The objective of the offensive was to cut off and capture the key Soviet Port of Murmansk through attacks from Finnish and Norwegian territory.

In Operation Reindeer (Rentier) German forces advanced from Norway to secure the area around Petsamo and its nickel mines.

The German–Finnish forces took some ground but Murmansk was neither cut off nor captured and continued to operate as an important destination for Allied Arctic convoys throughout the war.

The Soviet Union feared an attack by Germany and sought to secure itself against a possible German–Finnish alliance; Finland wanted to preserve its neutrality at any cost.

After a Finnish rejection, the Soviet Union proposed a land-trade for strategic locations it deemed necessary to defend against a German invasion.

Gustaf Mannerheim (the Chairman of Finland's Defence Council) and others favoured the proposal, but the Finnish government wanted to preserve its neutrality and the lengthy negotiations failed.

[7][8] On 23 August 1939 the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which contained a secret protocol dividing Europe into spheres of influence for each country.

The Soviet Union failed to annex Finland[9] but did receive territory with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty in March 1940.

The German occupation of Denmark and Norway from April 1940 severed practical Finnish connections to countries other than the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Sweden.

A Finnish–German offensive named Operation Silver Fox (German: Unternehmen Silberfuchs) would support the main Axis effort (directed against central Russia) from the north.

The detailed plan for the operation was created by Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, commander of the Army of Norway and his staff in January 1941.

[16][15] The second pincer, codenamed Operation Arctic Fox (Unternehmen Polarfuchs), was to be launched further south to take Salla, ceded to the Soviet Union after the Winter War and then to proceed eastwards along the railway to capture Kandalaksha, cutting the vital Murmansk Railway line which connected Murmansk with Central Russia.

German aircraft employed Finnish air bases, while also launching Operation Rentier, which resulted in the take-over of Petsamo on the Finnish-Soviet border.

Despite these actions, the Finnish government insisted via diplomatic channels that it was still a neutral party, but the Soviet leadership already viewed Finland as an ally of Germany.

Conscripts and volunteers joined the ranks of the newly formed 1st Polar Rifle Division, while sailors from the Northern Fleet entered the service of a marine infantry brigade.

Subsequently, the Soviets proceeded to launch a massive air raid on 25 June, bombing all major Finnish cities and industrial centers, including Helsinki, Turku and Lahti.

The two divisions of Mountain Corps Norway moved out from Kirkenes to the east and began deploying in the Finnish-held area around Petsamo.

[31][32] After the element of surprise was lost the German offensive got bogged down as they faced increasingly organized Soviet defenses and difficult surroundings.

[31][32] While Dietl's units were halted by heavy Soviet resistance, the supply situation for Mountain Corps Norway deteriorated rapidly.

Any attempt to renew the offensive failed, instead the Soviets were able to clear the German bridgehead east of the Litsa River and on 21 September the operation came to a halt.

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

For the remainder of the war, the northern front was to remain relatively stable until the Soviet offensive of 1944, with only small scale ski patrol skirmishes occurring.

[35] Meanwhile, to the south the Finnish III Corps launched its offensive to the east from Kuusamo to support the German advance at Salla.

[36][37] III Corps made a crossing of the canal and captured Kestenga on 7 August, while simultaneously reaching the outskirts of Ukhta.

With the Finnish refusal to be involved in the offensive, Arctic Fox came to an end in November and both sides dug in at their current positions.

The German forces, especially the SS-troops, were unsuited, ill-trained, and unprepared for Arctic warfare and therefore made little progress while suffering heavy casualties.

The United States enacted the Lend-Lease pact in which they vowed to supply the Soviet Union with large quantities of food, oil, and war materiel.

The German High Command did not regard it as an important theater and therefore refrained from transferring the substantial reinforcements needed for a renewal of the offensive.

In October 1944, the Red Army conducted the Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation and achieved a decisive victory over the German forces in the Arctic by completely expelling them from Finland.