Page "Finnish Civil War" Paragraph 93

The battle for Tampere was fought between 16, 000 White and 14, 000 Red soldiers.

It was Finland's first large scale urban battle, and, along with the battles of Helsinki and Viipuri, one of the three decisive military engagements of the 1918 war.

The fight for the Tampere town area began on 28 March, on the eve of Easter 1918 ( later called the " bloody Maundy Thursday "), in the Kalevankangas graveyard.

After this fierce combat, with more than 50 % losses in some of the attacking units, the Whites re-organized their troops and their plans, and resumed the attack in the early hours of 3 April.

After a heavy, concentrated artillery barrage, the White Guards began advancing from house to house and street to street, as the Red Guards retreated.

In the late evening of 3 April the Whites reached the eastern river banks of Tammerkoski.

The Reds ' major attempts to break the siege of Tampere from outside, along the Helsinki-Tampere railway, failed.

The Red Guards lost the western parts of the town between 4 and 5 April.

The Tampere City Hall was among the last strongholds of the Red troops.

The battle ended 6 April 1918 with the surrender of Red forces in the Pyynikki and Pispala sections of Tampere.