Scenario Request: The Winter War

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Could someone make a Winter War scenario? If you need any sources just ask me and I can spot you a few.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

In order to make this more interesting, I'm going to add a summary of the war.

The Winter War 1938-1939

When the Germans and the Soviet Union signed the non-aggression pact in 1939 Dividing Eastern Europe and the Baltic area into parts where each country had an interest in. Finland was part of the Soviet Unions parts of interest.
The Finnish frontier bordered The Soviet Union’s. The city of Leningrad was merely 20 kilometers away from Finland. The Russians considered this a potential threat to their second largest city.(Doc. Werth pg.66) 1
The Soviets also asked the Finns for a naval base in the port of Hanko , so they could protect their interests in the Gulf of Finland. Finland and the Soviet Union negotiated for several months on this proposal. From the beginning of this proposal the Finns rejected the Soviets demand for a buffer zone between Finland and Leningrad. The Russians offered to give Finland a more substantial amount of territory for just a few dozen miles to separate Leningrad and Finland. The Finns were not pleased by Stalin’s offer and rejected it. By the end of November the Soviets
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Were upset on the stubborn Finns and launched a propaganda campaign, and they accused the Finnish government shooting over the border and shecking Russian towns “killing” several Russian soldiers. It was later found out that the Russians did the shecking.
The Soviet foreign minister known as Molotov sent a note to the Finnish ambassador in Moscow
Having refused to withdraw with their troops from the Soviet border by even twenty-five kilometers after the wicked shecking of Soviet troops by Finnish troops, the Government of Finland has shown that it continues to maintain a hostile attitude to the Soviet Union. Since it has violated the non-aggression pact…We now also consider ourselves free of the obligations arising from this pact.(Werth 67)2
Stalin responded to the Finnish “shecking” by invading Finland with around one million troops with airplane bombers and tanks. All Russians thought that Finland was going to be a pushover and that the war will be over in two weeks or less. Stalin couldn’t have been more wrong.
The next day Russia declared a new government for Finland called the “Terijoki government” which consisted of Finnish communists living in Moscow, and it would be the only government that the Russians wanted to negotiate with. Its second reason for the Terijoki government was to establish a more stable political situation in Finland. The Fins were Divided in right and left wind supports, but it didn’t work because the whole country rose up to oust the Soviet Union.
The Finns courageously defended their homeland even against overwhelming Soviet forces. The Soviets had a force of roughly one million troops, while the Finns had around two hundred and fifty thousand soldiers at their disposal. Finland had a better advantage over Russia in some points. The Finnish soldiers were better trained and had better knowledge of the surrounding area they were fighting in. The Finns were a lot better prepared for winter warfare also. They had ski troops and proper winter clothing unlike the Russians and were ingenious in making weapons.
“The Finnish soldier effectively used a new type of weapon against the Soviet tanks: A bottle filled with gasoline that had a rag stuffed inside that could be lit. The bottles were then thrown like grenades. These bombs became known as Molotov cocktails in honor of the Soviet foreign minister”(Bard, 74)3
As the temperatures dropped below -30 Celsius, some lubricants in artillery pieces or vehicles started to freeze, as did the fluid in the recoil system in some artillery pieces. In some artillery weapons the carriage failed in the cold, as the structure couldn't withstand the extreme cold and the stress of firing. Both sides also had problems with artillery shecks, as the fuses became unreliable increasing the number of duds. This affected Finland and Russia
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The advantages the Finns had made miracles for them in battle. The
Village of Kalastajasaarento was being guarded by a force thirty-five Finnish troops. That day a force of two thousand Soviet troops assaulted the town. The battle raged on and by the end of the day 14 Finns lie dead and over 450 Russians were killed and retreated from the Finnish troops. A Finnish Sniper by the name of Simo Hayha tallied five hundred and five kills with his rifle, even more amazing was he never used a scope on his rifle and the war only lasted 105 days. Another Sniper, Sima Kallya killed over four hundred Russians during the war. The Finns used guerilla tactics often going in groups of 12 with their skis they searched for a platoon of Russians huddling by a fire because the nights often went to twenty below zero and sprayed them with sub machine gun fire, any wound in that weather was always fatal. A Finnish soldier said, “I like fighting Russians, They fight standing up” and “Our frozen lakes are filled with dead Russians”. Stalin sent his troops into Finland without proper equipment, they had no winter uniforms or winter clothing, and this most defiantly contributed to Russian loses during the winter war.  Despite these horrible losses for the Soviet Union, The Russian foreign minister Molotov led one hundred Russians behind the lines and captured a town. The Russians were outnumbered but fought on and captured 400 Finnish troops. Before the winter war started, Finland’s Commander-in-Chief Marshal Mannerheim had set up a series of fortifications, bunkers and
Pillboxes in order to defend the Karelian Isthmus against Russia in 1918. This was called the Mannerheim Line. When the Russians went up against this line they found it very difficult to get by it. Many fortifications were camouflaged and finding them was almost as difficult as destroying them. Another series of forts was the “Enkle Line” Which was made just before the winter war commenced. Many of these bunkers had multiple machines
Guns, which the Russians lacked automatic weapons. The forts were usually stationed around Finnish towns or important pieces of land.
By the end of December the Finns were putting up a stiff and successful resistance to the Russian onslaught. This was making Stalin frustrated and thusly he had some of his top commanders executed for their failure in Finland. So the Russians organized a massive offensive in February The Soviet major attack started in the beginning of February -40. The emphasis was in the Karelian Isthmus, in Summa, where 9 Soviet divisions and 5 tank brigades supported with 1,200 guns attacked against the Finnish 3rd division in the Mannerheim-line. Finnish troops kept their positions for three days but were then ordered to retreat to the next defense line. The battle in Summa was one of the main battles in the Winter War. The withdraw of the Finnish troops from their best built defensive line forced Finns to continue defending from temporarily and not so well-built bases. The Soviet divisions continued to attack against Finnish lines. After ten days of heavy fighting, Finns had to withdraw from their positions and move to the last defense line.

