Remarks: 00:16 The main German forces to intervene in the Finish Civil War was the Baltic Sea Division, which was raised from troops which were freed after the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty. It consisted mainly of three cavalry regiments and three light infantry battalions, but also had MG, mountain artillery, pioneer and even some attached Air Force troops. All in all, this division had 10,000 men, was commanded by General Rüdiger von der Goltz (1865-1946) and landed at Hanko, ca. 130 km west of Helsinki, on April 3rd, 1918. It then marched on Helsinki and captured the city after a few days of heavy fighting on April 14th, 1918. 01:05 The convoy transporting the German troops to Finland was accompanied by a number of German warships, although I was not able to find out which ships exactly were used for that mission. 02:59 The German troops embarked at Hanko on April 3rd, a port that was already under control of the White Guard troops. 03:23 Helsingfors is the Swedish name of Helsinki, and at that time, it was common to refer to Helsinki by its Swedish name. 04:28 This gun is a 10,5cm leFH 16, a German light field howitzer introduced in mid-1916 as a successor to the old 10,5cm leFH 98/09, which was considered outdated. With a firing range of 8,400 meters regularly, and 9,700 meters with special cartridges, the gun was one of the best light field howitzers when it was introduced. In total, around 14,000 guns were made by Rheinmetall between 1916 and 1918, and they were also used by German second-line troops in WWII. 05:00 The White Guards was a voluntary milita, part of the White Movement, the first independent government of Finland formed in November 1917, and one of the two sides in the Finnish Civil War, fighting against the socialist Red Guards. At the height of the Civil War, their strength was around 80,000 to 90,000 troops. 05:59 The Red Guard were a militia unit of leftist and socialist groups in Finland, first formed in 1905. They belonged to the Finnish Socialist Workers Republic, a self-proclaimed socialist state in Finland, and fought against the White Guard. They had around the same strength as the White Guard, roughly 80,000 to 90,000 troops, and were supported by around 10,000 former Russian Army soldiers. 06:06 Both the Red and White Guards lacked uniforms, so their members would often fight wearing their own, private clothing, as can be seen here. 07:48 These guns are 7,5cm Mountain Gun 13, a German mountain gun produced by Krupp. The German Army actually had no Mountain guns in their inventory, except for some colonial troops in Africa, but Krupp sold their mountain guns to customers all over the world, and between 1890 and 1914, they sold 688 guns to Chile, the Ottoman Empire and Romania. When WWI broke out, the German Army placed an order 72 guns, but they were not used much, because the Skoda Mountain guns were usually judged to be better. 08:34 Helsinki was attacked by German and White Guard troops on April 12th, and was defended by several thousand Red Guard members, although only around 2,000 of them were armed. The battle was fought over individual buildings, and on April 14th, the Germans and White Guards had secured most of the city. The Battle was fought with rather low intensity, and shops, restaurants and public transport continued to operate normally. Many civilians were actively walking around the fighting zones, trying to spectate the fighting. During the fighting, 54 German, 23 White Guard soldiers and around 100 Red Guard soldiers died, a further 400 Red Guard members were executed afterwards. 09:25 On April 14th, a victory parade of German and Finnish troops was held in the city, to celebrate the victory.
That the Finnish Reds "were supported by around 10,000 former Russian Army soldiers" is evidently much exaggerated, according to the most recent estimates by historians.
Thank YOU for letting us on your other TH-cam channel, "German WWII Archive", know that you were also affiliated with *this* Channel as well! Thank YOU and see you on Patreon! . . . RJT
Thank you for uploading such footage! Small critique but not that important is that the footage is playing slightly faster than it should. I assume this was scanned at 24 frames a second and being played back as such. The footage however might be at a slower frame rate like 18 or 16 frames a second as these were the standard at the time for multiple formats. For me 0.75x speed resolves the issue. Thanks again for uploading!
You are correct, it was originally filmed at 18 fps, and this version is 24 fps. I'm no expert at these technical questions, but to my knowledge, it was common to copy these films to 24 fps, for whatever reason.
