The Winter War: How Finland Resisted Russia's WW2 Expansion | Battlefield | War Stories

[Music] he [Music] on the 1st of September 1939 Germany invaded Poland within 3 days Britain France and their EMP Empires were at war with Hitler's [Music] W newspapers news reals and radio commentators loudly proclaimed the beginning of the second World [Music] War neutral Nations reasserted their non-belligerent some like Holland Belgium and Luxembourg wedged between the major belligerant were armed as well as they could be and were prepared to fight for their neutrality [Music] others like Denmark and the countries of the Scandinavian Peninsula Finland Sweden and Norway were sufficiently far from the likely fields of battle to hope that they might avoid being drawn into the conflict such hopes were to prove futile Scandinavia was very important to both the USSR and Germany the Southeastern border of Finland was only 32 km from Leningrad if Finland could not convince the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin that she would never allow her territory to be used by Germany in an assault against the USSR then it was likely that Stalin would take preemptive action ironically Germany had not yet developed plans to attack the Soviet Union via Finland what did concern Hitler though was the possibility that Britain and France would move against Norway in order to cut Germany's supplies of highgrade iron ore this commodity vital to Germany's War Industries was transported from the mines of Northern Sweden via Railway to the Norwegian Port of [Music] narik where it was shipped South along Norway's long and vulnerable [Music] Coast Hitler was not wrong in his apprehensions almost from the moment he entered the admiralty on the 1st of September the new first Lord Winston Churchill had been planning to do precisely say this so as Hitler and Stalin were dividing Poland they and Winston Churchill were all looking North to [Music] [Music] Scandinavia to most of the world in 1939 the Soviet Union appeared huge and threatening in the East large battles had already been fought between Soviet forces and the Japanese quantong Army along the borders of Manchuria and Mongolia to the West Nazi Germany was moving steadily eastwards in the previous year Hitler had absorbed Austria the Sudan land Bohemia Moravia Slovakia and was now making demands that Poland relinquish the Danzig corridor [Music] for nearly 2 years the USSR had been conducting low-level diplomatic conversations with Finland in attempts to reinforce guarantees of finland's continuing neutrality for its part Finland had no desire to become a satellite of the Soviet Union and had looked first to her Scandinavian neighbors particularly Sweden for support in the event of a confrontation with the Soviet Union when Russian pressure frightened Sweden off Finland held discussions with Great Britain and on the 18th of June 1939 General s Walter Kirk arrived on a 4-day visit to Helsinki a week after Kirk's visit the chief of the verm Mar's general staff General halder arrived in Helsinki for inspection of finland's defenses news of hda's visit to Helsinki reached Moscow on the 30th of June on the same day Stalin instructed shaposhnikov the chief of the Soviet Army's general staff to draw up a contingency plan for a war with Finland for much of the summer of 1939 Moscow was gripped by the fear that Germany might launch an imminent attack through Finland however the signing of the Soviet German non-aggression pact on the 24th of August transformed the situation Germany and the USSR at least for a time would make common cause [Music] on the 1st of September German forces struck deep into Poland cutting off polish Army groups that had deployed too far forwards and rapidly closing in on warsa on the 17th of September Soviet armies rolled across Poland's Eastern Frontiers and a few days later met German units at breast lovk Stalin had the beginnings of a buffer against further German expansion and he lost no time consolidating it on the 22nd of September foreign minister Molotov summoned the prime minister of Estonia to Moscow an invitation that was extended to Latvia and Lithuania in the first week of October the result was that each of these countries entered into mutual assistance treaties with the USSR which were tantamount to their absorption into the Soviet Empire a similar summons went to Helsinki on the fifth of October the Soviet Union demanded that Finland seed islands in the Gulf of Finland lease the peninsula of hanor to the USSR give up much of the rachi peninsula on the Arctic Coast move the frontier in the carelian ismos region Westward to a point only 20 miles east of viuri and destroy all existing fortifications on the ismos given the disparity and power between Finland and the USSR these terms appeared moderate but to most fins they were the thin end of the wedge when the final meeting took place Stalin was in an almost jovial mood he shook hands with every member of the Finn delegation and wished them well the Soviets were certain the forces they were assembling would within a very short time be dictating peace terms in Helsinki [Music] in the Autumn of 1939 Joseph Stalin was at the