by frightened-looking local women, to two rag-tag lines of waiting Red Guards. Eino Rahja stood by and presided over the proceedings: he liked that there was at least some order in this revolutionary army of his, even if it was currently enforced only by his presence. He was known for casually shooting men who offended him or at least cutting off their ears by his trademark sabre. The lines were surprisingly orderly.

This unit of the "Finnish People's Army" was currently quartered in a group of farmhouses appropriated by Rahja and his subordinates, according to the rights vested into them by the People's Deputation, which, as anyone progressive enough to live knew was the legal government of the nation. The farmers even received receipts for the food the Reds confiscated from them, "to be later reinbursed by the People' Intendenture" like Rahja told to a recalcitrant farmer. Kulaks, the lot of them, thought the Petrograd-Finnish Red warlord. But they were needed, for now. Besides, the local Red Guard had already dealed with the biggest plutocrats and bourgeois bloodsuckers; the new local police chief had assured Rahja of this when his troops arrived.

What Rahja was now waiting was a train. Or not the train, exactly, but the new troops its carriages would bring him. Trains he had, two fearsome armored ones sitting on the station a few hundred meters to his west and heavily guarded. These were the trains that managed to break out from Tampere, and here, now ,were most of the troops that escaped with them. 1 800 Red warriors, if Rahja's headcounts were correct. During the last few days reinforced with more than 700 new arrivals, both from surrounding areas and from the south-west. And soon, he would be getting nearly 1000 more from Turku, part of them Russians - black-flagged Anarchists, he had heard. He had not much love for Anarchists, but the Red commander heard they were a bloodthirsty group of revolutionaries; and that he certainly could respect. There would be artillery, too, brought from Russia before the butchers cut the railway in Kouvola. They would be a nice addition to his existing batteries.

"Commissar!", yelled a man bursting around the corner. That would be Salminen, currently tasked with being one of the observers flying with the Nieuport. His eyesight was excellent, even if it was one of the few military virtues he had. His voice was also unmistakably shrill. "Commissar! Butchers coming along the railway! A lot of them!" Suddenly, what sense of order there had just recently been in the field was gone. Rahja quietly cursed the observer, but nevertheless listened patiently what the young... man had to say. Apparently he had also seen the trains, two of them, coming from Turku, but the Whites would hit the Red lines north-east of the station before they would arrive.

To work, then, Rahja though while summoning his lieutenants and sending out runners. The butchers were here sooner than he had thought. But his reinforcements were close, and his trains were in working condition... Maybe this was a place to make a stand, and maybe even reverse the rotten luck his side had suffered since before Tampere.

The Battle of Loimaa. It had a nice ring to it.
 
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Well I think Rajha beats out te white commanders for the personality contest. That's the thing about revolutions and civil wats, they tend to elevate people that while possessing ability have more than a touch of madness to them.

While Tamprere gave initiative to the Whites a quick victory to open the way to Helsinki is key to preventing this from becoming a civil war of attrition. Once Helsinki is under fire I think the revolution will bergin to collapse with turncloaks and desertion since the capital is the greatest asset the Reds possess in trying to seize the country.

I can see see why the A units woulkd be famous, a forerunner to commandos and other b.e.l. units.

I can see were suppoirt for a German king would come from. With all these rivalries and grudges a strong outsider might be the most agreeable ruler.
 

5.3. Breaking Point


"What was not expected by Mexmontan or his immediate subordinates, however, was the strength of the Red troops in Loimaa. Generally, it seems the White leadership thought almost all Reds withdrawing from Tampere headed for Hämeenlinna; in fact, Mannerheim's wider plans were based on this assumption. What the White intelligence, such as there was, had failed to notice was that prior to the fall of Tampere, a Red contingent had been brought to Loimaa as a first part of a relief force en route to the soon-encircled town.

This was one of Eino Rahja's operations, and as such things went, there was a considerable number of Russians involved, both revolutionary soldiers from former Imperial units stationed in Finland as well as revolutionaries who had recently arrived from Petrograd following the orders of the Bolshevik leadership. According to extant sources, Rahja had written to Lenin personally to receive more help, in the form of "fiery and disciplined Socialists" and aeroplanes: apparently, the Red commander's interest into air power was already becoming stronger.

One of the most curious units involved in this operation was the "Free Marine Battalion" of Russian revolutionary sailors and marines from over 20 Baltic Fleet ships moored in the Helsinki harbor. This group of more than 300 men used a black banner with a skull and crossed bones as their symbol and raised fear among the Finnish civilians by their uncouth behaviour. Their leader, Navy Sub-Lieutenant Stolbov, had even demanded that the Reds send to unit to the most difficult part of the front to show their worth in battle.."

