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The Winter War [F 6] was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It 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 ...
Relying in part on the information provided by Finnish communists, detailed intelligence on Finnish infrastructure had been prepared by the summer of 1939 in a 200-page book that was distributed to the invasion force. [2] The Soviet 14th Army was tasked with invading Finland between Kuhmo and Salla and cutting the country in half by advancing ...
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. The number of Soviet prisoners of war during the Winter War (1939–1940) was 5,700, of whom 135 died. [4]
On 30 November 1939 the Soviet 163rd Rifle Division crossed the border between Finland and the Soviet Union and advanced from the north-east towards the village of Suomussalmi. The Soviet objective was to advance to the city of Oulu , effectively cutting Finland in half.
After the Baltic states agreed to Soviet demands in September and October 1939, the Soviets turned their attention to Finland. The Soviet Union demanded territories on the Karelian Isthmus, the islands of the Gulf of Finland, a military base near the Finnish capital, and the destruction of all defensive fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus. [23]
The first bombing of Helsinki occurred the very day Finland was invaded on 30 November 1939. On the morning of the first air raid, Soviet bombers flew over Helsinki and dropped leaflets with the inscription: [3] You know we have bread - don't starve. Soviet Russia will not harm the Finnish people. Their disaster is due to the wrong leadership.
The background of the Winter War covers the period before the outbreak of the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union (1939–1940), which stretches from the Finnish Declaration of Independence in 1917 to the Soviet-Finnish negotiations in 1938–1939. Before its independence, Finland had been an autonomous grand duchy within Imperial ...
The encirclement of Soviet forces in Kiev was achieved on 16 September. A battle ensued in which the Soviets were hammered with tanks, artillery, and aerial bombardment. After ten days of vicious fighting, the Germans claimed 665,000 Soviet soldiers captured, although the real figure is probably around 220,000. [284]