Well, I finally got the more detailed description about the Winter War finished. In
this version, some of the previously described topics (like the motti-tactics) have been
left out. the main body of this writing was built by using several Finnish encyclopedias
and if there were some controversialities (and there often were!) I used my books being
written about the Winter War only (like Esa Anttala's "Talvisota") to find out
the 'truth'.
The Winter War:
Reasons for the war:
October 23rd -39 Soviet Union and Germany signed a non-aggression pact. It was also an
agreement of dividing the Baltic area into their districts of interest. Finland was a part
of Soviet Union's district. During fall of 1939 Soviet Union demanded several times
Finland to give away some land areas in order to improve its ability to defense Leningrad.
Those land areas were part of Karelian Isthmus and some islands in the Finnish Gulf,
including Suursaari and Koivisto. Soviets also wanted to establish a military base to cape
of Hanko and a part of of Kalastajasaarento island lying on the coast of Barents Sea.
Finland's government refused Soviet attempts.
The war starts:
In the end of November -39 Soviet Union (SU) accused Finnish gunnery shooting over the
border in Mainila, a village in Karelian Isthmus and started "defensive
measures". Later it has been found out that those "Mainila shots" were shot
by Soviets themselves. Nov 30th Soviet troops crossed the border and Soviet bombers made
several attacks
against Helsinki and other civilian targets.
Dec 1st SU established so called Terijoki government to be the only legal government of
Finland it wanted to negotiate with. Terijoki government consisted of Finnish communist
emigrants living in Moscow.
The reasons for this were to find a reason to refuse the negotiation attempts made by the
actual Finnish government. Second, it was also an attempt to shake the unstable political
situation in Finland. At that time Finns were deeply divided in left- and right-wing
supporters. But it didn't work: political disagreements were put aside and the whole
nation rose against the enemy intruder.
SU had at the start 22 divisions, about half a million soldiers, about 2000 tanksand about
1000 airplanes. They were led at that time by the 2nd class commander of the Leningrad
military district, K.A. Meretskov. Finnish troops, consisting of nine divisions and few
brigades (about 350,000 men), had only few tanks and about 110 airplanes.They were led by
the Warmarshal C.G.E. Mannerheim.
In December -39, Soviets attempted a breakthrough in Karelian Isthmus but were hit back in
battles of Taipale and Summa. The Soviet troops were taken back to their positions and to
wait for reinforcements.
Along the northern front, Finnish soldiers faced much stronger Soviet forces than
expected. That caused re-placing of the Finnish reserves all along the long border. Strong
Soviet attacks in Tolvajarvi were stopped by Finnish reserve troops at the same time. In
Suomussalmi the Finnish 9th division, led by H. Siilasvuo, destroyed two Sovietdivisions.
Soviet troops managed to get close to Kemijarvi, but were fought back. The Soviet 14th
army took Petsamo, but was stopped in
Nautsi.
In the beginning of January -40, the Supreme Command of the Soviet troops could see that
it had suffered a strategic loss against Finland. They established a North-Western Front,
led by 1st classCommander S.K. Timosenko. It consisted of about 45 divisions (about
1,000,000 men) six tank brigades and lots of gunnery. 25 of the divisions and all of the
tank brigades were moved to Karelian Isthmus. The rest of the divisions were placed along
the front north from lake Laatokka and ordered to save the Soviet divisions trapped in
several mottis. For comparison, Finland had 7 divisions (about 150,000 men) in Karelian
Isthmus and 91,000 men along the front between lake Laatokka and the Arctic Ocean. These
numbers of men at arms don't tell the whole truth: the Soviet army had an overwhelming
advantage against Finns what comes to the armament while Finnish troops had only few guns
and tanks.
The Soviet major attack:
The Soviet major attack started in the beginning of February -40. The emphasis was in the
Karelian Isthmus, in Summa, where 9 Soviet divisions and 5 tank brigades supported with
1,200 guns attacked against the Finnish 3rd division in the Mannerheim-line. Finnish
troops kept their positions for three days but were then ordered to retreat to the next
defense line. The battle in Summa was one of the main battles in the Winter War. The
withdraw of the Finnish troops from their best built defensive line forced Finns to
continue defending from temporarily and not so well-built bases. The Soviet divisions
continued to attack against Finnish lines. After ten days of heavy fighting, Finns had to
withdraw from their positions and move to the last defense line. The situation got worse
when 6 Soviet divisions attacked over the Viipuri Bay and tried to surround the Finnish
troops defending the city of Viipuri. However, Finns managed to keep their positions in
Karelian Isthmus till the end of war.
