As 1940 came, it was apparent to Stalin that his armies were suffering terrible losses; he was getting nowhere fast and knew that Finland had to be beaten at all costs. The British and other nations offered token forces and supplies for Finland, but the Swedes refused transit. Hitler made immediate plans to invade Norway and Denmark while these two countries declared themselves "neutral." Swedish diplomats pointed out that "When great powers are waging war, small countries can't afford to be heroic." This was the thanks Finland got for honoring her commitments to her neighbor, Sweden. Stalin demoted or shot most of the commanders and placed the entire operation in Finland under the command of Marshal Semyon K. Timoshenko.
General Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko
Timoshenko ordered large numbers of reinforcements into Western Karelia. According to Khrushchev, Stalin was "gnashing his teeth," waiting for news. "Our air force has been called into action. Many bridges have been destroyed. Many trains have been crippled . . . The Finns have only their skis left. Their supply of skis never runs out."
Blanket bombing began on February 1, 1940, to soften up the lines. The Russians massed 600,000 men, artillery lined hub to hub and poured over 300,000 shells in one day on the Mannerheim Line's Summa positions. In 1.6 miles of front there were 440 cannon pounding the Finns who replied with only 16. Six divisions supported by 500 aircraft and many tanks attacked at the Hatjalahti and Muolaa Lake sectors. The Finns pushed them back. Entire Russian Divisions were wiped out, but more kept attacking over the frozen bodies of their comrades.
Finnish soldiers in Ladoga´s Karelia.
The main and final attack of the war began on February 6, 1940, along a five-mile front in Western Karelia with three divisions supported by 150 tanks and 200 airplanes. The results were the same with thousands of dead Russians lying in front of the Finnish positions and more Russian troops charging across their frozen bodies. On 11 February the Russians managed to make breakthroughs on both flanks (Lake Ladoga & Gulf of Finland). Finnish troop strengths were down to one half or one third of original and the Finns were nearly out of ammunition. They were now withdrawn on February 14 to new defensive positions. The Russians made no effort to pursue them.
By February 26, the Finns were forced to abandon Koivisto and they retreated back toward Viipuri. The need for men, arms and ammunition was desperate and Mannerheim warned the Finnish government about the potential consequences. The French and British were offering to send 100,000 men, but should the Finns accept this aid which was not at all certain, go it alone, or try to work a deal with the Russians? The offer from the Allies was suspect and the Swedes were not of a mind to permit them to cross their country. The British and French were also fearful of Hitler's designs on Norway and Denmark and might use the troops there. The German government advised the Finns to make arrangements with the Russians. The Finnish Foreign Affairs Committee again asked Sweden if they would allow transit of Allied troops and Mannerheim asked the United States to mediate. On March 5, Stockholm informed Helsinki that the Cabinet had decided to let no troops cross Sweden by a unanimous vote.
On March 6, 1940, a Finnish delegation left for Moscow to discuss terms. The Finns prepared for another counter-offensive, and the Russians brought up more troops, but all was quiet. In some sectors of the line there were only a few Finns left where there had been whole units, and there was precious little ammunition. Then on March 13, 1940, it was all over; an armistice was signed. Had the Russians mounted just one more attack, they might have carried it all the way to Helsinki, but they had lost their nerve about the same time the Finns ran out of ammunition.
Russian soldier frozen to death at his post
Under the treaty, Russia received Finland's second largest city, Viipuri, the port of Petsamo on the Arctic Ocean, the Hanko area, all of Lake Ladoga’s shores and the entire Karelian Isthmus, the home of 12 per cent of Finland's population. Finland gave up a total of 22,000 square miles. One Russian general remarked, "We have won enough ground to bury our dead." Khrushchev wrote, "Even in these most favorable conditions it was only after great difficulty and enormous losses that we were finally able to win. A victory at such a cost was actually a moral defeat." According to Khrushchev, 1.5 million men were sent to Finland and one million of them were killed. 1000 aircraft, 2300 tanks and armored cars and an enormous amount of other war materials were lost.
