Winter war - 70 years ago today

[Motörhead Remember Me]

Today it is 70 years ago when independent, neutral and peaceful Finland was subjected to a barbarian and brutal attack by the Sovietunion.

It was barbarious and brutal for several reasons; the dictatorial states of Nazi-Germany and communist Sovietunion acted according to the secret agreements of the Molotov-Ribbentropp pact and for months the Soviets had made unjust territorial demands of Finland. The Soviets staged an artillery bombing of its own lines and accused the Finnish army.
The first targets in Finland were completely civilian. 16 towns were airraided with firebombs on the first day of the war without a declaration of war ever being made.
The Finnish army lacked in everything from weapons and artillery rounds to tanks and airplanes. Finland was not really expecting a war because it just seemed so unlikely that a peaceful and non aggressive country would be attacked.
The Red army had massed around 500 000 men backed by thousands of airplanes and tanks and the plan was to invade and conquer the whole country in just two weeks.

105 days later a peace agreement was made in Moscow after the Finnish army had inflicted the Red army with one defeat after an other causing a total loss of around 125-150 000 dead Soviets and an additional 300 000 wounded but could not held out any longer when the Soviets poured in 1.5 million men towards the end of the war.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/11/finland_marks_70th_anniversary_of_the_winter_war_1 210071.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War
http://books.google.com/books?id=JW_oPzpq3TQC&dq=winter+war&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=yI9snBPeXV&sig=M9mEIezQoh0kRuAuxZWMAc0rc8A&hl=fi&ei=-GETS4ztGc2E-Qby_Z32Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCoQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false
http://www.winterwar.com/mainpage.htm

[Eldritch]

105 days later a peace agreement was made in Moscow after the Finnish army had inflicted the Red army with one defeat after an other causing a total loss of around 125-150 000 dead Soviets and an additional 300 000 wounded but could not held out any longer when the Soviets poured in 1.5 million men towards the end of the war.




Minor correction: the Red Army thought they'd occupy the entire country in three, not two, weeks.

*** *** ***

The estimates about the Soviet losses vary quite a bit. At one time, the Red Army claimed a little over 70 000 casulties. Some still believe that.

In his memoirs, written shortly before his death, Mannerheim estimated the Soviet casualties to be around 200 000. It could easily be even more than that, although probably not much more.

Nikita Khrushchev once tossed "one million" in some speech he made. Perhaps not entirely out of character for him.

Finally, the always charming Impaled Nazare placed the number at half a million in their peace-loving ditty Total War, Winter War:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-b57N9TNPU




*** *** ***

An interesting anecdote about the Winter War: the great actor Christopher Lee, as a young man, traveled to Finland in order to volunteer in the war. He was told to go home though, since no-one believed he could survive the harsh weather conditions.

[Stossy]

Seen a movie about the Winter War a few weeks ago. It gave me a pretty good view of how it went back then, not everyone was a soldier, some were just normal people who wanted to fight the enemy (the russians) and they got some clothes and a weapon. Going to the frontline with temps far beneath 0°C and still holding off attacks of tanks and thousands of Russians.
Just respect for these guys.

If the Russians didn't have the manpower, they would have lost. But because Russia is so huge and had way more inhabitants then the other countries it was easier to say 'we will send 1,5 milion troops to end all of this right away'.

[Bard]

Do you want fucking war?
Yes we want fucking war! :D
Finland was awesome.

[Motörhead Remember Me]

One Finnish soldier asked:
-"They are so many and our country is so small. Where do we bury them all?"

[Motörhead Remember Me]

Photos of Finnish soldiers (Winter war and Continuation war)
Classify if you wish
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/foto1/juuti1.jpg
http://www.sci.fi/~fta/illu-006.jpg
http://www.sodatkuvina.cjb.net/images/Talvisota/Henkilot/12DEverstiSvenssonJaTarkkaAmpujaSimoHayha.jpg
http://www.oulu.ouka.fi/ppm/laukka/kuvat/7/7000.jpg
http://www.ww2incolor.com/d/203397-2/Olavi_Alakulppi
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Aarne-edward-juutilainen.jpg
http://www.hs.fi/kuvat/iso_webkuva/1101981972970.jpeg
http://guns.connect.fi/gow/rokka.jpg
http://www.ksml.fi/multimedia/dynamic/00046/ARKISTOKUVA_46216b.jpg
http://suomenkuvalehti.fi/s/files/vanhat/library/images/talvisota%20160109.jpg
http://www.veteraanienperinto.fi/suomi/Kertomukset/sotilas/sotilas/jatkosota/images/olavi2.jpg

Heroes, every single one of them.

