105 Days of Glory.

[Ron Bleac]

Well, it's the 30th of November. Exactly 71 years ago, Finland and the Soviet Union became involved in a bloody conflict that lasted little more than a hundred days. Still, it is a conflict that effectively changed the course of World War II, and nobody seems to recognize its importance on the political and military battlefield. It is a conflict unremembered by Western history and a conflict neglected by Eastern history. It is an unknown battle for the independence of a nation that did very little wrong, against a proverbial industrial giant that was the Soviet Union.

So, how'd it all start?

Well, to make a long story short, there's something called the "Molotov - Ribbentrop" pact. It's a very long piece of paper that gave power to the Soviet Union to occupy (read: annex) the Baltic states, and liberate (read: invade) Finland from oppressors (read: Our legal government.) I'm not going to bother explaining what the pact itself contained, you can find it on the internet, but here's a map of what was meant to happen:

In 1938, the Soviet Union made demands to the Baltic nations involving secession of key areas and deployment of Soviet troops in their territory, to quote: "Secure the Western border of the Soviet Union, and ensure the safety of Leningrad." Lithuania and Latvia agreed to the Soviet demands. The same offer was given to Finland. Finland was to either secede a substantial amount of coastal islands to the Soviet Union, and move the Eastern border towards the West by 15 kilometers, to quote: "Establish a bufferzone between possible routes of attack and the Leningrad Military District." Finland declined. 1938 through 1939, there were several attempts to negotiate with the Soviet Union, but the terms remained the same. The Soviet Union wished to establish military bases in Finnish territory, and move the border by 15 kilometers. The Finnish government was willing to exchange territory with the Soviet Union, in fact, it was more than willing to. The problem here is that they did not wish to compromise the security of their own borders. After the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, the Baltic nations were forced to sign a treaty with the Soviet Union that effectively allowed them free military reign over their sovereign territory.

Fast forward a bit to 1939, uh oh, the Germans just invaded Poland. Well shit, looks like the Soviets just sandwiched them as well. Latvia and Lithuania are occupied by Soviet troops.

After the invasion of Poland, the Finnish government in tandem with the military declared "additional refresher training" for the reserves. This, of course wasn't the case. In reality, it was a gradual mobilisation of all assets. At the same time on the Eastern side of the border, the Soviet Union had already mobilised and deployed a very substantial amount of forces. The Finns had already seen what happened with the Baltic states, and did not desire a similar fate. War, from the governments perspective seemed inevitable. On the 5th of October 1939, the Soviet Union invited a final Finnish delegation to Moscow for negotiations. The Finnish president and his entourage of ministers, accompanied by military advisors, rolled up in that bitch in a really cool steam locomotive provided by the Soviets. The negotiations that took place were hardly negotiations, but consisted of the Soviet delegation demanding that the Finns move the border back by 30 kilometers and destroy all existing fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus. Well, that shit didn't fly. Whilst the offer was relatively generous (the Soviet Union would have granted Finland twice the territory,) they were extremely dangerous due to the included demand of destroying all fortifications in Finnish Karelia. Furthermore, the Finns would have to lease Hanko peninsula to the Soviet Union for 30 years, so that they could establish a strong military presense there. Well, that shit didn't fly either.

The Soviet offer divided the Finnish government, but it was eventually rejected. When the Soviet delegation made a final appeal to the Finns, counsillor of state Paasikivi left a note for them. The note, legend says, included the following: "The Finnish government and her people are unwilling to accept your proposal. We see it as a risk to our sovereignty, and do not wish to impose such unneeded danger on our nation or her people. We assure you that the Finnish government, in tandem with the military, does not wish any harm on the Leningrad Military District. Furthermore, we are convinced that the pact you are offering us would lead to our eventual annexation, as has been done with the Baltic States. I am afraid, that I must reject your offer. These are my final words to you."

In truth, the Finnish government had offered the region of Terijoki to the Soviet Union, which would have more than doubled the distance between the current border and Leningrad. But it was still far less than what the Soviets had demanded.

Following the failure of negotiations, the Soviet military began intense mobilisation of assets all along the Finnish border. Assault troops needed for the invasion, however, were only deployed in October 1939. Invasion plans drafted by the Soviet military called for the attack to begin in November.

The guns of Mainila.

The Soviet Union staged a border incident on the 26th of November. According to Soviet reports, their border posts had come under shelling from an unknown party, resulting in the deaths of four and injuries of nine border guards. Soviet officials pointed their fingers at Finland. Finland denied the accusations, claiming that their artillery did not have the range to hit Mainila, a detail often omitted by Soviet historiography. The Soviet foreign minister Molotov demanded that Finland move all of its military forces on the border to a line 25-30 kilometers away from the current border. Did we move them? No.

