Midnight Sun - Kaiserreich Finland

grayghost said:

Tough campaign on New Guniea. Looks like Japan through everything in and the kitchen sink. Are those Manchurian and Mengukoan troops I see?

A Finnish Carrier Task Force. Never thought I would see that.

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Yup, the puppets are doing most of the fighting.

11. All quiet on the Far-East front

The rest of the year 1939 was quiet. At least for the military part. The Pacific War had settled down in a trench warfare, with New Guinea being the main front, along with occasional attacks on Singapore.

The American 2nd Civil War had ended in a victory for the USA. The war with the AUS was pretty much a victory march after the AUS troops were defeated after the initial AUS advances. The USA was now a military dictatorship under General Douglas MacArthur. The US policy was now staunchly isolationist and concentrated on rebuilding the damages done by the Civil War, so US intervention in the Pacific War wasn't likely.

Japan seemed to be unstoppable in Siberia. Russia couldn't reclaim any of the territories lost to Japan, but Japan wasn't making any advances either. The freezing winter of Siberia settled on October and the front was stabilized for the winter.


In Finland, the people celebrated the birthday of the crown-prince twins Wolgang and Philipp on their 43rd birthday. The King was getting old, already 71 years old, and was preparing to leave the throne to Prince Philipp.
On the 18th of November, news of joy filled the kingdom. The King's second youngest son, Prince Christoph, twin brother of Prince Wilhelm, announced that his wife had given birth to a boy. The boy was baptised as Rainer, Prince of Hesse-Kassel, on the 20th of December.

In January, the relations between the Commune of France and Germany, altough never warm, plummeted. The French were keen to spread their revolution beyond their own borders and the German communists tried to arrange general strikes and demonstrations against the government.
Mob violence resulted and in some little towns, complete anarchy reigned. The government replied with force, sending the police and the army to arrest the communists and anarchists, most of who were British and French. Commune of France, supported by the Union of Britain, lodged a protest against the treatment of communists in Germany, demanding the release of imprisoned demonstrators. Germany answered that the Syndicalists had no were in a no position to demand anything after these acts of terror.

Commune of France answered with war and the Union of Britain and Republic of Sicilies were soon to follow.

Altough the imprisonment of British and French communists was the 'official* reason for the war, the real reason was the result of 20 years of political progress in France, with a sense of 'rematch' from the Great War. The French saw this only as a justified act to reclaim to internatonal standing as a great power and the territories lost in the Great War.
The conflict known as the Second Great War had begun.

After hearing the news, the health of King Karl Freedrik collapsed and he was rushed into a hospital. The King died in in the 18th of January, after five days of medical treatment, hallucinations and seizures. A period of official mourning was announced for two weeks, with flags lowered half-staff all over the country.

Crown Prince Philipp ascended to the throne after the mourning period, on the 2nd of February and took the name Kaarle II of Finland.
His task was now to lead the country in these turbulent times.

RGB said:

Lots of twins there....

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The King was a very...manly man.

grayghost said:

Although Finnish, he sounds like he may have been a "Knytling".

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I've never been fully familiar with the term but I think six children with four of the twins should be enough for that title.

grayghost said:

The term "Knytling" is actually in reference to a CK AAR by Phargle about a Danish dynasty that had some quetionable sexual habits. Did not mean to confuse. If you haven't read it, give it a shot.

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I have read some of it, and just for clarification, "manly"="virile", just in case someone got something wrong. .

12. New rule


The Crown of Kaarle II

The political deck of Finland was reshuffeled when King Kaarle II rose to the throne. Some of the Ministers, which the King thought were too right-wing or corrupt, were replaced and the general political standing was leaning more towards Germany and Authoritarian Democratism than Paternal Autocratism. Armaments Minister Juho Niukkanen was replaced by Arvi A. Oksala and the chief of the Air-Force Tauno Viljanen was replaced by Toivo Somerto

The Government of 1940


A new state flag was introduced, replacing the old one. The general design was the same, but the blue cross was darkened a little and the Royal Crown was placed atop the Coat of Arms, representing the royal rule in Finland.

In the military front, Poland joined the fight by declaring war on the Republic of the Sicilies.

While the Navy was moving towards Portugal to prevent possible landing attempts, it was intercepted by a British destroyer squadron in the Dogger Bank. The battle was brief.

When the Navy arrived in the Coast of Porto, the British invasion force was spotted and intercepted. The Brits lost three transport fleets.

In the beginning of May, the British bombing campaign on German ports was becoming a problem. The Finnish Royal Air-Force was tasked to intercept any bombers attempting to cross the straits of Denmark.


The Finnish 1st Armored Group was shipped to Germany, where they were ordered to move to Antwerp. The group participated in the assault on Bruxelles, aimed to retake the Flandern-Wallonien capital from the French. The assault was succesful.

