In the Second World War, the fascist forces of Nazi Germany carried out a series of war activities on the Western European continent, that is, for this reason, Germany's oil and other strategic materials were increasingly scarce! In order to ensure the continuation of the pace of aggression, and the military operations on the existing fronts are not passively terminated by resources, Nazi Germany must carry out new war activities and plunder resources, so it finally took a fancy to the Soviet Union, intending to attack the resource-rich Soviet Union in one fell swoop, on the one hand, to replenish its own resources to continue the war, on the other hand, the Soviet Union is also one of the top two powers in the world, as long as the Soviet Union is taken, then the pace of aggression in the future will certainly be even greater! The Soviet Union was also aware of this aspect, and at the same time, it never underestimated the ambitions of Hitler in Nazi Germany to actively develop its military strength, and at the same time, it was constantly strengthening its border defense force! In the winter of 1939, in order to strengthen the defense of the western border before Nazi Germany launched an attack on itself, the Soviet Union successively signed a treaty of friendship and mutual assistance with the countries of the western border region of the Soviet Union, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, and a series of other countries, and obtained the right to station troops in their territory, but in Finland, the country encountered trouble, and the Soviet Union touched the "nail". The Soviet Union wanted to strengthen Leningrad's defense-in-depth forces, so it negotiated with Finland to exchange territory within thirty kilometers north of Leningrad, but Finland refused.
The Red Army
In the end, the Soviet Union decided to conquer Finland by force, and the Finnish Battle broke out! The Soviet Union sent a million troops to this country with a population of just over three million! But in front of the country of Finland, it is only a crushing victory? With a one-to-six ratio of troops, how does Finland achieve a one-to-three ratio of war losses? Why did the Soviet Union, with a million troops, conquer a small country with only two hundred thousand troops by force still win a crushing victory? How much bitterness did Finland pay in this battle to defend its sovereignty?
Video link: Million troops, unexpectedly folded small countries! Only a crushing victory over two hundred thousand troops.
Campaign background
On the European battlefield of World War II, Nazi Germany's aggression became faster and faster, and in a very short period of time, it conquered all the countries of western Europe. On the entire Western European continent, only Britain was still resisting Nazi Germany, and Britain's strength was naturally difficult to support! After a series of wars, Nazi Germany actually had more and more strategic reserves! In order to ensure that it could continue the pace of the war, Nazi Germany had to once again conquer a resource power. The Soviet Union, a vast and resource-rich territory, is undoubtedly a piece of fat in the eyes of Nazi Germany!
And the Soviet Union, although it was a peace agreement with Nazi Germany! However, the two sides are also at odds with each other, and both sides are playing small calculations, and they are preparing strategic preparations for each other in the open and in the dark! Nazi Germany hoped that it could take the Soviet Union down, on the one hand, it entered the Eastern European plate and once again increased Germany's international influence! On the other hand, the Soviet Union, as an international power and extremely rich in resources, was short of resources from Nazi Germany! At the same time, if this great power can be successfully conquered, then in the war on the Eastern European continent, Nazi Germany will also destroy many small countries and directly occupy them!
Nazi Wehrmacht
The Soviet Union wanted to maintain its international status and defend its territorial sovereignty at the same time, so its war with Nazi Germany was inevitable after all, in order to improve its national defense level, so it began to actively build fortifications on the border line, and through the calculation of Soviet strategic experts, it was best to add a line of defense in Finland and other surrounding territories! This was used to coordinate the defense of the Soviet border. After a series of efforts, the Soviet Union successfully established peaceful and mutual assistance relations with the surrounding countries, built a defensive line within their territory, and stationed troops! But in Finland, the Soviet Union was rejected one after another, and Finland did not want the Soviet Union to lay a defensive line on its borders, let alone the Soviet Union to station troops within its borders! So in the end, the Soviet Union finally decided to send an army to conquer Finland!
War breaks out
In November 1939, the Soviet Union gathered its armaments and the attack on Finland began! The Soviet Union claimed that the Finnish army had bombarded the Soviet village of Manilla with artillery, causing a large number of deaths of Soviet soldiers and civilians, and single-handedly created the Manilla Incident. The Soviet Union then used this as an excuse to demand that Finland lead its army to retreat twenty to twenty-five kilometers to the rear, and asked the Finnish government to apologize to the dead Soviet soldiers and civilians. The Soviet Union immediately tore up the non-aggression pact signed between the two sides, the Soviet-Finnish Non-Aggression Pact. And on November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union dispatched four armies, about half a million troops, under the cover of more than two thousand tanks and more than a thousand fighters, the four army groups were divided into four roads and sounded the horn of war against Finland!
