most importantly Viipuri, a major city, and was forced to retreat from Eastern Karelia. However, in the decisive Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the Soviet advance was halted. The Soviet Union concentrated its forces for the battles in Central Europe, and Finland made a separate peace in September 1944. Lapland War The Lapland War (Finnish: Lapin sota) was the hostilities between Finland and Nazi Germany between September 1944 and April 1945, fought in Finland's northernmost Lapland Province. While the Finns saw this as a separate conflict much like the Continuation War, German forces considered their actions to be part of the Second World War. A peculiarity of the war was that the Finnish army was forced to demobilise their forces while at the same time fighting to force the German army to leave Finland. The German forces retreated to Norway, and Finland was therefore able to uphold its armistice promise to the Soviet Union. Cold War During the Cold War, Finland was neutral but maintained close ties to the Soviet Union. The Finnish Army was in a sticky situation as it bordered the Soviet Union. Porkkala was a Soviet naval base taken from Finland in 1944. Construction for it finished in 1945 and became a naval base. It was handed back to Finland in 1956, for Kaliningrad had become a better place for the Soviet Navy. Organisation The Army is organised into eight Peacetime brigades. Two of these brigades, Army Academy and Utti Jaeger Regiment do not have subordinate regional offices. The six other brigades have one or more subordinate regional offices and a deputy commander. During a crisis, the regional offices form provincial local battalions and the brigade headquarters form the regional command level. During normal situation, the regional offices are responsible for conscription, organising voluntary national defence work and planning crisis time activities. The brigades are: Armoured Brigade, Parola and Riihimäki Army Academy, Lappeenranta and Hamina Guard Jaeger Regiment, Helsinki Jaeger Brigade, Sodankylä and Rovaniemi Kainuu Brigade, Kajaani Karelia Brigade, Valkeala Pori Brigade, Säkylä and Niinisalo Utti Jaeger Regiment, Utti Army logistics is part of the joint Finnish Defence Forces Logistics Command. During war time the army is organised operative forces which consists of approximately 61 000 men and territorial forces which consist of 176 000 men. The following list is the wartime organisation of the Finnish army from 1.1.2008 Operative forces: 3 readiness brigades (1 armoured brigade) 2 jaeger