"Rahja had himself made sure that the troops that managed to slip away from Tampere would be directed to join this force being built around the small town. It is not known if he had planned a counterattack all along, despite all the post-Kingdom Finnish and Soviet historians claiming so. Be this as it may, it was clear that the Red troops present at Loimaa outnumbered the attacking Whites almost 2 to 1 and were even better armed than the attacker... "

"When in the early afternoon of May 3rd the White troops first made contact with the Red lines northeast of Loimaa, Mexmontan was sure he was facing a weak and demoralized force ready to collapse from the slightest push. He had expected to meet the enemy at Humppila, some 15 kilometers before Loimaa. Instead, when the first White troops arrived at the railway station, they found a group of men - led by the local pharmacist - telling them that the Humppila Red Guard had fled towards Loimaa the night before and that they were just now starting to organize a new White Guard for the municipality. The pharmacist, Virokannas, proffered the White officers his opinion that the Reds "would be in Turku by now". Some of these men even offered their services to Mexmontan's staff as "local guides" to see some action against the Reds personally..."

"Upon reports of his men meeting first armed Reds outside Loimaa Mexmontan, therefore, did not wait for the arrival of the bulk of his already understrenght force, but ordered the lead units to strike at the enemy immediately. Initially, his estimate seemed correct: Red platoons were seen fleeing from their hastily dug positions towards the railway station. At this point, the aircraft made its appearance, flying over Mexmontan's command post towards southwest. The government troops cheered: the men thought this was one of their own planes, which had made their first appearance over Tampere, supporting their attack. Seeing the apparition made the lead units actually somewhat reckless in their attack, according to later memoirs by those present. Kyösti Wilkuna, one of Mexmontan's junior officers and a later notable among the Light Bearers, gives us a vivid account of the situation in his 1947 autobiography, written in exile:


The Old Man had us march day and night to reach Loimaa. He was doing well in his Mannerheim impression, this seemed to be the consensus among the men. But Nikkola, one of may sergeants and of Tampere fame, said to me that Mexmontan was trying too hard. Perhaps it was true... Nikkola, however, would be one of the first men storming the Red positions near the Nopola farm and sending their scouts back, reeling. He, like me, had seen the flying machine, the future of war, screaming across the sky over us. The future, I though at that moment, looked like that: sleek, fearsome and beautiful. After beating this menace, the mortal enemies of the free Finnish people, we would be the men building the future of our young nation. "Forward", I called out, "For the Fatherland!"

Over the next hill, all hell broke loose. Here were the real Red lines, and they were strong and well prepared. Artillery shells were landing on us from all possible directions, it seemed. We managed to find some shelter behind a collapsed cellar, but were pinned down by machine gun fire. Looking to my right, I saw Nikkola down on the ground. A shell fragment, apparently, had cut off the top of his head. The was curiously little blood anywhere, I thought: I could see what was left of his brains through the open skull. I only awoke from my stunned reverie when I saw movement in the left corner of my eye: that way lay the railway tracks, and behind some trees appeared another marvel of modern war, the Red armored train, with its guns blazing...
[1]

"Right outside Loimaa, the White advance was stopped cold. The first troops to engage the Reds were mostly Häme Civil Guards units, who received a lot of casualties right away. The Reds' tactical retreat towards the railway station had drawn some of the Whites into crossfire, and the situation was worsened by the chance arrival of "Armored Train Nro 1", the better armed of the two at Rahja's disposal..."

"This was the beginning of what is often called "The Fourteen Days". Mexmontan could have retreated back to Humppila and ordered fortified positions built there (therefore reverting back to his original orders), or he could have at least acknowledged his difficult position and ordered reinforcements to be called from Tampere. Instead, he did nothing. While his men were dying in the fields outside the station, he just waited for more troops to arrive and join the line. The officers complaining that their men's position was untenable were ordered to "stand fast": there would be no retreat. Later historians have speculated that faced with a prospect that his glowing victory would turn into a minor, undignified defensive battle, Mexmontan allowed his pride to overcome his better judgement..."

"Meanwhile, Mannerheim had been preparing to attack Hämeenlinna. Having brushed aside a weak Red contingent near Parola, the bulk of the White Western Army had approached the town from the west, northwest and north. On the eastern side, a smaller force under Hjalmarson was surreptiously moving around Aulangonjärvi to outflank the enemy and to cause confusion among the Red defenders. Finally, now, Löfstrom had sent word that he wasn't ready to take Lahti just yet: Mannerheim had fumed, but ordered him to expedite his attack. He would not wait for the Eastern Army to beat the Reds in Lahti before moving on Hämeenlinna, though. According to Wetzer, the White General's closest subordinate, Mannerheim


...told me the road to Helsinki is almost open. After the railway east was denied to the Reds at Kouvola, acting swiftly here we could break the enemy once and for all and to encircle all the Red troops in south western Finland before the arrival of the Germans. After that, Helsinki would fall on our lap like a ripe apple. 'We need to do this, Martin', hesaid, 'to maintain our freedom of action'. Helsinki would not be the end of our campaign, neither would Viipuri. Liberating Finland, while absolutely necessary, would only be the first step towards a greater goal. 'A goal in which we can't expect the Germans to help us', he told me. I was stunned: this was the first time he had told me this much...[2]


"But, like in Tampere, the first, tentative White attack was repelled with heavy casualties on May 4th. Only after that Mannerheim ordered the "A-squads" into action and decided to allow a few days for them to soften the enemy before embarking on what he saw as the final nail in the coffin for the Red insurrection. On the 5th, at 6 a.m., the Battle of Hämeenlinna begun in earnest. Mannerheim had chosen to commit almost all of his available forces, and only a small reserve was kept aside to address untoward eventualities..."

