It may be because peace with Japan was reached and its worries were resolved. Recently, the Soviet Union's demands on Finland have become increasingly excessive.
Stalin first demanded mining rights in Portsamo, and then asked Finland to provide armed crossing rights for the Soviet army.
The Finns also had a temper, and once again did not buy into the Soviet Union's request, and once again asked Germany for help. This time the two sides finally hit it off, and the two sides immediately launched negotiations at the foreign minister level.
The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs ordered the minister to inform Germany that the Helsinki authorities hoped that Germany could guarantee Finland's independence during negotiations with the Soviet Union and, if possible, restore the borders to the 1939 borders with only some adjustments so that the Soviets could retain what they believed was the
An area of great importance to the defense of Leningrad.
Of course, these Finnish suggestions were useless, because contrary to what he claimed to the Finns, Reinhardt did not engage in any negotiations with the Soviet Union.
When this order was issued, it was less than a month before Reinhardt's scheduled invasion of Britain. Once Britain and Germany started fighting, how could the Soviet Union still calm down and listen to Germany's mediation proposals for Finland?
It is natural and natural for us to feel that Germany occupied the land. The Soviet Union took advantage of Finland, so it should be criticized all the time? This is not appropriate, right?
It was not until February 3, 1940, that the German representative came to Mannerheim and bluntly asked whether Finland was willing to participate in the Allied camp's joint operation against the Soviet Union. If he did, what would Finland want to gain?
Mannerheim began to feel surprised and wanted to bring the topic to the question raised by Finland: What would Germany plan to do if the Soviet Union attacked Finland again?
However, the German representative asked in turn: If the Soviet Union launched an attack on Germany, what should Finland do?
In the end, Mannerheim had no choice but to say that if Germany agreed to send troops to rescue Finland when it was attacked, then Finland would also promise to provide help when Germany was attacked.
But Reinhard is not happy anymore. If you are beaten, I will go to war. If I am beaten, you will only provide vague "help"?
No, absolutely not!
Reinhardt, who had always been unwilling to suffer losses, immediately issued instructions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requiring Finland to give Germany a clear answer on how much help they could provide.
Therefore, Mannerheim expressed his approval for the troops of two allied divisions from the German camp to be stationed in Lapu Province.
However, Mannerheim also played a little trick here. He agreed to enter the country only for German Allied troops, not the German army.
After all, if the German army were really allowed to enter Finland, the problem would be even more troublesome. If Stalin had heard about this, he might have been planning to attack the Soviet army in Germany first, and he might have come to Finland first to launch the first round of the liquidation war.
However, Mannerheim's cleverness coincided with Reinhard's idea of saving German troops.
In the end, the troops transported by the Allies to Lapp Province included a new infantry division from Norway and an Italian infantry division that passed through Lapp Province to Serkenes in northeastern Norway and then entered Finland.
With these two divisions, the Finns themselves feel a lot more at ease. After all, this can also be their helper in the future.
However, Mannerheim did not place all his hopes on the Allied forces.
After reaching secret agreements with Germany, Italy, and Norway, the Finnish army immediately ordered partial mobilization on February 10, and then carried out expanded mobilization on February 14, deploying defensive troops on the eastern border.
As of February 16, the total number of Finnish armed forces, consisting of combat corps, local defense forces and border guard forces, has reached 550,000, of which 440,000 are combat corps.
The Finnish Army was newly organized into 12 divisions, 5 corps, 3 army headquarters, and 1 naval headquarters. The entire army is equipped with 556,000 ordinary rifles, 14,500 rapid-fire rifles, 5,400 machine guns, 13,700 submachine guns, and 3,500 guns.
But Reinhardt's purpose was to completely win over Finland. He was prepared to get help from hundreds of thousands of Finnish troops in the future war against the Soviet Union.
So later, when a Finnish military delegation headed by Mannerheim's Chief of Staff General Heinrichs visited the German High Command, Reinhard signaled Paulus to tell the Finnish delegation that the Soviet army had already moved along the Soviet
A large number of troops were concentrated on the western border, which made it necessary for Germany to take corresponding actions.
The German side pointed out that Germany had no intention of launching a war against the Soviet Union, but in the event of an attack by the Soviet Union, Germany would be forced to take military operations in the Far North, including mobilizing two divisions from Finland. After final consultations on this plan, the Finnish side
I also agreed to this request.
On the surface, it seems that Reinhardt sent two divisions to defend the independence and freedom of the Finns, and then let these two divisions fight for Germany when needed. It seems a bit like a thankless good guy, and he does not
Didn't get much in return.
But this is just a superficial phenomenon. In fact, after the Finns agreed to Reinhardt's request, they did not realize how miserable they would be in the future if they wanted to protect themselves wisely.
As soon as war broke out between Germany and the Soviet Union, Reinhardt unilaterally declared in a radio speech that the Germans "allied with their Finnish comrades" and "fight together on the Arctic Ocean coast."
So, even though Finland had not actually formed an alliance with Germany at this time, and even the Finnish government issued a statement that morning denying Reinhardt's statement and announcing neutrality, with the two divisions in Finland launching an attack on the Soviet Union from Finland
If the offensive on the northern flank of the army begins, then Stalin will definitely regard the Delfin alliance as a fait accompli.
From Stalin's perspective, if there were already troops in Finland attacking the Soviet Union, Finland would definitely form an alliance with Germany.
Under these specific conditions designed by Reinhardt, it is difficult to imagine that Finland will not be involved in the future Soviet-German war.
In the end, Reinhard believed that Finland could only do nothing but join the German camp and actually go to war with the Soviet Union in order to regain the lost territory.
Afterwards, Reinhard also deliberately and falsely proposed that after the Soviet-Finnish war, German generals with outstanding military talents could command some of the troops in Finland, as was done in Spain and Norway, so as to achieve maximum effect.
But Mannerheim knew that if he accepted this suggestion, he would definitely have to obey Reinhard in the future. At least after Spain and Norway accepted this request, they never broke away from German control.
As a result, Finland once again rejected Reinhardt's "good intentions."
The cautious Mannerheim always demanded that the Finnish army's war be limited to recovering the Soviet-occupied lands and was unwilling to make further commitments.
From his point of view, this move would not lead to deep hatred of the Soviet Union, but it also agreed to the request to fight together with the German army.
Mannerheim's calculation was very precise. If the situation allowed, the Finnish army could start fighting simultaneously with the German army. However, once the Finnish army regained the lost ground, it would have fulfilled its promise and could abandon the German army and stop.
However, he did not expect Reinhardt to be more precise in his calculations: If the Soviet army launched a large-scale counterattack in the direction of Finland due to the provocation of the Italian and Norwegian infantry divisions of the Allies, do you think the German army would divide its forces to rescue it?