FINLAND: The last Finnish offensive commences in the Kestenga sector. The Finns encircle two Soviet regiments and destroy them.
 

The interesting thing about this offensive is that it resulted from the local Finnish and German commanders' own initiative, quite against the orders of their superiors.

Finnish forces had taken Kiestinki (Kestenga) in August 1941, but late in the month the Finnish Infantry Regiment 53 had been encircled by the Soviet forces. The regiment finally managed to break out in early September, taking heavy losses (among them regiment commander Lt. Col.

Jussi Turtola, posthumously promoted to full colonel). Finns fought together with the Germans of SS Division 'Nord', which performance had been less than stellar. The division was subordinated to Maj. Gen.

Hjalmar Siilasvuo's Finnish III Army Corps (which in turn was subordinated to Gen. Falkenhorst's German Gebirgsarmee Norwegen) -- apparently the only time during the whole war when an SS division fought under non-German command. In September Hitler ordered Falkenhorst to stop attempts to advance and assume defensive stance all along his army's front.

However, Falkenhorst and Siilasvuo both wanted to have another go. They believed that chances of cutting the Murmansk Railway at Louhi (Loukhi) were reasonably good. While Falkenhorst was held back by Führer's orders, Siilasvuo was reined in by Finnish leadership. USA was making threatening noises about the consequences if Finland cut the Murmansk railway, and neither President Risto Ryti nor Marshal Mannerheim wanted to aggravate relations with the Western Allies. While Siilasvuo was subordinated to Germans, in practice he validated all his operational orders with Mannerheim before executing them. But now both Falkenhorst and Siilasvuo decided to attack despite their respective superiors.

Finnish Division J (Col. Väinö Palojärvi) and German SS Division 'Nord'

(SS-Brigf. Karl-Maria Demelhuber) were to attack towards Louhi under Siilasvuo's command. Officially the attack was disguised as a tactical operation to shorten Finnish III Army Corps's front line. But Siilasvuo informed the Finnish GHQ about the offensive.

The operation commenced on 1 November 1941. Finnish-German forces broke into the Soviet defenses, but 88th Rifle Division (Maj. Gen. Vladimir

Solovev) fought back with skill, and Soviets sent reinforcements. After initial difficulties the attack began to make good progress and the defending Red Army forces were encircled. On 11 November Red Army launched an unsuccessful counterattack to reach their encircled comrades, but without result. However, by 15 November majority of the encircled troops managed to infiltrate to safety in small groups -- claim that Finns destroyed two Soviet regiments appear to be over-optimistic.

But on 11 November Siilasvuo ordered his forces to start preparing defensive positions. Soviet resistance was stiffening, and the Finnish GHQ was worried about the heavy losses Finnish troops were taking.

President Ryti was also concerned about the political implications, and on 5 November wrote to Mannerheim, asking what was the purpose of the operation was. On the next day Mannerheim gave an order to stop Finnish offensive operations, stating that they interfered with the ongoing reorganization of the Finnish Army. Also on 11 November OKH sent a message to Falkenhorst reminding him of the orders to stay in defense and of Mannerheim's order to stop Finnish attacks. There also were tensions between Siilasvuo and Germans. SS Division 'Nord' wanted to act independently of the Finns and have a larger share of the operation.

Siilasvuo wouldn't allow that, because he had a low opinion of the SS soldiers and particularly of the quality of their officers. Siilasvuo accused the Germans of failing to reach their objectives and Germans in turn accused Siilasvuo of passivity when he stopped the offensive.

Around 18 November the Finnish-German offensive was brought to halt, and by the end of the month Soviet counterattacks had brought the front line back where it was at the beginning of November.