Operation Platinum Fox

Operation Platinum Fox (German: Platinfuchs) was a

German and Finnish military oensive launched during
World War II. Platinfuchs took place on the Eastern Front
and had the objective of capturing the Barents Sea port
of Murmansk. It was part of a larger operation, called
Operation Silver Fox (Silberfuchs).

Fleet. After a heavy Soviet counterattack, the Germans

resumed their oensive to the east to the Litsa River.
With the element of surprise lost, the Germans were only
able to establish a small bridgehead over the river. After
a heavy Soviet counterattack on 7 July, Dietl requested
more reinforcements, but he received only a motorized
machine-gun battalion from Norway.[6]
On 10 July a new plan had to be made, after a copy of
the oensive plan fell into Soviet hands. The 2nd Mountain Division had to expand the bridgehead, while the 3rd
Mountain Division had to advance on the south and establish another bridgehead. The renewed attack was again
initially successful, but after the Soviets landed with two
battalions on the other side of the Litsa Bay, Dietl had
to stop the oensive. Things now became worse for the
Germans, as the thinly stretched forces had to hold a 57
km long frontline along the Litsa River to the Rybachy
Peninsula. With the absence of roads, the supply situation also deteriorated and the oensive stalled. Dietl
asked for more reinforcements and Hitler, after initially
being reluctant, agreed to transfer the 6th Mountain Division to Dietls command. After more arguing, in August
the 388th and 9th SS Regiments were also assigned to the
operation.[1]

Background

At the launch of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941,

German units of Alpine Corps Norwegen were sent east
from Norway to occupy Petsamo, in Operation Reindeer
(Renntier). There they joined Finnish forces poised on
the border of Soviet territory. These divisions of Norwegen were, for the most part, elite mountain troops specially trained to operate above the Arctic Circle. As part
of Barbarossa, the Finnish-German forces were to launch
Operation Silver Fox (Silberfuchs), aimed at attacking
Murmansk from two directions. The rst assault from
Finnish Petsamo was codenamed Platinfuchs. The second attack aimed rst to attack Kandalaksha from Salla
and then threaten Murmansk from the south. This operation was codenamed Operation Arctic Fox (Polarfuchs).

Platinum Fox

On 29 June 1941 the Platinfuchs phase of Silberfuchs was

launched. The Norwegen Corps under the command of
Generalleutnant Eduard Dietl, consisting of the German
2nd Mountain Division and German 3rd Mountain Division and the Finnish Ivalo Border Guard Battalion crossed
the border and proceeded on Murmansk. The initial advance was slow. The German oensive met with lots of
problems from the rst day of the oensive on, as the
rough terrain with bad roads made any advance dicult.
The German units also lacked proper maps and had to German coastal artillery German shipping was under constant
attack by Soviet-British forces
advance mostly through unknown terrain.[2]
The two divisions advanced in two directions. In the
south the 2nd Mountain Division was able to penetrate
the Soviet lines at the Titovka Valley in one day after
erce ghting and secured a bridge over the river. In the
north the 3rd Mountain Division also made good progress
in the rst hours to secure the neck of the Rybachy Peninsula.[6]

Dietl now made plans to renew the oensive, with the

fresh SS regiments leading the assault, in September before the onset of the winter would make it dicult to
ght. But a combination of British and Soviet surface
ships and aircraft, which constantly attacked German
shipping to the northern ports, hampered the arrival of
reinforcements and supply and would delay the arrival
Nevertheless the oensive soon met with heavy Soviet of the 6th Mountain Division to October.[7] Nevertheless
resistance, especially from units of the Soviet Northern on 8 September Dietl started with the renewed oensive
1

REFERENCES

without the 6th Mountain Division. The initial assault

-III Battalion (-III Pataljoona)[12]
failed badly and the SS regiments, untrained for arctic
warfare, took heavy casualties. The Germans made some
progress, but a Soviet counterattack stopped the oensive 4.2 Soviet
immediately.[8] Constant attacks by Soviet submarines
14th Rie Division
and British surface ships (consisting of a force of two aircraft carriers, two cruisers and six destroyers) also sunk
52nd Rie Division
numerous German ships and worsened the supply situation even more. For this reason von Falkenhorst prohib Polyamy Division[3]
ited German shipping from sailing east of the North Cape
Several non assigned units[4]
on 13 September.[9] Hitler again pressured to continue the
oensive, but Dietl made it clear, that with the dire supply situation and without further reinforcements no further advance was possible. More Soviet reinforcements 5 Notes
arrived in the area and on 21 September the German offensive was broken o. On mid-October the 2nd Moun- [1] Mann & Jrgensen (2002), pp. 8384
tain Division withdrew to Petsamo and the 6th Mountain
Division replaced the 3rd Mountain Division along the [2] Mann & Jrgensen (2002), p. 81
Litsa line.[9]
[3] a mixed unit consisting of drafted and volunteered sailors
and marine units

Conclusion

[4] Mann & Jrgensen (2002), pp. 8187

[5] Mann & Jrgensen (2002), p. 87

Operation Platinum Fox was a German failure. Although [6] Mann & Jrgensen (2002), p. 82
Dietl was able to make some ground, his insucient
forces were soon stopped by the Soviets. The presence [7] Mann & Jrgensen (2002), p. 85
of British-Soviet naval forces at the Barents Sea ham[8] Mann & Jrgensen (2002), pp. 8586
pered German eorts to adequately supply his forces
and the general unwillingness of the German High Com- [9] Mann & Jrgensen (2002), pp. 8687
mand to reinforce something which they considered as
a secondary theater paved the way for the only success- [10] http://www.feldgrau.com/econo.html Of all the lendlease aid, approximately 50% was delivered via the Paful Soviet resistance in the early stages of Operation Barcic, 25% via Persia and 25% via the northern route to
[4]
barossa. The failure of Platinfuchs had a major impact
Archangel and Murmansk.
on the course of the war in the east. Over the course of
the war, the Soviet Union received approximately a quar- [11] Charles C. Sharp, Red Guards: Soviet Guards Rie and
Airborne Units 1941 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World
ter of its Lend-Lease supplies through the port of MurWar II Vol. IV, Nafziger, 1995, p 46
mansk, and the port of Arkhangelsk,[10] contributing to
its continued resistance.
In recognition of its role in the successful defense of Murmansk, the Soviet 52nd Rie Division was re-named 10th
Guards Rie Division on Dec. 26, 1941.[11]

[12] JR 14 war diary. http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=

3411488

6 References
4

Order of battle

4.1

German

German 2nd Mountain Division

German 3rd Mountain Division
Under the direct command of AOK Lappland
Finnish Separate Detachment (Petsamo) (Erillinen
Osasto (Petsamo))
14th Finnish Infantry Regiment (Jalkavkirykmentti
14 (JR 14))

Boog, Horst; Frster, Jrgen; Homann, Joachim;

Klink, Ernst; Mller, Rolf-Dieter; Ueberschr,
Gerd R. (1998). Attack on the Soviet Union.
Germany and the Second World War IV. Translated by Dean S. McMurry, Ewald Osers, Louise
Willmot. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19822886-4.* Mann, Chris M. & Jrgensen, Christer
(2002), Hitlers Arctic War , Hersham, UK: Ian Allan
Publishing Ltd, ISBN 0-7110-2899-0

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