Svir-Petrozavodsk offensive operation

In the spring and summer of 1944 the Karelian Front prepared and conducted two strategic operations. In coordination with the British and American allied command, by the order of the Supreme Command Headquarters (Stavka), the Northern Fleet, the troops of the 14th, 26th and 19th Armies of the Front, in order to mislead the enemy (the German 20th Lapland Army) from April 20 started to imitate the preparation for the offensive in the direction of Petsamo, Kirkenes with the landing of amphibious assault forces on the northern coast of Norway near Berlevåg. The activities of this strategic deception operation, the purpose of which was to prevent the transfer of German troops from northern Finland and northern Norway to France to counteract the Allied Operation Overlord, were carried out by the Karelian Front from May 1 to the beginning of the autumn of 1944. The military objectives of the “Stalin’s forth blow” were to consistently and rapidly, within a month, defeat the main forces of the Finnish army on the Karelian Isthmus and in South (Soviet) Karelia and occupy the territory of southeastern Finland far west of the 1940 state border; the political objectives of the operation, carried out by part of the forces of the two fronts, the right wing of the Leningrad and the left wing of the Karelian Front - included forcing Finland to unconditional surrender and the withdrawal of this country from the war...