The Battle of Tampere was a 1918 Finnish Civil War battle, fought in Tampere, Finland from 15 March to 6 April between the Whites and the Reds. It is the most famous and the heaviest of all the Finnish Civil War battles.[2][3] Today it is particularly remembered for its bloody aftermath as the Whites executed hundreds of capitulated Reds and took 11,000 prisoners who ended up in the Kalevankangas camp.[4]
In the 1910s, Tampere was the third largest town in Finland with a population of approximately 60,000, including the suburbs. It was the most industrialized town in Finland which was considered the capital of the Finnish labour movement. Tampere had played a key role in the 1905 general strike and the town was a stronghold for the trade unions and the Social Democratic Party.[5]
As the Civil War started in late January 1918, the Reds targeted the important railway junction of Haapamäki, 100 kilometres north of Tampere. The frontline was soon established 50–60 kilometres north of Tampere and Tavastia Front became the major theatre of the war. The large working-class population and the railway connections made Tampere the main base for Red Guards, although the Red government was working in Helsinki. On January 27, Tampere was completely under the control of the Reds.[6]Tampere Red Guard had about 6,000 members, including 300 women, about 5% of the total.[5]
Siege of Tampere
General map of the battle of Tampere, the presentation includes shooting targets of the White artillery.
As the Red offensives failed in late February and early March, the Whites launched their operation against Tampere on 15 March. The aim was to encircle the Red forces in the Tavastia Front and then invade Tampere. Heavy fighting occurred in Jämsä, Orivesi, Ruovesi, and Vilppula. The fiercest were the Battle of Länkipohja in Jämsä on 16 March and the Battle of Orivesi two days later. The Red front collapsed and the troops withdrew towards Tampere where the Reds now had about 15,000 fighters. Instead of capitulating, the Red staff decided to defend the city as long as possible. The Whites reached Tampere on 23 March and besieged the city with 17,000 men in the largest military operation of the war. Related battles were fought in the areas of Ylöjärvi, Pirkkala, Messukylä, Aitolahti, Lempäälä, Vesilahti, and Tottijärvi, as well as further west on the Satakunta Front in Karkku and Hämeenkyrö.[5]
On 23 March, the Whites approached Tampere from the northeast and clashed with the Red defence in Vehmainen, 10 kilometres east of the city. During the next two days, the Whites also attacked the suburb of Messukylä in the southeast (taking over for a moment the Takahuhti village belonging to it)[7][8] and the village of Lempäälä, 15 kilometres south of Tampere, but were repelled. White artillery started firing on the town, and the Reds were forced to evacuate the eastern working-class district of Tammela. The Whites captured the village of Kangasala, 15 kilometres east of Tampere, but using an armoured train, 300 Reds managed to fight their way through advancing White troops and flee to Messukylä. On the evening of 24 March, the Reds finally lost Lempäälä. The Whites were now able to cut the Riihimäki–Tampere railway, the main Red supply line.[4]
The Whites completed the siege on 26 March by taking the Siuro railway station on the Pori railway, 20 kilometres west of Tampere in the Siuro village.[4] On the same day, the Reds left their defence posts in Messukylä, forming a new line next to the Kaleva district. The Whites also managed to capture Ylöjärvi, located 10 kilometres northwest of Tampere. After taking Ylöjärvi, the Whites instantly continued the attack on the western side of town in Epilä and south in Hatanpää, but suffered heavy losses and were pushed back. The Reds, in turn, launched a 3,500-man counterattack in Lempäälä, under the command of Eino Rahja. The Red Guards of Turku and Yläne attempted a simultaneous breakthrough along the southbound Helsinki railway. Up to 30 fighters were killed and the armoured train had to pull back. On 27 March, the fighting still continued in Messukylä–Kaleva area, Epilä and Lempäälä.[5]
Wounded Red soldiers in a hospital
Bloody Thursday
On 28 March, the Whites suffered the hardest daily casualties of the war so far, in what was later called ″Bloody Thursday″.[9] The Whites completed a large offensive in order to finally enter the town. The fighting concentrated to the areas of Kalevankangas Cemetery and the Hippodrome in the eastern outskirts of Tampere.[9] The attack was launched at 9:00 am. After seven hours of fighting, the Whites managed to repel the Reds from the Kaleva district but could not reach the town.[5]
Instead of the paramilitary White Guards, the White Army now used troops composed of conscripts and led by Jäger officers. Conscripts were much easier to command and send into a heavy battle than voluntary White Guards. Instead of disobedience, the problem was now the lack of war experience which in turn meant heavy losses. Three White battalions had at least 200 men killed, the total casualties were more than 50% of their strength in dead or wounded. Also the voluntary Swedish Brigade and the German-trained Jäger troops suffered hard losses.[3] The Swedes were dressed in white snow-camouflage battledresses, making them an easy target as there was hardly snow at all. The Jägers wore green uniforms which easily stood out of the grey-suited privates. As a result, the 400-man Swedish Brigade lost 20 and the Jäger troops lost 27 officers.[5]
During the day, the Reds had 50–70 fighters killed. The Red leader Hugo Salmela died after a hand grenade accidentally exploded in his headquarters.[4][9][10] He was succeeded by Verner Lehtimäki. According to the French journalist Henry Laporte, Lehtimäki drove in his car back and forth through the Red lines to encourage his men.[11] Laporte was a retired officer returning from an official mission to Russia. He later described his experiences of the Tampere Battle in the 1929 book Le Premier Échec des Rouges.[12]
After the failed attack, the Whites halted their offensive for the next five days. Only the artillery was pounding the town. The artillery fire killed at least 20 civilians, some of them neutral or White supporters, and destroyed the working-class neighbourhoods of Tammela and Kyttälä almost completely. During this five-day period, the fighting continued in Lempäälä, where the Reds still were desperately trying to breakthrough.[5]
Swedish volunteers
Battle in the town
The Whites launched their decisive offensive on 3 April at 2:30 am. During the first day, they managed to take the eastern working-class districts of Tammela and Kyttälä despite the heavy resistance. The fighting went on block by block and house by house. The Whites finally reached the Tammerkoski river which divided the town in two. During the day, the Whites had 207 killed and the Reds 115–170. Also, nearly 20 civilians were killed.[5] As leaving the town was impossible, people from the suburbs fled into the centre. Churches and other public buildings were crowded with refugees, the local residents hid in their basements.[13] 1,700 people took shelter in the Tampere Cathedral.[4]
One of the most famous operations of the battle was conducted on the same day. A White unit led by jäger Gunnar Melin took the Näsilinna Palace on the Näsinkallio hill along Hallituskatu, only to lose it again in the evening, as the main force was stuck on the east side of Tammerkoski. Melin's troops executed 20 surrendered Reds in the yard of the Näsinlinna Palace despite the leaflets signed by the White commander C. G. E. Mannerheim claiming Whites would not shoot prisoners.[5]
A propaganda leaflet signed by General Mannerheim circulated by the Whites urging the Red defenders to surrender. English: To the residents and troops of Tampere! Resistance is hopeless. Raise the white flag and surrender. The blood of the citizen has been shed enough. We will not kill like the Reds kill their prisoners. Send your representative with a white flag.
On the next morning at 4:00 am, the Whites crossed the Tammerkoski River at several points, including the railway bridge and the Satakunnansilta and Hämeensilta bridges. In the evening, they reached Hämeenpuisto Avenue on the western side of town. On 5 April, the Whites managed to take the rest of the town. The last Red pocket was the City Hall, defended together by male and female fighters. According to a legend, the City Hall lasted this long as the Tampere Women's Red Guard refused to capitulate. The last City Hall defenders finally surrendered at 5:30 pm. The remaining Reds retreated to the western suburbs of Pyynikki and Pispala. In the evening, a large group of Reds managed to flee across the ice of lakes Pyhäjärvi and Näsijärvi. Among them were Red leaders Verner Lehtimäki, Ali Aaltonen and K. M. Evä.[5]
On 6 April, the Whites were about to attack the western suburbs, but at 8:30 am a white flag was raised on top of the Pyynikki Tower, and the battle was over. However, there were still some lone Red snipers for a couple of days.[5]
Captured Reds in the Central Square
Casualties
The body of a young boy on Suvantokatu near the intersection of Aleksanterinkatu after battle.