[Eldritch]

A day-by-day account of the Winter War (from the website of the Finnish armed forces):

http://www.mil.fi/perustietoa/talvisota_eng/index.html

Choose the date and then click go.

[W. R.]

I've just found some information which confirms that Belarusians from Western Belarus didn't take part in that war, although 70 years ago Western Belarus was already a part of the USSR.

It's great to know that.

6 ноября 1940 г. нарком обороны издал директиву о проведении с 5 января по 15 февраля 1941 г. приписки к призывным участкам граждан 1922 года рождения, лиц, имеющих законченное среднее образование, и учащихся 10-х классов средних школ и выпускных курсов техникумов 1923 года рождения, не приписанных граждан старших возрастов и лиц 1920 – 1921 годов рождения в Западной Украине и Западной Белоруссии [72. РГВА. Ф. 9. Оп. 29. Д. 547. Л. 419 – 429]. С 15 мая 1941 г. начался призыв приписного состава запаса на БУС, которые должны были продлиться до 1 июля. Всего к 22 июня 1941 г. в войска ЗапОВО было призвано 71715 человек [73. Боевой и численный состав Вооруженных Сил СССР в период Великой Отечественной войны (1941 – 1945 гг.). Статистический сборник N: 1 (22 июня 1941 г.). М., 1994. С. 10 – 12, 50 – 52; Захаров М.В. Указ. соч. С.410, 479].

http://users.i.com.ua/~zhistory/zapovo07.htm

[Brännvin]

They fought bravely against the criminal red devils of East (pig commies). Brave men! :thumb001:

[Brännvin]

Fire and Ice - The Winter War of Finland and Russia


Get out hell, bastard sick red commies! :D ;)

[Westfalen]

Googlevideo

Get out hell, bastard sick red commies! :D ;)


The Russians had tanks, the Finns had molotov-cocktails.

Stalins 60'th birthday, his Generals had promised Finland as a gift, instead they sent back trainloads dead and wounded and more bad news from the battlefront.

Dead man (Russians) lying in the fields as heap of grass during harvest, the next day they did not attack. The losses were too high and the assault was cancelled. 250 destroyed tanks.

The Fins had snow-camouflage, the Russians didn't. You couldn't miss them.

The Russian raiding force breached deep into Finnish territory, they could have cracked the whole Finnish defence line, but what stopped them were the Finnish field-kitchens, the Finnish cooked had just re-supplied enough saucages to feed the entire 2000 men in that sector, when they got aware of the saucages it totally blew the wind out of the raiding force. Ignoring their officers, the Russians immediately went for the field-kitchens. That's what gave the Finns enough time to regroup and counter-attack and versially wipe them out.

The 44th division of Ukrainians were attacking from the east. It was a mechanized force, about 100 tanks 50 armoured cars, but it had only a 1-lane wide logging road so it moved like a snake of 30 miles into the territory. The Fins were on ski's, could move swiftly along that colomn and were almost invisible and would search out the forest and cut the roads and then dissapear on the other side of the road. Then isolate the coloms and cut these divisions into "motties" then they were pinned down by snipers. 1500 Soviet POW's. Captured tanks, trucks, guns and plenty of ammunition helped replenish the Finnish arsenal.

After a full month fighting, in Januari, major operations by the Soviet army seized. .. Thousands of Soviet officers were arrested and executed, including 90% of its Generals and 80% of it's colonels.

The Russian tank companies sank through the ice.

Able to attack brave and peaceful countries and sacrifice hundred-thousands or millions of men for a slice of land.
Only the RUSSIANS...