Soviet armored forces attacking Finland
At this time, the Finnish state was crumbling, and in order to cope with the coming war, the Finnish state expanded its peacetime army of 30,000 to 100,000, but in the face of the Soviet Union's half a million troops, it was so weak and pale. In Finland's armament, there are less than one hundred tanks, and even the air force fighters are only in their early hundreds. To put it bluntly, the Soviet Union's forces against Finland can be described as tanks fighting mosquitoes, and it is too much to use. But the ideal is very beautiful, and the reality is full of bones after all. Although Finland's strength was very weak, compared to the Soviet Union, it could even be said to be insignificant, but Finland in this battle, but the advantages, and the people, the Finnish army soldiers, relying on the construction of fortifications and the huge advantages of forests, rivers and swamps and other terrain, caused great delay in the advance of the Soviet army. At the same time, heaven also cared for this group of righteous divisions defending the country, the blizzard, the thick fog followed, the advantage of fighting on the mainland, and the unity of the military and the people, the strength of unity, in an instant, under the cover of the snowstorm, and the thick fog of the forest, the soldiers of the Finnish army, one after another, broke into pieces, fully exerted the advantage of mobility, in squads, platoons as a unit of sleigh to launch an attack on the Soviet army, the target is directly at the Soviet logistics supply! Under the cover of the weather, the Soviet army was caught off guard, and after a certain amount of casualties, it successfully destroyed the logistics supply station of the Soviet army. After that, many of the soldiers of the Soviet Red Army froze to death in the ice and snow or starved to death in the ice and snow due to lack of cotton clothes and food, and most of the surviving Soldiers of the Soviet Red Army also lost the ability to fight!
Soviet soldiers freezing to death
In the battle, the Finnish army also formed a lot of sniper squads, the members of the sniper squads are mostly hunter-born people, they are often bold and careful, superb marksmanship, often brought heavy casualties to the Soviet Red Army. Among them, there was a sniper, known as the soldiers of the Soviet Red Army, Simon Haye, the white god of death, who single-handedly sniped and killed more than five hundred Soldiers of the Red Army. To this day, this "White Death" is still the first sniper in the sniper ranking.
Finnish tactics are used properly
The Finnish army fought on the mainland, with an unparalleled familiarity with the environment, which the Soviet Union could not catch up with no matter what, and at the same time played its own advantage that the military and civilians would ski, with great mobility, brought huge casualties to the Soviet army, although the Soviet Union had strong firepower and many troops, but there was no way in front of finland with strong mobility. Although Finland could not cause great damage to the Red Army every time due to insufficient troops, the ants could also bite elephants, so over time, the Soviet Union gradually could not bear the losses. At the same time, Finland also sent a large number of snipers to shoot at the Soviet Red Army, and the Soviet Losses were unbearable. The most terrifying thing is not the day, but the Finnish night. According to the recollections of Soviet soldiers, the Soldiers of the Soviet Red Army at that time, heating up around the campfire, were the targets in the night, and the soldiers of the Soviet Red Army who were hungry and cold watched their comrades around them fall and die one by one, but they were indifferent, because they no longer had hope to live to see the sun the next day!
The Red Army of the Soviet Union under a surprise attack
Under the flexible blows of the Finnish army, the Red Army soldiers of the Soviet Union suffered heavy losses, and in just one month from the end of November to the end of December, the Soviet army was killed or wounded by the Finnish army with 150,000 casualties! There was a battle in which the soldiers of the Finnish army, at the cost of only 900 casualties and more than 1,700 wounded, annihilated thirty thousand Soviet Red Army, two of which were annihilated.
After that, the Idea of ending the war in the Soviet Union for more than a dozen days was completely frustrated. The First Soviet War against Finland also ended in utter defeat!
