British Forces involved in Finland 1919 & 1941

[Michael Dobbs]

I have received the following enquiry:

[color=maroon]I am writing a manuscript and at the same time doing background research for my new Postal History collection "Field Post in Finland".
I am currently struggling with two major problems relating to the British forces/troops in Finland in the 20th century.
The first challenge is in 1919, when British troops marched towards city of St Petersburg and the second to year 1941, when Liinahamari and Kirkenes harbours suffered some minor annoyances after the visit of Albacores, Fullmars and Hawker Sea Hurricanes.

If the Society has already published some writings or some of your members do have some ideas regarding these operations and especially field post relating to these events, I would be extremely honoured to have some more information.[/color]

Is anyone able to help with any information or suggest someone to contact?

Thanks, Mike

[Alan Baker]

I think the expert on Finland is Mike Elliott - not a member but he gave a display to a meeting a few years ago

[Michael Dobbs]

Thanks Alan - I am in contact with Mike Elliott over this.

Thanks also to Nick Colley who has provided the following information:

The following information has been found in the book "Hurricanes over Murmansk" by John Golley, which reveals that the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) carried out raids on Kirkenes and Petsamo (in Finland, on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia) in July 1941 from the carriers HMS Furious and HMS Victorious:

"Hurricanes over Murmansk" by John Golley
Published by The Crowood Press Ltd (2001)
ISBN 10: 1840372982 ISBN 13: 9781840372984

HMS Furious:
July
1st Arrived at Gibraltar and later sailed for Scapa Flow to resume duties with Home Fleet.
23rd Sailed from Scapa Flow for Iceland with HM Cruiser ADVENTURE and HM Aircraft Carrier VICTORIOUS escorted by ships of 1st Cruiser Squadron and Fleet destroyers.
28th Detached with HMS ADVENTURE for passage to Archangel.
(Note: HMS ADVENTURE was carrying mines for use by Soviet Fleet.)
30th Carried out series of air strikes at Petsamo.
(Note: Operation EF – This also included air attacks on Kirkenes by HMS VICTORIOUS.
Attacks on Petsamo were unsatisfactory owing to early detection and eleven SWORDFISH aircraft were lost. See CONVOYS TO RUSSIA by R Woodman)
see: [url=https://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-04CV-Furious.htm]https://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-04CV-Furious.htm[/url]

HMS Victorious:
July
6th Working up exercises for embarked FAA Squadrons in NW Approaches.
23rd Deployed with HM Aircraft Carrier FURIOUS and 1st Cruiser Squadron to escort HM Minelaying Cruiser ADVENTURE carrying mines to Murmansk (Operation EF).
30th Deployed with HM Cruisers DEVONSHIRE and SUFFOLK screened by 6 destroyers of the Home Fleet as Force P.
Carried out air strikes on Kirkenes concurrently with similar attacks by HMS FURIOUS on Petsamo for air attacks after refuelling in Iceland.
(Note:  11 ALBACORE and 2 FULMAR aircraft from ship were lost)
see: [url=https://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-04CV-Victorious.htm]https://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-04CV-Victorious.htm[/url]

The missions would have been launched from offshore Murmansk.
That would explain the reference to the naval aircraft.

Reference to Operation EF - see [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_EF_(1941)]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_EF_(1941)[/url]

Mike

[Chris Grimshaw]

Mike

You may care to direct the enquirer to ' Churchill's Secret War with Lenin'  British and Commonwealth Military Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1918-20 by Damien Wright ISBN 978-1-911512-10-3

Pages 21 to 24 have an account of actions involving the German backed White Finnish faction, in the Russian Karelia region and British Marines from HMS Cochrane.

No postal history mentioned but an excellent account.

Chris

[Chris Grimshaw]

A further source, this time a Postal History tome is

'Foreign Military Activity in the Russian Civil War 1917  1923'  by the late Edward Klempka.