The 1st Armored Group was the first unit to enter Bruxelles. The French ordered a counter-attack, and the Finnish tanks were the only unit in the city, while German infantry was miles away. The French attacked with eleven divisions, but miraculously, the Finns held out. The heroic defense of the city was beyond anything in recent Finnish military history. The battle raged on for two days, until the German infantry could break the siege and relief the defenders. For their heroic efforts, the unit was awarded with the Cross of Liberty 1st Class.

grayghost said:

Your navy seems to be doing well against the brits. Why are you defending german air space, what's wrong with their air force? The battle of Brussels was pretty cool.

And I know what "virile" means, I was just having fun with you.

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It seems that the Brits found a hole in the air defences of Germany. I just sent my fighters to fill that hole.<--- I know what you are thinking, you dirty, dirty man! :rofl:

General_Grant said:

Woa... Finland, fighting in Belgium and Portugal, destroying the Royal Navy...
Can we have a large view of your empire, please?

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All on due time , my friend.

Simon-1979 said:

the Finnish forces might not be massive in numbers but certainly awesome in quality and training - and thier reputation is growing by the hour. Considering the numbers the importance of the Finnish force in war is second to none. Losses of whole units will have a huge impact on the balance of the current battlefront as I doubt that the Finnish manpower and industrial base can replace such losses quickly.......but anyway - onwards! - For Finland!

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Then I'll just have to make sure that I won't lose whole units. Simple. But the Finnish industrial base is quite good now, actually.

13. When you go to war, you better be ready to lose as well.

The situation on the European front was quite stable for some time. The German high-command was planning a massive offensive in the Elsass-Lothringen sector. The offensive was set to start on the 15th of April.
The German forces forced a breakthrough and managed to take Chaumont and Troyes.


Meanwhile, the French started an offensive of their own in the southern and northern sector. The overwhelming assault on Bruxelles dislodged the Fenno-German defenders. The Finnish troops were forced to retreat after holding the city for a month. On the southern front, the defenders of Mulhouse were defeated and the French troops advanced to Freiburg.


This didn't stop the Germans from advancing further in the central front. Reims was taken on the 8th of May and Mulhouse retaken on the 9th of May, effectively cutting off the French in Freiburg, who were quickly defeated.


The Finnish 1st Armored Group was redeployed to the central front, with the task of advancing to Paris. The German Spriong Offensive was rolling with full steam and the Finnish forces quickly advanced on the outskirts of the French capital. The city fell on the 20th of May.


After that, the Finnish forces were ordered to take Le Havre, thus encircling the British and French units into a huge pocket and cutting off their supply lines.

The front in June.

The French forces were now literally running for their lives, since the bulk of the Army was encircled in the north. The German forces were advancing unopposed through the country. The pocket in the north shrunk and shrunk until the last defenders surrendered. Nothing could save France now.

The front from July to August

Until finally, Germany annexed the Commune of France on the 28th of August. Union of Britain now stood alone.

14. Great victories are often followed by great defeats

After the fall of France, the immediate threat of enemy invasion was pushed aside, since Britain now stood alone and the battle raged now in the sea and air rather than land. But then, disturbing news arrived. Norway had allowed British ships to ressupply in their ports and provided Britain oil and other war materials. The non-agression pact between Finland was immediately revoked and all trade between the two countries cancelled. Norway replied by general mobilization.
On the 10th of September, Finland declared war on Norway.

The war was short, since British reinforcements could not reach Norway in time and Norway only had two divisions of infantry and one wing of bombers ready to be deployed before the war. Finland, on the other hand, had deployed the Southern-Swedish Group with three divisions, each with an engineer brigade attached, in Åmal and the Lapland Group with three mountain divisions in Gällivare.

Finnish troops entered Oslo on the 12th of September, but the Lapland Group had difficulties in the mountainous terrain near Narvik and managed to secure Narvik finally in the 23rd of September. Norway surrendered the next day. The terms of surreder were quite similar to the ones applied with Sweden, with the royal family allowed to stay and such.


Finland after the war with Norway

Meanwhile, in Siberia, the Russians were making some gains in Manchuria. The Russian autumn offensive had almost reached the Manchu capital and the Japanese were rushing troops from other parts of the front to repulse the Russian invasion.

The Russian autumn offensive.
And then, disaster struck. When the Finnish Navy was patrolling in the coast of Porto, it was spotted by Britsh recon aircraft from the carrier Internationale. The Internationale, along with other carriers of her fleet, quickly launched the rest of their aircrafts. When they were spotted in the Finnish fleet, panic ensued. The Navy wasn't ready to fully take on a carrier-fleet before the three Finnish carriers would be deployed, and the current fleet was mainly for intercepting enemy transport fleets and their escorts. The enemy planes quickly closed in and sunk the Marjatta and iflicted heavy damage on the Ilmarinen. The Ylijumala was clearly the main target, and it was hit three times, the third one finally hitting in the ammo-storage and exploding the whole ship into a million pieces. The Finnish Navy was thus effectively demolished as a capable fighting-force.

The explosion of the battleship Ylijumala