North from lake Laatokka, Soviet forces attempted to open the ten mottis, where Finns had
closed in the Soviet 168th and 18th divisions and the 34th tank brigade. Even when 10 more
Soviet divisions were moved into these battles, the Finnish 4th Army Group managed to
destroy 7 of those mottis while the rest were guarded till the end of the war. This
prevented Soviets taking the city of Sortavala and moving south to the back of the Finnish
troops in Isthmus. In the Lapland front, Soviet attacks were stopped.
"The miracle of the Winter War":
Well, if one place from somewhere along the front should be pointed to say "this is
the where the miracle took its place", it must be the Kollaa-river, north-east from
Sortavala. In the beginning of the war, the Soviet 56th division advanced close to the
village of Loimola. The Finnish 12th division, led by colonel A.Svensson, managed to stop
them at the Kollaa-river, 10 km east from Loimala. In the heavy fights, the 12th division
kept its positions to the end of the Winter War, even Soviet moved four more divisions to
the area. Soviet divisions suffered heavy losses in their attacks. By keeping their
positions, Finnish troops were able to continue their fights along this part of the front.
"Kollaa kestaa /Kollaa stands firm", a Finnish slogan was born then.
About the naval warfare during the Winter War:
Finland evacuated its outer islands in the Finnish Gulf right after the war started. The
southern coast of Finland is surrounded by a dense section of small islands. Hence making
the narrow sea routes to the continent easy to be defended. This fact with the very cold
winter made the invasion over the Finnish Gulf impossible to the
Soviets. Soviet ships interfered the traffic of the Finnish trading ships till the end of
January when Soviets took their ships back from the trading routes.
Aerial warfare:
Right after the war started, Soviet bombers attacked against several civilian targets all
along Finland. The few Finnish interceptors were unable to prevent those bombings. During
January -40 Soviet bombers concentrated their activities against railways and harbours.
During the Soviet major attack the planes attacked against the Finnish frontline and the
supply centers behind the line. Finns counted 7,000 Soviet planes flying inside the
Finnish borders in January -40, 17,000 in February and 6,000 in March. Almost 100,000
bombs were dropped in Finland. Soviet air forces lost 747 planes (confirmed), Finland lost
61 planes and 44 pilots.
The end of the Winter War:
In the beginning, Soviet Union refused to negotiate with any other government than the
Terijoki Government. When the Red Army's advance was much slower than expected, they
finally agreed to negotiate with the legal Finnish government. The negotiations started in
the beginning of February -40. Soviet Union's demands were whole Karelia, including the
Isthmus and the land areas north-east from Laatokka, plus a military base to the cape of
Hanko. Because of these unexpected large demands Finland asked military assist from Sweden
and a passage for the possible army forces from Western Allied countries. Sweden denied
both of them (Swedish volunteers were allowed to enter the war, unofficially of course).
When Allied countries were not directly promising any help either, the Finnish government
sent a delegation to Moscow to negotiate for peace. Finland was still planning to receive
help from the Allies, but the time was running out from the Finnish forces and the Finnish
negotiators finally signed the peace in Moscow May 12th -40. The war ended next morning.
Finland lost the whole south-east part of the country, land areas in Salla-Kuusamo, the
outer islands in Finnish Gulf, Kalastajasaarento and Srednisaarento lying in the Arctic
Ocean, plus Soviet rented the cape of Hanko for military base. Finland lost more than 10%
of its land, more than
400,000 Finns living there.
Losses:
Finland lost 23,157 men dead and about 45,000 men wounded where 10,000 becoming invalid
for the rest of their life. Finland estimated Soviet losses being about 200,000 men, where
Soviet claimed having lost only 48,000 men. Later Finnish estimations have proved out to
be very close to the truth.