The Winter War Desmond Latham

The war is over but the ramifications are only just beginning. With the peace signing of March 13 1940, the Finns had ceded much of their territory including the entire Karelian Isthmus to the Russians, along with chunks of their Arctic land and eastern border.

They were also supposed to build a railway line which linking Murmansk and Leningrad to the Finnish western port town of Tornio on the Swedish Border.

In all, the territorial loss to Finland was 10 percent of its total pre-war surface area. Close to 12 percent of its population had to be resettled from the ceded lands. And yet the vast majority of Fins preferred that option to losing their independence to the Soviets.

Viipuri was gone, its name would change to Vybord, the Finns lost all the outlying islands. They lost the north western shoreline of lake Ladoga, including the towns of Kakisalmi and Sortavala. They were forced to hand over the village of Suojarvi where Paavo Talvela had managed to defeat the Russians numerous times.

Salla and Kuusamo areas were also, along with the very important other isthmus of Kalastajasaarento near Petsamo. Finland handed over its southernmost point, Hankoniemi to the Soviets so they could turn it into a Naval base.

Stalin wanted to secure the Gulf of Finland, and all islands including the large island of Suursaari were handed over to Russia.

The Finns had paid for their independence with an ocean of blood. Twenty Five thousand civilians and soldiers had died, 44 000 were wounded, 9 500 were permanently disabled.

On the Soviet side, Stalin made sure the true number of dead was buried under a flood of propaganda, but it’s known that about 200 000 Russian soldiers died, with the wounded believed to be in the region of 400 000.

Later, Soviet president Nikita Khrushchev claimed in his memoirs that the number of Russian dead was over 1 million. But it’s thought that was creative accounting by a man who was forced to explain why he’d presided over the re-telling of Stalin’s abuses.

Khrushchev said more than 1 000 Russian planes had been shot down or destroyed on the ground, and 2 300 tanks were wiped out. Whatever the total, these numbers are not unbelievable.

Flags flew at half mast across Finland after the truce was announced. Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner summed up the mixture of relief and resentment by saying

“Peace has been restored, but what kind of peace? Henceforth our country will continue to live as a mutilated nation…”

The vast majority of Finns living in the ceded territory left. They did not want to live under the Bolsheviks. The Soviets gave these people ten days to pack and make their way from their ancestral land. 420 000 refugees streamed west, causing a big headache for the Helsinki government. These refugees were treated with great compassion and 30 percent of all privately owned forests and 63 percent of arable land was redistributed to them.

There was generally enough food to go around despite the horrors of the war, despite the damage to fruit trees and berry bushes caused by an extremely cold winter. Wartime rationining continued after the peace, so did censorship and a limit on travel.

The war in Europe was on the go, so by the Spring of 1940, the use of the southern sea around the Gulf of Finland was also limited. Petsamo in the north was the Finns only safe harbour as World War II gained momentum.

The global war was going to lap on Finland’s shores once more, particularly when the German’s invaded Russia in 1941. Helsinki tried in vain to remain neutral, and linked their fortunes to the Swedish government in the hope that this would quell any future threats.

But in 2024, the Finns won’t make the same mistake. They’ve calculated that neutrality in the face of a massive Eastern bully is not an option. Sometimes you must fight the bully, and as we all know, bullies tend to be cowards, you can crush them fairly swiftly if you show spine.

This is episode 13 and it’s an unlucky number for the Finns. Wednesday the 13th March 1940 to be specific.

The had held off the might of the Soviet army for more than three months, but on that day, they signed the Cease Fire Treaty, and were forced to surrender a swathe of their territory.

So before we get there, let’s wrap up the Winter War.

Red Army commander Timoshenko had decided to deploy 40% of the Russian Army in the next major assault that began on the 11th February as you heard previously.

When they failed to achieve all their goals, the Russians re-organised, reinforced and re-turned on 28th February. The meat grinding had pushed the Finns back from the Mannerheim line with the Russians bursting through at both Poppius and Million Dollar bunker, forcing the Finns to retreat to the Intermediate Line.

On the 26th February as the intermediate line bent and buckled, the Finnish Army launched its one and only armoured attack on the Russians at Honkaniemi Station.

15 Vickers tanks from the 4th Tank Company rolled out armed with the rather small 37mm guns - their mission was to support the infantry to try regain lost sections of the interim line near Viipuri. Only eight tanks actually made it to the staging area, seven had stopped because there was water in their fuel lines. Then two others broke down with engine trouble. That left six tanks but another promptly got stuck in a ditch.

The Russians were so shocked the infantry scattered — never having been attacked by Finnish tanks. The five remaining tanks engaged 20 Soviet T-28s, and despite the fact that these were armed with much more powerful 76mm guns, the Vickers took out eight, but lost four of their five.