Section 15, Scandinavia covers Finland. Shown and described is mail to and from Finland and Finnish troops engaged in operations in Estonia supporting Estonia against the Bolshevik forces.  Finland sent 3,50 men who were involved between December 1918 and May 1919. Pages 269 - 272

I was privileged to know Ed well and well remember a major display of this Intervention material he gave to a PHS Conference weekend.

The British operated the main postal system in North Russia which was also used by allied forces. In a table Ed shows (page 133) details of troops evacuated from North Russia. On 31.8.19 the vessel 'Kursk'  departed from North Russia carrying 10 Officers and 1,025 Other Ranks from the Finnish Legion.  He illustrates No mail from the Finnish Legion.

Chris

[Michael Dobbs]

Chris - thank you for your two responses.  I shall pass on the details.  It looks as though the person making the enquiry will also join the Society!

Mike

[Chris Grimshaw]

A little more from Damien Wright's tome,

NREF Order of Battle records the following,  15 December, 1918  Page 526

Kandalaksha, (located on the White Sea)

Headquarters of 238th Brigade Colonel Burton, among troops listed are 800 men from the Finnish Legion. A summary table on page 528 shows a total of 920 Finns,

No other location shown for these troops.

Chris

[Chris Grimshaw]

Following further research on these confusing times,, have been re-reading the following

'The King of Karelia' Col P.J. Woods and the British Intervention in North Russia 1918 - 1919  A History and Memoir, Nick Baron. ISBN 978 1 903427 32 3

This tome is in two parts, Part 1 written by Nick Baron is an engaging study of P.J. Woods life and times.

Chapters 6 and 7 , pages 51 to 101 cover his time in North Russia and involvement in activities in the Karelai Region.

Part 2 'Karelian Diary by Colonel Philip J. Woods As stated a full record of his time here in his own words, too complex to highlight any particular matters but highly recommended for those who wish to develop a deeper understanding  of this conflict and its philatelic connections.

Chris

[Michael Dobbs]

Mike Elliott has responded directly to the person making the enquiry as follows:

[color=maroon]As far as I am aware British troops were involved in Finland on 3 occasions:
1. 1919. This is one that I was not aware of until your email although I believe the British navy did have ships in the Gulf of Finland.
2. 1940. There were 214 British volunteers that arrived in Finland, but they got there too late and arrived too late to take an active part in the Winter War. There is a book giving details of this group.
3. 1941. The 'minor annoyances' caused by the aircraft in Northern Finland arose from the declaration of war by Britain on 7 December 1941. Churchill had a good relationship with Mannerheim and so was reluctant to declare war on Finland, but Stalin put on a lot of pressure and war was declared. I attended a conference on 6 December 2017 to celebrate 100 years of Finnish independence. At that conference we were told by the Finnish Ambassador that, as far as she was aware, it's the only time in history that a declaration of was [i][war][/i] has not resulted in casualties on either side.
Although I am not a member of The Forces Postal History Society your enquiry was passed to me because I gave a display to The Royal [i][Philatelic][/i] Society London on 18 November 2021 called 'Finland at War'. This was basically about the wars and mobilisation exercises from the War for Independence up to the end of The Lapland War. As part of the I produced a booklet (32 pages) and I'd be happy to send you a copy. To do this I'll need your full postal address.[/color]

[Nick Colley]

Hmm, curious that the Petsamo raid took place more than four months [u]before[/u] the formal declaration of hostilities between the UK and Finland.

With respect to casualties on 30th July 1941, I attach a list - taken from https://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1941-07JUL.htm. You can see how many there are from the FAA squadrons embarked on HMS Furious and HMS Victorious. 

chrs
N

[Colin Tabeart]

THe Royal Navy had a significant force in  the Baltic during the Intervention Period 1919-20 including a squadron of light cruisers, several destroyers, CMBs and a flotilla of submarines. The force was led by RA Cowan. "Cowan's War" by Geoffrey Bennett, republished in 2002 as "Freeing the Baltic", ISBN 1-84341-001-X might be of interest to the enquirer. They were certainly very active in the Gulf of Finland, and we lost several ships including submarine L55, HMS Verulam, Cassandra and Vittoria. Good hunting, Colin