The people in the ceded area were given the right to remain with the Soviet Union or emigrate to Finland. Most if not all of the 450,000 people living in the region moved to Finland despite being left destitute and homeless.
Molotov´s Cocktail were a feared weapon by Soviet tankcrews. The mixture of fuel, petrol, spirits, tar and matchstick or ignition rag was very flammable and adhesive.
The most famous weapon of this brief war is well known—the Molotov cocktail, named after the perfidious Russian negotiator. However, its origin, an invention of the Finnish Liquor Board, is generally unknown. With hardly any anti-tank weapons, four-man Molotov cocktail crews destroyed nearly 2000 tanks. The Soviet tanks had an extra 50 gallon gas tank on the back end of the tank near the engine air vents. The tanks were noted for their poor maintenance and excess grease and oil in the engine compartment. The tank would be allowed to penetrate the tactical wire. One man with a log would attempt to jam the tracks while the two Molotov Cocktail men would throw their weapons on the back end of the tank. The gasoline and alcohol would drip into the engine compartment where heat would ignite the mixture and the engine compartment would burst into flames. This would in turn ignite the 50 gallon gas tank on the back of the tank and create tremendous heat inside the tank. The tank crew would attempt to escap e and the man with a sub machine gun would kill the crew. Casualties among the Molotov cocktail crews were about 75 per cent.
Foreign support
World opinion at large supported the Finnish cause. The World War hadn't really begun yet, for the time being the Winter War was the only real fight going on, on which the world's interest was focused. The Soviet aggression was generally deemed totally unjustified. Various foreign organizations sent material aid, such as medical supplies. Finnish immigrants in the United States and Canada returned home, and many volunteers travelled to Finland (one of them actor-to-be Christopher Lee) to join Finland's forces: 1,010 Danes, 695 Norwegians, 372 Ingrians, 346 Finnish expats, and 210 volunteers of other nationalities made it to Finland before the war was over. Foreign correspondents in Helsinki wrote, and even greatly exaggerated, reports of supposed Finnish ingenuity and successes in combat.
All empty villages and houses were burnt down when possible. Aim was to slow down enemy´s advance and to make their life as miserable as possible. A village on fire somewhere in Karelian Isthmus.
Sweden, which had declared herself to be a non-belligerent rather than a neutral country (as in the war between Nazi Germany and the Western Powers) contributed with military supplies, cash, credits, humanitarian aid and some 8,700 Swedish volunteers prepared to die for Finland. Maybe most significant was the Swedish Voluntary Air Force, in action from January 7, with 12 fighters, 5 bombers, and 8 other planes, amounting to a third of the Swedish Air Force of that time. Volunteer pilots and mechanics were drawn from the ranks. The renowned aviator Count Carl Gustav von Rosen, related to Hermann Göring, volunteered independently. There was also a volunteering work force, of about 900 workers and engineers.
The Swedish Volunteer Corps with 8,402 men in Finland, and with the only common volunteers who had finished training before the war ended, started to relieve five Finnish battalions at Märkäjärvi in mid-February. Together with three remaining Finnish battalions, the corps faced two Soviet divisions and were preparing for an attack by mid-March, that was inhibited by the peace. 33 men died in action, among them the commander of the first relieving unit, Leutenant Colonel Magnus Dyrssen.
The Swedish volunteers remain a focus of dissonance between Swedes and Finns. The domestic debate in Finland had in the years immediately before the war given common Finns hope of considerably more support from Sweden, notably large regular troops, that could have had a significant impact on the outcome of the war — or possibly made the Russians to never attack. As such a more substantial support was expected, Finnish evaluation of gifts, credits and volunteers from Sweden tend to be made on the foundation of deep and bitter disappointment.
