Baltic Sea, action on the

The Baltic Sea is an arm of the North Atlantic, which reaches from the latitude of southern Denmark nearly to the Arctic Circle and separates the Scandinavian Peninsula from the rest of continental Europe. Historically—as it was during World War II—the Baltic has been a strategic waterway, interconnecting many northern European nations. On September 1, 1939, during the invasion of Poland, the Baltic became one of the war's very first battlegrounds, as German ships "visiting" the Baltic port of Gdansk (Danzig) opened fire on the Polish garrisons of the city. The German fleet made quick work of Poland's Baltic Navy, which consisted of only 15 warships, a few nevertheless managing to escape to Great Britain to fight throughout the war at the direction of the London-based Polish government-in-exile. With the commencement of the Russo-Finnish War in November 1939, the Baltic Red Banner Fleet of the Soviet navy blockaded Finland's sea communications with Sweden and periodically bombarded the Finnish coast. After this, however, the Baltic fell silent until the German navy moved in during June 1941 to prepare for the invasion of the Soviet Union. Some 48 minor German surface ships were transferred to the Baltic at this time, reinforcing the small German flotilla already there. Germany also built a naval base at Helsinki, from which it would direct naval action against the Soviets once the invasion began. Another key phase of German preparations was the extensive mining of strategic areas. These minefields caused serious Soviet losses. After war broke out between Germany and the Soviet Union, the Baltic at first became the scene of numerous surface skirmishes and minor amphibious operations that took islands in the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga. Soviet forces staged a few amphibious raids on the Finnish mainland, behind German lines, but they were to little avail. In September 1941, Germany sent the great battleship Tirpitz at the head of a small Baltic fleet with the intention of blocking Soviet ships from escaping to Sweden after the anticipated fall of Leningrad. But because the city withstood the long siege against it, the Tirpitz and the rest of the fleet were withdrawn to duty elsewhere. As for the Soviet Baltic fleet, it was substantial and far superior in numbers to anything the Germans ever dispatched to the area. The Soviet fleet included two obsolescent battleships, two cruisers, 19 destroyers, and 65 submarines in addition to various smaller vessels. Moreover, the Soviet navy operating in the Baltic controlled 656 combat aircraft. Poor command and organization combined with losses to German mines—five destroyers, three submarines, 10 smaller craft, and 42 merchant ships—seemed to paralyze the Soviet Baltic fleet during 1941, so that the force was little used. During 1942, however, the fleet's submarines sank 23 German and Finnish ships for the loss of 10 submarines. Five Swedish ships were also sunk. The Germans soon responded with antisubmarine nets laid across the Gulf of Finland, which excluded Soviet submarines from the area until September 1944. At the start of 1944, during January, the Soviet Baltic fleet did achieve a significant tactical and logistical triumph in sealifting and landing, by night, 44,000 Red Army troops from Leningrad to Oranienbaum. Thanks to this operation, Red Army forces were perfectly positioned to aid in lifting the German siege of Leningrad. In March 1944, the Soviet Baltic fleet commenced minesweeping operations. Vessels came under heavy Luftwaffe attack, but by this point in the war, it was the Soviets, not the Germans, who enjoyed air superiority. Not only were the minefields cleared, but the Luftwaffe suffered heavy losses. In September 1944, Finland changed allegiance from Germany to the Soviet Union. The Germans responded by attacking Suursaan, a Finnish island in the Gulf of Finland. Acting in concert now, the Soviets and Finns repulsed the attack. Shortly after this, the Soviet Baltic Red Banner Fleet carried out amphibious operations against the German-held islands in the Gulf of Riga. The Normandy Landings (D-day) prompted renewed German efforts in the Baltic. All available surface ships and a handful of submarines were dispatched to the Baltic in an effort to impede the advance of the Red Army. The Royal Air Force responded by dropping mines in the western Baltic, but the pocket battleships Lützow and Admiral Scheer, together with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, got through to cover the retreat of German ground forces from the Baltic ports, which were now under siege by Soviet forces. It was a spectacular evacuation, which dwarfed the better-known Dunkirk evacuation. By the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, a million German troops had been rescued, along with 1.5 million civilian refugees. Some 15,000 individuals were lost in the process, most of them victims of Soviet submarine attacks on the rescue ships. Amazingly, despite the many Soviet naval assets in the area, German ships continued to supply the many troops bottled up on the Courtland Peninsula. They did not surrender until the war was over.