Unternehmen Tanne Ost

DATE: 04/05/2025

TIME (GMT): 18:00

ERA: WW2

MAP(S): Suursaari

TYPE: COOP

GAME: Arma 3

EVENT: Official

AUTHOR(S): Jarvis for Brothers in Arms

SLOTS: 53 / 70

---

RATING: (25)

---

Unternehmen Tanne Ost, or Operation Fir East, was a German operation aimed at securing the island of Suursaari from Finnish control. Before the operation took place, following the war quickly turning in favour of the Allies Finland had entered peace negotiations with the Soviets, upon being informed of the of the coming cease-fire between Finland and the Soviet Union, Hitler ordered German forces to confiscate all Finnish shipping and to prepare for Operation Tanne Ost. The island was a vital component in Germany's array of naval minefields that kept the Soviet Baltic Fleet in harbour at Kronstadt, so with the Finnish no longer in the war, the Soviet Union would likely capture the island, threatening the effectiveness of these minefields.

Launched in September of 1944, the operations commander believed that the Finnish would cede control over the island without resistance, and, on the 14th they attempted to negotiate with the Finnish commander. These negotiations went nowhere and the Finnish refused to give up the island - as a result, German infantry boarded landing craft and made landings on the island in the early hours of the 15th of September. At 00:55, gunfire was heard throughout the island as initial skirmishes took place, in these initial engagements the Finnish destroyed several of their own patrol boats to avoid them being captured.

Despite establishing several beachheads and securing several strongpoints throughout the island, the Finnish coastal defence troops were largely able to contain the landings, and without additional reinforcements, the Germans certainly would not have been able to capture the island. The situation was far worse for the Germans at sea, having suffered several, largely ineffective, torpedo strikes from marauding Finnish motor torpedo boats, the ships had moved clear of the island to the west for their own safety, leaving the German infantry effectively stranded on the island with no naval artillery support. Ultimately, the German forces on the island were forced to surrender following a Soviet aerial attack that destroyed further landing craft, which had resulted in the second wave of reinforcements not being dispatched and the German destroyers withdrawing from the area.

The operation would be a complete failure for the Germans, no operational objectives of note were achieved and the island remained in Finnish hands. The action was also very costly, with 153 Germans killed, and a further 1,231 captured; in comparison, Finnish loses were quite light, with 36 dead, and 67 wounded. The Germans lost a further 3 landing craft, 3 patrol boats and a minesweeper from Finnish MTB attacks and Soviet airstrikes.

15th September 1944, Suursaari, Gulf of Finland - The 10th Coastal Defence Company has been put on high alert following reports of German aggression against Finnish patrol boats near the island of Suursaari.