Finland network of bunkers with impressive amenities

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

Russian NKVD officer (People's Commissariat/Volkskommissar) laughing right before his execution in Finland during the Winter War in 1942

[pieter]

Winter War images


Soviet soldier surrenders to a Finnish soldier during the Continuation War. The photo may have been staged.


Major Martti Aho interrogates a camouflaged Soviet prisoner of war in the Pryazhinsky District.


Finnish cavalrymen guarding two Red Army soldiers in Lementti in the Ladoga Karelia.


Body of frozen Soviet soldier propped up by Finnish fighters to intimidate Soviet troops, 1939.


A nonaggression pact with the Nazis in summer 1939 allowed the Soviet Union to absorb its Baltic neighbors within the year. But when it attacked Finland in November, a real, if one-sided, winter war ensued. Soviet battle deaths were high - a frozen corpse is carried off by Finnish soldiers.


Frozen Red Army soldier, Finnish-Soviet front, 1942


Two Soviet infantrymen frozen to death in their foxhole, 1940, Winter War, Finland




Camouflaged Finnish soldiers manning a machine-gun turret


A disabled Soviet tank lies abandoned in the snow


Finnish troops wear gas masks during the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939. THREE LIONS/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES


Finnish soldiers with the Finnish flag


A Finnish radio reporter with a gun and a microphone during coverage of the Finnish-Soviet Winter Wa (Image: Heinrich Hoffmann/ullstein bild via Getty Images)


Although the Soviet Army had far greater numbers and resources, fighting on home turf proved an invaluable advantage for the Finns.


Soviet equipment and bodies after the Battle of Raate, Finland, in January 1940.


Soviet soldiers in a trench position on the Karelian Isthmus during the Winter War, Finland, December 1939.




Exhausted Finnish soldiers in 'The Winter War'

[pieter]

[Jaga]

Hello Pieter,

Finland did remarkably well in the winter war of 1941. They were also well camouflaged. Polish mass media also brought it up recently.

[pieter]

[pieter]

The Winter War Between Finland and Soviet Union 1939-1940

[Jaga]

Hello Pieter,

Finland did remarkably well in the winter war of 1941. They were also well camouflaged. Polish mass media also brought it up recently.

[pieter]

Winter War



The Winter War, also known as the First Soviet-Finnish War, was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. The war began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. Despite superior military strength, especially in tanks and aircraft, the Soviet Union suffered severe losses and initially made little headway. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the organisation.

The Soviets made several demands, including that Finland cede substantial border territories in exchange for land elsewhere, claiming security reasons—primarily the protection of Leningrad, 32 km (20 mi) from the Finnish border. When Finland refused, the Soviets invaded. Most sources conclude that the Soviet Union had intended to conquer all of Finland, and use the establishment of the puppet Finnish Communist government and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocols as evidence of this, while other sources argue against the idea of a full Soviet conquest. Finland repelled Soviet attacks for more than two months and inflicted substantial losses on the invaders while temperatures ranged as low as −43 °C (−45 °F). The battles focused mainly on Taipale along the Karelian Isthmus, on Kollaa in Ladoga Karelia and on Raate Road in Kainuu, but there were also battles in Salla and Petsamo in Lapland. After the Soviet military reorganized and adopted different tactics, they renewed their offensive in February and overcame Finnish defences.

Hostilities ceased in March 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty in which Finland ceded 9% of its territory to the Soviet Union. Soviet losses were heavy, and the country's international reputation suffered. Their gains exceeded their pre-war demands, and the Soviets received substantial territories along Lake Ladoga and further north. Finland retained its sovereignty and enhanced its international reputation. The poor performance of the Red Army encouraged German Chancellor Adolf Hitler to believe that an attack on the Soviet Union would be successful and confirmed negative Western opinions of the Soviet military. After 15 months of Interim Peace, in June 1941, Germany commenced Operation Barbarossa, and the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviets began.

[pieter]

A remarkable story: www.atlantajewishtimes.com/astonishing-story-of-survival-by-jews-of-finland/





Again a story about history and that history wasn't black and white. In the Second World War Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Ukrainians, Belarussians and Russians sided with the Germans after the experience Stalnist terror. Fact is that these Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Ukrainian, Belarussian and Russian Nazi collaborators commited attrocities against Polish-, Ukrainian, Baltic, Belarussian, Russian and Western-European Jews and against ethnic Poles and ethnic Belarussians-, Russians and Ukrainains. The Fins fought a war against the SovietUnion, but in contrast with these Lithuanian-, Latvian-, Estonian-, Ukrainian-, Belarussian- and Russian Nazi collaborators these Finns didn't participate in War crimes, massacres of civilians and the Holocaust (Shoah). Like the Ukrainians todau they just fought to defend their country against the Russians.

[karl]

Pieter

It was good of you to bring out this presentation of the Fins. My self do not know too much of the Finnish people other then they are the far North peoples and very tough by their reputation. Thier new membership in to NATO will be much welcomed.

Karl