Battle of Lempäälä
The Battle of Lempäälä refers to a series of battles within the Finnish Civil War, that took place within the areas of Lempäälä and neighboring Vesilahti.
| Battle of Lempäälä | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Finnish Civil War | |||||||
 Burning House due to Red Artillery Fire | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Finnish Whites Swedish Brigade |
 Finnish Reds | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Karl Fredrik WilkmanAllan Winge |
Eino Rahja | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
2,500 to 4,000 Unknown | 500 to 5,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
194 fallen in combat 2 Swedish Casualties |
249 fallen in combat 230–400 executed | ||||||
Background
Lempäälä was a relatively quiet place within the first weeks of the war, however as it was under the Red controlled area, the Red forces quickly took over important strategical hubs within the settlement, such as the railway station, the telephone exchange, the municipal hall and the savings bank.[1]
White Capture of the Village
The battles within Lempäälä were directly linked to the Battle for Tampere. Colonel Karl Wilkman was directly ordered by C.G Mannerheim to capture Lempäälä with a route through Kangasala to blockade and encircle Tampere. Kangasala was captured on 22 March and following a short battle, Lempäälä was captured by the White forces. The Reds in Lempäälä consisted of local poorly trained militia and some Helsinki Red Guardsmen, who quickly fell to the vastly outnumbering White forces around 25 March.[1][2]
Red Counterattack
Following their defeat, Eino Rahja gathered a group of around 2,000 men from Southern Finland and St. Petersburg and started an attack to break the encirclement of Tampere. There was a severe focus of the fighting in Lempäälä on the isthmus between Lake Vanajavesi and Lake Pyhäjärvi, and the Reds initially managed on pushing back the White forces and there was a hope of breaking the encirclement in Tampere. The two last reserve battalions within the Lempäälä area were ordered to counterattack, scything the Reds ability to relieve Tampere. When the news of Tampere's fall to the Whites reached the Lempäälä Red Guard, they stopped their offensive towards Tampere and started a attritional war. However, on the 24th of April, the Red Guard in Lempäälä was ordered to retreat.[3]
Casualties
According to War Victims of Finland 1914–1922, which is a database published by the National Archives of Finland, around 194 Whites fell in total in the battle, and around 43 of them being at Vesilahti, including two Swedish volunteers. Around 249 Reds fell in total in the battle, around 61 of them being at Vesilahti.[4]
See also
References
- ^ a b "Kauhun vuosi 1918 - Lempäälän kunta". 2017-07-30. Archived from the original on 2017-07-30. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
- ^ Ylikangas, Heikki (1994). Tie Tampereelle: dokumentoitu kuvaus Tampereen antautumisen johtaneista sotatapahtumista Suomen sisällissodassa, 1918 (4. painos ed.). Porvoo: Söderström. ISBN 978-951-0-18897-2.
- ^ "Sisällissodan tapahtumia 2: Tampereen taistelut ja sodan loppu". 2018-10-25. Archived from the original on 2018-10-25. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "Suomen sotasurmat 1914-1922". 2016-09-13. Archived from the original on 2016-09-13. Retrieved 2023-08-05.