The Battle of Tornio (October 1–8, 1944) was the first major engagement between Nazi Germany and Finland in the Lapland War; although hostilities had already begun elsewhere (see Tanne Ost).
[1] Though open fighting had erupted already in mid September at Gogland between the Finnish and German troops the relations between the two sides in northern Finland had remained fairly good.
As per earlier planned Operation Birke Germans had been evacuating material and troops to safer positions further north in the Finland.
Due to the Finnish pressure from the south only the 6th SS Mountain Reconnaissance Battalion could be moved towards Tornio while the rest were tied down against the advancing Finns.
In addition to this force the Finnish civic guard had planned an uprising to take place at border town of Tornio.
However the planned attack on the large German supply depot near the railroad station of Tornio on the east bank of the river failed.
[3] The first elements of the Finish 11th Infantry Regiment (JR 11) landed unopposed at the port of Röyttä at 07:45 on 1 October and were met by a train that started transporting troops closer to the town.
[4] Still on 1 October the third battalion of JR 11 was cautiously moving towards Kemi when it encountered and interned a small German detachment sent to subdue the uprising at Tornio.
Meanwhile, the Finns chose to further reinforce the landing instead of pushing hard from the south towards Kemi and started to ship more troops and equipment from Oulu to Tornio, the first of these to arrive was the 53rd Infantry Regiment (JR 53).
[7] Very late in the evening of 1 October the Finnish troops of Infantry Regiment 11 captured a German supply depot – which were colloquially known as 'little-Berlins' – and found large stores of alcohol.
In the afternoon of 4 October the Germans attacked again this time managing to push the Finns to the Raumo river where the lines froze.
On 6 October started the final German effort to drive Finns away from the Tornio and regain the transportation junction located there.
However Germans were not the only ones in trouble, the Finnish JR 50 which had been rushed to the battle had left most of its equipment to Röyttä and the supplies had to be carried by hand over swamps or marshy terrain.
[15][16] Though Germans had been able to sortie their aircraft to Röyttä even earlier the first serious attack as seen on 4 October when Germans were able to sortie a squadron of Stuka dive bombers to the port of Röyttä while Finnish fighters assigned to provide air cover remained grounded due poor weather at their base further to the south.
[17][18] Later on 6 October 1944 first small squadron from Finnish Navy consisting of gunboats Hämeenmaa and Uusimaa and patrol boats VMV 15 and VMV 16 arrived to the location to both provide anti-aircraft fire and to suppress German battery located at Laivaniemi within firing distance from the port which had kept harassing the Finnish effort to unload their transports.
The German commander in the North, General Lothar Rendulic considered the capture of Tornio a betrayal by the Finns and ordered the scorched earth destruction of Lapland in retaliation.
By attacking Tornio the Finnish government had proven to the Soviet Union that it was working actively to remove the German troops.