Franco-British plans for a Scandinavian theatre
Already within a month, the Soviet leadership began to consider abandoning the operation, but Finland's government was reached by a preliminary peace offer (via Sweden's government) first in the end of January. Until then, Finland had factually fought for its existence. When credible rumours reached the governments in Paris and London, the incentives for military support were dramatically changed. Now Finland fought "only" to keep as much as possible of her territory in Leningrad's neighbourhood. But of course the public could know nothing about this — neither in Finland, nor abroad. For public opinion, Finland's fight remained a life and death struggle.
Franco-British support was offered on the condition it was given free passage through neutral Norway and Sweden instead of taking the road from Petsamo. The reason was a wish to occupy the iron ore districts in Kiruna and Malmberget. (Borders as of 1920–1940.)
In February 1940 the Allies offered to help: The Allied plan, approved on February 5 by the Allied High Command, consisted of 100,000 British and 35,000 French troops that were to disembark at the Norwegian port of Narvik and allegedly support Finland via Sweden while securing the supply routes along the way. The plan was agreed to be launched on March 20 under the condition that the Finns plead for help. It was hoped that this would eventually bring the two still neutral Nordic countries, Norway and Sweden to the Allied side — by strengthening their positions against Germany, although Hitler already in December had declared to the Swedish government that Western troops on Swedish soil immediately would provoke a German invasion.
However, only a small fraction of the troops was intended for Finland. Proposals to enter Finland directly, via the ice-free harbour of Petsamo, were dismissed. Suspicions that the objective of the operation was to capture and occupy the Norwegian shipping harbour of Narvik and the vast mountainous areas of the North-Swedish iron ore fields from where the Third Reich received a large share of the iron ore critical for the war production, and fear of thereby becoming the battle ground for the armies of the Allied and the Third Reich, caused Norway and Sweden to deny transit. After the war it became known that the commander of the Allied expedition force actually was instructed to avoid combat contact with the Soviet troops.
The Franco-British plan hoped to capture all of Scandinavia north of a line Stockholm–Göteborg or Stockholm–Oslo, i.e. the British concept of the Lake line following the lakes of Mälaren, Hjälmaren, and Vänern, which would contribute with good natural defence some 1,700–1,900 kilometres south for Narvik. The expected frontier, the Lake line, involved not only Sweden's two largest cities, but its consequence was that the homes of the vast majority of the Swedes would be either Nazi-occupied or in the very war zone.
The Swedish government, headed by Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson, declined to allow transit of armed troops through Swedish territory. Although Sweden had not declared herself neutral in the Winter War, she was neutral in the war between France and Britain on one side and the Third Reich and the Soviet Union on the other. Granting transit rights to a Franco-British corps were at that time considered too great a diversion from international laws on neutrality.
The Swedish Cabinet also decided to reject repeated pleas from the Finns for regular Swedish troops to be deployed in Finland, and in the end the Swedes also made it clear that their support in arms and munitions could not be maintained for much longer. Diplomatically, Finland was squeezed between Allied hopes for a prolonged war and Scandinavian fears of a continued war spreading to neighbouring countries (or of the surge of refugees that might result from a Finnish defeat). Also from Wilhelmstrasse distinct advice for peace and concessions arrived — the concessions "could always later be mended."
While Berlin and Stockholm pressured Helsinki to accept peace also on bad conditions, Paris and London had the opposite objective. From time to time, different plans and figures were presented for the Finns. To start with, France and Britain promised to send 20,000 men to arrive by the end of February, although under the implicite condition that on their way to Finland they were given opportunity to occupy North-Scandinavia.
By the end of February, Finland's Commander-in-Chief, Field Marshal Mannerheim, was pessimistic about the military situation, which is why the government on February 29 decided to start peace negotiations. That same day, the Soviets commenced an attack against Vyborg.
When France and Britain realized that Finland was seriously considering a peace treaty, they gave a new offer for help: 50,000 men were to be sent, if Finland asked for help before March 12. But actually, only 6,000 of these would have been destined for Finland. The rest was intended to secure harbours, roads and iron ore fields on the way.