height of his powers since the death of Lenin in 1924 the party's membership secretary once thought of as a colorless clerk had systematically removed his real and potential enemies from the party's bureaucracy while at the same time removing masses of class enemies like the kulacs since 1937 the Soviet Union had been reeling from his purges of the upper echelons of the Soviet Army by the summer of 1939 only one Marshall survived zukov whose remote posting in the Soviet Far East may have saved his life virtually all generals had also disappeared indeed it was only at the level of Lieutenant Colonel that an officer had more chance of surviving than not the result of these purges was that Stalin was isolated he depended on information fed to him by a network of subordinate agencies more so than any contemporary leader terrified that they too would be purged there was a natural tendency on the part of subordinates to tell Stalin what they supposed he wished to hear the Russian Embassy in Helsinki reported that Finland was paralyzed by class strife and that the Finnish proletariat would rise up and welcome a Soviet Army as liberators Stalin then expected his armies to occupy Finland within a few days in an operation rather like the occupation of the eastern part of Poland after the 17th of [Music] September looking Southeast from Helsinki finland's most prominent Soldier Baron Carl Gustaf manaheim expected very much the same outcome he had spent the Autumn of 1939 pleading with the civilian government to take the Soviet demand seriously but still had no success manah prepared to resign he had no wish to be party to a policy that he was sure would cause the destruction of [Music] Finland during the 1930s the Soviet Army had become fully mechanized and motorized Maneuvers held in KF in the summer of 1935 and 1936 demonstrated to the world an awesome military power power Soviet forces organized into tank and rifle armies were configured to break open an enemy's front and then penetrate into the enemy's strategic depth the concept known as deep battle had been the brainchild of a group of brilliant theorists who had gathered around Marshall tokachi unfortunately tokachi and virtually all his Li tenants had been purged during the course of 1937 which left the Soviet army with an offensive doctrine that very few knew how to put into practice to make matters worse all Soviet units had commissars attached to them political officers whose job it was to supervise the ideological Obedience of the military there was no longer such a thing as a purely military decision every action had to be countersigned by the commissar all Stalin's generals had been hugely impressed by the success of the German armored offensive in Poland which Western journalists were now calling a blitz creen Stalin too wanted a blitz Creek in which Soviet armored columns smashed into [Music] Finland discover the past with exclusive military history documentaries and adree podcasts presented by world-renowned historians all on History hit watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device download the app now to watch everything from the gripping story of the Band of Brothers to operation Barbarosa and D-Day immerse yourself in the dramatic stories of this remarkable era by signing up via the link in the [Music] description finish strategy depended on enhancing the natural defensive properties of the finished terrain with man-made fortifications the Border a th000 kilometers long could be easily penetrated but Invaders would find their Advance confined to the very few roads that ran through a Wilderness of dense Pine forests and a maze of lakes and rivers so instead of being based on defeating the Russians which was acknowledged to be impossible Finnish planning relied on delaying them for long enough for sympathetic Nations to intervene the fins believed major Soviet thrusts across the border from the north of Lake ladoga to the Arctic were unlikely logistic problems alone seemed to rule out operations in this remote area much more likely was a strike directly north from Leningrad across the corelan isas the 120 km neck of land between the Gulf of Finland and Lake ladoga here the fins had constructed 109 reinforced concrete positions across the entire width of the ismos it was strongest on its flanks where it was covered by fixed Coastal artillery the most dangerous SE of the line was arride the shortest route between VRI and Leningrad where two major roads went through the village of Suma and towards the village of L the fins erected vast fields of barbed wire entanglements and laid thousands of Mines along the most likely approach routes the entire carelian ithos was belted as well by a line of anti-tank obstacles five to seven rows deep Granite monoliths that had been sunk into the Earth although it couldn't be compared to the majino or Sig freed lines it was better than nothing manaheim thought that with a little luck it might hold the Soviets up for a week to 10 [Music] days by the last week of November the Soviets had deployed a force which numbered 450,000 men and included 23 rifle divisions 2,000 tanks and 1,000 aircraft which represented about 25% of the ussr's