After a series of minor battles, the war came to an effective end in November 1944, when all of the Wehrmacht troops had reached Norway or the border area and took fortified positions.

Soviet involvement in the war amounted to monitoring Finnish operations, minor air support and entering northeastern Lapland during the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive.

The military impact was relatively limited with each side sustaining around 4,000 in total casualties, although the Germans' delaying scorched earth and land mine strategies devastated Finnish Lapland.

The Wehrmacht successfully withdrew, and Finland upheld its obligations under the Moscow Armistice, but it remained formally at war with the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom until ratification of the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty.

As early as mid-1943, the German high command Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) began to plan for the eventuality that Finland might negotiate a separate peace agreement with the Soviet Union.

[15] The ceasefire agreement required the Finns to break diplomatic ties with Germany and publicly demand the withdrawal of all German troops from Finland by 15 September 1944.

[19] Before deciding to accept the Soviet demands, President Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, former Finnish commander-in-chief, wrote a letter directly to Adolf Hitler:[20] Our German brothers-in-arms will forever remain in our hearts.

I believe that the attitude of the German Army in northern Finland towards the local population and authorities will enter our history as a unique example of a correct and cordial relationship [...] I deem it my duty to lead my people out of the war.

I harbour the hope that you, even if you disapprove of my attitude, will wish and endeavour like myself and all other Finns to terminate our former relations without increasing the gravity of the situation.The 20th Mountain Army had been fighting the Soviet Karelian Front since Operation Barbarossa along the 700 km (430 mi) stretch from the Oulu River to the Arctic Ocean.

[7][22] The announcement on 2 September 1944 of the ceasefire and the Moscow Armistice between Finland and the USSR triggered frantic efforts by the 20th Mountain Army, which immediately started Operation Birke.

[28][29] On 15 September 1944, the Kriegsmarine tried to land and seize the island of Suursaari in Operation Tanne Ost to secure shipping routes in the Gulf of Finland.

[30] The lack of Finnish aggression did not go unnoticed by the Allied Control Commission monitoring adherence to the Moscow Armistice and the USSR threatened to occupy Finland if the terms of expelling or disarming the Germans were not met.

[36] On 30 September, the Finns attempted to encircle the Germans at Pudasjärvi into a pocket (called a motti in Finnish, originally meaning 1 m3 (35 cu ft) of firewood) with flanking movements through the forests and managed to cut the road leading north.

Various factors—including a stronger than expected German garrison at Kemi already alerted by local attacks—made the Finns switch the target to Röyttä, Tornio's outer port.

During the ensuing battle, the German Divisionsgruppe Kräutler, a reinforced regiment, conducted several counterattacks to retake the town as it formed an important transportation link between the two roads running parallel to the Kemi and Tornio Rivers.

On 4 October, bad weather prevented Finnish air cover from reaching Tornio, leaving the fourth landing wave vulnerable.

The Finnish Navy's gunboats Hämeenmaa, Uusimaa and VMV-class patrol boats 15 and 16 arrived with the sixth wave just in time to witness German Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor bombers attacking the shipping at Tornio with Henschel Hs 293 glide bombs without results.

Though Finnish forces took several hundred prisoners, they failed to prevent the Germans from demolishing the bridges over the Kemi River once they began to withdraw on 8 October.

[52] When Allied advances continued, German high command OKW and 20th Mountain Army leadership asserted that it would be perilous to maintain positions in Lapland and east of Lyngen Municipality in northern Norway.

Likewise, Minister of Armaments and War Production Albert Speer had determined that German nickel stores were sufficient and holding Petsamo was unnecessary.

In general, the withdrawal followed a pattern in which advancing Finnish units would encounter German rear guards and attempt to flank them on foot, but the destroyed road network prevented them from bringing up artillery and other heavy weapons.

As Finnish infantry slowly picked their way through the dense woods and marshland, the motorised German units would simply drive away and take up positions further down the road.

[54] On 7 October, the Finnish Jaeger Brigade forced the German Mountain Regiment 218 to fight a delaying action off of their pre-set timetable at Ylimaa, some 65 km (40 mi) south of Rovaniemi.

The opposing forces were roughly even numerically and the lack of heavy weapons and exhaustion from long marches prevented the Finnish brigade from trapping the defending Germans before it received permission to withdraw on 9 October after causing substantial losses to the Finns.

The Germans repelled Finnish attempts to capture the last intact bridge over the Kemi river and then left the mostly scorched town to the Finns on 16 October 1944.

At Tankavaara, 60 km (37 mi) south of Ivalo, barely four battalions of the Finnish Jaeger Brigade attempted, unsuccessfully, on 26 October to dislodge the twelve-battalion-strong German 169th Infantry Division, entrenched in prepared fortifications.

[59] Likewise, on 26 October at Muonio, 200 km (120 mi) south-east of defensive positions in Norway, the German 6th SS Mountain Division Nord reinforced by Kampfgruppe Esch again had numerical and material superiority with artillery and armoured support.

[62] The 14th Army pursued German troops withdrawing southwest from Petsamo and Kirkenes approximately 50 km (31 mi) into Finnish territory along Lake Inari.

[63] Likewise, the 26th Army had followed the withdrawing XVIII Mountain Corps around 50 km (31 mi) over the Finnish border in southern Lapland to Kuusamo and Suomussalmi, but left the area in November.

[65] On 12 January, the Finnish minelayer Louhi was sunk with the loss of its ten sailors in the Gulf of Bothnia by the German submarine U-370 using an acoustic G7es torpedo.