Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Karlsonn 1604 days ago
The Finnish leader was Hitler's best friend, sharing his ideology and offering him military support during the siege of Leningrad. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Gustaf_Emil_Mannerheim

It took until 2018 for the swastika to be removed from the Finnish air force logo.

As for the British invading USSR, this could not be a serious consideration since the British military strength is mostly navy and air force but no ground troops.

2 comments

The British planned on bombing Baku, the principle oil fields that was vital for Soviet economy. And the planned on sending troupes to Finland.

Finland has to take friends where they could find them. They used Germany to get back their land but only supported them as far as they needed to. The Fins could have done way more, and Germany was constantly pissed that they couldn't convince them to do more.

Mannerheim dealt with Hitler as a statement mostly. The recording doesn't prove they were friends. Its a discussion about military that does not sound that different from many other such meeting between Stalin and Allied officials.

That's complete rubbish.

There were German-minded Finns, also in government (eg interior minister 1941-1943 Horelli) but president from 1940, Ryti, was an Anglophile, and Mannerheim was cosmopolitan, a veteran officer of the Tsar's army, and had long considered St. Petersburg his home city. He had a hard time not showing how he disliked Hitler. Diplomacy with co-belligerents - and opponents - is then another matter.

And the swastika was, of course, the Finnish Air Force logo already in 1918 when Hitler was still in trenches on the Western front and no one knew anything of Nazis.

I am not offended. You seem to like history so I am going to leave a few sources on Finland:

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_and_Mannerheim_recordin... Hitler and Mannerheim were very close.

[2] The Finns even had their own SS group: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far-right_politics_in_Finland#...

[3] The Finns operated concentration camps both before WW2 and during: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Karelian_concentration_ca...

"Very close" is still rubbish. As that article of the recording says, "Mannerheim did not wish to greet Hitler at his headquarters, as it would have appeared like a state visit." But they of course did have a discussion about the war with a common enemy.

I won't run after the otehr moving goalposts.