World War II in Europe

I always wonder what would've happened if Italy had taken the French territory in Africa. It might've been enough to turn the tides of that eventual battle into a victory for the Axis.

Also, Operation Compass showed the weakness of the Italian army. The Italians got launched back around 1000 kilometers

Ethiopia did have alot of firepower it's just western thinking that everybody in Africa uses bows and spears.

Indeed, but the Italians aren't that good though

Fantastic job!..yet again!

7. The Winter War

“The wolves will eat well this winter.” - Colonel Hjalmar Siilasvuo after the Battle of Suomussalmi, inflicting as many as 9000 Soviet casualties, while suffering just 400 of their own.

In the beginning of the 19th century, Finland were a part of Kingdom of Sweden. But, in 1809, Russia invades Finland to protect its Imperial Capital, St. Petersburg. Finland were granted autonomous authority, and the Grand Duchy could move freely inside the Russian Empire. In late 19th century, Russia attempted to assimilate Finland into Russia. This move ruined Russia and Finland relation, and made many independence movements emerges.
When the World War I broke out in 1914, Finland saw a chance, and when the Russian Empire collapsed, Finland made a move. On 6 December 1917, the Senate of Finland declared independence. The Bolshevik government was very weak, and the threat of civil war looming, Soviet Russia finally recognized the Finnish government. 

The Soviet and Finnish relation were never warm. The Soviets under Joseph Stalin accused the Finland Government as clique of Fascist. In the Secret Protocol of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Finland fall into Soviet sphere of influence. After Germany attacked Poland, and Soviet annexation of Baltic States, Finland knows that they were the next Soviet target. 

On 5 October 1939, the Soviet Union invited Finnish delegation to Moscow for negotiations. J.K. Paasikivi, was sent to Moscow. The Soviets demanded that the border to be moved westward, and Finland must destroy all fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus. They also demanded the islands in the Gulf of Finland also the Kalastajansaarento peninsula. Furthermore, Finland would have to lease the Hanko Peninsula. In exchange, the Soviet Union would give Finland territory that doubles the size of the Soviets demands. But these territory have no any significance, no infrastructure, just plain wilderness. The territory demanded were vital to Finland, accepting Soviet demands means Finnish defences to be dismantled.


Finnish Delegation team

Finland rejected the demands, and presents counteroffers, Soviets saw the negotiation as dead end and finished.
The Finnish introduced gradual mobilization, but could only deploy 250.000–340.000 men, with 30 tanks and 100 aircraft.
Meanwhile, Soviets mobilized nearly 1 million men, with nearly 6.000 tanks and 3.880 aircraft. A complete superiority.

The Soviets later faked an attack to Soviet troops. They reported that Finnish artillery opened fire at the village of Mainilla. Molotov later claimed that Finland were hostile to Soviet troops. Soviet demanded an apology and Finnish troops sent back 25 km from the border. Finland denied responsibility and offer a joint Soviet-Finnish commission to investigate. The Soviets refused. The Winter War begins on 30 November 1939. 


Plan of attack in December 1939

Stalin expected the war to be over in a few weeks. The Soviet superiority and Soviet success in Poland assured Stalin. Also Stalin was impressed by the German Blitzkrieg in Poland, he wanted Soviet troops to achieve what the Germans achieved in Poland. But, plains in Poland, and well mapped networks of roads and rails, complete with Communication and Transportation center enabled the Germans to employ Blitzkrieg. But the forested and swamp region in Finland, also with scarce network of roads, made Blitzkrieg in Finland impossible. And if the Soviets could overcome these, there were still man built obstacles, the biggest was the Mannerheim line.

The Mannerheim line was a series of fortresses, pillboxes, trenches, and bunkers in Karelian Isthmus. These static defences were strategically built, oversees the series of passable roads, and strategic points. These defences were no Maginot, but the Mannerheim line was all the best that Finland had. Mannerheim, the Finnish Marshal in Winter War, expected the Finnish defenses to last for a week to ten days. In that time, the Finns wished to gain support through diplomacy and win the war with aid of her possible allies.