On the 30th of November, Soviet forces marched over the Finnish border with 21 divisions, totalling 450,000 troops, over a thousand tanks, and well over a thousand aircraft. Soviet aircraft bombed Helsinki throughout the night. This is the modern way of declaring war. The first victim of the Winter War was 7 year old Armi Hillevi Metsäpelto, killed by debrish sent flying by a Soviet bomb.

Lets look at some numbers, on the 30th of November, the beginning of the war, the Finnish army effectively fielded upwards to 300,000 soldiers, with 100,000 more in reserve. In total, the Finnish army had 32 tanks and 114 aircraft. The Soviet Union on the 30th of November (and onwards,) fielded a larger (just by a little) force of 998,000 soldiers, 6000 tanks, and 3880 aircraft. The Soviet plan of attack was to concentrate forces on the Karelian Isthmus, push up from that region, whilst simultaneously cutting Finland in half from the center. This was meant to be accomplished by the combined forces of the Leningrad Military District, and the Ukrainean 44th Rifle division accompanied by 3 other, supporting Divisions with armor and artillery detachments.

The Finnish military deployed 21,000 soldiers in front of the Mannerheim line, the main line of defense on the Karelian Isthmus. The plan was to cover the withdrawal of other forces in the area and damage the Red Army before it reached the line. To give you an idea of what the Mannerheim line was built of, it was pretty much this:

Dirt.

The Finns had constructed 221 fortified strongpoints on the Mannerheim line, but even the strongest point of the Mannerheim line had just 1 machinegun casemate per one kilometer. That's 1000 meters, less than a mile. When observed, the line appears to be very weak. And that's no lie, it really was weak. Soviet Propaganda struggled to explain the significant slowdowns in their advance, and created a popular image of the Mannerheim line being similar to the Maginot line in South Eastern France. On the 16th of December, Soviet troops attempted to break the line by the city of Taipale. By the 22nd of December, Soviet troops had been halted along all sectors, and the Mannerheim line was still intact in the area. Several Soviet tank detachments broke through, but they were unable to benefit from the situation due to insufficient co-operation between branches of service. Most Soviet tanks were later surrounded and destroyed, or the crews prompted to surrender. Many of them did. Some chose not to, and were burned in their vehicles.

On other parts of the front, the situation wasn't as good.

For example, in the North, several Soviet detachments succeeded in breaking through Finnish lines, but found themselves surrounded by frozen wasteland with little to no chance of advancing further. Advancing in these areas would prove to be little strategic advantage, as Finnish troops had a habbit of popping out where the Soviets least expected them. By December, Soviet high command decided that the best course of action would be to pursue further operations in the South, instead of concentrating unnecessary amounts of troops in Northern Finland. However, these changes were not put through before the Soviet military lost nearly 22,000 men at the battles of Raatteentie and Suomussalmi.

Now, a Finnish soldier wasn't equipped very well compared to their Soviet brethren. The Finnish army suffered widespread ammunition shortages and even weapons/uniforms were in short supply. Conscripts were regularly granted officers sidearms due to the lack of rifles and were encouraged to bring their own hunting rifles if they had them. For identification, they were granted a small blue and white button to sew onto their hats. However, the situation vastly improved towards the end of the war when the Finnish military effectively pulled rifles out of their asses and sent them to the front. Uniforms were still in short supply.

The failure of the Soviet advance near the Mannerheim line had both sides of the conflict baffled for quite a while, but blame was eventually pinned on poor Soviet logistics and inefficient supply trains.

Troops were increased from ten divisions to 25–26 divisions, 6–7 tank brigades and several independent tank platoons, totalling 600,000 men.

Finally, on the 1st of February 1940, the Soviet Union unleashed all hell on the Mannerheim line. Daylight and night time bombardments continued for several days, destroying whatever was left of the battered line. The Finns, desperately clinging on to whatever was left of their crumbling defenses, lost over 3,000 men in the following battles. Soviet infantry and tanks were reported breaking through on all sectors. The Mannerheim line was in absolute chaos. Soviet troops, to induce war exhaustion in Finns, attacked with one or two companies at a time. During the next 16 hours, Soviet artillery poured more than 300,000 shells into the entire width line. It was the largest artillery bombardment in the world since the battle of Verdun in the first world war. On the 15th of February, Marshal Mannerheim authorized a retreat to the second intermediary line on the Karelian Isthmus. The intermediary line was much less prepared than the Mannerheim line, and at most sectors, troops took cover in ditches as improvised trenches. The Red Army could not be contained, and the Finnish army was forced to commit its final reserves, consisting of 16 year old boys and 60 year old men. At the end of February, Finnish troops had been pushed all the way back to Viborg, a strategic city labelled "Finland's lock" by foreign media.

