Battle of Tampere

[Latausnuija]

90 years ago on April the 6th 1918 ended the battle of Tampere, the largest and the most important battle of the Finnish Civil War. 16 000 white guardists led by general C.G.E. Mannerheim conducted an offensive against the 14 000 red guardists holding the city. Almost 1000 of the whites and 2000 of the reds died. Hopefully something like that will never happen again.

[T19]

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[Latausnuija]

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Well to be quite honest I'm not much of a storytell, but I'll try. The battle started in the village of Messukylä, the battle raged on and pogressed slowly along the ridge of Kalevankangas towards the city.

 

The following is just the beginning of the battle freely adapted from the professor Ylikangas's book "Tie Tampereelle":

 

There were four cannons around the church, a machine gun in the church bellry and two cannons in the forest east of the church. The road on the high ridge made for a good defence line and behind were two stone churches and three stonewall lined cemetaries waiting for the attackers. On the south side of the third cemetary there were large sand pits. The red guardists had plenty of places to hold to.

 

A company of Helsinki red guardists were defending the ridge together with a number of red guardists from Tampere and St Petersburg. They were supported by red artillery from Järvensivu and an armored train. The whites tried to assault the Messukyä ridge with a full frontal assault but were repulsed.

 

2nd ltnt Lennart Nordenswand decided to continue the battle in the morning. A strong line was organized to the cemetary, because immediately behind the stonewall of the cemetary the red guardists were still defending. Nordenswan came to the positions at night and shouted to the reds to send a negociator to a cannon placed on no mans land. The guardsmen agreed. From behind the stonewall came a man, shook Nordenswans hand and said: "Hell of a fine uniform". Nordenswan demanded the reds to surrender, The guardsman went to his own, returned and announced that the worker soldiers will fight to the last drop of blood. The mend shook hands again and parted.

 

7 (white) battalions and 3 artillery batteries were placed on the field with the aim of pushing to the edge of the city.

 

Verner Lehtimäki, who was acting as the highest red commander of the area, ordered Juha Aarnio with his platoon to rear guard to prevent the men from retreating. Together with individual men and groups, the whole Teisko company as caught who motivated its flee with the fact that they had not gotten any food for four days.

 

Major Malmberg got the order from colonel Wetzer on March the 25th to make a frontal assault againsta Messukylä. The major smoked his cigar for a while, put the order a side and then told ltnt Heikinheimo to go to the Vehmainen railway station to look for a possibility to attack from there with smaller casualties. Heikinheimo did as he was told.

 

Ekström took 18 volunteers, equipped them with ample hand grenades and waited till 4 o'clock afternoon when Malmbergs artillery started to shell the ridge. Seven cannons shelled the ridge for ten minutes while Ekströms men ran along the road on the west of the ridge. When the artillery fire was lifted, the runners took the defenders by surprise with their hand bombs. The red guardists in their fox holes did not even notice that they were being mowed from the side. The reds who ran from the nearby shed were caught in a rain of bullets and fragments. The shed soon fell apart from the power of handgrenades. In short Ekströms maneuver was extremely powerful and effective despite its small size. It decided the battle. Most of the ridge and the village fell to the whites within fifteen minutes without Ekström losing a single man.

 

After the above, the battle of Tampere raged on for about two weeks.

 

Trivia: The prime minister of Sweden Olof Palme was named after his granduncle who took part on the glorious and beautiful (but unsuccesful) assault the swedish volunteer brigade made on the ridge of Kalevankangas against the dugin red guard machine gun posts. After the unsuccesful assault of the swedish volunteers the whites concentrated 16 companies suported by artillery and that finally broke the red defence of Kalevankangas.

 

Red guards women:

http://virtuoosi.pkky.fi/vilma/historia/pknaiset.jpg

 

Tampere after the battle:

http://www.uta.fi/koskivoimaa/valta/1918-4...at/Kltamme2.jpg

[Archie Pellagio]

For the few amongst us who are embarrasingly ignorant of Finnish history would "red" and "white" be implying communist and nationalist/fascist/royalist/miscellaneous-non-communists?

[Guest JTV]

For the few amongst us who are embarrasingly ignorant of Finnish history would "red" and "white" be implying communist and nationalist/fascist/royalist/miscellaneous-non-communists?

 

When it comes to Finnish Civil War:

 

- Reds = Finnish socialists + Russian Bolshevik volunteers. While officially their leadership was revolutionary wing of Finnish Social Democratic Party, for all practical purposes they were Communists. After loosing Finnish War political leaders of "Red Finland" fled to Bolshevik controlled part of Russia, where in Moscow they founded Finnish Communist Party still that same year (1918). Among the Reds were also Russian Boshevik soldiers (usually specialists who operated artillery, machineguns, armoured trains etc and some of which worked as military advisors). While the number of Russian soldiers taking part in battle was relatively small in other areas than Carelian Isthmus (where Reds had whole Russian units fighting for them). However the Russian Bolsheviks had even more important role in providing war materials for the Finnish Reds. Typically Finnish Reds were non-land-owning rural population (crofters, agricultural workers etc), industrial workers and artisans, in other words what could be called the working class.