The Soviets also suffered weak leadership, as the purge committed by Stalin included three of its five marshals, 220 of its 264 division-level commanders or higher, and 36.761 officers of all ranks. Fewer than half of the officers remained in total. Those blank spots were filled with low rank commanders, which lacked experience. The Soviets also had political commissars in every division to ensure the soldiers political allegiance to communism. There was no purely military decision, every single decision also had to follow the communist party's guidelines.

The Winter in 1940 were cold, a record of -43 degrees of Celcius was achieved in the Mannerheim line. The Soviet troops lacked winter equipment and camouflage, while Finnish troops have abundant resources, mainly from the civilians. Many Soviet units have 10% casualties on frostbite even before the war. The Soviets painted their tanks with Olive Drab camo, and Soviet infantries use Khaki uniforms, their troops had finally issued the proper equipment in the late January 1940. This made Finnish Ski Troops to easily spot Soviet formations, while they were almost invicible with their white camouflage. This made the Soviets suffer heavy casualties, while the Finnish only suffered medium to low casualties. 

In battles from Ladoga Karelia all the way north to the Arctic port of Petsamo, the Finns used guerrilla tactics. The Red Army was superior in troops and material, but the Finns used their advantages in speed, tactics, and effectiveness. The Soviets had a habit to continually split up their forces to smaller units. This were used to the most by the Finns, their smaller units were attacked from all side by the fast and mobile Ski units. This made Soviet units to be encircled and isolated from other units. This pockets was called Motti by the Finns. Surviving inside the pockets were comparable with actual combat, as low temperature, poor medical supplies, constant fear, and poor sanitary made Soviet troops hard to even fulfill basic needs to survive. The Soviet troops had no choice, as refusing combat mean he would be shot, going to the forest mean frostbite, and surrender were no option, as Soviet propaganda had told troops in the front that Finnish troops would torture Soviet prisoners until death. 

The Red Army soldiers on the Isthmus numbered 250.000 facing 130.000 Finns. The Finnish command deployed a covering force of about 21,000 men in the area in front of the Mannerheim Line in order to delay and damage the Red Army before it reached the line. The Karelian Isthmus did not allow guerilla tactics, so the Finns resorted to more conventional tactics. 


Finnish Machine gun nest

The Red Army began its first major attack in Taipale. The Soviet forces launched an attack but were pushed back and the Red Army suffered heavy losses. One typical Soviet attack during the battle lasted just an hour but the casualties counted to 1.000 dead and 27 tanks stuck on the ice.

On the Ladoga Karelia front, The Soviets had a 3:1 advantage in manpower and a 5:1 advantage in artillery, as well as air supremacy. The Finns do not expect the Soviets to attack there, believing that the Soviet concentrated their attack on Mannerheim Line. The Ladoga Karelia front were guarded only with 2 divisions, out from the total 10 divisions deployed by the Finns. When Soviet commenced the atack, Finnish forces panicked and retreated from the overwhelming Soviet troops. On 7 December, Finnish units retreated to Kollaa. Alongside there were ridges up to 10 m high. The battle of Kollaa lasted until the end of the war.
On 12 December, the advancing Soviet 139th Rifle Division, supported by the 56th Rifle Division, was defeated by a much smaller Finnish force under Paavo Talvela in Tolvajärvi, the first Finnish victory of the war. 

