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Murmansk railroad


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Hello,

I'm rather new to this forum, but I want to get the developers attention to the following issue.

The railroad from Murmansk and the harbour itself was the key to all lend lease support the Soviets received from the western allies.

As I understand, from this forum, Murmansk will be off map and the scale makes individual railroads hard to simulate.

Anyway, please try to include this in the game.

The Finnish and Swedish (voluntary) regiments did reach and destroy a small part of the railroad, but the Soviets built new tracks behind the front to keep the railroad operational. However, this shows how close the Finnish was to actually cut of this life line. How important this was, is shown by the fact that USA even threatened Finland with war if they cut off the Murmansk railroad.

Finally, please remember that Field Marshall Gustaf Mannerheim was one of the finest commanders during WWII so rate him high.

For information and pictures of Mannerheim see http://www.mannerheim.fi

If I can be off any assistance regarding the Swedish military during WWII and/or the Swedish volunteers in Finland don’t hesitate to contact me.

Best Regards,

Chris

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Originally posted by Chris G:

The railroad from Murmansk and the harbour itself was the key to all lend lease support the Soviets received from the western allies.

Besides Murmansk, there was also the port of Archangelsk, and anyway the majority of L&L did not come through the North Sea. So Murmansk wasn't THAT important, although not unimportant either.

Finnish army captured section of the railroad from Maaselkä to river Svir, but building of a new connection north of Onega had started already before the war. So it wasn't built just because of the war.

When did USA threaten Finland with war? Britain, maybe?

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Sergei

We had the same thought at the same time regarding the importance, or lack of it, in the Northern LL run to the USSR.

I think it existed mainly for the flow of goods from the UK to the USSR. I know the USSR sent gold to the UK by that route and at least one huge shipment of gold bars was sunk during the war.

But getting back to the original point, the routes through Iran and Alaska, though much slower, were infinitely safer and in all likelihood 100% of those deliveries made it through.

It would be interesting to see the figures of quantities that arrived through all three routes.

On a sour note, most soviet workers who actually came in contact with US and British / Commonwealth sailors or merchant marine personnel were placed on an NKVD list and after the war sent to gulags as unreliable comrades!

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