Additional Sources: www.answers.com
www.utb.boras.se
virtual.finland.fi
www.mil.fi
www.politicsforum.org
www.historyhouse.com
www.battlefield-site.co.uk
www.iremember.ru
hkkk.fi/~yrjola
www.colddeadhands.addr.com
mailer.fsu.edu
www.onwar.com
www.raatteenportti.fi
www.military-art.com
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on March 23:
1699 John Bartram naturalist/explorer, father of American botany
1769 William Smith geologist (Strata Identified by Organized Fossils)
1818 Don Carlos Buell Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1898
1823 Schuyler Colfax (R) 17th Vice President (1869-73)
1825 Edward Lloyd Thomas Brigadier General (Confederate Army) died in 1898
1857 Fannie Farmer actress (namesake of a candy company)
1858 Ludwig Quidde German historian/politician (Nobel prize 1927)
1860 Horatio W Bottomley British journalist/swindler
1881 Hermann Staudinger Germany, chemist/plastics researcher (Nobel '53)
1883 Faisal I ibn Hussein ibn Ali 1st king of Iraq/Syria
1887 Felix Felixovitch Yussupov Russian prince/murderer of Rasputin
1900 Erich Fromm Frankfurt Germany, psychologist (Sane Society)
1902 Philip Ober Fort Payne AL, actor (General Stone-I Dream of Jeannie)
1908 Joan Crawford [Lucille Fay LeSueur] San Antonio TX, actress (Mildred Pierce, What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?)
1910 Akira Kurosawa Tokyo Japan, director (7 Samurai, Living)
1912 Werner von Braun Wirsitz Germany, rocket expert
1917 Johnny Guarnieri New York NY, jazz pianist (Morey Amsterdam Show)
1920 James Brown Desdemona TX, actor (Lieutenant Rip Masters-Rin Tin Tin)
1921 Donald Malcome Campbell Surrey UK, boat racer (1955 speed records)
1922 Marty Allen Pittsburgh PA, comedian (Allen & Rossi), "Hello Dere"
1929 Albert H Crews astronaut
1929 Roger Bannister England, 1st to run a 4 minute mile (May 6, 1954)
1933 Monique van Vooren Belgium, actress (Andy Warhol's Frankenstein)
1937 Craig Breedlove Los Angeles CA, auto-racing champion (600 MPH-Spirit of America)
1948 Michael Gleeson otolaryngologist
1953 Chaka Khan [Yvette Marie Stevens] Great Lakes IL, rocker (Rufus-I'm Every Woman)
1953 Louie Anderson Minneapolis MN, comedian
1954 Moses Malone NBA all star center (Atlanta Hawks, Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia '76ers)
1956 Laura Thorne chef (named one of 10 best American chefs)
1971 Renette Cruz Miss Canada-Universe (1996)
1971 Yasmeen Ghauri Montréal Canada, model (Valentino Perfume)
1972 Jennifer K Chapman Miss Massachusetts-USA (1997)
Deaths which occurred on March 23:
1169 Shirkuh Kurd General/vizier of Cairo/Saladin's uncle, dies
1237 Jan of Brienne King of Jerusalem/Emperor of Constantinople, dies
1369 Pedro the Cruel, King/tyrant of Castile & Leon, murdered
1555 Julius III [Giovanni M del Monte], Pope (1550-55), dies at 67
1801 Paul I tsar of Russia (1796-1801), strangled at 46
1944 O C Wingate British General-Major (Burma), dies in air crash
1958 Florian Znaniecki Polish/US sociologist/philosopher, dies at 76
1960 Franklin P Adams columnist (Information Please), dies at 78
1961 Valentin Vasilyevich Bondarenko cosmonaut, dies in accident at 24
1964 Peter Lorre actor (The Maltese Falcon), dies at 59
1973 Ken Maynard actor (Phantom Rancher, $50,000 Reward), dies at 77
1983 Dr Barney Clark 1st artificial heart recipient , dies after 112 days at 62
1985 Singing Nun [Janine Deckers] commits suicide in Belgium at 52
1994 Alvara del Portillo Spanish Opus Dei bishop, dies at 80
GWOT Casualties
24-Mar-2003 6 | US: 4 | UK: 2 | Other: 0
US Corporal Evan Tyler James Saddam Canal Hostile - drowning
US Sergeant Bradley Steven Korthaus Saddam Canal Hostile - drowning
US Specialist Gregory Paul Sanders 60 miles S. of Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - sniper
US Lance Corporal Thomas Alan Blair An Nasiriyah Hostile - hostile fire
UK Sergeant Steven Mark Roberts Al Zubayr Hostile - friendly fire
UK Lance Corporal Barry Stephen Al Zubayr Hostile - hostile fire
Afghanistan
A Good Day
On this day...
