The Winter War 1939–40

By Philip Jowett

"Jowett has amassed an impressive amount of detail, yet the writing never bogs down. He leads the reader through this war with precision and employs images to great effect." — New York Journal of Books

When the Soviet Union invaded Finland in late 1939, what transpired was a true “David and Goliath” conflict. When Finland refused a number of Soviet demands, including the ceding of substantial border territories ostensibly to enable the Soviets to protect Leningrad, the Soviets responded by launching an invasion. The invasion involved a large Soviet army, with several thousand tanks, and a large air force.

But to the world's surprise the Finnish Army—many of them reservists without proper uniforms and limited ammunition—and Air Force battled overwhelming odds, and managed to resist Russian attacks for over two months, inflicting serious losses. Geography played its part as much of the Finnish-Soviet border was impassable, meaning that Soviet numerical superiority was of less import. Operating in the winter, with temperatures ranging as low as -43F, the Finns’ determined resistance won them international reputation. Although hostilities finally ended in a peace treaty that saw Finland cede 9% of its territory, Soviet losses had been heavy, and Finland retained its sovereignty.

This fully illustrated text will cover the forces involved and all stages of the Winter War.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Casemate
• Release date: Aug 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9781636242392

Philip Jowett

Interested in military history from an early age, Philip Jowett has published many books over the last twenty-five years, specialising in the armies of Asia in the first half of the twentieth century, the Russo-Japanese War, and the armies of the Second World War. A rugby league enthusiast and amateur genealogist, he is married and lives in Lincolnshire.

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Introduction

In the mid- to late 1930s, on the brink of a major conflict, Europe was divided between often precarious democracies and dictatorships. The Soviet Union in the late 1930s was a totalitarian state led by the brutal dictator Joseph Stalin who had risen to power in the early 1920s. Stalin’s Machiavellian ascent involved betrayal of many of his former revolutionary comrades with whom he had worked alongside since before the 1917 Revolution.

Because of the way he had risen to the top of the Soviet Union’s leadership, he was to remain paranoid about plots against him until his death in 1953. After dealing with several of his former comrades in a series of show trials from the late 1920s, the 1930s saw his suspicions turning to the Soviet Union’s military leadership: the Red Army’s ranks were decimated by his purges with thousands of innocent officers being shot or sent to the gulags of Siberia. While Stalin dealt with the threats from inside the Soviet Union, he harbored ambitions to restore former Soviet territories to his control. His perverse non-aggression pact with Hitler’s Germany in August 1939 allowed him to make plans to let loose the Red Army against neighboring states. The first part of his plan was to take advantage of the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 by invading, with Hitler’s agreement, the eastern part of the country. Stalin’s next victims were to be the three Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia which had been independent since the end of World War I. Stalin was to absorb the Baltic states by a mixture of threats, false promises, and aggressive politics. Between 1939 and 1940 the three Baltic states were to become republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

One of the reasons for the Soviet Union’s hostility to Finland was the 1918 Civil War between the Finnish Whites and Reds. The victory of the Whites saw the creation of an independent Finland and heavy defeat for the Bolsheviks’ Finnish protégés. White forces were aided by German troops and during the conflict a large number of Red troops, including several hundred women, were executed by firing squad. Here a column of Red prisoners is guarded by White guards and German soldiers, April 1918. (Author’s collection)

This candid 1939 photograph features two of the most powerful men in the Soviet Union in the 1930s: Joseph Stalin and his military Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Kliment Voroshilov, share a hearty joke for the propaganda camera. Voroshilov, one of the survivors of the purges of the 1930s, was an expert at keeping onside with the paranoid Stalin. His failures during the Winter War did not result in a bullet in the back of the head like so many of his counterparts. He did, however, lose command of the Red Army in Finland to General Timoshenko in January 1940, but went on to other commands and lived a rare full life in the world of Stalin’s court, dying aged 88 in 1969. (Author’s collection)

Stalin also had his eye on the former Soviet province of Finland which had gained its independence in 1917. Finland was a sparsely populated country of 3,700,000 people scattered over 130,000 square miles. The country was covered in forests, lakes, and swamps. Most people lived in villages and small towns. There are an estimated 60,000 lakes in Finland which cover 15 percent of the country’s land mass. Forests dominated the country and the timber produced from them was the country’s main export. In the late 1930s, about half the population were involved in one way or another with the timber industry. The Soviet Union in comparison had a population of 180 million and its industrial base had developed steadily since the 1917 Revolution. It had a large munitions industry which was responsible for producing the 3,200 tanks and 2,500 aircraft that could be committed to defeating Finland. Stalin was also prepared to commit as many of his 100 infantry divisions as necessary.

The Soviet Union’s aggression in 1939 was portrayed by their propaganda machine as a war of liberation for the oppressed peoples of Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Finland. During 1939 and 1940 the Red Army invaded eastern Poland and liberated the Baltic states which had been independent for 20 years. Here a Red Army soldier embraces a persecuted peasant who is happy to be liberated by the Red Army. (Author’s collection)

Two smartly turned-out Finnish machine-gunners with their Maxim M/32-33 heavy machine gun in a prewar exercise. Before the conflict broke out, Soviet news agencies claimed that many Finnish reservists had little or no uniform and many had no shoes. Although there were shortages on the Finnish side, it was the poor Soviet soldiers who were often sent to war with inadequate clothing for the coming winter. (Author’s collection)

Finnish cavalry during the Winter War was made up of a single brigade, comprising the Haimeen Cavalry Regiment, the Undenmaa Dragoon Regiment, and the 1st Mounted Rifle Battalion. Each infantry division was provided with a light squadron that included cavalry and a motorcycle company. Most cavalry fought in the infantry role. The total number of cavalrymen in 1939 was 8,000. (Author’s collection)

Stalin’s main concern was the proximity to the Soviet city of Leningrad and the major naval base at Kronstadt to the Finnish border. He demanded, in 1939, that Finland cede the Bjorko region and its islands to the Soviet Union. Finland was also requested to give the Soviets a lease on the Hanko Peninsula to prevent any German access to the Gulf of Finland. In return the Soviets would cede to Finland a nondescript piece of wooded land close to Lake Onega. These demands were quickly refused by the Finns and it became obvious that war would follow. On November 26 a Soviet provocation was created with Soviet claims that Finnish artillery had fired on a village on the border between the two countries. Four days later the Red Army began a major offensive against the Finns in the Karelian Isthmus.

Buildup to War

Attempts at solving the dispute between the Soviet Union and Finland were proving futile and it was only a matter of days, or weeks at the most, before the Red Army invaded.

Finnish intelligence already knew that Soviet plans for an invasion of their country were at an advanced stage. Red Air Force reconnaissance planes had mapped out the 800-mile-long border and photographed all the important Finnish cities, ports, industrial centers, and fortifications.

The reconnaissance flights had concentrated on the Karelian Isthmus, the obvious target for the initial attack. The Isthmus was the primary route of the Red Army into Finland and attempts at fortifying it had been attempted during the 1920s and 1930s. Soviet intelligence had quickly concluded that Finland, regardless of its defensive measures, was hopelessly ill-equipped to defend itself against their invasion. As the last weeks and days of peace ebbed away, it became obvious that making comparisons between the might of the Soviet Union and a small state like Finland was farcical; it was almost a pointless exercise to compare the Soviet armed forces with the Finnish army and its tiny air force and navy. During the late 1920s and 1930s, the Soviet Union had built up its military into one of the largest forces in the world. In comparison, the Finns had cut their military budget as most European countries had due