By the end of February, Sweden confirmed that they would not allow military assistance to be granted entry rights. The Soviet Union declined Finland's peace offer. Shortly after, a ceasefire was signed between the two nations on March 12th. Finland was forced to bow to Soviet terms. Officially, the war ended as an interim peace, but the Soviet Union was quick to declare it a victory amongst their own people. Of course, us Finns, being slightly less douchebaggy than the Soviets, declared it a "moral victory." Which I suppose stands for killing lots of Soviet soldiers but still getting your ass beat. Either way, the war ended after 105 "days of glory." The Finns had held their own. But with tremendous human cost on both sides. Thousands of unburied remains still litter the Karelian Isthmus, the Soviet Union refused to retrieve their war dead. The country that had sent them there had abandoned them, and thus, fallen Soviet soldiers were granted burial amongst their comrades in marked mass graves. Many of these, are only indicated by the number of dead buried there. They are known only to God, and forever shall remain that way.

A destroyed column of Soviet troops at Raate road.

Red Army troops host a political party amongst themselves before the key battles of 1940.

So Ron, what'd your family do in the war?

To my understanding, my fathers side of the family had very little to do with the war. My mothers side, however, who actually resided on the Karelian Isthmus suffered very heavily. Both my grandfather and great grandfather suffered shrapnel wounds in the Winter and Continuation Wars. In fact, the Winter War is the reason I even exist. If the war had never occurred, my mothers side of the family would have never moved out of the Karelian Isthmus. They effectively became refugees in 1940 and were forced to move to Helsinki, were I live to this day. If a piece of artillery shrapnel had buried itself an inch or so deeper into my grandfathers back, I would not exist. And if it wasn't for the heroic efforts of Swedish volunteers who dragged him to safety, in the process losing two of their own, I would not exist. If it wasn't for the efforts or the damn fine guys of Jääkärirykmentti 2 whom with my family members served with, I would not exist.

Command staff of JR2 in 1941, during the attack phase on the Karelian Isthmus, Continuation War.

Three Finnish soldiers standing around two signs planted into the ground, during slower phases of the war. The signs read "Watch out for snipers! Remember your girl back home, and keep your head down."

Men of JR2, 6C, grouped up for a photograph. My great grandfather is on the very right, last row.

My great grandfather was wounded at the village of Podporoze, in the battles that raged there. For more pictures (all from 1942-44), check out the following link: http://www.jrkakkonen.net/kev.htm

All of the information and images on the website have to do with JR2 specifically.

Edited November 30, 2010 by Trinity Heckroth
It's the 30th of November, not March, silly Ronald.

[RazorFox]

and liberate (read: invade) Finland from oppressors (read: Our legal government.)

Oh come on dude, they were just trying to free you from the yoke of the bourgeoisie society and the injustices of the capitalist mode of production.

[Hollowmenphobia]

I like when you write these,

As I really knew nothing about this war.

[Arokh Takakura]

105 days of glory, amazing ron. You should be a historian/teacher.

[Trinity Heckroth]

Karelia is one of my favorite World of Tanks maps.

[Agares Tretiak]

Awesome read, Ron.

[Ron Bleac]

I recovered some additional pictures from the website, here's a selection of the most interesting ones:

Flares light up the night sky at the Kuukso and Metsäkangas defense sectors. Notice the barbed wire spooled in front of the photographer, barely visible through the deep snow.

An artillery strike against Soviet positions at Syväri, near the electrical plant.

The commander of 3.JR2 Lieutenant Frans Näsevuori and Second Lieutenant Pentti Iisalo. Pentti Iisalo received the Mannerheim Knight Cross for single handedly capturing a Soviet anti-tank gun, turning it around by himself to destroy an advancing column of Soviet trucks and armor. Without knowing how to use the gun.

3.JR2, commanded by C.G Wahren, grouped around an abandoned Soviet tank. The crewmen of the tank were nowhere to be seen.

A group of dead Soviet soldiers at Syväri during the Spring offensive of 1942. The Finn in the center is scavenging for weapons and ammo, or gruesome souvenirs.

Osmo Kuhanen and Erkki Villa, both from 6./JR2 during the final phases of the battle for Podporozje.

The frontline at Jandeba sector. Notice the Lahti gun that one of the soldiers is using.

Heaps of enemy lay dead at Nalle-kukkula (translation: Teddy-bear cliff)after 6./JR2 performs a counter-attack to clean out occupied Finnish positions. 6./JR2 took 2 casualties in the process, both in wounded.

As an addition, here's a link to another gallery on the website: http://www.jrkakkonen.net/u-asemaan.htm

It contains pictures from the final phase of the war, and the retreat back to the U-line.

[RazorFox]

The Lahti is probably one of the most badass guns in history, IMHO.

[Ron Bleac]

Dec 6th-7th, Finnish independence day.

Happy Birthday.

We Jaegers still believe.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qri4KmXL--k&feature=related