active service strength at that [Music] time as the fins anticipated the heaviest concentration was on the corelan isas here Soviet 7th Army consisted of 12 rifle divisions one mechanized core three tank brigades and 12 12 artillery regiments which amounted to 200,000 men and 1500 tanks what the fins had not anticipated was that the Soviets would deploy sizable forces all along the 800 km Frontier which ran from the northern shore of Lake gloga all the way to the Arctic [Music] Coast to the immediate north of Lake ladoga was the Soviet 8th Army six rifle divisions and two tank brigades comprising 130,000 men and 400 tanks further north ninth Army had deployed five rifle divisions in three separate columns while in the Arctic 14th Army had three rifle divisions all told 9th and 14th armies consisted of 140,000 men and 140 tanks the Soviets had achieved a crushing superiority over the Finnish Army of 3 to1 in Manpower 80 to1 in tanks 5 to1 in artillery and 5 and 1/2 to one in aircraft these Force ratios had only been achieved by drafting in an enormous number of raw recruits who at best were capable only of the most rigid operational and tactical Maneuvers but this did not really matter if the leadership was [Music] solid in overall command of operations against Finland was General kayen meret hardworking and with a highly developed sense of what was politically possible Merit was no fool in a report to his Leningrad party boss he warned of the inherent dangers of Crossing finland's perilous terrain on the 29th of October defense commissar ke voroshilov ordered merito to develop an operational plan for the encirclement and complete annihilation of the Finnish Army by means of coordinated land sea and air attacks a month later all was ready Soviet Air Forces were to strike the main population centers of Finland paralyzing the main communication and transportation system and destroying the small Finnish Air Force simultaneously the Baltic Fleet would bombard and neutralize Finnish Coastal fortifications while Naval Landing forces seized key islands in the Gulf of Finland while these operations were still underway Soviet armored columns were to strike deep into the heart of Finland on four major axes of advance on a 1,000 km front from carelia in the South to petsamo in the North within days it would all be over to face this Onslaught Finland had managed to mobilize about 180,000 men organized into eight infantry divisions and a number of independent battalions the main strength was concentrated on the corelan ismos where six divisions of two core took up defensive positions along the manaheim line [Music] to the north of Lake ladoga Manning a line of about 100 kilomet were another two divisions organized into another core the remaining 1,000 km to the Arctic sea was covered by the north Finland group a collection of Civic guards border guards and activated [Music] reservists most Finnish units were made up of men from the same geographical regions company platoon and Battalion officers were usually well known to their men from peace time and were often addressed by their first names or nicknames during combat there was probably less saluting and less parade ground spit and polish than in any other Army in Europe Finnish troops knew they were in the Army to fight Finnish commanders were to experience two very different types of combat a grinding attritional defensive battle in the carelian itsas and a war of Rapid maneuver and sudden Ambush north of Lake ladoga manah haim's commanders at the operational level in carelia were General Hugo uran commander of the army of the carelian ismos and his core commanders General haral ulist who commanded second Corp and General Eric hinr who commanded third core they were intelligent officers capable of Highly flexible responses to difficult situations but they lacked experience the men disagreed with manah haim's argument for a layered defense of the carelian isas and were much more enthusiastic about launching a counter offensive when the initial Soviet thrust had been blunted the Jer tradition of Finnish officers was put into practice in the forest fighting north of Lake ladoga here the the heroes of a Guerilla war on skis emerged to capture the popular imagination not just of Finland but of virtually the entire world men like business executive paror Talala The prominent lawyer yma stalas and the Rabel rousing rightwing politician Court venius LED their forces with a flare and a Dash completely foreign to the Soviet Army of that time at least one famed Finnish ski Commander Court venius discovered that he couldn't take the pressure appointed to command a hastily formed reserve on the manaheim line in late February he immediately took to the bottle to steady his nerves and stayed drunk for 3 Days on the 3D of March manah relieved him of command the fins knew that in any war with the USSR they would be on the defensive but they vowed that it should be an active defense they were light on Firepower but very good in terms of mobility and lower level tactics the forest itself dictated a heavy emphasis on individual initiative and small unit operations quazi Guerilla style Marksmanship mental agility