In central and northern Finland, roads were few and the terrain hostile. But the Soviets sent eight divisions. The 155th Rifle Division attacked at Lieksa and the 44th attacked at Kuhmo. The 163rd Rifle Division was deployed at Suomussalmi and the objectives was cutting Finland in half, marching on Raate road to accomplish it. In Finnish Lapland, the Soviet 88th and 122nd Rifle Divisions attacked at Salla. The Arctic port of Petsamo was attacked by the 104th Mountain Rifle Division, supported by naval forces. 
The battle of Raate road, was one of the largest losses in the Winter War. The Soviet 44th and 163rd Rifle Divisions, consisting about 14.000 troops were almost completely wiped out by a Finnish ambush. A small unit blocked the Soviet advance while Finnish Colonel Hjalmar Siilasvuo and his 9th Division cut off the retreat route, split the enemy force into smaller units, then destroyed the remnants. The Soviets suffered 7.000–9.000 casualties, while the Finnish lost only 400 men. Also, the Finnish captured dozens of tanks, artillery pieces, anti-tank guns, hundreds of trucks, almost 2.000 horses, thousands of rifles, ammunition and medical supplies.

Joseph Stalin was not pleased with the war, the Soviet forces were humiliated. Kliment Voroshilov was replaced with Semyon Timoshenko as the commander of the Soviet forces in the war on 7 January. The main focus of the Soviet attack was switched to the Karelian Isthmus, the forces in other front were pulled back. Also Timoshenko employed new tactics and strategy against the Mannerheim Line, he would strike with armoured troops first, then infantry and other vehicles followed. He also greatly increased bombardment, to soften up defences and breaking the morale of Finnish defenders.

On 1 February, the Red Army began a massive offensive, firing 300,000 shells into the Finnish line in the first 24 hours of the bombardment.
Although the Soviets changed their tactics and morale improved, the generals were still willing to accept massive losses in order to reach their objectives. After 10 days of artillery barrages, the Soviets achieved a breakthrough in the western Karelian Isthmus. On 11 February, the Soviets had about 460.000 men, over 3.350 artillery pieces, about 3.000 tanks and about 1.300 aircraft deployed on the Karelian Isthmus. Finland had only 150.000 men. One by one the Mannerheim Line crumbled, and Finnish divisions retreated, except for Eastern Karelian, which holds out.

Finland then tried to open new negotiation with the Soviets. The Soviets rejected it, stating they were in good situation. But the situation had become an embarrassment for the Soviets, also with Western intervention and Spring season coming, the Soviets later agreed to negotiate with the Finnish delegation. 

The Western Allies wanted to help Finland, as France wanted to weaken German allies, and prefer a far and isolated battleground instead of French land itself. The British wanted to control Swedish and Norwegian ports, to block the iron ore supply to Germany. The British plan failed, as Norway and Sweden denied British permission for transit rights, because of German pressure. Germany sends ultimatum to Sweden, warning that if British troops ever landed in Sweden territory, Germany would act, and invades Sweden and Norway.

The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed on 12 March 1940 and went into effect the following day. Finland must cede Karelia and Salla, with Hanko peninsula leased to the Soviets. 11% of the territory and 30% of the economic assets of pre-war Finland, with 12% of its population were to be ceded to the Soviets. The Soviets gained more territory with all the first demand territories. 
But these territories were paid expensively, Soviets suffered 126.875–167.976 dead or missing, 188.671 wounded, 5.572 captured, 316 tanks, and 261–515 aircraft. The Finnish suffered 25.904 dead or missing, 43.557 wounded, 1.000 captured, 20–30 tanks, and 62 aircraft, far smaller than the Soviet casualties.
While Finland had to cede its territories, they still had their sovereignty. And later the war with Soviets erupted again, in the Continuation War.

Germany achieved political success, as Soviet were humiliated, with Western Allies failed with their plans. The Winter War assured Hitler that Soviets could be knocked down rather fast. Also as Finland still exist, Soviet was not a threat in the Scandinavia.

"... What General Weygand has called The Battle of France is over. The battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of a perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour"" - Winston Churchill.
The Battle of Britain, the first campaign in history to be fought entirely with aircraft, will be discussed in the next episode.

PS: I'm sorry for the very long delay in the 6th and 7th episodes Sorry!