The Soviet Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive or Karelian offensive between June 10 and August 9 1944 was a strategic operation by the Soviet Leningrad and Karelian Fronts against Finland on the Karelian Isthmus and East Karelia fronts. The main strategic objectives of the offensive were to push Finnish forces away from the north of
Leningrad and to drive Finland out of the war. The Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin massed 451,500 men, 800 tanks and 1,600 aircraft according to Russian military historians Grigoriy Fedotovich Krivosheyev and Vladimir Antonovich Zolotarev. They faced 75,000 Finnish soldiers and less than 110 tanks and assault guns and only 50 modern aircraft. However, after Finnish reinforcements arrived Stalin sent another five new divisions to the Karelian Isthmus. After reinforcements, the Finns mustered a force of 268,000 men. According to Soviet data Soviet casualties in the Karelian offensive were 38,674 killed and missing. Doctor of Philosophy Tapio Tiihonen studied and checked Soviet data and loss reports of units and reinforcements and found Soviet losses much higher. According to the Finnish National Archive Service, Finland suffered losses of 15,680 killed and missing in all fronts between June 9 and August 9 1944. Credit: Wikipedia. Top image: Estonian volunteers of the Jalaväerügement 200 in Taavetti on June 22 1944. The regiment took part in the defensive battles around the Bay of Viipuri on the Finnish front during the Karelian offensive. Bottom image: Swedish Staff sergeant and Second-lieutenant in the Finnish army pose with their captured Russian in Pitkäjärven lohko on June 18 1944. Photo by Finnish officer and photographer Esko Töyri (Törnroos). Credit: Julius Backman Jääskeläinen. Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive. Fair use.
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