Woodcraft orienteering camouflage and physical fitness were stressed and parade ground compliments were discouraged unconventional tactics ambushes long-range patrols deceptions raids were enshrined as Doctrine and refined the fins intended to absorb the first Soviet strikes delay the enemy let him wear him self down and then [Music] Counterattack just after Dawn on the 30th of November 1939 Russian sb2 medium bombers attacked strategic points in Helsinki killing 200 on the first day of the war over the next 48 hours reports poured into manah him's HQ of Soviet attacks from the Gulf of Finland in the South to the Arctic [Music] Coast in finland's Far North elements of the White Sea Fleet bombarded Finn positions on the rachi peninsula shortly afterwards troops of the Soviet 104th division stormed ashore faced with overwhelming odds the fins pulled back south along the Arctic Highway abandoning the poort of petsamo there was no alternative manah knew that any attempt to hold the port would result in a Siege and he had no way of keeping the Garrison supplied on the 1st of December the Soviet Cruiser kirov and two large destroyers opened fire on Finnish fortifications at Hano on the Gulf of Finland Finnish Coastal batteries remained silent until the Russian ships were within range and then loose to [Music] Salvo they scored a direct hit on one of the Destroyers which put about abruptly and limped out of range behind a smoke screen Finnish batteries then straddled kirov with at least one shell smashing into the engine room losing power rapidly kirov withdrew from action as fast as she could and was towed back to konad on land the fins were doing less well as manah thought the main Soviet offensive thrust came up the corelan isas it was here on a front of some 80 kilm that meetco had concentrated 120,000 troops supported by a thousand tanks directly in front of the main defensive line manaheim had created a buffer zone some 20 to 45 kilm deep in which Villages had been raised and booby trapped and mines had been planted about 21,000 Finn soldiers held strong points in this Zone their role to break up and disorganize Soviet formations before they reached the main defensive positions in some places this strategy worked on the Southwest coast the Soviets ran into determined resistance before the village of Ted jorki where Finnish companies counterattacked during the night of the 30th of November 1st of December and succeeded in retaking Lost positions but elsewhere Finnish forces abandoned positions sometimes on the mest rumor that the Russians were approaching on the 4th of December a furious manah stormed into General erman's HQ demanding that the forces in the buffer zone offer firmer resistance to the Soviet Advance stman who regarded the buffer zone policy as too risky for finland's semi-trained troops offered his resignation which manah refused to accept had the Soviets reached the manaheim line at this time they may have triggered a major crisis in The Finnish ranks but the Russians Advanced sluggishly their massive mechanized columns immobilized for hours at a time in huge traffic jams it was not until the 6th of December that Soviet forward units reached the line and not until the 8th of December that artillery and ammunition had been brought forward in significant quantities by this time manah was receiving alarming reports from all along finland's 1,000 km Frontier with the USSR north of Lake ladoga a fairly developed Road and rail system ran along the northern shore of the lake and along this Advanced three Soviet divisions far more than manah had thought the Soviets could logistically sustain here there was no defense line the defending troops finland's fourth core too weak to hold ground had to rely on a Mobile Defense Finnish sappers blew up a dam on Lake suavi about 16 km Northeast of ladoga which flooded the soviet's main line of advance for a few hours before the water froze on the 3rd of December the Finn attempted a Counterattack but the sudden appearance of Russian tanks stopped them in their tracks They disengaged hurriedly and withdrew to the Western Bank of the uyak [Music] river the next day the Soviets crossed in strength pushing the fins back to the road Junction at tolv yavi from where it was possible that the Soviets might come around the north of lake ladoga and take the manah line from the [Music] rear further north still the Soviet 163rd and 44th divisions ground along tracks and logging roads towards the main North South Highway Junction at Sumo salmi a town with a peacetime population of about 4,000 so certain was manah that the Soviets would not be able to operate in such a remote area that he had deployed only a few companies of Border guards the Soviets pushed them aside with ease on the 7th of December Soviet columns rolled into the straggling streets of Sumo salmi from here the Soviets were poised to advance west across the narrow waste of Finland and cut the country in half with the exception of a naval reversal of hanu the first week of operations had gone well for the Soviets it seemed that another week would secure Victory they were so confident they established a new government in one of the villages