1026 Koenraad II crowns himself king of Italy
1066 18th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1153 Treaty of Konstanz between Frederik I "Barbarossa" & Pope Eugene III
1490 1st dated edition of Maimonides "Mishna Torah" published
1568 Treaty of Longjumeau: French huguenots go on strike
1593 English Congressionalist Henry Barrow accused of slander
1657 France & England form alliance against Spain; England gets Dunkirk
1708 English pretender to the throne James III lands at Firth of Forth
1743 George Frideric Händel's oratorio "Messiah" premieres in London
1775 Patrick Henry proclaims "Give me liberty or give me death"
1794 Josiah Pierson patents a "cold-header" (rivet) machine
1794 Lieutenant-General Tadeusz Kosciuszko returns to Poland
1801 Murder attempt on Czar Paul I
1806 Lewis & Clark reach Pacific coast
1808 Napoleon's brother Joseph takes the throne of Spain
1836 Coin Press invented by Franklin Beale
1839 1st recorded use of "OK" [oll korrect] (Boston's Morning Post)
1840 Draper takes 1st successful photo of the Moon (daguerrotype)
1857 Elisha Otis' 1st elevator installed (488 Broadway, NYC)
1858 Streetcar patented (Eleazer A Gardner of Philadelphia)
1862 Battle of Kernstown VA-Jackson begins his Valley Campaign
1865 General Sherman/Cox' troops reach Goldsboro NC
1867 Congress passes 2nd Reconstruction Act over President Johnson's veto
1868 University of California founded (Oakland CA)
1880 Flour rolling mill patented (John Stevens of Wisconsin)
1881 Boers & Britain sign peace accord; end 1st Boer war
1891 1st jazz concert was held at Carnegie Hall
1903 Wright brothers obtain airplane patent
1910 1st race at Los Angeles Motordrome (1st US auto speedway)
1912 Dixie Cup invented
1915 Zion Mule Corp forms
1917 4 day series of tornadoes kills 211 in Midwest US
1918 Lithuania proclaims independence
1918 Paris bombs "Thick Bertha's Dike" (nickname for the widow Krupp)
1919 Benito Mussolini forms Fascist movement in Milan Italy
1919 Moscow's Politburo/Central Committee forms
1922 1st airplane lands at the US Capitol in Washington DC
1923 Frank Silver & Irving Conn release "Yes, We Have No Bananas"
1925 Tennessee becomes 1st state to outlaw teaching theory of evolution
1929 1st telephone installed in White House
1933 Enabling Act: German Reichstag grants Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers
1934 US Congress accepts Philippines independence in 1945
1940 1st radio broadcast of "Truth or Consequences" on CBS
1940 All-India-Muslim League calls for a Muslim homeland
1942 2,500 Jews of Lublin massacred or deported
1942 US move native-born of Japanese ancestry into detention centers
1943 German counter attack on US lines in Tunisia
1944 Nicholas Alkemade falls 5,500 meter without a parachute & lives
1945 Largest operation in Pacific war, 1,500 US Navy ships bomb Okinawa
1948 John Cunningham sets world altitude record (54,492' (18,133 meter))
1956 Pakistan proclaimed an Islamic republic in Commonwealth (National Day)
1956 Sudan becomes independent
1957 US army sells last homing pigeons
1965 Gemini 3 launched, 1st US 2-man space flight (Grissom & Young)
1965 Moroccan army shoots on demonstrators, about 100 killed
1966 1st official meeting after 400 years of Catholic & Anglican Church
1968 Reverend Walter Fauntroy, is 1st non-voting congressional delegate from Washington DC
