The islands, still hosting Soviet Russian troops, were first invaded by Sweden in late February and then by the German Empire in early March.

One of the bombs dropped on the quay next to the submarine mothership Svjatitel Nikolai, and Salo, resulting in the death of 7 Russian sailors and a horse.

[3] The Russian government also started building fortifications, in agreement with their allies France and Great Britain, in order to prevent the German invasion.

The coastal batteries were at Sålis, Kungsö, Frebbenby, Mellantorp, Korsö, Herrö, Storklobb, Kökar, Hamnö-Saggö and Boxö.

After the Finnish Civil War started in late January 1918, the Swedish foreign minister Johannes Hellner and the king Gustaf V had an audience with a delegation from Åland on 8 February.

[5] Since the beginning of the war, the government had already evacuated more than 1,000 Swedish citizens from the Finnish mainland via the west coast town of Pori.

[4] The Finnish Civil War expanded to Åland on 10 February, as a squad of 460 White Guard members, led by the captain Johan Fabritius from the Vakka-Suomi region, landed on the islands.

[9] Two days later, a naval detachment of the icebreaker Isbrytaren I, the coastal defense ship HSwMS Thor and the troopship SS Runeberg docked at Eckerö in the Swedish side of the islands.

A small military unit landed in Åland in order to protect the people from alleged misconduct of the Russian troops as well as from the violent threat of the Finnish sides of the Civil War.

In reality, General Mannerheim wanted the Whites to take control of all the islands and then launch an offensive against Turku, the Red capital of Southwest Finland.

[5] On 19 February, HSwMS Sverige and Oscar II carrying a company from the Vaxholm Coastal Artillery Regiment arrived at Åland to press the Soviets in leaving the islands.

[10] The Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet still tried to avoid the armed conflict and on 22 February the political representative Vatslav Vorovsky stated the Soviets troops were willing to leave Åland.

The Germans had their interests in Finland because of the access to the Arctic Sea and the country's presence near the Murmansk railway and the Bolshevik capital of Saint Petersburg.

[4] The German intention was to gather troops to Åland and then land the Finnish mainland in the west coast town of Rauma.

As the ice in the Bothnian Bay was too thick, the landing was finally made in Hanko, Southern Finland, by the Baltic Sea Division in the first days of April.

[10] On 28 February, a naval unit of the dreadnought battleships Westfalen and Rheinland and the troopship Giessen, commanded by the admiral Hugo Meurer, left Danzig to Åland.

[11] A post of the Finnish military governor was established and filled by the naval officer Hjalmar von Bonsdorff as the representative of the White Senate.

[13] The Red delegation including the socialist philosopher Georg Boldt and the Turku militia leader William Lundberg, together with 260 POWs, travelled across the ice by horse-drawn sleigh.

[12] In late March, the Germans launched a campaign in the Turku archipelago to secure the left wing of the forthcoming Baltic Sea Division landing in Hanko.

[14] Sweden pulled most of its troops from Åland on 14 March, but the ship Oscar II and one small military unit stayed until the end of the Finnish Civil War.

After the war, Sweden was still willing to take the Åland Islands and wanted to solve the dispute in the Treaty of Versailles, but the question was not included.

[3] Rheinland was later re-floated in July, but she had been badly damaged in the grounding, and the German naval command determined that she was not worth repairing.

The order was given by the Finnish military governor Hjalmar von Bonsdorff and the execution was carried out by the Whites occupying the Turku Archipelago.