"This is when Mannerheim, in his temporary headquarters in Parola, received the news of the collapse of the front at Loimaa. Mexmontan's troops had been routed and were in full retreat towards Urjala, with the Red Guards in hot pursuit. Mexmontan himself was rumoured to be dead..."

"If the retreat could not be stopped, in a few days the Reds would be in a position to cut the railway between Tampere and Hämeenlinna. If that happened, the Western Army's main force would be cut off from all rail connections to government-controlled territory; more, it would be liable to get encircled itself..."

Väinö Linna: Between Tampere and Helsinki, Norstedts, Stockholm, 1975.


[1] Kyösti Wilkuna: Of Light And Darkness, Verlag Karl Alber, München, 1947.

[2] Martin Wetzer: Recollections From Three Wars, Bonnier, Stockholm, 1952



"When the news of the disaster at Loimaa reached Tampere, they were soon followed by a first priority order from Mannerheim's HQ to send a relief force to protect the railway junction at Akaa. But the available forces were clearly inadequate: there were only barely trained units in the town, and most of those were tasked with guarding the large POW camp at Kalevankangas. With much haste and confusion, a green force of under 1500 men or an understrenght regiment of the Tampere Civil Guard was scraped together and dispatched south on a captured and partly repaired passenger train.

At the prison camp, the last few days had been tumultuous, due to the poor-to-nonexistent food received by the prisoners, which had prompted many men to openly protest the conditions, despite the fact that executions still happened almost daily, and the guards were liberal in giving disciplinary beatings to the prisoners. In the confusion of the evening of the 5th, at one point a part of the camp perimeter was left almost completely unguarded. After a brief puzzlement, a group of prisoners decided to use this moment to make their escape; after a moment, they were followed several other men, and in minutes a huge part of the thousands of men imprisoned here were struggling to smash a gate and tear down the barbed wire fences around it.

The situation was soon chaotic: when a small group of Whites appeared, they were quickly disarmed and found themselves trampled under the dirty, often bare feet of the escaping prisoners. As more White troops poured into the area, one of them, a young Corporal later identified as Voitto Vuorinen opened fire on the ragged mass of escapees. His comrades followed suit. Some of the now-armed Reds returned fire. But this did not kill Vuorinen and the other Whites: they too found themselves trampled; and according to a later court testimony, a Red cooper named Georg Salmela strangled Vuorinen by his bare hands. After that, more weapons were captured by the Reds. As a big part of the escaped men just wanted to get away and hide, many others, especially those now armed started to organize among themselves, collecting anything that could be used as makeshift weapons and making plans.

In hours, the chance escape of a few prisoners was turning into an actual uprising against White rule in Tampere. This uprising would be after known as the Kalevankangas Mutiny or the Third Battle of Tampere..."


"The Kalevankangas Mutiny", by Tuomo Lantti, in Juha Mäkiaho (ed.): A Big Book on the Finnish Civil War, Edita Press, Helsinki 2008.
 
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Photos, for reference:

kslentok.JPG


"Red aircraft at Naistenlahti in Tampere before the fall of the city to the White forces. Red commander Eino Rahja standing next to the plane, fourth from the left."


nakkila.JPG


"The Nakkila Red Guard. Poorly trained militia forces like this formed most of Rahja's troops at the Battle of Loimaa and during the Fourteen Days."


naiskaar.jpg


"Female Red Guard warriors. If caught, women fighting for the People's Deputation could expect no mercy at the hands of the Whites."


GC4.JPG


"Members of the Lapua Civil Guard before the war. Because of the motley collection of clothes, weapons and equipment used by both sides, the allegiance of any given soldier could often only be recognized from the colour of the armband he was wearing."
 
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Just noticed that I have some trouble with the dates... I'll write a short summary of the TL so far tomorrow, with retconned dates to clear up any confusion when the events take place.:)
 
Hmm, whatever Mannerheim was planning its in the john now. This campaign has become one of survival. On the plus side if the Reds loose these twelve days it will destroy their morale with their golden chance slipping away.

I just hope the civil war is not prolonged, this bloodshed of Finn against Finn needs to be ended.

It looks like more German aid/influence after this.

Hopefully the superior troop quality of the Whites at this point will show.

Tampere is not too much of a worry, the inmates will be in poor shape and very poorly armed. It is ojly a problem with combination of everything else.

