Operation Silver Fox

Operation Silver Fox
Part of World War II
A column from I./Panzer-Abt.z.b.V.40 during the advance on Kuusamo, July 1941.
Date June-July, 1941 Location Lappland Result Stalemate
Belligerents
Germany Finland	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Nikolaus von Falkenhorst (Armee Norwegen)	Roman Panin (Northern Front)

The original plan for operation "Silver Fox".

Operation Silver Fox (Unternehmen Silberfuchs) was a German operation during World War II. Its main goal was the capture of the Soviet port at Murmansk through attacks from Finnish territory.

Planning and preparation

In January 1941, German officer Erich Buschenhagen was ordered to Finland to discuss the possibility of a Finnish-German cooperative effort against the Soviet Union with the Finnish leadership. Since July 1940, Germany had planned to occupy the Petsamo nickel mines in Operation Reindeer in case of a new Finnish-Soviet war. Germany had possessed supply and troop transfer rights through Northern Finland since September 1940. In late February, Buschenhagen was authorised to negotiate a combined offensive effort. Taking advantage of the co-belligerent pact, plans were made for German forces from the German Army in Norway to begin moving into Finnish territory. These operations, codenamed Blue Fox 1 and Blue Fox 2 (Blaufuchs I and Blaufuchs II) began in June 1941. Five German divisions and various attached elements (Including two 'special purpose' Panzer units) were moved into position in Northern Finland, joining the Finnish forces, currently being mobilised under the guise of border exercises.

The Finns and Germans agreed on a two-pronged attack, three phase offensive. The first action, codenamed Renntier was to be the occupation of the Petsamo region by the two Gebirgs divisions of Generaloberst Eduard Dietl's German Gebirgskorps Norwegen. This would move the Gebirgskorps from the Norwegian territory of the Kirkenes into position to attack towards Murmansk.

The second and third stages were to be launched in unison. The northern assault, codenamed Platinfuchs called for the Gebirgskorps Norwegen, assisted by the Finnish Ivalo Border Guard Battalion were to strike east from Petsamo, attacking towards the Barents Sea port of Murmansk along the coast. This operation was to take place well above the Arctic Circle and would therefore be hampered by dreadful terrain and weather. This operation was deemed the least likely to succeed by the Finnish-German command. Murmansk was to become a vital lifeline for Soviet Russia later in the war, but in early 1941 it was only deemed a secondary target by the Germans. While the objective of Platinfuchs was to capture Murmansk, the main aim of the operation was to tie down Russian troops, keeping them from the southern operations near Leningrad.

The Southern assault, codenamed Polarfuchs was to be the southern pincer of the Finnish-German assault. The German General der Kavallerie Hans Feige's XXXVI Armeekorps, with the two special purpose Panzer units attached, was to attack eastwards from the Kuusamo region along the line Salla-Urinsalmo. This operation was aimed at the capture of the town of Kandalaksha, by the White Sea in the Karelia region, in the process tying down troops from the Soviet Northern Front, who would otherwise be sent to defend against Platinfuchs, and to cut Murmansk and the Kola Peninsula from the rest of the Soviet Union.

At the same time, a Finnish-led operation, involving the Finnish Army of Karelia, would attack south towards Lake Ladoga and River Svir.

Operation Reindeer

The first phase, Renntier, was launched on 22 June 1941, to coincide with the launch of Operation Barbarossa. The two Gebirgs divisions, the 2. and 3.Gebirgs-Divisions of Gebirgskorps Norwegen moved out from the Norwegian Kirkenes and began deploying in the Finnish held area around Petsamo. The operation was successful, the appearance of a German Gebirgskorps on their border coming as a surprise to the Russians. Dietl's troops reformed and prepared for the launch of Platinfuchs. In the south, the units of Feige's XXXVI Armeekorps prepared for their attack. On 25 June 1941, the Soviets launched a major air offensive which brought Finland into the war.

Twin assaults

On June 29, Polarfuchs and Platinfuchs were launched.

