In the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union, there was such a battle, Finland only used 11,500 people to annihilate the Soviet army of 22,500 people, as a small country with a population of only 4 million at that time, its army combined to only a few tenths of the Soviet army, weapons and equipment is far inferior to the Soviet army.
So how exactly does Finland win the weak over the strong? Who is the fighting nation? In this issue, Fox tells you the story of the Victory of the Finnish Army over the Soviet Army.
In November 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union had signed the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, after which the Soviet Union had received a commitment from Germany not to interfere in the situation in Eastern Europe, and began to prepare to attack Finland by force, the purpose of which was to force the Finnish government to sign an unequal agreement with it, ceding several excellent ports in Finland and several peninsulas that could endanger the national defense and security of the Soviet Union.
On November 30, 1939, the war officially began, and the Soviet army gathered 45 infantry divisions, a total of more than 500,000 people, divided into three directions of north, central and south, and attacked Finland at the same time.
Attacking Finland in the central region was the 9th Army, which consisted of 5 infantry divisions of 95,000 men, equipped with 275 chariots, 360 cannons and 100 aircraft, with the aim of attacking the central Finnish city of Oulu via Soms-Salmi, a village close to the border between the two countries, thus cutting Finland from the middle and making it unable to take care of each other, while cutting off its communication with Sweden and blocking possible foreign reinforcements.
On 9 December 1939, the 163rd Division of the 9th Army, as the vanguard, quickly crossed the border and marched to the vicinity of Somus Salmi. The Finnish Army stationed there were only 2 battalions under the command of the Finnish Army's Kontura Battle Group, while the Soviet 163rd Infantry Division had 3 regiments.
Zerenzov, commander of the 163rd Division, received information from the scouts shortly after arriving at the site of the battle, and after knowing that there were only 2 battalions in front, he quickly ordered the 81st Mountain Infantry Regiment and the 662nd Infantry Regiment to launch a wave attack from the front, and the 759th Infantry Regiment detoured along the North Latai Road to the flank of the defenders to launch a surprise attack.
At the beginning of the battle, the Soviet mountain infantry attacked the Finnish defense line with a thunderous momentum, and under the cover of the infantry fighting vehicles in the army, the Finnish submachine guns could not shoot many bullets to hit the Soviet army.
In the face of the general crowd of Soviet troops, the Finnish defense line of only 40 people seemed crumbling. Soon, the Soviets were approaching, and seeing that the machine guns on the infantry fighting vehicles would strafe the surviving Finnish soldiers at close range, the commander of the Finnish army finally gave the order: retreat while fighting.
On the evening of 9 December, the 163rd Division captured Somus Salmi.
But the Soviets were not happy for long, because Finnish reinforcements arrived. At Lake Haoukpere, southeast of Somsalmi, Finland sent more than 11,000 men from the 9th Infantry Division to drive the Soviets out of Finnish soil.
The commander of the 9th Infantry Division, Hirasławoo, sent scouts after collecting the remnants of the defeat on the front line, and soon he learned that the Soviet 163rd Division was only the vanguard, followed by the 44th Motorized Infantry Division, with a total strength of nearly 40,000 men in the two divisions, and a large number of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles on the way, and his own 1 division could not stop so many people in any way.
After frowning and thinking for a long time, he decided to put it to death and live later, first dividing and encircling the Soviet 65th Division with superior troops, destroying this unit before the 44th Mobu Division came, and then turning around to eliminate the Mobu 44th Division.
Faced with 20,000 Soviet troops scattered around the village of Somsay, the Finnish army was not superior in numbers and weapons, but he attacked anyway. Under the orders of Hirasław, the Finnish army gathered the superior strength of 9 companies to attack the Soviet retreat, and the only supply line, the Lathai Highway.
The Soviets stationed on the road did not expect the Finnish attack at all, and after destroying a Soviet convoy, the road was occupied by the Finnish army. After cutting off the Soviet logistics line, the main Finnish army began to attack Sommssarmi. On 14 December, the Finnish army surrounded Somms Salmi and launched an attack on the Soviet Infantry 759th Regiment stationed there.
Logistics were affected, and the Finnish army attacked the city again, which made zelenzov, the commander of the Soviet 163rd Division, very anxious, and anxiety affected his judgment, making him think that there was far more than 1 division attacking his troops. He began to call for help from the headquarters of the 9th Army, but the terrain in Finland was not suitable for the rapid maneuvering of infantry fighting vehicles, so the 44th Motorized Infantry Division was still trapped on the road to support, and in desperation, Zelenzov began to send continuous requests for retreat.
Just when he was thinking of retreating, the Finnish army had concentrated its main force to break through the defensive line of the 81st Regiment of Mountain Infantry, and the 81st Regiment suffered heavy casualties and retreated to Somus Salmi, where the division headquarters was located. Zelentsov was frightened, he began to think that Finnish reinforcements had arrived, and after several days of gun resistance, on December 27, he finally received orders to allow retreat.
Early the next morning, the Great Retreat of the Soviets began, and under the cover of aircraft in the sky and tanks on the ground, the invaders withdrew from Finland. But Zelentsov, who was busy fleeing for his life, apparently forgot one thing, that is, the 662nd Regiment, which was on guard around the division headquarters, was not included in the retreat plan. They were forgotten on the battlefield, and what awaited them were the bullets of the Finnish army.