This may be Mannerheims golden moment, turin this disaster into an endgame. Well one can hope.

The fact one of the White Leaders is in exile in 1947 is not a good sign. Light Bearers, a cool name but I fear ominous undertone is present. Finnish Fascists?
 
Light Bearers, a cool name but I fear ominous undertone is present. Finnish Fascists?

There was an OTL movement by nearly the same name, Tulenkantajat (Fire Bearers). This ATL movement will be a bit like that, only more influential, especially in politics. And yes, more to the right. It has even many of the same people involved, young intellectuals like Mika Waltari or Olavi Paavolainen. If you look at the earlier updates, there was a book written by Waltari being quoted before; ITTL Waltari will be a quite different character, due to his family's fate during the Red rule in Helsinki...
 
All right, here is a quick rundown of the events outlined in the timeline so far. The post corresponding with the event included in the end of each date.

This summary includes an extensive overhaul of the dates to make the events more realistic; bear this in mind while reading the earlier posts!



The Lords of the North - A Provisional Summary of Events:


1917

September 7th: Ludendorff and Hindenburg injured in a train accident near Brussels. Ludendorff is hospitalized for two weeks.[1](#15)

Late October: The beginning of Ludendorff's "depression", later diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder. Will remain partly sidelined until spring 1918.(#15)

December 11th: The declaration Finnish independence by Svinhufvud's Senate.(#16)

December 16th: En route to Finland, Mannerheim is shot by a revolutionary soldier in Viipuri. Despite being operated by the experienced surgeon Richard Faltin, he loses sight in his right eye.[2](#15)

December 30:
Finnish independence recognized by the Council of People's Commissars in Petrograd.(#16)


1918

Early January:
Finnish independence recognized by several foreign governments, including Germany, Sweden, Austria-Hungary, Denmark and France.(#16)

Early January: Mannerheim accepts the Finnish Senate's request to become the Commander-in-Chief of the government forces. Takes control of the White "Military Committee", sidelining its previous leader General Charpentier.(#15,#16)

Before mid-January: Mannerheim and most of the Committee move north to Pohjanmaa to establish the headquarters of the new Finnish (White) Army. The Military Committee is slowly transformed into a High Command to act as Mannerheim's staff.(#15,#16)

January 15th:
To "quell the ongoing unrest and return legal order", the Finnish Parliament grants the Senate powers to declare the (White) Civil Guards as government troops.(#16)

January 20th: Beginning of the "Finnish Revolution" in Helsinki declared by the Social Democratic Party's Executive Committee. Red Guards move to take control of government buildings, communications and military equipment. Arrests of White politicians and bourgeois notables started. Svinhufvud and most of his senators manage to escape the capital and travel to Seinäjoki in Pohjanmaa to reconstitute the government, since known as the Seinäjoki Senate.(#16)

Late January: Red Guards take power in most important centres in Southern Finland. Local (White) Civil Guards members are either arrested or start making their way north to areas where the Whites are stronger. North of Tampere, the Civil Guards take power in most areas, as a mirroring the process in the south.(#16,#19)

Early February: The Treaty of Bialystok, the peace treaty between the Germans and the Bolsheviks signed.(#15,#19)

February 4th:
The White troops in Pohjanmaa move to disarm Russian garrisons to neutralize the threat of presented by the Russian units and to gain sorely needed weapons. Similar moves happen in garrison towns across Northern Finland.(#16,#19)

First week of February:
The Pieksämäki Massacre. Red troops kill 22 White prisoners in Central Finland. The event is widely used in White propaganda as an example of Red atrocities.(#37)

February 15th: The 27th Royal Prussian Jäger Battalion, slated to be sent to help the Finnish Whites, is due to the preparations for the Spring Offensive sent instead to the Western Front due to an apparent administrative oversight.(#19,#26)

Late February: The White Army begins its general advance south, from Pohjanmaa in the west and Savo-Karjala in the east.(#24)

Early March: Beginning of the German Spring Offensive. The 27th Royal Prussian Jäger Battalion sent back to East Prussia after the mistake in its deployment is noticed.(#19,#26)

March: The Swedish government plans sending an expeditionary force into Åland. The move is pre-empted as strong Finnish White units arrive on captured ships, following Svinhufvud's orders.(#19,#26)

March 15th: Mannerheim issues his notorious "No Quarter" order.(#35)

March 20th: The main part of the Finnish Jägers of the 27th arrive in Vaasa.(#19)

Late March: The First Battle of Tampere. Red defenders beat back a half-hearted White assault on the city.(#22, #24, #26)

March 27th: Official plea for military help sent from the Finnish Senate to the German government. Mannerheim enraged.(#26)

March 28th:
The first aerial battle of the Civil War fought near Tampere by a Red Nieuport and a White Morane-Saulnier leads to Red victory as the White airplane is downed. (#22)

