In fact, the Finnish army has mobilized a total of nearly 650,000 armed forces, including combat troops, local defense forces and border guards, of which the combat army has reached 470,000.
This is already an extremely heavy pressure for Finland with a total population of 3.5 million.
A force of this size and a huge proportion of military expenditures cannot be maintained for a long time.
Therefore, the Finnish government must take advantage of this moment when its military strength is at its peak, seize the opportunity to join the war between the Allies and the Soviet Union, and regain lost ground. Both Mannerheim and Finnish President Risto Ruti understand that if this
If they do not seize the historical opportunity to regain their lost territory, when the dust of the Soviet-German war settles, they will no longer have the opportunity to regain their lost land or expand more territory.
Since the Finns are eager to take land from the Soviets, Germany is not so anxious. At least, it must be no more anxious than Finland.
What Ribbentrop said was all very nice. He said that the German army and the Norwegian Army would help Finland regain its lost territory and assist Finland in occupying more Soviet land.
But in fact, because Reinhardt was worried that the Finns would stop at the end of the war and no longer bear too many military responsibilities for the Allies in the later stages of the war, he planned to let Finland bear enough responsibilities from the beginning.
Reinhardt is not a benevolent person. He doesn't care about things like helping Finland regain lost territory and establish a greater Finnish territory. In the final analysis, Reinhardt will never do anything to influence Germany for the benefit of the Finns.
Determination of interests.
Although Finland in this life has already recognized its alliance with the German army, and the two sides are allies rather than comrades-in-arms. However, Reinhard's trust in the Finns did not increase much.
Reinhardt knew very well that no matter from the historical performance of the Finns or from the economic pressure and difficulties caused by all Finnish soldiers, it was impossible for the Finns to participate in the war for a long time.
To put it bluntly, even if the Finnish generals are willing, their national strength does not support a long-term war.
The Finns will never do their best for the "sacred cause of defeating the Bolsheviks in the Soviet Union." Their politicians only care about the actual interests of their country.
Therefore, in order to make the best use of Finland, an ally that is strong in the early stage and can push back in the later stage, Reinhardt had no choice but to let the Finns bear more pressure and sacrifices from the beginning.
Didn't Finland deploy 15 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry brigade and 2 pike brigades on the front line? Didn't Finland use the No. 3 assault gun imported from Germany and the original backward tanks, and captured Soviet tanks to form 8 armored battalions?
? Doesn’t the Finnish Air Force still have 300 fighter planes and a large number of border airports built with German aid?
Then let the Finns use them, and let them use the hundreds of thousands of local defense troops and border guards at the rear. Let their soldiers bleed and die, and let their tanks and assault guns go to Finland.
The bloody attack on the border caused their air force to suffer slight losses in history. In this life, the casualties increased sharply due to the sudden increase in pressure.
Regarding Finland, Reinhard never regarded it as a partner.
In his speech, he compared Mannerheim and the Finnish generals to comrades and claimed that they were good comrades-in-arms of Germany.
But in fact, Finland, Bulgaria, Italy, even loyal and reliable Romania and Norway, all German allies, are nothing more than props to Reinhardt.
In this war with the Soviet Union, Reinhardt no matter how the process went, or how much sacrifice his allies would make, for the Third Reich, only his own victory was everything!
It doesn't matter how heavy the losses of the allies are, anyway, the country led by them must win in the end.
Then there won’t be any problems!
In the original historical time and space, too many allies eventually betrayed Germany and eventually became enemies of the German army. The reason was that Germany's own strength eventually weakened.
Therefore, Reinhard will do the opposite in this life, letting his allies bear more sacrifices and bloodshed, so as to preserve the strength of the German army as much as possible.
As for the Allied troops fighting side by side with the Finnish army, Germany no longer sends German troops to fight seamlessly with the Finnish army as it did in history.
The troops Reinhard prepared to give to the German Army Group Northern were reduced from the historical 12th Infantry Division, 32nd Infantry Division, 121st Infantry Division, 126th Infantry Division, 122nd Infantry Division, and 123rd Infantry Division, a total of 6
An infantry division.
The combat mission of the German Army Group Northern configured in this way is still to cross and liberate the Baltic countries and invade the northern Soviet Union.
Army Group Northern, commanded by General Wilhelm Rittel von Loeb, currently consists of 14 infantry divisions, 3 armored divisions, 2 motorized infantry divisions, 1 SS infantry division, and 3 garrison divisions.
division.
Although this was reduced by 6 infantry divisions compared to the historical Northern Army. However, in contrast, the infantry used by the Allies in the direction of the three Baltic countries was replaced by more Finnish infantry divisions.
Basically, the reduced German troops were replaced by more Finnish troops.
In addition to the Finnish troops, there are also two small Norwegian divisions, totaling about 8,000 Norwegian infantry, which will also be deployed in the northern battle.
Originally, Army Group North had very few armored forces, most of which were infantry units. This was determined by the terrain and combat tasks faced by Army Group North.
Reinhard just took a fancy to this, so he fully invested the infantry of Norway and Finland. They were all infantry anyway, and it would be better to sacrifice the infantry of the allies than to sacrifice the German infantry.
Moreover, in infantry operations, even if allied infantry is used to replace the German infantry, the impact will not be too great.
Although the infantry of the allies is no more elite than the German infantry, the essence of achieving victory by bearing sacrifices remains unchanged.
At least, it is very cost-effective to use the troops of the allies to bear the burden of consuming the northern forces of the Soviet army, to encircle Soviet cities such as Leningrad in the future, to consume them in street battles, etc.
"Don't worry, I will try my best to get greater assistance for Finland." When the convoy in which Mannerheim and Ribbentrop arrived at the Finnish government building, Ribbentrop got off the car and promised with a smile.
"I believe that we will cooperate fully in the future to jointly defeat the brutal Soviet invaders." Mannerheim still didn't know what kind of sacrifice the Germans were prepared to make them bear. At this moment, he sincerely told Ribbentrop
sermon.
"We will definitely cooperate fully. This is in the common interests of both countries." Ribbentrop concealed the "maximum utilization of allies policy" that Reinhard told him, and nodded and smiled pretending to be kind.
