Background
Finnish preparations to separately conclude the war against the Soviet Union prompted Germans to prepare for such an eventuality. Furthermore as situation developed critical in mid June 1944 during the initial successes of the Soviet Vyborg-Petrozavodsk Operation Germans placed the forces prepared for the operation into full readiness. German plans for the both of the Tanne operations were planned alongside the Operation Birke, the German 20th Mountain Army's evacuation and on 5 July 1944 the Tanne operations were assigned solely to the Kriegsmarine. On 2 September 1944 Finland officially informed Germany of the coming cease fire between Finland and the Soviet Union which led to Hitler's orders to confiscate all Finnish shipping and to prepare for the Operation Tanne Ost While the confiscation order was rescinded in order to facilitate the material transport related to Operation Birke, as Finnish authorities as prevented any ships from sailing from Finland to Germany, plans for capturing Hogland were kept in motion.
The operation was initially planned with another operation to capture the Åland Islands (Tanne West), which was not carried out both because the units reserved for the operation were already deployed to the Eastern Front and because Sweden had warned against operations in Åland.
Read more about this topic: Operation Tanne Ost
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