File:Platinfuchs - Petsamo sector.jpg

Terrain around the Petsamo area in which the German Gebirgskorps Norwegen performed Operation Platinum Fox.

In the North, Dietl's attack got underway, with two Soviet divisions opposing his force. The terrain in this region resembles a barren moonscape. The intense cold meant that there are no trees and virtually no growth of any type. The landscape is strewn with large rocks, and is completely impassable to motor vehicles and tanks. Being almost roadless territory, Germans were forced to build the roads they needed, and all motor vehicles were confined to these, providing excellent targets for the Soviet artillery. To ease supply problems, Germans imported pack animals from Greece, but they soon perished in the harsh climate. The attack slowed and then stopped completely. The supply situation had much to blame for this outcome. The German-Finnish supplies had to come overland from the nearest railhead, some 531 km. The Soviets were only 60 km from the port of Murmansk, and blind tracks from the railway south passed close to their positions. As the Gebirgskorps slowly advanced, the Russians reinforced their front, adding another division and several naval infantry units from Murmansk itself. The Russians were now heavily entrenched and outnumbered their attackers. On 22 September, after repeated attempts to advance past the Litsa river, Dietl admitted that Platinfuchs had failed. The front line soon settled down as the Gebirgskorps halted offensive operations and dug in. For the remainder of the war, the northern front was to remain relatively stable, with small scale ski patrol operations being the order of the day.

File:Polarfuchs.jpg

Terrain around the Kuusamo area in which the German XXXVI Armeekorps performed Operation Arctic Fox.

In the south, Polarfuchs had begun on the same date as Platinfuchs. The terrain in the XXXVI Armeekorps sector was vastly different to that of its northern neighbour. The region around Kuusamo resembled a primeval forest, with gigantic trees towering over heavy undergrowth which was interspersed with countless small swamps, streams and bogs. This terrain was very imposing to the Germans, who for the most part had grown up in cities and the cultivated countryside. German morale suffered heavily. Despite the difference in appearance from the Northern region, the result of the terrain was the same. All motor traffic was confined to the few roads, allowing the Russian artillery to hold up the advance.

The SS-Kampfgruppe Nord was sent into action around the villages of Märkäjärvi and Salla. Despite the protest of its commander that the unit was not combat ready, the assault was ordered and soon got underway in the thick forest. In heavy fighting, the Kampfgruppe performed poorly and suffered heavy casualties, losing 700 men in two days and breaking in the face of enemy resistance. The advance on Kandalaksha slowed and stopped, with the troops of Feige's corps dug in and soon the front stagnated, just as it had in the north, combat being reduced to skirmishing and patrol actions. Finally, Hitler's abrupt order halted the German advance.

Conclusion

The failure of Silberfuchs was to have a lasting effect on the course of the war. While the rest of the Russian lines had collapsed in 1941, the forces of R.I. Panin's Northern Front had held, causing severe casualties of up to 15% on the German attackers. German failure can be attributed to a number of factors: the terrain, first and foremost, hindered the advance, and a lack of proper intelligence preparation led to faulty assumptions. The assault lacked a Schwerpunkt (point of maximum effort), the main factor in the successful Blitzkrieg strategy. The lack of a focus point for the German-Finnish attack meant that the necessary breakthrough was not possible, and the stagnation of the front was inevitable.

The port of Murmansk was to remain in Russian hands throughout the war, and around a quarter of all lend lease material was received through this port and the port of Archangel (the remainder coming through Vladivostok(almost half), Persia(quarter) and Black Sea(rest)). The supplies coming through this port helped the Soviets quickly recover from the disasters of 1941.

The war in the north dragged on until May 1945. In September 1944 the Finns sued for peace and the Lapland War began. In October 1944 the Red Army conducted the Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation, and achieved a decisive victory over the German forces in the Arctic.

See also

• Continuation War, Winter War, Lapland War
• Finland in World War II, Gebirgsjäger
• Wehrmacht, Karelia, Operation Platinum Fox
• Operation Arctic Fox
• Luftwaffe Nortern(Artic)detachment(Luftflotte 5)(Finland-Norway)