Winter War: Soviet Invasion of Finland in WWII
Vložit
- čas přidán 31. 01. 2022
- Go to curiositystream.thld.co/Warog... and use code WAROGRAPHICS to save 25% off today, that’s only $14.99 a year. Thanks to Curiosity Stream for sponsoring today’s video
→ Subscribe for new videos at least twice a week!
czcams.com/users/biographics...
This video is sponsored by Curiosity Stream.
Love content? Check out Simon's other CZcams Channels:
Biographics: / @biographics
Geographics: / @geographicstravel
MegaProjects: / @megaprojects9649
SideProjects: / @sideprojects
Casual Criminalist: / @thecasualcriminalist
TopTenz: / toptenznet
Today I Found Out: / todayifoundout
Highlight History: / @highlighthistory
XPLRD: / @xplrd
Business Blaze: / @brainblaze6526
Simon's Social Media:
Twitter: / simonwhistler
Instagram: / simonwhistler
Go to curiositystream.thld.co/Warographics_0122 and use code WAROGRAPHICS to save 25% off today, that’s only $14.99 a year. Thanks to Curiosity Stream for sponsoring today’s video
fins had a saying that went something like this "they are so many and we are so small, where will we find room to bury them all?"
One of the most famous Volunteer fighters was Sir Christopher Lee (Dracula, Scaramanga, Saruman).
continuation war video when
Finns had more ammunition, guns, artillery, tanks and even planes AFTER the war than before it. Finns were able to capture so much of Soviet equipment during Winter War.
Fun fact, when I did my military service in -92 and -93, we used Russian TNT to create demolition charges. 😂💥
@@rasmusalmqvist5960 lol
On November 30, 1939, the Finnish army was armed with 294 76-mm guns, for which there were 206,000 shells, i.e. about 700 rounds per gun. During the war, the Finns themselves produced 247,000 76-mm shells, and received another 42,500 as military aid from the British. However, by the end of the war, *81,000 76-mm shells* remained for 326 guns at the disposal of the Finnish field artillery. That's 248 rounds per barrel.
On 30.11.39 they had twelve 75-mm guns. They were delivered from Sweden, along with 10,000 shells, literally in October. During the war, the Finns were given or sold another 116 75-mm field guns, of which 80 managed to get into the troops before the signing of peace. However, Finland did not have its own production of these shells, since the Finns simply did not have 75-mm artillery before the war (with the exception of the 12 guns mentioned above). Thus, units equipped with 75-mm guns were entirely dependent on supplies from abroad. Sympathizers, we must give them their due, during the war "drove" the Finns 168 thousand 75-mm shells for field artillery, of which 48,800 remained by March 13, and after the end of the fighting during March, another 91,000 shells arrived. Consumption amounted to 129,000 or 1400 shells per barrel (13 shells per day).
But on the other hand, the intensity of hostilities increased sharply in March, as a result, a sharp increase in ammunition consumption should have occurred. Which, in fact, happened. If in January light field artillery (the same 75-76-mm) used up 77,000 shells, then in February it was already 128,900, and in 13 days of March 85,800, or 16 shells per day. Thus, ammunition consumption in March could reach 200-210 thousand shells (and judging by the steady upward trend in consumption, even more). And this is only 40,000 less than what the Finnish industry was able to produce in 3.5 months of the war. In other words, the Finnish light field artillery would have "eaten up" the rest of the ammunition already available by the end of March, their own production (2350 76-mm shells per day) would have allowed the 76-mm guns to "stretch" for another 9 days. From abroad in March, after the end of the war, the Finns received 17,500 76-mm shells. And that would give a maximum of three more days.
In large part it was due to supply from other countries during the war and after that
@@user-yj8vj3sq6j No it was in fact the careless push of Soviet convoys that got overwhelmed which supplied the Finnish troops with all kinds of weapons. Just read up on the motti tactics that took out whole divisions.
I have no Finnish heritage, but I have so much respect for Finns. Humble, weirdly funny, amazing drivers.
Thank you for the kind words. Much appreciated 🙂
@@mantelikukkapenkki2368 my summer car
Interesting you mentioned that thing of being weirdly funny. My experience with Finn's has always been as tourists, and of all the tourists from that part of the world, I always found Finns to have the funniest humor and be the nicest drinkers. And boy, do they drink
@@LuisLopez2 you must be a bartender. I wonder if they have, genetically, larger livers, or they just decided to handle their sht as a country!
@@jeffersonott4357 I think it's because it gets so dark there in the winter that there isn't much to do except drink lol
The Winter War has to be one of the most impressive David vs Goliath performances in history from the Finns. What they did with minimal resources is so impressive.