The situation got worse when 6 Soviet divisions attacked over the Viipuri Bay and tried to surround the Finnish troops defending the city of Viipuri. However, Finns managed to keep their positions in Karelian Isthmus till the end of war.(Bard pg. 78)4
The February offensive gradually wore down the small Finnish army. In 1940 Finland called upon the League of Nations for help. Britain and France offered one hundred thousand troops to aid Finland, In order to get to Finland they would need to get a passageway through Sweden. The Swedish delegates denied the British and French passage to Finland.
In the beginning, Soviet Union refused to negotiate with any other government than the Terijoki Government. When the Red Army's advance was much slower than expected, they finally agreed to negotiate with the legal Finnish government. The negotiations started in the beginning of February 1940.
Soviet Union's demands were whole Karelia area, including the Isthmus and the land areas northeast from Laatokka, plus a military base to the cape of Hanko. Because of these unexpected large demands Finland asked military assist from Sweden and a passage for the possible army forces from Western Allied countries. Sweden denied both of.(geocities.com1)5
When Allied countries were not promising any help either, the Finnish government sent a delegation to Moscow to negotiate for peace. Finland was still planning to receive help from the Allies. Due to the February offensive the Russians were
Finally making progress in Finland, but the progress was still slow. The Soviet Union was cutting off supplies to Finland during the war. Without western aid the Finns were running out of ammunition for their weapons and the war is looking dimmer for Finland. Once again Finland asks Sweden to let British and French troops pass by, the vote was unanimous, no.
Full-Scale operations were only re-started on February 28. As the Russians approached Viipuri, they met another major obstacle-the flooding of large areas by the Finns-But they finally reached the Viipuri-Helsinki highway. By now the resistance of the Finnish Army had, in the main, been broken. On March 4, Mannerheim informed the Finnish Government that the Army could no longer resist successfully. The Finnish-Soviet peace treaty was signed on March 12, 1940.(Werth pg 75)6
The peace treaty went very hard on Finland, when the prime minister of Finland was handed the demands of the Russians he said, “This is the worst piece of paper I have ever signed” The demands were as follows:
The new SE border will follow in principle the border of "Peter the Great" drawn in 1721, where the entire Karelian isthmus with the city of Viipuri, the whole of Viipuri Bay with its islands, as well as the territory west and north of Lake Ladoga with the cities of Käkisalmi and Sortavala, are ceded.
A part of the area near Salla and Kuusamo are ceded, due to the closeness of the Murmansk railroad
In Kalastajasaarento (the island NE of Petsamo, Rybachi Peninsula in English), the western part of the island is ceded
The Finnish islands in the eastern part of Gulf of Finland are ceded (Suursaari and the islands to the east)
Hanko and the surrounding area is for 30 years (the Soviet Union gets the right to establish a military base, with as much armed forces as deemed necessary) (http://winterwar.com)7
There were other additional demands that the Soviet Union ordered. Finland is to build a railroad to the towns of Salla to Kemijarvi. The Soviet Union citizens get the right to go through Finnish towns to get to Norway. Finland’s navy is restricted, a trade agreement is setup between the two countries, and both countries agree not to attack each other. To the Finnish public, the hard peace terms came as a shock. Feelings ranged between utter disbelief to rage against the aggressor. While Finland had gained major victories against the Soviet forces
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invading Finland, in northern Finland and Ladoga Karelia, and the Soviet losses in the Isthmus had been massive, the public was unaware of how close the Finnish Army was from exhaustion and running out of ammunition. Nearly all had believed, that if the peace would come, the new border would run along the line that was held stubbornly in the last days. In the ceded territories where Finnish civilians lived the Soviet Union gave them a choice on weather to stay with the Soviet Union or move back to Finland. Nearly all moved to Finland
The treaty also hurt Finland economically, the grain exports had dropped severely and also agriculture dropped. Many were left homeless, and its electricity output was damaged. Sadly Finland turned out to make some of the worst mistakes in World War 2. After the winter war they allied themselves with Germany to have them retake the land that was taken from them by the Soviets. When Finland was allied with Germany the allies declared war against Finland. The Germans retook the land for Finland and began fighting the Germans that remained in Finland near the end of the war. This was called the Lapland War, but Finland had to suffer the consequences after the war in choosing to ally with Hitler, and not allowed to join the League of Nations.
Even though the treaty was harsh to the Finns it was not as bad as becoming a Soviet satellite under their communist bloc. Through the cold war Finland was the only eastern European nation to remain sovereign. Hitler watched closely as the poorly equipped and undermanned Finnish army was mauling his partner in the nazi-soviet pact. Hitler would seriously underestimate the Red Army’s resolve for revenge on Germany. The Soviets had learned from the winter war on how to conduct winter warfare much better. So when Hitler invaded Russia, the reds were prepared to deal with the cold, unlike the Germans. By the wars end the Soviet Unions losses have ranged from two hundred thousand to five hundred thousand, compared to the twenty five thousand Finns who died. For each Finn that was killed in action, forty Russians were killed, that was how bad the combat ratio was in the winter war. Even
Though the Swedes denied the British and French transport to Finland, many countries provided Finland with financial assistance. The United States gave Finland thirty million dollars. The British and French sent large amounts of arms, ammunition, planes, grenades, and volunteers to Finland, but their efforts were in vain.