Late March: Death of Santeri Alkio, the founder of the Agrarian Party, in Red-controlled Helsinki.(#31)

March 29th: Tampere encircled by White troops.(#31)

Early April: A Finnish delegation, led by Svinhufvud, signs a peace treaty and a trade treaty with the German government in Berlin. These treaties place Finland firmly in the German camp. Inside the Senate, the treaties cause a split between the Germanophiles and the smaller, Entente-minded group. In Germany, the preparations begin for an intervention into the Finnish Civil War.(#37)

April 1st - April 11th:
The Second Battle of Tampere. Whites capture the strongest Red stronghold and the most important industrial centre along the southbound railway. More than 9000 prisoners captured, hundreds of revolutionaries executed. A part of the Red troops manage to break out from the encircled town using armored trains.(#31, #32, #33, #35)

April: A strong pro-Monarchy campaign begun by the Royalists in Senate. The Royalist Committee for Independence and Stability established.(#26)

April 22nd: The White Eastern Army, under Löfström, captures the important railway hub of Kouvola in South-Eastern Finland, severing Red rail connections to Russia.(#45)

April 26th:
The beginning of Mannerheim's offensive against Hämeenlinna. Southwest of Tampere, Mexmontan uses his screening force to advance towards Loimaa along the Tampere-Turku railway.(#45)

April 27th - April 29th: The Battle of Loimaa. Red forces under Eino Rahja rout Mexmontan's White force in Loimaa, sends the Whites retreating in disarray towards Tampere.(#45, #48, #49)

April 27th - May 10th: The Fourteen Days. The Red counteroffensive towards the Tampere - Hämeenlinna railway and the POW mutiny in Tampere put the whole White war effort in serious jeopardy.(#19, #31, #48, #49)

Early May: The Spring Purges in Helsinki. The demoralized Reds take revenge on captured Civil Guards and suspected White supporters by public executions. Several hundred people killed in a few days. Senator Pehkonen and Liberal politician Ståhlberg are the most notable victims.(#37)

May 12th: The German intervention. German troops land at Hanko and begin their advance west towards the capital.(#4)

May 17th - May 24th: The Battle of Helsinki. The White Army takes the Finnish capital after heavy fighting on the streets, supported by German troops and naval elements.(#4, #37)

...


1936

Early May 1936: The May Day Riots in the Helsinki shipyard end in fatalities as the army moves in to restore order.

August 27th 1936: Finnish coastal cruiser Ilmarinen launched in Turku. The launch is attended by the King of Finland, as well as the Estonian Riigivanem and the German ambassador. Multiple people injured as a Social Democrat mass protest against "militarism" at the Market Square leads to scuffles with the Civil Guards.

Fall 1936: The Anschluss. Austria united with Germany.

...

1939


Fall-Winter 1939: The Finno-Soviet War. (#1)

December 1939: Red Army makes a breakthrough on the Karelian Isthmus, reaches Helsinki in two weeks. The Finnish government hands the Åland islands to Swedish control, following previous contingency plans. Evacuations by the Finnish Coastal Fleet. Much of Finnish Navy and some if the Air Force and Army interned in Sweden. The King of Finland exiled. Finnish Government-in-Exile created in Sweden, later moves to Germany. The "Finnish Democratic Government" of Edvard Gylling installed in Helsinki by the Red Army. (#1)



[1] First POD.
[2] Second POD.
 
Update time. Something new this time...


5.4. Days of Wrath

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQUX1nTwwrA [1]


The world is a dream creation
a common dream, a fairytale
towers rise into the sky
churches open to heaven
factories spew smoke
machines make happiness
'tween the steel frames lie human wrecks



"We run, run into the darkness. If we get away, maybe we'll find somewhere to hide and someone to help us. The ground stings my feet, but after a while I can't feel it anymore. We get among the trees and hear the shots, the butchers, he says, killing our comrades at the graveyard. Or is it them, the men who wrestled rifles from the young guards? Still we run, but slower now, my back hurts, I am weak. We break into an old barn to rest, just for a while. Soon there'll be more butchers, and we need food, clothes, shoes. If we get moving tonight, keep heading south we might make to our lines in days, maybe escape to Russia..."


When the form made to save us doesn't do anymore
the preacher in black robes can't keep us together
begins the struggle for believing
for things to die for
even if you're wrong, a stranger in the eyes of your time



"Four men came running down the stairs, in bits of uniform, rifles in hand. The one with the bandaged head I knew: Palme, the Swedish volunteer. The rest were his comrades from the military hospital, with various injuries. 'The Reds', Palme shouted, 'where are they?' I pointed to my left where the bulding was burning and a sort of battle line forming between the escaped Reds and armed townsfolk, a few soldiers. 'Quick', said Palme, thrusting a revolver into my hand, 'we'll have to stop them!' My head spinning, a followed the four Swedes into the fray..."


