Battle of Lahti

Overview

Battle of Lahti was a 1918 Finnish Civil War battle, fought from 19 April to 1 May by the German troops and Finnish Whites against the Finnish Reds in Lahti, Finland. Together with the Battle of Viipuri, from 24 to 29 April, it was the last major battle of the war.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Lahti, fought from 19 April to 1 May 1918, was one of the two final major engagements of the Finnish Civil War, the other being the contemporaneous Battle of Viipuri. German forces numbering approximately 3,000, fighting alongside Finnish White forces, faced a Red force of roughly 10,000. The engagement ended in a decisive collapse of the Red side: casualties among the Finnish Reds reached 30,000, a figure that encompasses killed, captured, and surrendered personnel and reflects the scale of the defeat. Together with the fall of Viipuri at the end of April, the battle at Lahti effectively ended organized Red resistance, concluding the civil war in favor of the White and German coalition.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (4)