Baltic Sea Gulf of Riga, and the Bay of Gdańsk. The Baltic Proper is bordered on its northern edge, at the latitude 60°N, by the Åland islands and the Gulf of Bothnia, on its northeastern edge by the Gulf of Finland, on its eastern edge by the Gulf of Riga, and in the west by the Swedish part of the southern Scandinavian Peninsula. The Baltic Sea is connected by artificial waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea Canal and to the German Bight of the North Sea via the Kiel Canal. Administration The Helsinki Convention on the Protection of the
Baltic Sea campaigns (1939–45) had signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, which allowed it to expand considerably. The name "Kriegsmarine" was adopted the same year. Though a large, powerful, and professional force, it had to divide its assets between several theaters of war, severely limiting the number and size of the ships it was able to deploy in the Baltic Sea. At the start of the Operation Barbarossa on 21 June 1941 German naval forces in the Baltic Sea consisted of In September 1941 Germany formed the provisional "Baltenflotte", which consisted of the battleship , cruisers , , , and , destroyers , , and