@ I believe the reason for this is the point where the eye blurs individual pictures and sees it as motion is at 24 frames per second. I believe this was set as the standard frame rate due to the advent of synchronous sound recording on film as lower frame rates break the illusion if someone speaks. Thanks again for uploading. This gripe of mine was really minor!
I walked at Senaatintori with my dog last saturday , seen at 9.27 . Looks pretty same this day . Execpt last saturday there was a christmas market😅 . Same place seen also at 12.23 from different angle
The combat value of the Red Guards facing the Germans was close to zero. For example, near Helsinki, the Red Guard of Malmi advanced toward the Germans in a line along the railway embankment, and in the ensuing battle, a German machine gun team fired at the entire Red Guard from an overpass arching over the tracks, mowing them down. The “battle” resembled something like this: th-cam.com/video/CPRh4gw_GmQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=hdMPOD7V3e2Np8Fy&t=61
Im not surprised to hear that, the Red Guard was mostly made up of volunteers with no military experience or proper training, while the bulk of German troops was compromised of Eastern front veterans who had served many years fighting Imperial Russia before being sent to Finland.
Nicholas II made a major blunder when he listened to the Great Russian chauvinists who wanted to integrate Finland into Russia. Until then, Finland had effectively been a separate state in a personal union with Russia, and Finns were loyal subjects of their Grand Duke, who was also the Tsar of Russia. A German prince was elected King of Finland in 1918, but he declined the position after Germany lost the First World War. An ironic epilogue is tied to this: in 1918, some of the defeated Reds fled to East Karelia and joined British forces that had landed there. When these troops were evacuated the following year alongside the British intervention forces and returned to Finland, the former Red Guardsmen faced interrogation conducted by White officers trained in Germany, who had lost their king. Aware that they now represented the victorious side in their British uniforms, the formerly defeated Reds refused to remove their caps during the interrogation, stating, “His Majesty’s soldiers uncover their heads only before God and the King.”
Interesting story, thanks for sharing. Indeed the entire Finnish civil war and the history of Finland in 1918 and the aftermath of WWI is not often told and not many people know about it, so I'm glad to hear more about it :)
Red Guards took a cannon from German troops at Hauho and drove them away. There is still mark of the cannon shot in the Hauho church grain storage. Red Guards attacked from Hauho to Tuulos where several German soldiers drown to Suolijärvi when they escaped from Red guards.
White army's commander Mannerheim did not want direct german intervention, since he understood that it would render Finland a German vassal, as it did. Finland only got free from the german grip at 11.11.18, when Germany lost the Great war. After that the germanophiles were removed from the governing bodies and Mannerheim was again needed to patch up relations with France and UK.
Fabricated scenes here and there, and not even that well fabricated either. Re enactment for filming and photography. The troops on the rocky hill terrain were not on combat, since they were not really covering themselves and only one fellow was firing in front of the camera. The street fighting scene was an afterwards played scene too. The rifle was hardly kicking at all, when a white guardist was firing. Blanks…
Genuine WWI combat footage is incredible rare, mainly because cameras were rather huge and cumbersome to set up, and no sane camerman would try and set up a huge, delicate camera in the middle of fighting. Unlike the rather small, handheld cameras of WWII. So yes, most WWI footage is just of marching troops, troops being transported or of staged combat scenes.
@GermanWWIArchive Understandable. Btw. Many still -shots resembling these film scenes have found their way into a finnish photo collection book called "Suomen vapaussota kuvissa 1-2", which was part of the "heroic whites-myth build up, that was boosted in Finöand in 1920's and thirties.
Battle at Syrjäntaka village was only one where German’s lost. kia 50 After fall of Red Tampere. Refugee’s travelled to East Lahti and from there to Red Russia. Brandestain landed in Loviisa and cut route off in Lahti. Radenstein had 400 and 5000 red’s. 28-29.4.1918. 300 red killed.
Remarks:
00:16 The main German forces to intervene in the Finish Civil War was the Baltic Sea Division, which was raised from troops which were freed after the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty. It consisted mainly of three cavalry regiments and three light infantry battalions, but also had MG, mountain artillery, pioneer and even some attached Air Force troops. All in all, this division had 10,000 men, was commanded by General Rüdiger von der Goltz (1865-1946) and landed at Hanko, ca. 130 km west of Helsinki, on April 3rd, 1918. It then marched on Helsinki and captured the city after a few days of heavy fighting on April 14th, 1918.