The remaining tank withdrew. The Finnish tank battalion never managed to recover from this incident before the end of the Winter War.
Stalin’s quick and dirty sideshow in Finland had turned into a global embarrassment for the Kremlin - a military debacle that had shown the fault lines inside the Red Army. Hitler, who was obsessed with destroying the Slav nation, took notice of the Russian weaknesses. The Finns were desperate for peace talks. By late February the Soviet demands were spelled out in detail. The cession of Hanko Island as a Russian base for 30 years, the cession of the entire Karelian Isthmus back approximately to the frontier of Peter the Great, and the signing of a mutual assistance pact between Helsinki and Moscow.

The Finns hesitated.

This is episode 12 - it’s the third week of February 1940 and the Russians have eventually succeeded in punching a hole through the Mannerheim Line.

As you heard last episode, the second major offensive began on the 11th February when Russian commander Timoshenko ordered a massive bombardment followed by focused thrusts at Poppius and Million Dollar bunkers.

That section of the line was pierced but only after a few more thousand Russians had been listed as casualties.

The Russians had also attacked in force near Taipale, charging across open ice in suicidal rushes, marching across Lake Ladoga like it was a parade ground exercise. The fighting here was intense, and on the 14th February, 2 500 Red Army troops died in the space of a few hours trying to overcome the Finnish positions.

Soviet aircraft were also bombing this sector daily, at least 100 planes a day flew over strafing and bombing the Finns.

In the sector further west near the Muolaa Church, it was carnage. The most exposed Finnish position was alongside this church, on the banks of Lake Kirkkojarvi. There was a large Finnish bunker here, but troops had to crawl out across a wasteland, and across at least one coffin that had been unearthed in the bombardments. The devil is in the details when there’s a war.
Back in Moscow, Joseph Stalin received the news that Summa had fallen. He’d been misinformed before and didn’t believe the report, demanding that eyewitnesses contact him to confirm the sight of the flag of the USSR flying over the Summa pillboxes then phone him. They did and he accepted their word.

Things were growing more and more grim for the Finns. They had no more reserves of men, and by now, into the third week of February, 16 year-old boys were being armed along with geriatrics and even convicts were being issued uniforms.

Only the less serious criminals, but still, you get the idea.
Meanwhile, back in Russia, subterfuge and intelligence were confounding Stalin — which is always the best technique to deal with a maniacal despot.

Always paranoid, Stalin had been kept aware of Allied initial plans to seize the Finnish nickel mines at Petsamo in the north, then invade Murmansk — or even more outrageous plan to invade Arkangel. The British had managed to get their hands on a bullet-riddled Finnish code book and had heard that Mannerheim believed his men could hold out until at least May. That piece of unfiltered information was a fillup for the British.

This is episode 11 and it’s February 1940.

The Russians are having another go at invading Finland, and now they’ve learned a few lessons. As you heard last episode, there had been a build up through late January.

While Finland’s political leaders had been desperately trying to start up peace talks with the Soviet Union, Stalin had been fretting about reports that Britain and France were planning to send troops and material to help the Finns.

The Stavka had rearranged the Russian forces in preparation for the new assault on the Mannerheim Line along the Karelian Isthmus planned to begin in the second week of February.

A preliminary Soviet bombardment began on morning of Sunday the 11th February. Then the Red Army troops each received a ration of 100ml of Vodka per man to fortify before they began their advance at noon. The initial attacks by the Russian 19th Rifle Corps in the east of the Isthmus were repelled by the Finns, Gorelenko’s 50th Corps managed to gain some ground.

However the major achievement for the Russians on the 11th was the successful attack by the 123rd Rifle Division under Brigade Commander Philip Aljabushev who pierced Colonel Paavo Paalu’s 3rd Division lines east of Lake Summa.

That was along the Lahde Road, a point of repeated attacks through this war.

By 13h00 hours the Soviets had captured a major strategic point known as the Poppius bunker as well as all strongpoints east of it as you’ll hear shortly.

Timoshenko’s plan here was working. He’d softened up the Finns since late January, escalating the bombardment and bombing runs from February 1st, so after ten days of round the clock pounding, the cumulative effect had drained the Finns.
Finnish General Ohquist had been vocal about one of the weak points in his line before the war began, and this was the very spot where the Russians focused their assaults. Ohquist had built two large and imposing defensive positions which dominated this portion of the line, one was called the Million Dollar bunker, the other, the Poppius bunker. There were three other concrete pillboxes spread along between these two points but they were twenty years old and shattered by the Russian artillery barrages.

The Million Dollar bunker had been built at a kink or a dog’s leg in the line, where it turned sharply south, then twisted east.

There was some geographical advantage, to the north west lay a swamp which meant the Russians would be funnelled into any attack from the south east. But the landscape here was gentle, and lightly wooded, ideal for their armour. It’s mine-fields had been churned up by the bombardments and the wire entanglements had been snapped, there were large avenues opened up between them on the eve of this engagement.
When the JR-9 battalion arrived early on the morning of the 11th February it was dark, they had no time to acclimatise because the Russian bombardment was going to begin before dawn.