Those who have lost their way have little help, and those who have gained the way have more help
The Finnish army fought to defend the country, while the Soviet Union fought for its own selfish interests. Morally, the Soviet Union was the first to show its ugly face, although both sides had their own opinions and opinions. However, in order to protect its own interests, the Soviet Union harmed the interests of Britain, France, Sweden and other countries, as well as some strategic deployments, so that the Soviet Union immediately organized from the desired one-line operation to the result of confrontation with many countries. In this war, Sweden sent an army of about 8,400 troops to aid Finland, and Britain and France also prepared to provide Finland with a combined army of about 130,000 troops to resist the Soviet invasion of Finland, and provided munitions support to Finland, and Britain supported 144 fighters, as well as more than 100 cannons, tens of thousands of grenades and other strategic materials. At the same time, in addition to these, France provided the Soviet Union with an additional five thousand light machine guns, which greatly increased the firepower of Finland. Moreover, the United States also provided low-interest loans for Finland, and at the same time gave Finland the opportunity to purchase advanced Weapons of the United States, which to a certain extent made up for the lack of Firepower in Finland. Germany also provided military guidance for Finland, and in places where Finland was vulnerable to Soviet attack, fortifications were built again, and many forts were laid out with many trenches and barbed wire, and after calculation, the existence of these fortifications could greatly improve the defense capabilities and survival chances of each defensive line.
Finnish Army
On the other hand, the Soviet Union, which appeared as an aggressor, was not only condemned by the international community, but also the hostility of other countries, and it was impossible to get any assistance, and all difficulties needed to be supported by itself, and under the strategic mistakes, and the feeling of pride and complacency, coupled with the lack of commanders, this war can be described as a heavy loss.
With the defeat of the first campaign against Finland, the soviet union was shocked by it, and the national leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin. Stalin angrily shouted at the officers of the Ministry of Defence, saying that he was incompetent, but the People's Commissar of the Ministry of Defence was not willing to show weakness, and Voroshilov shouted loudly: "It is not because you have killed all the generals!" ”
The commanders of the Soviet army were uneven in their abilities and shirked responsibility from each other
There is a historical report of the warriors of the battle, from the hands of a Marshal of the Soviet Union named Voroshilov. This report profoundly pointed out that the army of the Soviet Red Army had a major problem in command! The quality of the commander is a short board, which is also the biggest reason why the Soviet Union fought hard in this war! In this report, Marshal Voroshilov clearly pointed out that many of the commanders in the army, from the division headquarters down to the company headquarters, lacked actual combat experience and did not have the qualifications to command battles at all, so that in the course of the battle, the army of the Soviet Red Army had problems of all sizes in all links, the scene was chaotic for a while, the orders were not accessible, it was difficult for soldiers to effectively carry out the orders of their superiors, forming effective combat effectiveness, and the soldiers in various theaters of operations were chaotic. This gave Finland the opportunity to divide the battlefield continuously with very few soldiers, and then to use the mobility and favorable terrain of the troops to wipe out the Red Army. Typical of these are the Forty-fourth and Eighteenth Divisions of the Soviet Red Army, which brought a great deal of pressure to the morale of the Red Army!
Commander of the Soviet Union
Commanders at all levels are seriously incompetent in ability, always holding a negative attitude, not only allowing Finland to complete the huge results with very few troops, but also seriously hurting the morale of the Soviet Red Army, commanders at all levels, after facing defeat, are ignorantly exaggerating the strength of the Finnish army, shirking responsibility, for their own strategic failure, looking for reasons to excuse themselves.
Wartime generals
After the quarrel, the two sides quickly calmed down and finally decided to solve the problem by changing the generals on the front line. Eventually Stalin's eyes were fixed on an officer who had fought in World War I before, and he was Temujin.
After receiving the order to take office, Temuko quickly rushed to the front line to his post. Subsequently, they began to increase their prestige and lay out their combat strategies.
After Timoshenko took up his post, the first thing he did was to dismiss a large number of officers who were not competent for the positions he was in; the second thing was to strengthen the education of the army in ideological discipline and to improve morale; the third was to provide support to the front, improve the logistics supply conditions, and finally learn from the defeated combat experience and strengthen the training of the troops.
Brother Temuki
Shi Yi has a long skill to control Yi
When the Finnish army faces the weather of the blizzard, not only the soldiers will wear white gill clothes, but also have special ski combat units, under the camouflage of the white gill clothes, with the mobility of skis, Finnish fighters shuttle back and forth on the battlefield, bringing great trouble to the Red Army soldiers of the Soviet Union.
