New book on The Winter War.

Scheduled on March 19 is a new book on Finland's Alliance with Germany during WWII.

Amazon.com: FINLAND'S WAR OF CHOICE: The Troubled German-Finnish Alliance in World War II (9781935149484): Henrik Lunde: Books

I have already pre-ordered my copy.

 

Personally I don´t think Finns had any illusions about nazi Germany. Especially once Hitler et co refused to back Finland during Winter War and even "gave" Finland to the USSR in the Ribbentrop Molotov pact. And for Sweden I believe it was essential that Finland was "alive and kicking" because once Norway was under nazi command their destiny would be directly linked to Finland´s. Refusing to co-operate with Germany would be an "interesting" option, and then again Molotov demanded to have a new go at Finland in Decemeber 1940 in Berlin from Hitler. And Hitler let this leak to the Finns as it was part of the plan to make alliance with the Finns. " Damned if you do, damned if you don´t" I think.

 

It will be interesting to read the book and see if the author can provide some new information on the topic.

 

This was interesting...:

"After describing the operations during and after Barbarossa, this book describes how the Finnish theater became a blind ally for the Germans. Their strongest and best army was trapped both operationally and geographically in central and northern Finland, making virtually no contribution to the war effort. The Germans could not bring to bear enough forces to accomplish their objectives without substantial Finnish assistance, and that was not forthcoming."

Amazon.com: FINLAND'S WAR OF CHOICE: The Troubled German-Finnish Alliance in World War II (9781935149484): Henrik Lunde: Books