they had liberated in the kelan ismos a government which was sure to be in Helsinki in the very near [Music] future in Helsinki by the end of the first week many members of the government and several quite senior soldiers were close to despair a younger less experienced Commander might well have succumbed to panic but this was manah haim's fifth war and he reviewed the growing crisis with icy calm he'd been surprised by the sheer extent of the Soviet thrusts but he knew that so many over such long distances would stretch Soviet Logistics although Finnish forces everywhere had been driven back a Soviet breakthrough had not been achieved manaheim took prompt action the commanding officer of fourth core who' been unable to prevent a near disaster north of lake ladoga he replaced with Major General waldemar Harland a veteran of the 27 the AES he also redeployed his scarce resources sending reinforcements to Fourth core north of lake ladoga and to Sumas salmi but he kept most of his reserves concentrated on the carelian isas Finland could afford to give ground anywhere but [Music] there on the kelan front meret knew that the fins would concentrate their forces on the Central West of the manaheim line at Suma where a developed Road and rail system ran Northwest to viipuri and then on to Helsinki so he decided to attack first on the Fin's Eastern flank near the village of typal where the manah line met late ladoga enough pressure here merito reasoned would persuade the fins to commit their Reserves at which point the Soviets would strike at [Music] Suma the first Russian probes crossed the typ river on the 6th of December and found the far Bank apparently undefended more battalions rushed forward to exploit what seemed to be a gap in the manaheim line however all was not as it seemed the appless Russians Advanced into a carefully prepared killing ground covered by Finnish artillery and machine guns the first waves of Russians were cut down in a torrent of fire to the amazement of the fins the Russians kept pouring units into what was clearly a trap they failed to understand meet's strategy which was to accept High casualties in order to engage the fins in an attritional battle and draw their strength away from [Music] Suma Before Dawn on the 14th of December massed Soviet artillery opened up its first major bombardment of the [Music] war at 11:30 The Barrage lifted Soviet tanks accompanied by infantry in closely packed groups moved forward the fins waited until the Russians reached pre-plotted firing lines and then opened up shrapnel tore through the dense masses of Soviet infantry while tank after tank was hit it took just 5 minutes to bring the Soviet attack to a Hal and then send it staggering into Retreat meetco fed another two divisions into the battle and reinforced the artillery to 84 batteries although he had hoped for a breakthrough he believed that the fighting was now of such intensity that it must have absorbed the Finish Reserve that being so it was time to alter the axis of attack at 0500 on the 17th of December meret launched his main offensive against the manaheim line at Suma massed Soviet artillery opened up and for 5 hours worked its way backwards and forwards across the Finish positions it was the heaviest artillery bombardment experienced anywhere in the world since those on the Western Front at the beginning of November 1918 moving along corridors left untouched by the artillery Soviet sappers swarmed forward attempting to lift mines and clear obstacles behind them rumbled the tanks accompanied at first by clumps of Russian infantry but infantry and armor cooperation was poor as the tanks pushed forward the Infantry were left behind leaving gaps spotting their chance to exploit this weakness Finnish machine Gunners and mortar teams opened up on the Infantry the tanks rolled on alone to the line of granite anti-tank obstacles their tracks biting into the Rock monoliths and pushing the tanks Skyward at a steep angle at this point the Finnish anti-tank teams struck in some places the crew of aer's 37 mm anti-tank gun managed to get their solid 2B shells directly into the vulnerable bellies of the tanks smashing the transmission or killing some of the [Music] crew at many points in the Sumo sector the manahy line was flanked by lakes which were now frozen solid as his frontal assaults against the line ground to a halt mirov sent columns directly across the lakes in the hope of outflanking the main defenses but the shores of the Lakes were made up of jumbles of granite Boulders Cliffs and dense forests there were only a handful of exits from most lakes which channeled the Russian Advance with carefully placed anti-tank guns and Ambush parties these exits were turned into Killing [Music] Grounds by the 19th of December meetco was becoming desperate he had promised staling victory for his birthday on the 21st of December while closely packed battalions were marched over minefields clearing them with their own bodies the KV tank was sent into action for the first time a squadron of these 47 ton monsters managed to smash its way through part of the manah line and into the streets of the village of Suma but the threatened breakthrough