Platinum Fox took place on the Eastern Front and had the objective of capturing the Barents Sea port of Murmansk.

The German offensive met with many problems from the start, as the rough terrain with bad roads made any advance difficult.

In the south the 3rd Mountain Division was able to penetrate the Soviet lines at the Titovka Valley in one day after fierce fighting and secured a bridge over the river.

Further south, after a heavy Soviet counterattack, the Germans resumed their offensive to the east to reach the Litsa River, with joint forces from both divisions.

After a heavy Soviet counterattack on 7 July, Dietl requested more reinforcements, but he received only a motorized machine-gun battalion from Norway.

The renewed attack was again initially successful, but after the Soviets landed with two battalions on the other side of the Litsa Bay further north, Dietl had to stop the offensive.

The situation now became worse for the Germans, as the thinly stretched forces had to hold a 57 km long frontline along the Litsa River to the Rybachy Peninsula.

[1][8] Dietl now made plans to renew the offensive, with the fresh SS regiments leading the assault, in September before the onset of the winter would make it difficult to fight.

[12] Hitler again pressured to continue the offensive, but Dietl made it clear, that with the dire supply situation and without further reinforcements no further advance was possible.

Mountain Corps Norway was ordered to now defend the frontline and secure the Petsamo area and its nickel-mines, as a renewed offensive was ruled out.

The presence of British-Soviet naval forces at the Barents Sea hampered German efforts to adequately supply his forces and the general unwillingness of the German High Command to reinforce something which they considered as a secondary theater paved the way for the only successful Soviet resistance in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa.