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Operation Platinum Fox

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Part of World War II

Date	June-July, 1941
Location	Lappland
Result	Stalemate

Combatants

Germany

Finland

Soviet Union

Commanders

Eduard Dietl

R. I. Panin

Strength

40,000

Unknown

Casualties

15,274

unknown

Arctic 1941–44
Reindeer – Silver Fox – Platinum Fox – Arctic Fox – PQ17 – Petsamo-Kirkenes

Unternehmen Platinfuchs (Operation Platinum Fox) was a German and Finnish military offensive launched during World War II. Platinfuchs took place on the Eastern Front and had the objective of capturing the White Sea port of Murmansk. It was part of the overall operation, Unternehmen Silberfuchs.

Background

Over the course of the War, Soviet Russia received over a quarter of its Lend-Lease supplies through the port of Murmansk (the remainder arriving through Vladivostok). By the launch of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, German units of Armee Norwegen had been sent east from Norway and had joined Finnish forces poised on the border of Soviet territory. The divisions of Armee Norwegen were, for the most part, the elite Gebirgsjägers, mountain troops specially trained to operate above the Arctic Circle. Timed to coincide with Barbarossa, the Finnish-German forces were to launch Unternehmen Silberfuchs, aimed at attacking Murmansk from two directions. The first assault from Finnish Petsamo was codenamed Platinfuchs. The second attack aimed first to attack Kandalaksha from Salla and then threaten Murmansk from the south. This operation was codenamed Polarfuchs.

Platinum Fox

After the successful occupation of Petsamo as a part of Unternehmen Renntier, the Platinfuchs phase of Silberfuchs was launched. Gebirgskorps Norwegen under the command of Generalleutnant Eduard Dietl, consisting of the 2. and 3.Gebirgs-Divisions, the Finnish Ivalo Border Guard Battalion. The operation started on June 29, but the combination of the rough terrain and the fierce Soviet resistance soon proved too much for the Germans and the offensive was halted. Later it was decided to move the focus of the attack further south, first to the XXXVI Corps near Salla and later to the Finnish III Corps near Kiestinki.