14 Aug Stella Polaris

The country of Finland sits right between Sweden on one side and Russia/the Soviet Union on the other. On its northern border is Norway.

Historically Finland was part of Sweden, but during the 1700’s Finland was occupied by Russian forces and then by 1809 became a part of the Russian Empire. After years of Russian rule, Finland declared its independence following the Russian Revolution of 1917. Thereafter relations with the Soviet Union were tense. Of course they were. Russia wanted control, in particular of those parts of Finland which were close to the grand city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg.)

There was a civil war, a Winter War (1939-1940) against the Soviet Union, and then what the Finns called the Continuation War (1941- 1944) also against the Soviet Union. At that time they were receiving military support from Germany.

In March of 1944 President Roosevelt called on Finland to break all ties with Germany.  In September of that year the Moscow Armistice was signed between Finland on one side and the Soviet Union and Britain on the other, extricating Finland from the Axis.

Cities Sweden that received the Stella Polaris ships from Finland, Sept. 22 and 23, 1944

In the midst of all this turmoil, on September 21st and 22nd 1944 four rusting ships left Närpes, a city on the west coast of Finland, and on a stormy night crossed over the Gulf of Bothnia (upper portion of the Baltic Sea) to two cities on Sweden’s eastern coastline, Härnösand and Gävle. On those ships were over a thousand refugees from Finland, in essence the entire military intelligence branch along with their families.  The evacuating Finns brought with them a huge amount of intelligence materials, including the secrets to the codes of many countries including of course, the Soviet Union, their adversary for so many years.

That’s why they were in such a hurry to leave Finland, as the Soviets were just coming into Finland to oversee the Armistice.

This secret operation was code named “Operation Stella Polaris.”

Once in Sweden, the Finns negotiated with the different intelligence agencies situated in Sweden for their valuable information. This included OSS Stockholm. They had an excellent relationship with the Finns. The Chief of the OSS Mission, Wilho Tikander was fluent in Finnish and had many important contacts there.

Tikander communicated to William Donovan, head of the OSS, that he had instructed Dick Huber and William Carlson to meet with the Finns in order to purchase the Russian codebooks, and this they did.

When the U.S. Secretary of State heard about the deal, he had a fit and protested to President Roosevelt who ordered that the code books be returned.

Were they copied first? Now that has been a matter of conversation ever since … The effects of Operation Stella Polaris continued into the Cold War and beyond and still today are a topic of study and debate.  I found a Finnish website on the subject. I’m not sure who the site belongs to but there is some interesting information there.

What is my interest? In September of 1944, my mother, Hedy Johnson, was William T. Carlson’s secretary so I have to assume that she was right in the middle of all the reporting being done. The Stella Polaris operation would have been personally interesting to her because her parents had come to the U.S. from Närpes, Finland in the early 1900’s. There is a Stella Polaris monument erected there in memory of this World War II operation.

I know that I have readers from Finland and Sweden so I would very much appreciate your comments, edits, and corrections. I’m studying this. Your countries lived it! THANKS, Pat

My source for much of this is Patrick K. O’Donnell’s book about the OSS, “Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs.”

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