After the elimination of the 662nd Regiment, the Finnish army was a great victory, but they did not have pride or celebration, because they knew that the Soviet army would never give up, and the 44th Mobu Division was about to become a new enemy waiting for them to be destroyed.
Armed with more than 150 tanks, more than 100 infantry fighting vehicles, and a total strength of about 23,000 men, this Soviet division, which had high hopes, entered the Finnish border on 31 December 1939 and then opened a camp south of the Lathai Highway occupied by the Finnish army, while dividing the troops to occupy another road connected to the Lathai Highway, which allowed them to return to the Soviet Union.
The strategy of the 9th Finnish Division was to occupy the road, cut off the Soviet supplies again, and starve them to death in Finland!
On January 1, 1939, late at night, it was the New Year, but the Finnish soldiers slowly approached the Soviet camp in the woods from two directions with a fierce face. The commander of the 9th Infantry Division, Chiraswuo, prepared 1 battalion and 2 contingents of about 1500 men for the attack, and the attack was carried out by a north-south attack. The 1st Battalion of the JR27th Regiment, commanded by Captain Enno Lassila of the Finnish Army, attacked the Soviet camp from the front, and 2 contingents attacked the Soviet army from the southeast and attacked its flank.
At this time, under the cover of night, the Finnish soldiers slowly approached the Soviet guard post outside the camp. Suddenly, they jumped up from the snow and poked their daggers into the necks of the Soviet soldiers. After the sentry was solved, more than 600 people drilled out one after another.
Armed with heavy machine guns, submachine guns, and grenades, they quickly split into two lines and attacked the Soviet camp from the flanks.
Gunfire erupted in the camp, with the screams of Soviet soldiers and the explosion of grenades. After 2 hours, the scene was quiet, and by this time the Finnish soldier's white camouflage suit had been dyed dark red. They accomplished their combat objectives and occupied this vital highway.
On the morning of January 2, 1939, in the tent of the Soviet army camp, Finnish soldiers were resting in shifts, drinking hot tea and eating hot meals, waiting for the Soviet counterattack. But the Soviets, who had lost their camp and a lot of logistical supplies, were obviously moving slowly, and it wasn't until the afternoon that 2 companies came to attack the camp.
By this time the Finnish army had eaten and drunk enough to wait for them on the flanks. The Soviets obviously did not expect the enemy to guess the direction of the attack, and after many attacks, they failed to receive results. Over time, the morale of the Soviets grew lower and lower. The Finnish army took advantage of their low morale to launch a counterattack, the Soviet army was defeated, and the few remaining remnants quickly collapsed into the mountain forest.
While they were retreating, Finnish commander Hilasłau also sent patrols to attack the Soviet field kitchens and loot the soviet logistics. After looting, on January 4, 1939, Hilasłoo ordered a general offensive to wipe out the remnants of the Soviet army in World War I.
On 5 January 1939, Hilasłoo organized the division into four contingents and attacked from the front, south and east of the 44th Mobu Division. The frontal attacking contingent was the strongest, consisting of 4 battalions, including 1 light Einsatzgruppens battalion. The 2 battalions attacking the east and the 3 battalions attacking the south needed to cooperate with each other, and at the same time as the attack, they held the Lathai Highway to prevent the Soviet army from fleeing east.
On the morning of 5 January, soviet soldiers resisted fiercely in the face of the Finnish army coming from all directions, and if they could not repel the Finnish army, they would inevitably die here.
The Finnish attack from the north was blocked, and after several consecutive attempts, the commander ordered a retreat, but on the way they were ambushed, suffering more than a hundred casualties, and the attack on the south was also repulsed by the Soviets. Only slightly smoother in the east, the Finnish army eliminated the Soviet reinforcements sent from the country on the road, and at the same time blew up the Bridge of the Plas River Road, temporarily blocking the Soviet road back from the east.
By January 6, the Finnish army was fierce, the Soviet army was also broken, and the two armies fought a decisive battle at the same time.
At this time, the east became the main battlefield, and the Soviet army had to flee from the east, so their attack was particularly fierce. However, the Finnish army held its position to death, facing a siege ten times larger than themselves, they actually blocked the Soviet army's 4 charges. The Finnish troops deployed in other directions quickly maneuvered to the rear of the eastern battlefield and established several positions, completely blocking the Way back home for the Soviets.
By the evening of 6 January, Soviet tanks had been destroyed, infantry fighting vehicles had become Finnish trophies, and Soviet commander Vinogradov gave the order to retreat. On the night of 7 January, the Soviets organized one last resistance. In the early morning of the 8th, the gunfire gradually subsided and the war ended.
After the war, the Finnish army defeated 2 full divisions of the Soviet army in this battle, captured 43 tanks, 70 field artillery, 278 large and small vehicles and more than 3,000 guns, the number of Soviet killed and wounded frozen to death, because the body was covered with heavy snow and it is difficult to know, but conservative estimates, at least 22,500 people were lost.
The Finnish army defeated the Soviet army, which was far more equipped than itself, and drove away the invaders, just as in the battlefield of the War of Resistance Against Japan, countless Chinese soldiers drove out the Japanese invaders with a weak victory. Their courage is admirable and their story will live on forever. And the aggressor will always be scolded.