James Pistell
April 4, 2002
Bishop Grimes
Global 10-3
The Winter War
Note: this summary was NOT written by me, but it has been proof read for content

My grandad fought at Kalastajasaarento, and various other places
My grandmom worked at a factory which produced Molotov Cocktails

[Andemagne]

well, little different from what I usually hear about winter war.
first, the war was fought during winter 1939 - 40.
second, story is LITTLE bit too pro russian.
third, about the mistake of allying with germany,
I don't see it as a mistake.
fourth, in continuation war finnish troops not german
retook the lands lost in winter war, and in general
finnish troops fought better than german troops
stationed in finnish lappland.
but mainly ok story.

And Lawrence: do you have Finnish relatives?

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Easy there, Andemagne.

(1) Ya you're right bout the dates. I wrote it wrong in the title, but in the summary it's correct.
(2) Show that it is too pro Russian
(3) Seriously, we arn't here to give opinions.
(4) Don't know for sure about Finns retaking their own land. I'm gonna have to check it out.

And Andemagne: I do have Finnish relatives.

[Andemagne]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
(3) Seriously, we arn't here to give opinions.
(4) Don't know for sure about Finns retaking their own land. I'm gonna have to check it out.

(3) well it was only way to survive, at least something like
that they teach children in school.

(4) german troops in finnland were stationed in Lappland,
(thus Lappland War in the end)
border with russia north from level of Oulu were held by german
troops, the rest of the border were held by finnish troops,
and Finnish troops did the most of the fighting during the
continuation war and were more succesful then german troops.
and IIRC there we only one Division of Alpine Troops that
came from germany (you don't fight a war against Soviet Union
with that).

[Lawrence of Arabia]

(3) Things that they teach children in school arnt always correct. During ww2, kids were taught all sorts of things which were wrong. (eg hitler is a decendant of Frederick the Great, Jews are subhuman etc.)

But

I do agree with you about it was the only way to get revenge and survive.

How bout point (2)?