 

- Whites = Members of other Finnish political groups, basically all non-Communists. This included what after the war proved to be Royalists and Republicans (Finland almost became a kingdom shortly after this war) and what not. However no Fascists, since the world's first Fascist party wasn't established until three years later (year 1921 in Italy). Typically the Finnish Whites were land-owning rural population (farmers), middle class and upper class. But due to universal conscription used by the White Army, it contained also some people from area controlled by White Army with similar background as what the members of Red Guards had. Finnish Whites were supported by the Germans, who took part in the part in this war with some naval units and army units (Baltic Sea Division + Brandenstein Brigade) and supplied Finnish White Army with war materials.

 

Wikipedia article about Finnish Civil War:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Civil_War

 

Maps showing progress of battles in Tampere (Messukylä battle is in the first one):

http://www.vapaussota.com/taistelut/tampere.html

 

Two news films from Finnish Civil War, the first one is about the whole war (and some 18 minutes long), while the second one shows the victory parade of White Army in Helsinki 16th of May 1918 (just click the arrow, they work with Windows media player):

http://www.vapaussota.com/filmit.html

 

It may be worth noting that before World War 2 Tampere battle of Finnish Civil War was the largest battle ever fought in Nordic Countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland).

 

Jarkko

[swerve]

I didn't even know there'd been a battle. They'd rebuilt the place by the time I went there.

[Exel]

There are still some buildings left from that time in Tampere, few notable ones right in the city center too. I live there, and sometimes it feels strange walking around places and streets in everyday surroundings that I know have been battle sites before. Of course most of the time you wouldn't think about it, but these times when the war gets a lot of media attention one is reminded of the history of those places more frequently.

[Sailor Lars]

Exel, you caught my words exactly there about living in the areas of not-so-pleasant history not-so-long time ago, as i happen to live just about 200 meters from Radiomäki, Lahti. To be exact, i actually live on the slope of the ridge/hill. Most of my life and childhood i lived right next to Hennala barracks.

 

And referring to that other ghastly topic about ghosts and such - no geists have been bothering me here as far as i do know Some of the local lore goes that quite many people were gunned on the camps at Hennala and Radiomäki, but the finnish civil war's happenings are a rather obscure topic in Finland even today. A bit gloomily, my school-route that i walked for years to Lotila happened to go right through the major red strongpoints of the war, for the exception of Hennala. Not to threadjack the topic further, Lahti, where i live, is a major logistic hub, and one of the last major battles of finnish civil war, as remnants of Tampere battle were fleeing towards east, through Lahti, if i'm not completely wrong? Feel free to correct.

 

The major prison/concentration camp areas (lots of plains) of Lahti have been constructed afterwards. Some of them quite recently. If someone would want to know more about that, there's actually a museum exhibition at the very moment at Lahti Historic Museum.

 

5 thousand people town back then with ~20 000 prisoners according to local newspaper, you do the math. No wonder there's quite a still of local mythos about what happened.

 

Also, i have not much to add to JTVs description about whites and reds, except perhaps for that your average guardsmen was very likely forcefully drafted when it comes to reds - when it comes to whites, many of the Pohjanmaa-region were "tricked and drawn" into a war that was actually quite different than what they were told - They ended up fighting their own countrymen instead of kicking the russians out. Though what i know about it is mostly just a young man's base-knowledge and local mythos without much evidence to back up with - And it's hard to know anything about this topic without devoting quite much into research since especially for the older people it's a very hard topic even today.

[Guest JTV]

Exel, you caught my words exactly there about living in the areas of not-so-pleasant history not-so-long time ago, as i happen to live just about 200 meters from Radiomäki, Lahti. To be exact, i actually live on the slope of the ridge/hill. Most of my life and childhood i lived right next to Hennala barracks.

 

Not to threadjack the topic further, Lahti, where i live, is a major logistic hub, and one of the last major battles of finnish civil war, as remnants of Tampere battle were fleeing towards east, through Lahti, if i'm not completely wrong? Feel free to correct.

 

You are correct, after Tampere had been lost and the Germans had landed there were masses of Reds trying to flee to Russian border. Since railways were only effective tool of transportation and the railway went through Lahti they had to get through it. However both Finnish White Army and German Brandenstein Brigade (which had landed to Loviisa SE of Lahti) arrived to Lahti in time to try stopping much of this "mass exidus". Brandestein Brigade reached Lahti 19th of April and first White Army soldiers the next day. Once the Reds tried pushing through battles followed until the Reds west of Lahti surrendered 1st of May.

 

Some info about battles fought around railways during Finnish Civil War in my website:

http://www.jaegerplatoon.net/TRAINS0.htm

 

Also, i have not much to add to JTVs description about whites and reds, except perhaps for that your average guardsmen was very likely forcefully drafted when it comes to reds - when it comes to whites, many of the Pohjanmaa-region were "tricked and drawn" into a war that was actually quite different than what they were told - They ended up fighting their own countrymen instead of kicking the russians out. Though what i know about it is mostly just a young man's base-knowledge and local mythos without much evidence to back up with - And it's hard to know anything about this topic without devoting quite much into research since especially for the older people it's a very hard topic even today.

