Traveling Tuesday: Finland During WWII

Traveling Tuesday: Finland During WWII

Courtesy Britannica

Many fiction WWII books are set in Western Europe, and after learning about The Shetland Bus, a group of men who operated a shipping link between the Scottish island of Shetland and German-occupied Norway, delivering goods and Resistance agents and helping refugees escape, I decided that a series about resistance in the Scandinavian countries would be fun. Research commenced which unearthed lots of surprising information.

The first thing I learned was that Scandinavia is comprised of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. In my ignorance, I assumed that Finland was also part of this region, and apparently lots of people make that mistake. We think that all “Nordic” countries are Scandinavian. Not the case.

Further research indicated that Finland declared itself neutral during WWII but then became aligned

with Germany, so there was no need for resistance. Despite not signing the Axis agreement, Finland allowed Germany to station troops in the northern part of the country.

I also didn’t realize that Finland shares a border with Russia and had once been part of Soviet Union as an autonomous grand duchy after being conquered by Alexander I in 1809. In December 1917, Finland declared its independence during the Russian Civil War. However, tensions between the two countries continued, and in October 1939, the Russo-Finnish War (aka The Winter War) commenced when a “faked border incident” gave the Soviet Union an excuse to invade. Better prepared for the conditions, Finnish troops were able to hold off the Red Army for more than three months but was eventually overtaken after the Soviet Union reorganized the command structure, brought in modern equipment, and changed their tactic.

Pixabay/Reijo Telaranta

On March 12, 1940, Finland signed the Treaty of Moscow which gave the Soviet Union eleven percent of its territory including half of Finnish Karelia, the Finnish part of the Rybachi Peninsula, part of the Salla area, and several islands in the Gulf of Finland.

The Soviet Union continued to launch air raids against Finland, after which Finland declared war – known as the Continuation War – which did not end until September 1944. The final peace treaty was signed in Paris in 1947.

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A Lesson in Love (Strength of His Heart Anthology):

He thinks he’s too old. She thinks she’s too young. Can these teachers learn that love defies all boundaries?

Born and raised in London, Isobel Turvine knows nothing about farming, but after most of the students in her school evacuate during Operation Pied Piper, she’s left with little to do. Then her friend Margery talks her into joining the Women’s Land Army, and she finds herself working the land at a manor home in Yorkshire that’s been converted to a boys’ school. A teacher at heart, she is drawn to the lads, but the handsome yet stiff-necked headmaster wants her to stick to farming.

Left with an arm that barely works from the last “war to end all wars,” Gavin Emerson agrees to take on the job of headmaster when his school moves from London to Yorkshire, but he’s saddled with the quirky manor owner, bickering among his teachers, and a gaggle of Land Army girls who have turned the grounds into a farm. When the group’s blue-eyed, raven-haired leader nearly runs him down in a car, he admonishes her to stay in the fields, but they are thrown together at every turn. Can he trust her not to break his heart?

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