Timoshenko linked up his forces opposite this stretch of the Mannerheim line in the foggy dark, it was extremely cold minus 22 degrees Celcius. The Russian had moved 18 Divisions and five tank brigades into place along the entire Karelian Isthmus in preparation for this final big push.

This is episode 10 and the Russians are about to launch their second attempt at invading Finland and this time, they’re going to significantly alter their strategy and their tactics.

The Stavka back in Moscow had inserted new commanders, demoted failures, and were now determined to recover lost initiative — the Red Army had lost numerous battles and lost face in the full view of the Germans.

This winter War lasted 105 days from November 1939 until March 1940, but its ramifications for world history cannot be overstressed. Hitler saw how the handful of Finns bludgeoned one of the world’s superpowers, crushed them in the early round of attacks, repulsed them repeatedly and in many ways, Finland’s treatment of the Russians reinforced the German Fascists mistaken belief that if they kicked in the USSR front door, the entire edifice of communism would collapse.

Thus the Reich’s own invasion of Russia which took place in 1941, operation Barbarossa.

While the Russian invasion of the far north of Finland had literally frozen to a halt, in the south around Lake Ladoga and further south, in the Karelian Isthmus, the Red Army had retrained and by early February 1940, was ready for the big push.

Lieutenant General Hugo Osterman directed the Finnish Army of the Isthmus. A quick revisit here - his army was split into two groups, in the West around Viipuri was Second Army Corps under lieutenant general Harald Ohquist, while the eastern half was held by Three Army Corps under Major General Heinrichs. The Taipale sector was inside Heinrichs zone of command, it had been fought over ferociously since the start of the Winter War. Factoring into Timoshenko’s thinking was somethign bloodthirsty. That the Finns could not afford to lose as many men as the Russians, he was going to try to bleed them white to quote a First world War logic — the battle of Verdun as case in point.

It was late in January 1940 when the Finns began to have an inkling of what was in store for them. They had a relatively weak Air force in terms of pure power, and the Russian Air Force bombed and strafed their positions almost at will. The Finnish Air Force tried to send recon flights over the Russian build up, but this was almost suicidal the anti-aircraft and other defences were so thick on the ground.
On the morning of February 1st a single Finn air reconnaissance aircraft managed to thread its way through these awaiting guns and zig zagged past Russian planes to make a hasty photo run over the forward Russian Positions in front Summa, which is now part of Russia and called Soldatskoye - roughly translated as Soldiers place. Summajarvi, the lake, is nearby and added a layer of complexity to the Russian advance — and shoehorned coming attacks into a specific area to the north of the lake.
The village of Summa was a gateway to the city of Viipuri. Meanwhile, Finlands political leadership was desperately trying to start peace talks behind the scenes. Foreign Minister Vaino Tanner had virtually setup camp in Stockholm where he held a series of meetings with Russia’s Swedish ambassador Alexandra Kollontai.

An unusual figure in this war, Alexandra as a woman was trying chiefly to stop Sweden from formally entering the war on Finlands’ behalf. But she was able to pass on messages to Stalin from Tanner.

This is episode 9 and we’re swinging back to the Karelian Isthmus to focus on what was going on through the third week of January 1940.

Earlier in the month the disgraced Soviet Leningrad Military district was reformed and renamed the Northwestern Front and Stalin installed Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko as the commander. He was a hard man, flinty eyes, shaven head, powerful voice — a tough man for a tough job.

Timoshenko was an idealogue but no fool and agreed to lead the Northwestern Front assaults but only if Stalin agreed that he would not be held personally liable for the coming butcher’s bill. Cracking the Mannerheim Line along the Isthmus was going to be challenging after more than a month of battles had shown the Finns to be more than a match for the Red Army.

Timoshenko’s chief of staff was the architect of the Russian victory over the Japanese in Mongolia, Georgi Zhukov. The Leningrad commander Zhdanov was demoted to political commissar of the campaign, without any operational power at all. He had been roundly defeated by the Finns since the start of the Winter War in November 1939 and now his message to the troops on the frontline changed.

Previously Russian propaganda had centred around the narrative that the Finnish working class needed saving, now Zhdanov was going to focus on Russian patriotism and pride instead of the drum-beat of party slogans.

The country had been shamed in the eyes of the world and needed to redeem itself and the Northwestern Front fighters were going to be at the forefront of this reformed war. When the Red Army returned to the Mannerheim line in early February the men were going to be shouting “For the glory of the Fatherland” not “For Stalin”.
While things were looking ominous, there was much for the Finns to savour. One of these was the extraordinary Simo Hayha, the White Death as he became known.

He was a sniper, some say the most lethal sniper to have ever lived. He served with the 6th Company 34th infantry regiment and was based on the Kollaa Front.
Hayha’s confirmed kills of 542 Russians in the space of 100 days has never been eclipsed. He passed the rest of his life hunting and farming, and the White Death died in April 2002 at the age of 97.