 

While there is a bit of truth in those claims, I don't totally agree with them. If one starts trying to figure out the motives of those who served in Red Guards, one must remember what happened after the war. Members of the Red Guard that survived were placed on trial and were sentenced depending what they had done during the war. Those that were found to be forcefully drafted by the Red Guards and who had not taken part in combat usually got what was a mere slap of the wrist in those trials - while those who had were found eager volunteers of the Red Guards and enthusiast combatants for its cause usually got either a lengthy prison sentence or rendezvous with a firing squad. Not surprising all of the sudden almost all of them started claiming that they had been forcefully recruited.

 

While there is a bit of truth in those claims, I don't totally agree with them. If one starts trying to figure out the motives of those who served in Red Guards, one must remember what happened after the war. Members of the Red Guard that survived were placed on trial and were sentenced depending what they had done during the war. Those that were found to have been forcefully drafted by the Red Guards and had not taken part in combat usually got what was a mere slap of the wrist in those trials. But those who the court to have been found eager volunteers of the Red Guards and enthusiast combatants for its cause usually got either a lengthy prison sentence or rendezvous with a firing squad. Not surprising all of the sudden almost all of them started claiming that they had been forcefully recruited.

 

In my bookshelf I have "Punakaartin Historia" (History of the Red Guards) book series published in 1981. According them early on Finnish Red Guards had problem of finding enough rifles for all of those who volunteered. Only once the war started going disastrously wrong for them, they had started problems with getting volunteers. In the end they ended up having stockpiles of weapons, but nowhere enough personnel to use it. It is true that totalling stopping all public works and basically shutting down industrial production in beginning of the war helped the Reds by forcing a lot of poor people to join the Red Guards simply for food and some money - nobody else was hiring and people had to eat. However the Red Guards failed organising a large-scale recruitment system, there was a recruitment of sort through the trade unions, but nothing that would have resembled universal conscription used by Finnish White Army. One notable exception of sort to this were men, who the Reds ordered to take their privately owned horse(s) + sledge(s) and ordered them to transport men and/or supplies with it. This was forced recruitment of sort and while it wasn't forced conscription of combatants, it seems to have been quite common.

 

As for the claim of men from Pohjanmaa region being "tricked and drawn" into war on false pretences - I think that this may be a half-truth of sort. It is correct to claim that early on propaganda used certainly told them that they were going to throw the Russian military out, but in the end the grand majority of their enemy they fought against were Finns. However one can't be really tricked into something, unless there is somebody doing the tricking. I would not be that sure if leadership of the White Army knew in late January, who their main adversary would be. IMHO the things they did during first days of the war show what they were expecting possible large-scale intervention/attack of the Russian military at that point. They almost certainly knew that Russian military units in Finland had disintegrated in some degree, but did they know for sure that these units were so disintegrated, that they were no longer a real military threat in the strategic scale - IMHO quite likely they didn't know. The Russian Bolsheviks didn't really give up on Finland until German - (Bolshevik) Russian peace treaty signed 3rd of March 1918. Before that date only clairvoyant could have estimated for sure, what the level of Bolshevik involvement would be.

 

Jarkko

[Sailor Lars]

Thanks for a very informative post JTV, i have to say that i quite agree again - When it comes to the civil war as a topic, i guess it's a very good example about Fog of War in practice - literally, which tends to show up in even today's debates about it, lots of bitterness still laying around underneath, which might show in the recent public discussion about the Battle of Tampere and Mannerheim. However, that i find a bit nauseous - let dead men be dead, there's already enough for us to bicker on about without starting to ramble about the past once again. And the finnish public talk about the civil war tends often to be just finger-pointing and blackpainting/shit-slinging at each other when the people go rabid.

 

By the way, very nice pages you have, didn't notice earlier they were yours, i've been there before Forgive me if i've put links as reference ( without asking permission, naurally ) and you find it inappropriate - I might have done that quite some time ago.

 

/quick edit - PS, the statue for fallen german soldiers during the battle of Lahti at Radiomäki is a very pretty one. It was a little bit difficult to comprehend as a children - then later forgot, then discussions like it make you remember things like that again - a little bit like Exel described about the history related to your everyday surroundings - Albeit it's been a while since i've been walking around the Radiomäki old graveyard, to be honest

Edited April 13, 2008 by Sailor Lars

[Redbeard]

It may be worth noting that before World War 2 Tampere battle of Finnish Civil War was the largest battle ever fought in Nordic Countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland).

 

Interesting thread - thanks for that.

 

I'll just have to add however, that the battle of Isted in 1850 (1st Slesvig-Holsten War) included 74.000 men (40.000 Danes and 34.000 Rebels) - but it also was a mess where none of the sides really had much control.

 

Regards

 

Steffen Redbeard