Germany – Third Reich: A small Lapland Shield Award Document grouping awarded to Unteroffizier Karl Huber, 2nd Company, Machine Gun Battalion (motorised) 4, Machine Gun Ski Brigade Finnland who saw service in the Lappland War of 1944-5 which saw the expulsion of German troops from Finland after that country had signed a peace treaty with the Soviet Union.
Award Document:
Lappland Shield issued on 20th July 1945 as an Unteroffizier with the 2nd Company, Machine Gun Battalion (motorised) 4. Signed by Kreitmeyer as Commanding Officer of the Machine Gun Ski Brigade Finnland.
Kreitmeyer received the German Cross in Gold on 30th July 1942 whilst Commanding the 2nd Battalion, Gebirgsjager-Regiment 141, 6 Gebirgs Division.
Other Documents:
1) Austrian Army Driving License dated 1932.
2) Wehrmacht Drivers License with photo ID dated 16th May 1941. Issued by Infantry Replacement Battalion 45.
3) Motor Vehicle Operators Permit dated 15th November 1946
4) Seventh Army Internment Camp No.74 , Ludwigsburg, release document dated 10th October 1946 confirming his work as an auto-electrician from 2nd May 1946 until 10th October 1946 and that he was from Nordenham, Unterweser
Karl Huber saw service in the 2nd Company, Machine Gun Battalion (Motorised) 4 as part of the Machine Gun Ski Brigade in Finnland during the Lapland War.
During World War II, the Lapland War saw fighting between Finland and Nazi Germany – effectively from September to November 1944 – in Finland's northernmost region, Lapland. Though the Finns and the Germans had been fighting together against the Soviet Union since 1941 during the Continuation War (1941–1944), peace negotiations between the Finnish government and the Allies of World War II had been conducted intermittently during 1943–1944, but no agreement had been reached. The Moscow Armistice, signed on 19 September 1944, demanded that Finland break diplomatic ties with Germany and expel or disarm any German soldiers remaining in Finland.
The Wehrmacht had anticipated this turn of events and planned an organised withdrawal to Nazi-occupied Norway, as part of Operation Birke (Birch). Despite a failed offensive landing operation by Germany in the Gulf of Finland, the evacuation proceeded peacefully at first. The Finns escalated the situation into warfare on 28 September after Soviet pressure to adhere to the terms of the armistice. The Finnish Army was required by the Soviet Union to push Wehrmacht troops out of Finnish territory. 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. The last Wehrmacht soldiers left Finland on 27 April 1945, shortly before the end of World War II in Europe.
The Finns considered the war a separate conflict because hostilities with other nations had ceased after the Continuation War. From the German perspective, it was a part of the two campaigns to evacuate from northern Finland and northern Norway. 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 both sides 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.
