Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defence Forces, Field Marshal Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim celebrates his 75th birthday. The event is widely celebrated around Finland, despite Mannerheim's original wish to keep low profile and spend the day by visiting the soldiers in the front line. Mannerheim receives several delegations and is given the honorific title 'Suomen Marsalkka' (Marshal of Finland). The men of the field army receive a special ration of hard liquor.
There has been some speculation as to who will be the German envoy to bring Hitler's best wishes to Mannerheim. The most common guess is the corpulent Reichmarschall Hermann Göring, who personally knows Mannerheim. But late on the 3rd of June Finns receive surprising news: Der Führer himself will fly to Finland to personally congratulate Mannerheim.
The news of Hitler's arrival is received with mixed feelings by the Finnish leadership. It is flattering that Hitler thinks Mannerheim and the Finns worth a visit (for example, Hitler never visited his Hungarian or Rumanian allies), but on the other hand it is feared that Hitler will use the occasion to make demands of greater Finnish contribution to the war. Since the end of 1941 the Finnish Army has adopted a defensive posture, and it is speculated that Hitler is going to demand Finns to attack Leningrad from north. Other source of consternation is that Hitler's visit will make Finland look like a German dependant, which would worsen the relations with the Western Allies.
Despite these fears the Finns are relived to see a very polite and even a bit deferential man to arrive at the airfield in Immola with his Fw 200 'Condor' escorted by four Finnish Brewster B-239s which took over from Hitler's German escort fighters somewhere over the Gulf of Finland. President of the Republic Risto Ryti is there to receive Hitler, who brings with him a numerous retinue, among them Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel and the Reich Press Chief Otto Dietrich.
From the airfield they go to meet Mannerheim, who holds the reception in a nearby railway car. As Mannerheim and Hitler salute and greet, observers note that Der Führer seems to be somewhat taken aback by Mannerheim's presence. As a birthday gift, Hitler brings three Steyr-Daimler 1500 AO/2 luxury staff cars. Then they have a dinner, and both Mannerheim and Hitler hold short speeches. Afterwards they go to the lounge car where Hitler, Keitel, Mannerheim and Ryti have an informal discussion, which, unsurprisingly, is dominated by Hitler. He talks about the surprising strength of the Red Army, and his earlier conduct of war. He is very impressed by the Russian equipment and their resilience:
"We didn't know how terribly strong the beast was. [...the Russians] had the most terrifying equipment one could imagine. If someone would have told me that a state has 35 000 tanks, I would have said you must be insane. 35 000 tanks! We have already destroyed more than 34 000 tanks. If someone would have told me that, I... if one of my generals would have at my headquarters told me so, I would have replied that 'You, dear Sir, see everything two or ten times as much. It is madness, you see ghosts!' I didn't think it was possible."
"I couldn't expect that. If I would, I would have felt even more oppressed. But in that case I would have had even better reasons to make the decision [to invade USSR], there were no other options."
"It was clear to me already in the winter of 1939-40 that this [war between Germany and USSR] would come to happen. I had this nightmarish feeling, that even more... Because two-front war - it would have been disastrous. We would have broken."
Hitler also tells of the decision to postpone the attack in the west in 1939 and 1940 because of the weather and the influence of that decision in the war against USSR:
"...all our weapons were, and are, good-weather weapons [Schön-Wetter-Bewaffnung]! They're very efficient and good, but unfortunately only good-weather weaponry. We have seen that again in this war [against USSR]. All our weapons were designed to be used against West!"
"And we all were convinced that... we have thought since ancient times that one cannot wage war in winter!"
"And this postponement! If I would have dealt with France already in 1939, the world history would have taken another turn [Hätte ich im Jahre '39 Frankreich erledigt, dann wäre die Weltgesichte anders gelaufen]. So I had to wait until 1940, and it unfortunately wasn't possible until May... 10th of May was the first day of good weather!"
Hitler also laments how the need to bolster the Italians in the Balkans and North Africa necessitated a dispersion of the resources that would have been needed in the war against the USSR. He also explains why he didn't invade USSR already in 1940:
"In the late autumn 1940 we weren't ready! If the Russians would have occupied the Rumanian oil-wells, Germany would have lost!"
Etc. ad infinitum. Most of the discussion was secretly recorded by Finns by hidden microphones.
After this informal discussion, President Ryti sees Hitler back to the airfield. On the way Ryti mentions the recent combing of Cologne, and Hitler tells he is distressed by the bombings of historical German cities by the Allies: "With bleeding heart I had to give the order to retaliate by bombing similar [historically valuable] English cities, for example Canterbury." Before boarding his plane Hitler once more thanks Ryti for the Finnish partipation to the war.
Thus the unexpected guest is gone, and the Finnish leadership have a collective sigh of relief. During the whole time Hitler was very polite and considerate and didn't make any demands. It really seemed that he only came to congatulate Mannerheim.
Cheers,
Mikko
1Kommandeurwagen Kfz.2. These were high-suspension 4-wheel drive military vehicles suited for off-road touring of the front. This ubiquitous Steyr model, a variant of the Mercedes L1500 command car produced at the Steyr-Werke in Graz, and more a versatile truck than comfortable passenger vehicle, came in a number of variants, and could be found on all of the fronts that the Germans fought on during the war. [more] (Russ Folsom)(130)