was quickly sealed off Finnish infantry swarmed over the roofs of the houses jumped onto the tops of the tanks and fired their sumis through the driver's Vision slit While others drenched the KVs with Molotov cocktails on the 20th of December meet's armored commanders reported that the assault on the manaheim line had cost 250 armored vehicles most of which had been lost in the fighting around Suma casual ities too had been [Music] horrific as general urman surveyed the battlefield through his binoculars the sight of dozens of burnt out Soviet tanks and dark piles of dead Russian infantry convinced him that the time had come for a Counterattack manah was much more cautious but he too seems to have been Carried Away by a new infectious Spirit of optimism at 0630 on the 23rd of December Finnish artillery opened up for a 10-minute barrage behind which three Finn divisions the first fourth and sixth Advanced towards the Russians they overran Russian outposts with relative ease but as they Advanced Russian resistance increased faced with an increasingly Resolute Soviet defense the divisions began to collapse into a huge ungainly mob unresponsive to the commands of the officers realizing that he had a first class debark on his hands manah called off the attack the fins lost 1500 men on the 23rd of December a salutary reminder of the cost of such operations elsewhere however lightly equipped semi-trained Finnish forces were beginning to strike back at Soviet columns in the forest vastness north of Lake ladoga battalions of white clad ski troops could move rapidly around the flanks of Soviet columns striking them from unexpected directions from these Guerilla pin Pricks a series of increasingly impressive counterattacks began to [Music] emerge they began immediately north of ladoga in the area of tolva yavi and ilomi on Finnish Independence Day the 6th of December when Finnish fortunes seemed to hit rock botton Colonel pvo Talala an old friend of manah Haims reported to the marshals HQ at Mikel manah was brief and the point all Finnish forces in the tolva yavi Ilan Corridor were henceforth designated group talva the colonel was to drive north and stabilize the situation but this was easier said than done when talva reached the front later that day he found the fins frightened demoralized and getting ready to retreat once again Talala realized that something had to be done quickly in case the entire defense north of ladoga collapsed the best way of restoring their confidence Talala reason was to give them a quick Victory displaying a boldness that verged on The Reckless Talala selected a few companies who seem to be coping better than the rest and just before midnight sent them across the ice of Lake tolv yavi to raid Russian bwx by 0200 on the 7th of December 140 fins whose weapons included 16 light machine guns lay spread out along a low Ridge looking down into a Russian Battalion encamped around blazing fires rarely have troops been presented with such clear and easy targets the fins open fire a withering barrage cut through the Russian ranks for 4 minutes reducing the clumps of men to foror heaps when they stopped there was no movement the entire Battalion had been wiped out Russian units to the left and right flanks began firing wildly and then at each other the fins slipped back across the ice to the sounds of an Ever more ferocious battle as the Russians killed each other news of the success of the raid reinvigorated the fins the following day on the 8th of December a force operating to the north under Colonel par elom ambushed and annihilated a Russian Battalion as it attempted to find its way out of a frozen bog with success like this Talala felt confident enough to order a general Counterattack for the next 2 days the fins kept attacking along the flanks of the strung out Russian units the temperature was now- 25° the snow drifts were deep and solid and the Russians had no skis as the fins swept around them the Russians tried to hit back with tactical air strikes which helped Soviet morale but had little chance of locating their well- camouflaged enemy late on the 21st of December two companies of fins crossed the ice of Lake tolv yavi to attack the village of Olga yavi from the north two companies attacked from the south the Russians had turned each building into a strong point and every one had to be destroyed in turn With Grenades Molotov cocktails and satchel charges it was a bloody and exhausting business but by, 1400 hours the Russians were in [Music] Retreat the fins pressed on for two more days reaching the ioji River on the 23rd of December when manah called off the attack since the beginning of the offensive on the 7th of December tala's force of 6,000 men had suffered 2,000 casualties of whom 630 had been killed the fins counted more than 4,000 Russian bodies and estimated that at least another 5,000 had been wounded of whom some 600 had become [Music] prisoners further south along the northern shore of Lake ladoga General hagland launched a counter offensive against the Soviet 168th division which was spread out along dozens of kilometers of snowbound road as finished ski troops swept around the Russian flanks chopping