The Battle of Helsinki was a 1918 Finnish Civil War battle, fought in 12–13 April between 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.
The German Baltic Sea Division landed in Finland on 3 April and entered the Helsinki area eight days later. In the city centre, the defending Reds did not have defensive lines or barricades but were fighting inside single buildings and blocks, which the Germans then had to take one by one. During the battle, life in Helsinki went on as usual. The shops and restaurants were open, the public transportation functioned and factories were running. Curious spectators were wandering so close that the Germans had to tell them to move back. The White supporters considered the Germans liberators and handed them flowers as well as tea, coffee and snacks to eat.
Nearly 500 people were killed in the battle. The number includes about 400 Red Guard fighters who were killed in action or executed after capitulation, 54 Germans and 23 White Guard members. The number of executed Reds is unclear, but it is estimated between 20 and 50. After the battle, from 4,000 to 6,000 Red Guard members or supporters were arrested.
The units
The 10,000-men-strong Baltic Sea Division attacked Helsinki with 6,000 men including two infantry regiments, one jäger battalion, an artillery battery and some supportive troops. The Imperial German Navy landed 400 Seebataillon marines to the Katajanokka district, where they entered the downtown and joined the Baltic Division. The Germans were supported by 2,000 Helsinki White Guard members, who had been active underground during the Red control of the city. However, the Whites did not have any important role as they joined the battle in its late stage.
The Red Guard units defending Helsinki were mainly composed of inexperienced reserves. At the time, the main combat forces of the Helsinki Red Guard were fighting on the Tavastia Front. They were led by the bricklayer Edvard Nyqvist, who had served as the city's militia chief, and the industrial worker Fredrik Edvard Johansson because the Red Guard general staff, as well as the Red Government, had left Helsinki on 8 April and fled to the city of Vyborg in Eastern Finland. There were still some Red supporting Russian troops in town, but under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed between the Soviet Russia and the Central Powers, they did not take part in the battle.
Battle outside Helsinki
The Baltic Sea Division landed at Hanko, 120 kilometres west of Helsinki, on 3 April and started marching east. The first battle between German troops and the Finnish Reds was fought three days later in the town of Karis. The Germans lost nine men but took over this important railway junction, then closing Helsinki by the Coastal Railway and the Turku–Helsinki highway. After minor skirmishes in Lohja and Kirkkonummi, the Germans finally entered foregrounds of the Krepost Sveaborg, a Russian-built system of fortifications around Helsinki, in the Leppävaara village of Espoo, 10 kilometres west of Helsinki. The Battle of Leppävaara was fought on 11 April. The Germans attacked the Red defensive posts, and managed to force them to flee. Red Guard's losses were 13 men while the Germans had only two men killed in action. As the Reds retreated, the Germans had an open road towards the suburbs of Helsinki.
On the next morning, general Rüdiger von der Goltz ordered a group of 500 men to attack Tikkurila, 16 kilometres north of Helsinki, in order to cut the Helsinki–Riihimäki railway and close the way out of the city. The Germans fought against local Red Guard members who defended from their own houses and yards with some support of an armoured train. The Baltic Sea Division finally took the Tikkurila railway station at 5 PM and soon entered the Malmi railway station, 3 kilometres south of Tikkurila. The poorly equipped Reds had at least 25 men killed in Tikkurila, according to some sources even 100, but the Germans lost only two.