After Temugi Yukigo took office, he began to study Finland and form a ski unit to compete with it, and this time the Soviet Legion rested for more than a month!
After resting for more than a month, in February 1940, the Red Army fighters of the Soviet Union launched another offensive! In order to achieve victory, the Soviet Union directly invested forty-five divisions of troops again, and nearly 600,000 people were redeployed to the front line of the battle.
With its huge superiority in manpower, the Red Army no longer cared about casualties, and adopted the tactics of the sea of men, which was a dead end to the position of the Finnish army! The Soviet army's aircraft artillery also stopped caring about ammunition and carried out a wild bombardment of the Finnish army's positions. Finland's meager forces faced the Soviet Union's man-sea tactics, the defensive line was destroyed one after another, and in the face of the overwhelming superiority of the Soviet Union, Finland's troops were rapidly depleted.
In the end, Finland stopped the war with the help of Sweden, Britain, France, etc., and the continuation of this war will only lead to the destruction of Finland!
Battle of Sufn
The most humiliating war in Soviet history
This battle was undoubtedly a humiliating war for the Soviet Union. Compared with the Soviet Union and Finland, in terms of troop strength, the Soviet Union invested about 760,000 troops, while Finland's strength was only about 127,000; looking at strategic materials such as aircraft and tanks, the Soviet Union invested more than 3,000 tanks in this campaign, but what about Finland? No, not a single tank! Although Finland did have some aircraft, Finland's fighters added up to only about one hundred and forty, and the Same comparison with the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union directly invested more than a thousand aircraft in this battle.
Leaving aside the strength of the troops and strategic weapons such as tanks and aircraft, the weapons and equipment of the soldiers of the Soviet Red Army are absolutely superior to Finland in both quality and quantity, or some readers will wonder, did not the United States support Finland? Yes, it is true that the United States supports Finland, but it is bought! How can Finland, a country with a total population of only a few million, have the economic strength to arm the latest weapons and equipment of the United States? Therefore, in terms of equipment, the Soviet Union definitely still has a huge advantage.
With such a disparity in strength, everyone will think that what awaits Finland will only be a one-sided slaughter! It will be a war without the slightest suspense, and the Red Army of the Soviet Union will surely destroy the Finnish defense line like a decay, and then Finland will be destroyed! But when the results of the battle are counted, it can be said that it shocks the world! In this war, the Finnish army suffered about 105,000 casualties, but it annihilated several times its own enemy army. The Soviet Union suffered more than three times as many casualties as Finland, reaching a staggering 375,000 men, the Air Force lost more than 540 aircraft, and the tanks suffered heavy losses, reaching more than 1,200! The most serious consequence is not only that its current strength is extremely weak, the commander of the army is a mess, but also damages its international image, for its own interests, to invade the territory of the surrounding small countries and threaten their national sovereignty! At the same time, it also pushed Finland to Germany, sowing the seeds of distress for the future Attack of the Nazi German Legion in Leningrad, and increasing the difficulty of the Soviet Red Army's later operations!
Cherish peace and stay away from war!
Of course, whether from the perspective of Finland or from the perspective of the Soviet Union, both of them were in order to ensure their own interests, thus promoting the birth of war! In order to ensure that the Soviet Union would not quickly conquer the border from Germany in the later stages, Finland could not say anything wrong in order to protect the sovereignty of the country! But there is no right or wrong in itself, and regardless of victory or defeat, the people on both sides will suffer extremely seriously!
War itself cannot be defined as just, and unjust wars can bring painful losses, whether victorious or defeated, war will always bring the loss of land, the loss of property, the casualties of citizens, and the destruction of countless families. Throughout history, the emergence of every war has brought deep suffering to mankind and brought huge losses to the safety of the lives and property of the people of the world! Especially in today's developed science and technology, the destructive power of war is even greater, think of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and you will not see it instantly turn into fly ash! Therefore, all of you colleagues in this era, we should call for peace, although today's life has bitterness and tears, and it is sad and helpless, but in the end we are still a big family, living plainly, isn't it? I sincerely wish that this era of peace can last forever, and I wish that there will be no more wars in the future for all mankind, and that all countries can develop peacefully and stably, help each other and support each other, and meet the challenges of the new human race!