The true number of casualties is unclear. The number of killed Whites is usually estimated at 600–820 and the Reds at 600–1,000. A thousand Reds and 200 Russians were also executed after the battle. According to some sources, a mass grave in the Kalevankangas Cemetery contains 2,751 Reds of which 1,208 were killed in action. The War Victims of Finland 1914–1922 database knows the names of 824 Whites, 1,087 Reds and 67 are unknown or neutral.[5]
The Whites started the executions right after the Reds surrendered. Up to 1,000 were shot as well as all the Russians in Tampere. Most of the 200 executed Russians were soldiers. The executed included also women and children, although captured women fighters were not systematically shot like the Whites did in Lahti and Vyborg.[5] Even people who were neither involved in the battle nor members of the Red Guards were imprisoned and killed.[13]
As the number of capitulated became too large, it was impossible to shoot everyone. More than 10,000 Reds were gathered to the Central Square, where they had to stand for nearly 24 hours. The prisoners were then transferred to a prison camp established in the eastern Kaleva district. During the next five months, 1,228 Reds died in the Tampere camp of executions, disease or hunger.[5]
Memorials
The statue of the White Army commander C. G. E. Mannerheim stands at the site where he was observing the battle. The controversial statue was first suggested to the Koskipuisto park in 1939 but was finally erected on a hill eight kilometres from Tampere in 1956.[21] Due to its remote location, the statue has often been vandalized during the years by local anarchists and other left-wing radicals.[22]Vapaudenpatsas (The Statue of Liberty), by the sculptor Viktor Jansson, is another statue commemorating the White conquest of Tampere. It was placed in the Hämeenpuisto Park in 1921. The model of the figure was the far-right priest Elias Simojoki. The statue is holding a sword pointed towards the Tampere Workers' Hall on the other side of the park.[23] The statue is often called Rummin-Jussi, after the nickname of the infamous White executioner Johannes From, who was responsible for executing more than 70 Reds.[24] The Swedish Brigade commemorative plaque is placed near the Kalevankangas Cemetery. It is a work of the sculptor Gunnar Finne.[25]
The Red memorial was erected to the Kalevankangas Cemetery in 1941. It was designed by the sculptor Jussi Hietanen who was held at the Kalevankangas Prison Camp in 1918 at the age of 15. Another memorial is placed in Pispala where the last Reds surrendered.[26]
The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic during the country's transition from a grand duchy ruled by the Russian Empire to a fully independent state. The clashes took place in the context of the national, political, and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The war was fought between the Red Guards, led by a section of the Social Democratic Party, and the White Guards, conducted by the senate and those who opposed socialism with assistance late in the war by the German Imperial Army at the request of the Finnish civil government. The paramilitary Red Guards, which were composed of industrial and agrarian workers, controlled the cities and industrial centres of southern Finland. The paramilitary White Guards, which consisted of land owners and those in the middle and upper classes, controlled rural central and northern Finland, and were led by General C. G. E. Mannerheim.
Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately 259,000, while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 421,000. It is the 3rd most populous municipality in Finland, and the second most populous urban area in the country after the Helsinki metropolitan area.
The Red Guards were the paramilitary units of the labour movement in Finland during the early 1900s. The Red Guards formed the army of Red Finland and were one of the main belligerents of the Finnish Civil War in 1918.
Messukylä is a former municipality of Finland which was annexed by the city of Tampere in 1947. The medieval stone church in Messukylä is the oldest building in Tampere. During the Civil War (1918), Messukylä was the scene of heavy battles around both the medieval and new churches.
Tampere Central Station is a functionalist building in Tampere, Finland, designed by Eero Seppälä and Otto Flodin, completed in 1936. The station is one of the most important railway stations in Finland. In 2015, the Tampere Central Station was the second busiest railway station in Finland in terms of numbers of passengers, after the Helsinki Central Station.
Hämeenkatu is the main street of Tampere, Finland, located in the city center. The boulevard is roughly a kilometre long, and 28.5 metres (94 ft) wide at its widest point.
Finnish national road 3 is a highway in Finland between Helsinki and Vaasa via Hämeenlinna and Tampere. The road is 424 kilometres (263 mi) long and it is part of the European route E12. 180 kilometres (110 mi) of the highway is motorway, connecting Helsinki to Tampere. North of Tampere, the road is mostly two-lane road, with a share of 2+1 road. The busiest point on Highway 3 is in Helsinki, north of the Ring I junction, where the average traffic volume is about 90,000 vehicles per day.
The Province of Häme was a province of Finland from 1831 to 1997.
Hugo Salmela was one of the Red Guard military leaders in the 1918 Finnish Civil War. He was a saw-mill worker from the town of Kotka in Eastern Finland, without any military background. Salmela was also known as an enthusiastic amateur actor in the local worker's theatre. After the Red Guards were formed in the late 1917, Salmela became the leader of the Kymi Guard.
Kalevankangas Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kalevanharju district within the city of Tampere, Finland.
The Battle of Helsinki was a 1918 Finnish Civil War battle, fought on 12–13 April by the German troops and Finnish Whites against the Finnish Reds in Helsinki, Finland. Together with the battles of Tampere and Vyborg, it was one of the three major urban battles of the Finnish Civil War. The Germans invaded Helsinki despite the opposition of Finnish White Army leader Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim who wanted to attack the capital city with his own troops after Tampere had fallen on 6 April. However, the Germans had their own interest in taking Helsinki as quickly as possible and then moving further east towards the Russian border. The city had been under Red control for 11 weeks since the beginning of the war.
Tampere camp was a concentration camp operating from 6 April 1918 to 15 September 1918 in the Kaleva district of Tampere, Finland. It was set up for the Reds captured by the White Army after the Finnish Civil War Battle of Tampere.