Powers and peoples
breath in me an yearn for freedom
Powers and peoples
love in me and yearn for life

Powers and peoples
breath in me an yearn for freedom
Powers and peoples
love in me and yearn for life



"'Bayonets!', shouted the Russian NCO to his men in sailors' uniforms, 'Prepare to charge!' We had followed the retreating Whites for two days, they hadn't managed to form a line before now. Ahead lay the railway junction, our objective. Rahja and Stolbov wanted it bad, like it would determine the war. Later I learned it just have might... The sailors attacked, their black flag flying in the wind against the first light of the morning. We were on the left flank, slowly advancing, close enough to see when the men of the "Skull Battalion" started to fall in the machine gun fire. Bloody hell, I though, what are we doing? But Rahja didn't care how many men he lost, I saw it in his eyes later. There were more important things than the lifes of some sailors."


Our acts change us
the words we speak
the wishes come true
the fears materialize
the pain is all so real
the town a pact against the dark
the news prayer mills
for tomorrow to dawn



"In the morning some Reds had escaped into the church. They were hungry, ragged and some of them sick. They came from the camp, but hadn't been part of the violence. The young Pastor stood on the door, wringing his hands. He had came here when the sexton told him the church had been broken into. He had given water and bread to the dirty men sitting in the pews and on the floor. There had been praying.

And there came the Lieutenant, of the "Flying Detachment", with a pistol drawn, mounted men at his side. 'Any Russkies here, Pastor?', he shouted. 'Mr. Löfgren', said the Pastor, looking at the uniformed man and his comrades on horseback. 'This is God's house, and I am responsible for these people. Your men are not needed here.' He buttoned up his coat.

Löfgren and his men dismounted as more riders arrived on the yard. 'Pastor', said the Lieutenant, I represent the secular government. I am empowered by General Mannerheim himself. And those 'people' in there are enemies of the state, thiefs and murderers. Animals. If God is here today, which I doubt, he surely is on our side. Now, step aside if you dont want to get hurt."

When he refused to move, Löfgren's men had to bodily drag the young Pastor aside, and restrain him while the rest of the unit herded the Reds out of the building. 'You have no right', said the Pastor, 'this is criminal'. The Lieutenant had ordered the Reds to form a line there on the churchyard, their backs towards him. 'You are a man of God', he said to the young man 'but I am a man of justice'. He took his pistol and shot the closest Red in the back of his head. 'This is justice, by God'."


Powers and peoples
breath in me an yearn for freedom
Powers and peoples
love in me and yearn for life

Powers and peoples
breath in me an yearn for freedom
Powers and peoples
love in me and yearn for life




tuomio.gif


"The Judgement. A White propaganda postcard from 1918."




[1] This is Vallat ja väet by the Finnish band CMX. The bits in italics are my quick translation of the lyrics.
 
Chapter 6. Where It Hurts



6.1. Head to Head

”In the afternoon of the 2nd of May, the situation had calmed down, as most things went. Volunteers were putting down fires lit by the escaped prisoners. The Civil Guard troops in the town and those quickly brought from the surrounding parishes had managed to defeat and disarm most of the groups of armed Reds. At Tammela Square in the small hours of the night, the White action had turned into a veritable bloodletting as a mixed unit of Tampere Civil Guards and a few Swedish volunteers, armed with rifles and a well-placed machine gun had faced off a big group of Reds armed only with makeshift weapons, clubs, spades and the like. Very few of the Red escapees at the square managed to keep their lives, even after they tried to surrender...”

”Later it was estimated that about 4000 of the prisoners at Kalevankangas had taken part in the breakout; of those, about 1000 took part in the fighting with the soldiers and armed townsfolk. The rest went into hiding, and many tried to make their way south and south-west, towards where they though the Red lines were, under the cover of darkness. Hundreds of people were rounded up by White units to be taken back to the camp, but more than 3000 were estimated to have escaped. The countryside surrounding Tampere is still a decade later full of stories from these days, ranging from matter-of-fact recollection to tales of horror. Often these stories are bloody and macabre, featuring trigger-happy White warriors and desperate, ragtag bands of Red escapees on the move.

The most memorable stories from those days centre on the actions of the ”Flying Detachments”, the cavalry units tasked with ”pacifying” the area around Tampere. Many often, these troopers would execute captured Reds on the spot rather than take them back to Tampere or the many smaller, ad hoc detainment camps cropping up in the local parishes. Especially in the areas where the Reds had not caused much harm to the locals, these events made people wary of the often violent and unpredictable White ”crusaders”; and indeed many farmers who had previously supported the White cause found themselves harboring Red escapees from the White cavalry. On the other hand, the tales about the mutiny at Tampere hardened the already extreme attitudes against the Reds in some circles: there are stories about farmers finding ragged, barefeet escapees in their barns or sheds and killing them in cold blood with hunting rifles...”

”It is hard to say how many of the escapees found their way to the relative safety of Red-held areas in the end – the records from the wartime and the following months are sketchy to say the least. We might well never know the full extent of the post-mutiny events.”