01:05 The convoy transporting the German troops to Finland was accompanied by a number of German warships, although I was not able to find out which ships exactly were used for that mission.
02:59 The German troops embarked at Hanko on April 3rd, a port that was already under control of the White Guard troops.
03:23 Helsingfors is the Swedish name of Helsinki, and at that time, it was common to refer to Helsinki by its Swedish name.
04:28 This gun is a 10,5cm leFH 16, a German light field howitzer introduced in mid-1916 as a successor to the old 10,5cm leFH 98/09, which was considered outdated. With a firing range of 8,400 meters regularly, and 9,700 meters with special cartridges, the gun was one of the best light field howitzers when it was introduced. In total, around 14,000 guns were made by Rheinmetall between 1916 and 1918, and they were also used by German second-line troops in WWII.
05:00 The White Guards was a voluntary milita, part of the White Movement, the first independent government of Finland formed in November 1917, and one of the two sides in the Finnish Civil War, fighting against the socialist Red Guards. At the height of the Civil War, their strength was around 80,000 to 90,000 troops.
05:59 The Red Guard were a militia unit of leftist and socialist groups in Finland, first formed in 1905. They belonged to the Finnish Socialist Workers Republic, a self-proclaimed socialist state in Finland, and fought against the White Guard. They had around the same strength as the White Guard, roughly 80,000 to 90,000 troops, and were supported by around 10,000 former Russian Army soldiers.
06:06 Both the Red and White Guards lacked uniforms, so their members would often fight wearing their own, private clothing, as can be seen here.
07:48 These guns are 7,5cm Mountain Gun 13, a German mountain gun produced by Krupp. The German Army actually had no Mountain guns in their inventory, except for some colonial troops in Africa, but Krupp sold their mountain guns to customers all over the world, and between 1890 and 1914, they sold 688 guns to Chile, the Ottoman Empire and Romania. When WWI broke out, the German Army placed an order 72 guns, but they were not used much, because the Skoda Mountain guns were usually judged to be better.
08:34 Helsinki was attacked by German and White Guard troops on April 12th, and was defended by several thousand Red Guard members, although only around 2,000 of them were armed. The battle was fought over individual buildings, and on April 14th, the Germans and White Guards had secured most of the city. The Battle was fought with rather low intensity, and shops, restaurants and public transport continued to operate normally. Many civilians were actively walking around the fighting zones, trying to spectate the fighting. During the fighting, 54 German, 23 White Guard soldiers and around 100 Red Guard soldiers died, a further 400 Red Guard members were executed afterwards.
09:25 On April 14th, a victory parade of German and Finnish troops was held in the city, to celebrate the victory.
That the Finnish Reds "were supported by around 10,000 former Russian Army soldiers" is evidently much exaggerated, according to the most recent estimates by historians.
Thank YOU for letting us on your other TH-cam channel, "German WWII Archive", know that you were also affiliated with *this* Channel as well! Thank YOU and see you on Patreon! . . . RJT
A highly interesting film since there is very little footage of the Finnish civil war available. Good find!
Thanks! As a Finn, this was very interesting footage to see, and I havent seen it before even I'm interested about history. 👍🏻🇫🇮
truly amazing to see this in such a good quality compared to other sources
Thank you for uploading such footage! Small critique but not that important is that the footage is playing slightly faster than it should. I assume this was scanned at 24 frames a second and being played back as such. The footage however might be at a slower frame rate like 18 or 16 frames a second as these were the standard at the time for multiple formats. For me 0.75x speed resolves the issue. Thanks again for uploading!
You are correct, it was originally filmed at 18 fps, and this version is 24 fps. I'm no expert at these technical questions, but to my knowledge, it was common to copy these films to 24 fps, for whatever reason.
@ I believe the reason for this is the point where the eye blurs individual pictures and sees it as motion is at 24 frames per second. I believe this was set as the standard frame rate due to the advent of synchronous sound recording on film as lower frame rates break the illusion if someone speaks. Thanks again for uploading. This gripe of mine was really minor!