into the columns in elongated Pockets the Russian troops deployed for all round defense and began digging in by the second week in January Russian columns had been cut into 11 pockets known to the fins as mtis hogland barely had enough men to maintain a permanent Presence at each mty and instead conducted a mobile Siege with ski troops keeping the Russians off balance through a series of hit-and run attacks most mortis were too powerful to attack directly they contained scores of Tanks hundreds of guns and the men could survive for a Time by eating their horses and by supply drops from the Soviet Air Force the fins set up anti-aircraft guns around the mtis and sometimes succeeded in duplicating Russian signals requesting logistic drops so that the supplies came floating down to their own rather than the Soviet positions the Russians attempted to supplement the airdrop by bringing in supplies across Lake ladoga at night but these columns were frequently ambushed by Finnish ski patrols as Soviet supplies dwindled pocket after pocket was faced with the choice of surrendering to the fins or attempting to break out invariably they chose the latter course the 3,600 Russians inside the East LTI miti came charging out in mid January hoping to overwhelm the single Battalion besieging them but ran into withering machine gun fire after the massacre the fins counted more than 3,000 Russian dead including a Soviet General who was surrounded by the bodies of four female typists each clutching a rifle by the end of January eight of the 11 mtis along the northern shore of Lake ladoga had fallen to General hugin's [Music] forces during December the news from Finland had been greeted in the Kremlin with disqui then alarm and finally rage in late December Stalin met with his military Chiefs the Soviet leader was painfully aware that the world was comparing his own failure to defeat Finland with Hitler's rapid destruction of Poland 3 months earlier he ordered the execution of some of the officers who had failed but there was to be no wholesale bloodletting Stalin knew that the poor performance of the Soviet Army was partly due to his own Purge of senior and middle ranking officers he was a Survivor and his response to the crisis was pragmatic IC the Leningrad military District that had been conducting the campaign was reorganized and became the Northwestern Army group or front to command at the operational level Stalin chose General Simeon constantinovich timoshenko a former Barrel maker who had proved an effective Army commander in the short polish campaign timoshenko's First Step was to reorganize the Northwestern front creating two armies 7th and 14th one he established a new command structure he moved in fresh [Music] divisions like meof before him he identified a 16 km wide Corridor at Suma as the best place to affect a breakthrough here he assembled 10 infantry divisions five tank brigades and 2,800 guns enough artillery to give him a front wide ratio of 50 guns per [Music] kilometer during the last weeks of January Soviet patrols probed the manahy line identifying the location of bunkers and even bringing back pieces of concrete for analysis on the 1st of February Northwestern front's artillery opened up pumping 300,000 shells into finish positions in the first 24 hours in the Suma sector alone 400 sh per minute rained on Finnish positions under this crushing bombardment some of the Finnish fortifications began to crumble behind the bombardment shock troops of the 123rd division skirmished forward to clear corridors through the barbed wire the Mine Fields and the anti-tank obstacles to the main defenses not all the bunkers were mutually supporting and some isolated positions fell to the Russians although the fins almost always counterattacked and recaptured them by the 10th of February the Soviets were attacking all along the line forcing the fins into a battle of attrition they could not win to the alarm of the Defenders Finnish batteries were no longer responding to Russian shelling the fins were running out of ammunition and Battery commanders were now under strict orders not to fire except in cases of dire emergency Finnish soldiers watched with frustration as masses of Russian infantry deployed to their front and their guns remained silent they now had to rely on machine guns rifles and mortars to prevent a breakthrough but still the manaheim line held the Russians attempted to outflank the line by sending columns across the ice of the Gulf of Finland and Lake ladoga Finnish Coastal batteries sent armor-piercing shells smashing into the Frozen surface Air Bursts of shrapnel tore through the Soviet ranks pushing them to flee across the fractured ice where many hundreds drowned on the 12th of February a thick fog blanketed the Gulf of Finland the Russians advancing under its cover got to within 50 m of the Finnish Shore when the fog lifted and the defender machine guns cut them down in heaps the fins still had astonishing successes but Soviet numbers began to tell by the second week in February Finnish reinforcements consisted mainly of 16-year-old boys and reservists in their mid-50s on the 14th of February casualties in the Suma sector