Finland At War: The Winter War 1939-40

The story of the 'Winter War' between Finland and Soviet Russia is a dramatic David versus Goliath encounter. When close to half a million Soviet troops poured into Finland in 1939 it was expected that Finnish defences would collapse in a matter of weeks. But they held firm. The Finns not only survived the initial attacks but succeeded in inflicting devastating casualties before superior Russian numbers eventually forced a peace settlement. This is a rigorously detailed and utterly compelling guide to Finland's vital, but almost forgotten role in the cataclysmic World War II. It reveals the untold story of iron determination, unparalleled skill and utter mastery of winter warfare that characterized Finland's fight for survival on the hellish Eastern Front. Finland at War: the Winter War 1939-40 is the premiere English-language history of the fighting performance of the Finns, drawing on first-hand accounts and previously unpublished photographs to explain just how they were able to perform military feats that nearly defy belief.

Finland at War: the Winter War 1939-40

Arctic Storm recreates the four-month Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1939-40. Using an elegantly simple game system, Arctic Storm accurately portrays all of the important elements of the first major war ever fought in arctic conditions ... a war that presaged a very different winter war between the Russians and the Germans two years later.

In the bitter cold and snow of the 1939-40 winter, the Soviets found their mechanized equipment became virtually congealed in place. Poorly prepared and equipped for winter warfare, thousands of Soviet soldiers were killed by cold and frost and not by bullets and fragments.

As in 1939-40, Finland still keeps a force of ski troops ready to fight in winter wars. And in the mid-1980s, the U.S. Army reincarnated the 10th Mountain Division as the 10th Light Division, a rapid-response unit based at Fort Drum, N.Y. Tenth soldiers have seen duty from Somalia to Haiti to the Balkans. Other units both in the United States and abroad include winter training in their military skills.

In the winter of 1939-40, whilst already waging war against the might of Nazi Germany, Britain, together with France, was preparing to send a military expedition to Finland to fight against the Soviet Union. Had this expedition materialised, argues B.D.P. Conduit, the course of the Second World War might well have been disastrously altered.

During Finland's gallant, hopeless "winter war" of 1939-40, Kallio traded his knife for a bayonet, went after the Russian invaders as a private. His father, Kyösti Kallio, was President of Finland. 041b061a72