Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive

The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive or Karelian offensive was a strategic operation by the Soviet Leningrad and Karelian Fronts against Finland on the Karelian Isthmus and East Karelia fronts of the Continuation War, on the Eastern Front of World War II. The Soviet forces captured East Karelia and Viborg. After that, however, the fighting reached a stalemate.

The operations of the strategic offensive can be divided into the following offensives:

Background

In January 1944, Soviet forces raised the Siege of Leningrad and drove the German Army Group North to the Narva-Lake Ilmen-Pskov line. Finland asked for peace conditions in February, but the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta) considered the received terms impossible to fulfill. After Finland had rejected the peace conditions, and Germany denied the Soviets from the Baltic Sea at Narva, the Stavka (Main Command of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union) started to prepare for an offensive to force Finland's exit from the war. More likely the aim was however to conquer Finland.

Offensive (military)

An offensive is a military operation that seeks through aggressive projection of armed force to occupy territory, gain an objective or achieve some larger strategic, operational or tactical goal. Another term for an offensive often used by the media is 'invasion', or the more general 'attack'.

The offensive was considered a pre-eminent means of producing victory, although with the recognition of a defensive phase at some stage of the execution.

A quick guide to the size or scope of the offensive is to consider the number of troops involved in the side initiating the offensive.

Offensives are largely conducted as a means to secure initiative in a confrontation between opponents. They can be waged on land, at sea or in the air.

Naval offensives, such as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, can have wide-ranging implications for national strategies, and require significant logistical commitment to destroy enemy naval capabilities. It can also be used to interdict enemy shipping, such as World War II's Battle of the Atlantic. Naval offensives can also be tactical in nature, such as Operation Coronado IX conducted by the United States Navy's Mobile Riverine Force during the Vietnam War.