I think that by the end of the war they had significant military forces (particularly air force) and had trained Norwegian and Danish forces that took over those countries at the end of the war.
Plus both sides were very much in need of Swedish resources (german reliance on iron ore) and manufactured goods (Ball bearings in particular, I believe the allies had a covert air lift to get them out to Britain). As a side-note, in my opinion he's a bit too pessimistic on the situation of the Finnish Army by March 1940, but that's not really important to this topic.Ĭlick to expand.Plus their navy was really significant in the Baltic (I've often read that this is what prevented the Germans invading them more then anything else as the Germans were worried that they could cut them off from the nordic countries (and after they invaded Norway this included large amounts of their troops plus their forces in Finland) and the resources from them). Dragging the war out further while also ending up in the Allied camp, alienating the only true source of aid to the Finns in the coming year, that is Germany, would likely have resulted with Finland becoming a part of the Soviet Union as the Karelo-Finnish SSR.Īs a bonus, here's a photo from Carl-Fredrik Geust's Red Wings in the Winter War 1939-40 on this topic, that I also posted on the Discord.
Fortunately Helsinki saw through this fairly obvious ruse and signed peace with Russia when it became a possibility. To the Allies Finland was but a chip on the board in the game of war against Germany. Furthermore they threatened to stop preparations for the expedition and immediately stop shipments of military and economic goods, primarily goods the Finns had paid for, if Finland continued peace talks with Russia. The Allies also promised to send 100 bombers with their crews to Finland's aid "immediately". The Allies initially promised the Finns 20,000 men in aid, and when the Finns entered peace negotiations with the Russians in March 1940, this number was raised to 50,000 men, on the condition that Finland officially requested help before March 12th. The plan was revised to include only the northern half of Sweden and the narrow adjacent Norwegian coast. The planned frontier involved Sweden's two largest cities but also could result in large amounts of Swedish territory to be occupied by a foreign army or to become a war zone. The Franco-British plan, as initially designed, proposed a defence of all of Scandinavia north of a line Stockholm–Gothenburg or Stockholm–Oslo (the British concept of the Lake Line following the lakes of Mälaren, Hjälmaren, and Vänern), which would provide a good natural defense some 1,700–1,900 kilometres (1,100–1,200 mi) south of Narvik. It was hoped that Allied intervention would eventually bring the neutral Nordic countries, Norway and Sweden, to the Allies by strengthening their positions against Germany, but Hitler had by December declared to the Swedish government that Franco-British troops on Swedish soil would immediately provoke a German invasion. On 2 March, transit rights were officially requested from the governments of Norway and Sweden. Plans were made to launch the operation on 20 March under the condition of a formal request for assistance from the Finnish government to avoid German charges that the Franco-British forces were an invading army. The first intervention plan, approved on 4–5 February 1940 by the Allied High Command, consisted of 100,000 British and 35,000 French troops, which would disembark at the Norwegian port of Narvik and support Finland via Sweden while they secured supply routes along the way. General Ironside in his diary already in early February 1940, when the plan was first being formulated. We must see that we are politically strong and that we remain quite cynical about everything except stopping the iron ore. One is almost frightened at the boldness of the plan, knowing what slender means one has at the moment to carry it out. I'll post a couple of quotes that I posted on the Discord over a week ago: However commanders of the expedition even had permission to not send any troops into Finland at all.
The main force of the expedition was to be deployed in Northern Scandinavia, while a token force was to continue east and cross the border into Finland to aid against the Russians.
The Franco-British plan to "aid" Finland was in reality just a plan to open a Northern Front against Germany, by denying Germany access to Scandinavian ore and dragging Sweden and Norway into the war. I actually discussed this just over a week ago in the history channel of the Black ICE Discord server.