Page 415 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo I

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The operation to re-capture Suursaari in March 1942 was not a fully joint operation,
but it resembles one. This successful operation was meticulously planned. Units from
different services participated under a single commander, Major General Aaro Pajari.
Even though the operation was initially planned at the Navy HQ, it later became an
Army operation. This was logical since the troops did not need any vessels and they
were moving on the ice cover of the Gulf of Finland. 4
The initial idea for the operation had come from the Germans who had promised
the Finns that they would conduct simultaneous operations and give air support. The
planning process was timed according to the wishes of the Germans. Even though their
promises were not kept the Finns decided to proceed with the operation as planned. Pa-
jari’s final plan drew upon the planning work that had been done at the HQ of Coastal
Brigade. The operation received abundant resources. The Red Army only had one battal-
ion there, but the Finns sent in a 3500-strong Detachment P(ajari), equal to a reinforced
regiment. It consisted of units from both the field army and the coastal forces, and it was
placed directly under the Finnish High Command (hereafter FHC). Detachment Pajari
had the support of two Air Force Regiments. The Air Forces, except for one squadron,
were not led by Pajari, but accomplished their mission independently.
5
Case 2: Multinational Combined Joint Naval Action on Lake Ladoga in the Au-
tumn of 1942
The Germans wanted to end the siege of Leningrad. The only life line to the besieged
city was through Lake Ladoga, so the Germans started to prepare naval action directed
to the southern parts of the lake. Even though the Finns, their co-belligerents, had taken
their major offensive action by December 1941 and had refused to take part in the siege
actively, they had harassed the Soviet lines of communication by mining the waters. In
the autumn of 1942 a small multinational Finnish-German-Italian naval task unit under
Finnish command was engaged in a minor joint effort against the Soviet supply routes

4 Mikko Karjalainen, Ajatuksista operaatioiksi: Suomen armeijan hyökkäysoperaatioiden suunnittelu
jatkosodassa (Helsinki: MPKK, 2009), 201–212, 215; Marko Palokangas & Ville Vänskä, ”Näkökulmia
yhteisoperaatioon – tahtoa, operaatiotaitoa ja johtamista”. Sotilasaikakauslehti n:o 3/2011, 57; Juho Talvitie,
Viipurinlahden taistelu 1944 Joint-operaatioiden näkökulmasta tarkasteltuna. Treatise, National Defence
University 2011, 19.
5 The initial plan for the Suursaari operation, 5 January 1942, The commander’s order to the Coastal Brigade
of the Eastern Gulf of Finland, 1 February 1942 and the Navy HQ’s comments (including an alternative plan)
on the operations plan, 13 February 1942. Sekalaisia asiakirjoja 1942, Itä-Suomenlahden Rannikkoprikaatin
Esikunnan arkisto, T 19574/24, KA; Lieutenant Colonel T. V. Viljanen’s diary entries, 19 March and 2
April 1942. Kenraaliluutnantti T. V. Viljasen kokoelma, PK 1240/96, KA; Palokangas & Vänskä 2011,
57; Karjalainen 2009, 215, 217–218; Uolevi Tirronen, KotRPsto: Kotkan Rannikkopatteristo 1918–1993
(Jyväskylä: Rannikkotykistön Upseeriyhdistys, 1994), 92; T. Reponen, ”Rannikkojoukot sodissa”. In:
Suomen rannikkotykistö 1918–1958 (Helsinki: Rannikkotykistön Upseeriyhdistys, 1959), 265; Jatkosodan
historia 6 (Porvoo: WSOY, 1994), 86–87.