Operation Tanne Ost

Overview

Operation Tanne Ost was a German operation during World War II to capture the island Suursaari in the Gulf of Finland before it could fall into Soviet hands. Suursaari was especially important because it worked as a lock in the Finnish Gulf guarding the minefields keeping the Soviet Baltic Fleet in Kronstadt.

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

Significance

Operation Tanne Ost was a German attempt to seize Suursaari, an island in the Gulf of Finland, before it could pass out of German strategic reach following Finland's shift away from its alliance with Germany. The island's importance derived from its function as a controlling position over the minefields that confined the Soviet Baltic Fleet to Kronstadt. German loss of Suursaari would risk reopening the Gulf of Finland to Soviet naval operations. The operation resulted in severe German casualties — 1,231 of a force of approximately 2,700 — against a Finnish defending force of roughly 1,600 men, reflecting the difficulty of seizing a defended island position. The outcome left the minefield lock in Finnish rather than German hands at a moment when the Lapland War was redefining the former co-belligerents as adversaries.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (2)