This review is of the audio book.

The portions relating the actual combat operations are mostly a litany of unit designations, commander names and repetitive locations. very little or no insight into tactics, motivations, or strategic events. The small portion that deals with Finland's political options and strategic approach to being squeezed between two totalitarian regimes and picking from just a few suboptimal choices is interesting, but brief.

And the audio book narrator consistently mispronounces "Murmansk" as "Murmanks" at least 200 times throughout the book, which is unbelievably annoying. ( )

My relationship with Casemate Books is a mixed one, as for every worthwhile book approaching the quality of, say, the Kansas or Texas A&M operations, there seems to be two potboilers that mostly exist to sponge up the buying budgets of the public libraries of America. Having gotten that off my chest, this is one of the worthwhile books, as the author concentrates on the high strategy and operations of the so-called "Continuation War," in the process cutting through Finnish obfuscation about their real agenda in this conflict. Basically, it would appear that Finnish society had its own version of expansionist politics, and if this appetite could be opportunistically sated so much the better; who doesn't want to be on the side of the winners? Such is the state of official denial in Finland, that Lunde has to tease out hints of this agenda as to what responsible Finnish leaders were thinking at the time from German accounts of the alliance, but the evidence is good that this was never merely about undoing of the results of the "Winter War." However, the Finns always tried to limited their liability in this adventure, so total disaster was staved off in the end (as compared, say, to the results of Hungarian or Romanian military adventurism).

While I have no real complaints about this book (apart from some clunky production values), one particular instance illustrates the limits of this study: In the collection of the photos there is a collective image of a group of Finish politicians on trial for war crimes and no real explanation is offered in the epilog. It all begs the questions of what crimes and whose court? This is not to mention the question of how Carl Mannerheim should be assessed in regards to the other military adventurers in politics of the Interwar Period; there's a rich topic there for someone with really good linguistic skills and a knack for synthesis. ( )

More of the parts of World War II that folks don't think about. The "Continuation War" as the Finns called it was the Soviet/Finnish conflict that saw the Finns try to reverse some of the losses of the previous Winter War. This didn't end so well for the Finns. This book tries to lay out that Finland made a choice to attack the USSR and act as one of Nazi Germany's allies. This covers much of the background, the early successes, and then as the German efforts faltered, the negotiations and surrender in 1944. This lead to retreating Germans taking vengeance on Finnish property as they retreated.

The Continuation War is the ugly younger brother of the famous Winter War. Stalin's foolish invasion and partial annexation of Finland had made his flank less secure and created much bad blood. So much in fact, that Finland joined Nazi Germany's planning of Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union. Finnish and German officers jointly planned their offensives. Finland's army officially delayed its participation in the attack for a week, so that it could claim victim status and "shoot back". During my visit to the Mannerheim Museum in Helsinki a few years ago, they actively denied Finnish cooperation in the German attack. This book clearly presents the case that the Finnish generals and politicians knew. "Plausible deniability" is not plausible.

Finnish strategic thinking about the war was seriously flawed, because the permanent recovery of its lost territory rested on the Nazis winning the war. Any other outcome would pit tiny Finland against the Russian behemoth. Finland tried to fight a limited war in a total war environment which frustrated both the Germans and the Allied. The Germans approached the war in the North with much muddled thinking too. For Hitler and the Wehrmacht, the Continuation War ranked third, well behind the main attack on Russia and the defense of Norway (and Swedish resources). Constrained by scarce logistical capabilities up north, the Germans never achieved the critical mass necessary to cut the crucial Soviet supply line to the ice-free harbor of Murmansk. Even the available forces in the far north were split to three tasks of defending Norway, attacking Murmansk and cutting the railroad further south. Instead of a Schwerpunkt, the German forces were frittered away and contained by the Soviets who could rely on reinforcements via their strategic rail line.

In the southern part, the Finns recovered their lost territories but refrained from cutting off Leningrad from the north. The stalemate resulted in a drôle de guerre, while both sides waited for a decision in the main theater. As the Soviets prevailed, the Finns had to pay the price. The newly freed up Soviet forces quickly convinced the Finns to negotiate and surrender in 1944. In retaliation, the retreating Germans inflicted widespread destruction of civilian property and infrastructure in the north. Finland's war of choice turned out to have been indeed an unfortunate decision.

This book offers a good, staff study-like overview of the war with a heavy focus on the German actors. I would have preferred a more balanced approach, giving the Finns and the Soviets more space. Often it remains unclear how much of the Soviet forces were actually opposing the German forces listed, making a assessment harder than necessary. The maps could also have been a bit more detailed. Overall, still a worthy introduction to this unnecessary war in the cold north. ( )