I walked at Senaatintori with my dog last saturday , seen at 9.27 . Looks pretty same this day . Execpt last saturday there was a christmas market😅 . Same place seen also at 12.23 from different angle
03:53 ei tolla rengasseoksella tuosta mäestä mennä yli niin että heilahtaa
07:30 mikä talo tietääkö joku?
The combat value of the Red Guards facing the Germans was close to zero. For example, near Helsinki, the Red Guard of Malmi advanced toward the Germans in a line along the railway embankment, and in the ensuing battle, a German machine gun team fired at the entire Red Guard from an overpass arching over the tracks, mowing them down. The “battle” resembled something like this: th-cam.com/video/CPRh4gw_GmQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=hdMPOD7V3e2Np8Fy&t=61
Im not surprised to hear that, the Red Guard was mostly made up of volunteers with no military experience or proper training, while the bulk of German troops was compromised of Eastern front veterans who had served many years fighting Imperial Russia before being sent to Finland.
Nicholas II made a major blunder when he listened to the Great Russian chauvinists who wanted to integrate Finland into Russia. Until then, Finland had effectively been a separate state in a personal union with Russia, and Finns were loyal subjects of their Grand Duke, who was also the Tsar of Russia. A German prince was elected King of Finland in 1918, but he declined the position after Germany lost the First World War.
An ironic epilogue is tied to this: in 1918, some of the defeated Reds fled to East Karelia and joined British forces that had landed there. When these troops were evacuated the following year alongside the British intervention forces and returned to Finland, the former Red Guardsmen faced interrogation conducted by White officers trained in Germany, who had lost their king. Aware that they now represented the victorious side in their British uniforms, the formerly defeated Reds refused to remove their caps during the interrogation, stating, “His Majesty’s soldiers uncover their heads only before God and the King.”
Interesting story, thanks for sharing. Indeed the entire Finnish civil war and the history of Finland in 1918 and the aftermath of WWI is not often told and not many people know about it, so I'm glad to hear more about it :)
Red Guards took a cannon from German troops at Hauho and drove them away. There is still mark of the cannon shot in the Hauho church grain storage. Red Guards attacked from Hauho to Tuulos where several German soldiers drown to Suolijärvi when they escaped from Red guards.
Can someone recognize where German troops are leaving. Wikipedia says Danzig but did not found that kind of church towers from Gdanzk..
Freikorps voran!
White army's commander Mannerheim did not want direct german intervention, since he understood that it would render Finland a German vassal, as it did.
Finland only got free from the german grip at 11.11.18, when Germany lost the Great war. After that the germanophiles were removed from the governing bodies and Mannerheim was again needed to patch up relations with France and UK.
Anyone read semafor?
Interesting how they are using the swedish names of the cities instead of the finnish ones.
Well, Finland used to be part of Sweden.
Fabricated scenes here and there, and not even that well fabricated either. Re enactment for filming and photography. The troops on the rocky hill terrain were not on combat, since they were not really covering themselves and only one fellow was firing in front of the camera. The street fighting scene was an afterwards played scene too. The rifle was hardly kicking at all, when a white guardist was firing. Blanks…
Genuine WWI combat footage is incredible rare, mainly because cameras were rather huge and cumbersome to set up, and no sane camerman would try and set up a huge, delicate camera in the middle of fighting. Unlike the rather small, handheld cameras of WWII.
So yes, most WWI footage is just of marching troops, troops being transported or of staged combat scenes.
@GermanWWIArchive Understandable. Btw. Many still -shots resembling these film scenes have found their way into a finnish photo collection book called "Suomen vapaussota kuvissa 1-2", which was part of the "heroic whites-myth build up, that was boosted in Finöand in 1920's and thirties.
Battle at Syrjäntaka village was only one where German’s lost. kia 50
After fall of Red Tampere. Refugee’s travelled to East Lahti and from there to Red Russia. Brandestain landed in Loviisa and cut route off in Lahti.
Radenstein had 400 and 5000 red’s.
28-29.4.1918. 300 red killed.