1972 Evil Knievel breaks 93 bones after successfully clearing 35 cars
1972 New York Yankees agree to continue playing ball in the Bronx
1973 After a 5½ year run, soap "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" ends
1976 International Bill of Rights goes into effect (35 nations ratify)
1979 Larry Holmes TKOs Osvaldo Ocasio in 7 for heavyweight boxing title
1980 Shah of Iran arrives in Egypt
1981 Supreme Court rules states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teen-age girls sought abortions
1981 Supreme Court upholds law making statutory rape a crime only for men
1982 Guatemala military coup under General Rios Montt, President Romeo Lucas flees
1983 US President Ronald Reagan introduces "Star Wars"-plan (SDI)
1985 Billy Joel weds supermodel Christie Brinkley
1985 Discovery moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating of STS 51-D mission
1987 US offers military protection to Kuwaiti ships in the Persian Gulf
1989 2 Utah scientists claim they have produced fusion at room temperature
1989 Joel Steinberg sentenced to 25 years for killing his adopted daughter
1990 Former Exxon Valdez Captain Joseph Hazelwood ordered to help clean up Prince William Sound & pay $50,000 in restitution for 1989 oil spill
1992 Florida Marlins begin selling tickets
1994 Graeme Obree bicycles world record 10 km (11 :8)
1994 Howard Stern formally announces his Libertarian run for New York Governor
1997 Phil Mickelson wins Bay Hill Golf Invitiational
1997 Wrestlemania XIII in Chicago, Undertaker beats Psycho Sid for title
2000 Pope John Paul the Second paid his respects at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial.
2000 President Clinton visited the western Indian village of Nayla.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Bolivia : Memorial Day
Laos : Armed Forces Day
Lithuana : Independence Day (1918)
Pakistan : Republic Day (1956)
Sudan : Independence Day (1956)
UN : World Meteorological Day, a UN observance (1950)
World : World Meteorological Day
US : Chocolate Week (Day 3)
Rosacea Awareness Month
Religious Observances
Anglican : Gregory the Illuminator, bishop/missionary to Armenia
Roman Catholic : Memorial of St Turibius of Mogrovejo, archbp of Lima (optional)
Religious History
1540 In a show of growing support for Henry VIII, Waltham Abbey in Essex became the last monastery in England to transfer its allegiance from the Catholic Church to the newly_established Church of England.
1744 In London, composer George Frederic Handel's famous oratorio "Messiah" was performed for the first time.
1877 Mormon fanatic John Doyle Lee was executed by a firing squad for masterminding the Mountain Meadows Massacre. In 1857, a wagon train of 127 Arkansas Methodist emigrants, bound for California, were killed by a party of Mormon settlers and Paiute Indians at Mountain Meadows (near Cedar ity), Utah.
1892 Birth of George Arthur Buttrick, English Presbyterian pastor and educator. A teacher at both Union Theological Seminary and Harvard University, Buttrick is best remembered as chief editor of "The Interpreter's Bible" (1952_57).
1966 Archbishop of Canterbury Arthur Michael Ramsey met and exchanged public greetings with Pope Paul VI in Rome. It was the first official meeting between heads of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches in over 400 years.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him."