Kyösti Kaukovalta: The Kalevankangas Mutiny – Recollections of a Witness, Otava, Tampere, 1930.



”I was one of the lucky ones. There had been three of us; me, my colleague, the journalist Toivo Lehtinen and Mr. Linden, the carpenter. Having seen some of our comrades dragged off to be executed in the previous days, we decided to make a break for it when the Mutiny begun. Generally speaking, we made it our goal to steer clear of the big crowds and the noise: arming ourselves and heading for the town centre would have meant suicide, Toivo and me both agreed. Mr. Linden, an older man who had lost his brother in the camp didn't offer an opinion, but was eager to follow us two young men out of the town.

We made our way south, towards the farmsteds in Seppälä. I remember thinking the front wouldn't be far: we had heard that some White troops had been rushed south to stop a counterattack by troops loyal to the People's Deputation, and as an eternal optimist I hoped that we'd soon run into Red pickets. Thinking about that later, I understand how naive that was. After walking through the night, along side roads, we found an abandoned-seeming shed and hid there to sleep.

I woke up in the afternoon. It was a beautiful spring day, the sun was shining through the half-collapsed roof and around the building the last of the winter's snow was melting. I woke up my comrades, and we debated what we should do next. Mr. Linden thought it most wise to stay in the shed and wait for the night; but I said that we should continue south forthwith – there would still be time before the Whites start combing the countryside. All we knew, the battle in Tampere would still be ongoing or our comrades might have taken control of the town centre. Toivo agreed with me, and with the recalcitrant carpenter in tow we continued forward along a southbound road.

We walked the whole day and grew increasingly hungry: our only rations for this sojourn had been last of the moldy bread we had received at the camp the previous morning. Mr. Linden wouldn't stop complaining about his sore leg, which I remember irking me. Without his complaints, the nagging hunger in my stomach and my broken shoes I just might have enjoyed our hike, despite the war. We had managed to avoid the few people we had spotted along the road, by hiding on the roadside. Suddenly, we heard noise behind us: the hooves of a horse! Before we had the time to help Mr. Linden to a roadside bush, said horse arrived at a slow trot, with a cart. A man was slumped at the seat and appeared unconscious. I then jumped from the roadside to catch the reins of the horse, despite my friends' protests, for I had recognised the man on the cart: it was Honkaniemi, a quarryman, a former Red Guard and a fellow prisoner of war. He was wounded, badly it seemed. It looked like he had been shot. I tried to talk to him, but he was beyond reason, mumbling incoherently under his breath.

If Honkaniemi was here, and in this condition, surely the Whites were not far. I presented the horse and cart to my friends as an opportunity, a faster way to get to the Red lines than trudging ahead on foot. My suggestion that a White patrol might be close by was enough to overcome their scepticism, and soon we were travelling south on the cart, with Mr. Linden trying to look after the delirious Honkaniemi who we feared would bleed out if we couldn't find friendly troops soon. The sun was already setting. We would ride through the night, afraid to stop lest the butchers catch up with our small band of refugees...”

Arvo Tuominen: The Memoirs of a Career Revolutionary, Vol. I, ”Progress” Publishing, Viipuri, 1951.



”On May 7th ”Työmies”[1] reported in its headline that ”Mannerheim's Army is Trapped Between Tampere and Hämeenlinna”, attributing the recent success of the revolutionary forces to the ”inspired actions of comrade Commander Eino Rahja, who has created a strong fighting spirit among the Red Guards under his leadership”. On the very same day, Rahja's troops would do battle with White forces in the small town of Toijala along the Tampere – Hämeenlinna railway. This was the day that has been seen as the culmination of the Fourteen Days by most historians. For days, Rahja's troops had been pursuing the demoralized Whites formerly under Mexmontan. The veteran officer who had led his troops into the trap set by his Red counterpart at Loimaa was dead: he had been shot by a Red warrior while trying to escape his last command post. Or so says recent, post-Kingdom Finnish research. During the interwar period, the White historiography painted Mexmontan as a hero who fought fiercely against the Reds until his own demise, blasting away at the oncoming ”Red horde” until he run out of ammo for his Mauser. He was actually (quite paradoxically) a target of a fair amount of hero-worship among the soldiers of the Royal Army!

At Kylmäkoski a few kilometres before Toijala, White troops arriving from Tampere caught up with their comrades withdrawing along the railway, and after a while the temporary leader of this new force, Jäger Captain Hanell, managed to stop the fleeing Whites and form a coherent force out of the troops present. Hanell ordered this mixed formation to build positions just outside Toijala on the west side of the railway, expecting the enemy to attack in a matter of hours. He was not mistaken: the first Reds arrived via the railway in late afternoon to scout the White positions, withdrawing south-west as they found a stronger enemy they expected. Soon the Red Nieuport was seen too, flying in a wide arc around the White positions and returning towards Rahja's advancing troops just after 5 p.m. This time the Red commander was himself aboard and was delighted to see how close he was to the southbound railway. Just a little push more, that was all he seemingly needed to cut Mannerheim's railway connections.