Battle of Lahti was a 1918 Finnish Civil War battle, fought from 19 April to 1 May by the German troops and Finnish Whites against the Finnish Reds in Lahti, Finland. Together with the Battle of Viipuri, from 24 to 29 April, it was the last major battle of the war.
All-female units of the paramilitary Red Guards served in the 1918 Finnish Civil War. The first Women's Guards units formed in early February in the main Finnish cities. More than 15 female Guards units were established by the end of March 1918, with a total of about 2,000 women serving. The female Guards units consisted of young industrial workers, maids, and servants. Their average age was about 20, but some were as young as 14. The women served in auxiliary units in combat.
The Battle of Kämärä was a 1918 Finnish Civil War battle fought at the Kämärä railway station on 27 January 1918 between the Whites and the Reds. The battle began as a White Guard battalion from Vyborg attacked Kämärä on its march to the White-controlled side of the Karelian Isthmus. After taking the village, the Whites ambushed a Red train carrying a large cargo of weapons from Saint Petersburg, but were finally forced to leave the scene as they ran out of ammunition. The Battle of Kämärä is considered to be the first battle of the Civil War, although some minor incidents had occurred throughout January.
Hämeensilta is a bridge in Tampere, Finland, crossing the Tammerkoski rapids. The main street of Tampere, Hämeenkatu, runs along the bridge, connecting the Kyttälä district to the western parts of the city center. Hämeensilta is one of the city's best known landmarks, especially famous for the statues on the rails of the bridge. The arches of the bridge are made of concrete and they are coated with a red granite. The 68-metre-long (223 ft) Hämeensilta was completed in 1929. It is named after the Finnish name of the Tavastia province.
The Battle of Länkipohja was a Finnish Civil War battle fought in the village of Länkipohja on 16 March 1918 between the Finnish Whites and the Finnish Reds. Together with the battles fought in Kuru, Ruovesi and Vilppula between 15 and 18 March, the Battle of Länkipohja was one of the first military operations related to the Battle of Tampere, which was the decisive battle of the Finnish Civil War. The battle is known for its bloody aftermath as the Whites executed 70–100 capitulated Reds. One of the executions was photographed and the images have become one of the best known pictures of the Finnish Civil War.
Battle of Vilppula was a Finnish Civil War battle fought in Vilppula and Ruovesi, Finland from 31 January to 18 March 1918 between the Whites and the Reds. Due to its location by the Tampere–Haapamäki railway, Vilppula was a gateway to the White-controlled Central Finland. The Reds were aiming to reach Haapamäki, 25 kilometres north of Vilppula, which was a vital junction of the east–west railways connecting the regions of Ostrobothnia, Häme and Karelia. From Haapamäki, the Reds would be able to reach the White stronghold in Southern Ostrobothnia, including their capital Vaasa. However, the attack along the railway was stopped in the beginning of February. The Reds now turned their attention to the village of Väärinmaja in order to reach Vilppula from southwest by the road connecting Ruovesi and Vilppula. This offensive also failed, and finally on 15 March, the Whites launched their own offensive and the Reds retreated south to defend the city of Tampere.
The Battle of Ruovesi was a major battle during the Finnish Civil War and on the Eastern Front of World War I fought in Ruovesi, Finland from 5 February to 19 March 1918 between the Whites and the Reds with support for the latter from Russian volunteers.
The Battle of Lempäälä refers to a series of battles that took place within the areas of Lempäälä and neighboring Vesilahti during the 1918 Finnish Civil War.
↑ Heikki Ylikangas (1993). Tie Tampereelle: 1918: dokumentoitu kuvaus Tampereen antautumiseen johtaneista sotatapahtumista Suomen sisällissodassa (in Finnish). Helsinki: WSOY. ISBN9510188972.
↑ Lehtimäki, Kimmo. "Verner Lehtimäen elämästä"(PDF) (in Finnish). Institution of Migration. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
↑ Ylitalo, Teppo (5 June 2012). "Ernst Saari (1882–1918)" (in Finnish). HELEMI – Lapuan historiallinen tietokanta. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
↑ "Juho Lehmus" (in Finnish). Parliament of Finland. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
↑ Lindstedt, Risto (3 May 2007). "Viimeinen kesä" (in Finnish). Suomen Kuvalehti. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
↑ "Viljamaa, Kalle Albinus" (in Finnish). War Victims of Finland 1914–1922 Database. Archived from the original on 18 October 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
↑ "Evert Porila" (in Finnish). City of Tampere. 2006. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
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Finnish Whites 
Swedish Brigade 
Finnish Reds 