reached crisis point and manah authorized a withdrawal but with Suma Gan the remainder of the front was no longer viable at 1600 hours on the 15th of February manaheim ordered a general Retreat back to an intermediate line which was much less fortified it took the Soviets 72 hours to close up by the 18th of February positions along the intermediate line were coming under increasing pressure Finnish aerial reconnaissance and radio intercepts revealed that the Soviets were moving up artillery and vast stores of ammunition in preparation for another massive bombardment because the defenses of the intermediate position were much less strong than those of the manah line the Marshall could see no good reason to leave his troops in a position where they would be slaughtered between the 27th and 28th of February the fins withdrew to a third position the reserve line so that timoshenko's shells crashed down on empty trenches manah had saved his army but it was now at its last defense line by the second of March timoshenko had 30 divisions supported by at least 1200 tanks and other armored vehicles and 2,000 aircraft poised Ed to smash the fins a day later wave upon wave of men and Machines of Soviet 28th core attacked across the ice of the Gulf of Finland they suffered huge casualties from artillery and air attack but managed to establish two small Beach heads to the west of VRI thus outflanking the Fin's last defense line manah who was now severely ill with flu knew that any delay in evacuating VRI might prove fatal but he also knew that if he could hold out until the Thor perhaps only a week away Russian guns and tanks would sink into a morass there were only two things which could save Finland the spring and the intervention of foreign powers particularly Britain and France unfortunately the winter of 1939 40 was one of the coldest and longest of the 20th century foreign intervention was proving as illusory as the spring some foreign help had arrived but it was in the form of semi-trained companies and battalions of idealistic volunteers mainly from Sweden but with contingents from many other European countries and the United States on the 29th of February Finnish diplomats had been on the point of accepting new Russian demands when an Urgent Message arrived from Paris the French government urged Finland to fight on and promised the immediate dispatch of 50,000 troops and 100 bombers on the strength of this promise the fins rejected moscow's offer but the French offer was dependent on the cooperation of Great Britain and while Britain wished to send forces to Norway and Sweden to interfere with Germany's supplies of iron ore London was not necessarily interested in going to Finland to fight the Russians in addition any anglo-french intervention Force destined for Finland was going to have to get the permission of the Norwegian and Swedish governments to cross their territory and this was something Oslo and Stockholm were not prepared to allow like the prospect of the Thor the promise of foreign intervention caused the fins to hang on beyond the 11th Hour on the night of the 7th and 8th of March the Russians expanded their Beach head on the Gulf Coast bringing their artillery within range of the vuri Helsinki Highway The Finnish 23rd division fell to pieces one battalion threw down its weapons and fled to the West while other battalions refused to Counterattack 2 Days Later Finland made a desperate appeal to Norway and Sweden to open their borders knowing that the appeal would be rejected Finnish diplomats had already decided they had no choice other than to acceed to Russian demands and on the 13th of March signed a ceasefire in Moscow which gave Stalin everything he had [Music] wanted The russof Finnish War had lasted just 105 days Finland had lost 255,000 dead and 435,000 wounded out of a total population of fewer than 4 million the Soviet losses were much greater at least a quarter of a million dead and about the same number wounded the fins took 5,000 Russian Prisoners the ringly low number that says much about the severity of the fighting though Finland had had to bow to the inevitable she had earned a reputation as a formidable small power a nation not to be meddled with conversely even though the Soviets eventually succeeded the reputation of the Soviet Army as a fighting force had been destroyed American and British observers rated the USSR as a third rate military power a hapless giant incapable of Defending itself so too did the Germans in fact in April 1940 the Supreme military Soviet met to sift through the lessons of the war and push through a program of radical reform it was just in [Music] time [Music]

Channel: War Stories

Views: 350,713

Keywords: Eastern Front, USSR invasion, WWII history, War Stories, World War 2, courageous soldiers, forgotten battles, heroic battles, heroic resistance, historic confrontations, historical bravery, historical narratives, history channel, icy landscapes, military courage, military defense, military uprisings, war chronicles episodes, wartime accounts, wartime bravery, wartime resilience

Id: 1otWTs4ngPY

Length: 53min 53sec (3233 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 03 2024