Hanell's Whites were in quite good positions, nevermind the short time available for preparations, but they had precious little artillery or even machine guns. Mexmontan's troops had left their heavy weapons behind during their retreat, and the Tampere relief force had managed to scrounge up only so much during their hasty departure from the town. And to add to Hanell's woes, the telegraph and telephone connections from Toijala station were down, somewhat mysteriously: he couldn't call out for help for the time being.

Meanwhile, Rahja had used his trains to bring his troops forward towards the White line. Already a few batteries of artillery were set up in good positions. They were low on ammunition, though: what logistics the People's Deputation had in place for keeping its frontline troops in military necessaria were, in truth, collapsing at this point of the war. Rahja's unnaturally quick advance had done nothing to help the situation, either. Because of this, the Reds had already left some of their artillery behind: in the battle ahead, Rahja would depend mostly on the guns on his two armored trains, placed again as the vanguard of the attack.

There was still some light left in the spring night, and thus the Red troops moved against the White positions. Despite Hanell's preparations, the Whites along the railway found themselves outnumbered and outgunned, again, and fell back towards Toijala. The demoralization of the troops spread now also to the newcomers who had seemed so sure of themselves just a few hours before. Only the determined, level-headed countenance and orders by Hanell stopped the situation from deteriorationg into a rout. He also managed to keep his line intact, as the flanks fell back towards north-east together with his main force. By 9 p.m., the Whites were barely holding on to the west side of the railway, with Hanell himself moving into the Toijala station, where the station master was trying, now desperately, to repair the communications to get in touch with Mannerheim's army.

As darkness fell, both sides settled into defensive positions. The night allowed a breathing space for both sides: while Hanell's troops were pushed back and their morale was at breaking point, Rahja had also lost many men killed and wounted during the last few hours. Since Loimaa, his ranks had thinned out decisively, also through desertion: just during the previous night, the men of the Russian ”Skull Batallion” had commandeered one of Rahja's trains and quietly made off in the direction of Turku. Stolbov, their leader, was with them: he had left a note saying his men were ”taking a sorely needed vacation”. Rahja, hung over, had very nearly shot the man who brought him the note; he swore he would kill Stolbov with his bare hands if he ever laid his eyes on the man again.

During the night, Rahja received a curious delegation in his temporary HQ at the Kinnari farm. Four men arrived on a horse cart, demanding to see the leading officer. They were Arvo Tuominen and Toivo Lehtinen, the journalists, with two Tampere workers, one of them badly wounded. The men were among those who escaped from Kalevankangas during the mutiny, and they had very luckily managed to slip past the White lines to reach the Red side. Rahja thanked the men for what information they had and allowed the two former newspapermen from ”Kansan Lehti”[2] to continue on towards Turku. This was the first time Rahja and Tuominen, future coworkers and adversaries met: in post-war Finnish historiography, this chance meeting has been often considered a harbinger of things to come.

In the morning, both sides again prepared for battle. It was a grey, rainy morning: it had rained through the night. There had been an unseasonal thunderstorm, in fact, though the men on both sides had been too tired for that to keep them awake. Things came to a head a bit after 9 a.m., when a runner arrived at Rahja's headquarters telling the Red warlord that his troops were receiving fire – from the south, not north-east where the White positions were. Startled by the news, Rahja ordered the Nieuport ready to reconnoitre the enemy positions. About the same time, also Toijala station received visitors: a railway locomotive arrived from the south, flying white flags. It brought along a White messenger, telling the surprised Hanell, that during the night a considerable White contingent had arrived from Hämeenlinna, and were now already in the process of attacking the Red positions. The storm in the night had masked the preparations very well. The visitor also explained the communications problems: Hämeenlinna could indeed hear Toijala, though only at times, but Mannerheim himself, fearing that the lines were compromised, had ordered that Hanell was not to be told about the arrival of the relief force.

The force to the south of Toijala, about a reinforced battalion, consisted of the main part of the 2nd Swedish Volunteer Brigade. Together with Hanell's troops in place, the White force was roughly the same size as the troops still under Rahja's command. The Swedish Major Allan Winge assumed control of the joint force, under Mannerheim's direct orders. He was tasked with breaking the Red contingent and then returning with the bulk of his force to join the Battle of Hämeenlinna, then already underway...”

Väinö Linna: Between Tampere and Helsinki, Norstedts, Stockholm, 1975.




[1]”The Worker”, the People's Deputation's official paper

[2]”The People's Paper”, Tampere Socialist daily
 
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I like it. And I see we are using some of the same characters (wait till you see what Hans Kalm gets up to in my What If: Finland thread.

Good work, I am enjoying this one

Cheers............Cankiwi (Nigel)
 
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