Continuation War - Campaign of 1941

Campaign of 1941

On the morning of 25 June, the Soviet Union launched an air offensive of 460 fighter and bombers targeted against 19 airfields in Finland; however, inaccurate intelligence and bad bombing accuracy caused several raids to actually hit Finnish cities or municipalities. There was considerable destruction in the cities and 23 planes were shot down. This offered the Finnish government a ground for claiming that the country had become the target of a new assault and the parliament approved the "defensive war" as a fait accompli. The message was more for public opinion in Finland than abroad, where it was seen that the country was in the German camp. In 1941, most Finns thought it was only to regain back what had been wrongly taken in the Winter War.

The Soviet Union claimed the air attack was directed against German targets, especially airfields, in Finland. At the same time, Soviet artillery stationed at the Hanko base began to shell Finnish targets and a minor Soviet infantry attack was launched over the Finnish side of the border in Parikkala.

The Soviet Union was struggling to contain the German invasion and soon the Soviet High Command had to call all available units to the rapidly deteriorating front line. Because of this, the initial air offensive against Finland could not be followed by a supporting land offensive in the scale originally planned. Moreover, the 10th Mechanized Corps and the 237th Infantry Division were withdrawn from Ladoga Karelia, thus stripping reserves from the remaining defending units.