That Goliath had too many achilles heels the finns🇫🇮 ruthlessly exploited. And was so hopelessly unprepared for the much greater threat of impending Nazi invasion in The Battle of Stalingrad
According to Grigorenko Heydrich was the brains behind the 1937 purges via SS contacts with the NKVD.
@@eaphantom9214 Don't forget the Finns also had the Norwegians as backup
@@Tob1Kadach1 Yes and swedes too?
I am British born of Swedish🇸🇪 descent 😁
@@eaphantom9214 Swedes formed the biggest group of volunteers as Sweden didn't give any official aid, there were some Norwegians, Brits, including one Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, yes, Saruman/Dooku, and suprisingly, some actual Americans
The official Soviet and Russian history + school books always talk about the great patriotic war, etc. etc. and forget how cowardly they made a deal with Hitler in 1939 and then attacked to Eastern Poland, the Baltic countries and Finland. The League of Nations (the predecessor of the UN) even expelled the Soviet Union after they invaded Finland. It seems that nothing has changed in Russia to this day. Still occupying and threatening small neighboring countries.
They tried to get the UK on board against Hitler before that… and what about Chamberlain, or the US not getting involved for years?
Facts are facts: the USSR did more fighting *soldiers* and dying by an order of magnitude, whereas the US and UK deliberately killed millions of civilians…
And what about the spineless generations-long effort to “smother socialism in its crib,” or the fact that the Brits took pride in having colonies all over the world? Do you think that British or American histories of imperialist domination were bloodless and benevolent?
Seems like most countries are happy with mythic accounts of themselves… nationalism is poisonous…
@@adamhbrennan what you said is very true but dont forget the Russian brutality of the countries they invaded. Women and children who would cross their paths were equally raped, tortured, and murdered while the officers looked away and the commissars actively promoted that behaviour. A war crime is a war crime, doesnt matter if it's the US or russia.
@@NowLoading247 agreed, my main point is that the original comment is overly harsh and is participating in the nationalistic historical revisionism it condemns
@@NowLoading247 another fanatic of the myth about "two million raped German women."
Of all major WW2 participants, it seems that (much of) contemporary Japan is worst at overlooking/ignoring their epic brutality in the war and seeing themselves as the victim; China, Korea, and others have not forgotten…
Finland pulled off something amazing, truly a david vs goliath struggle and one where david got wounded, but goliath got absolutely fucked, the story behind it and Mannerheim as a person is amazing
Three cardinals rules of war:
-Don't Start a land war in asia
-Don't invade Russia in the winter
-Don't mess with the Finns
most Russian invasions didn't even happen in the winter
@@kutuzovm3215 no but they dragged on till the winter and that was the mistake, much like the land war in Asia thing where most countries don't think they did untill it becomes clear they effectively sid
Agreed. If this great video has a single weak point it's that it didn't say anything about Mannerheim, a skilled but humble military leader for the ages (maybe a Biographics episode huh Simon, wink wink, nudge nudge, hint hint?) The irony is that he served for most of a career in the army of the Russian Empire in service to the Czar, and usually spoke Russian rather than Finnish, a language he had to re-learn once in command. But when his country freed itself of the Russian yoke after WW1 Mannerheim went home and humbly served his country with great distinction. To anyone who has studied the Winter War at all, it goes without saying that the Finn soldiers outfought their Russian enemy many times over. But it's also true that with Mannerheim at the helm, Finland out-generaled the Russians to a huge degree. There wasn't a single Russian/Soviet leader with even a tenth of the talent of Carl Gustaf Mannerheim. The only reason the Russians were able to accomplish anything at all is because they had more stuff and more people. Even if most of their poorly led and trained soldiers went into the Finnish meatgrinder they always had more walking meat to throw against the Finns and ultimately the weight of numbers won out.
That same calculus doesn't seem to be working today against Ukraine. If Finland in 1939 had the materiel assistance from friendly nations that Ukraine is getting today, the Soviets would have been forced into a humiliating and permanent retreat. It's worth noting that after the Winter War, every single Soviet leader pursued the policy of leaving the Finns the hell alone. Something that Putin better do some long thinking on and STFU with his threats against Finland.
@@josephledux8598 one minor correction: Mannerheim spoke swedish as his mother tongue, he never learnt finnish very well.
@@kutuzovm3215 Yeah, but they tried even during summer. and failed.
During Winter War Germany blocked weapon shipments from other European countries to Finland. Luckily Finland had nice neighbours like Sweden and Soviet Union, which both provided lots of weapons and equipment.
I see what you did there. :D
Hahahaha
Finland fought against Soviet Union, so the S.U. didn't provide us with weapons or equipment to do better against them. The only way for us to get Soviet weapons was to take them from dead soldiers.
@@kipalampinen8460 You must be fun at parties 🙃
@@radeee87 i don't think so. No one never calls me...
"Only Finland-superb, nay, sublime-in the jaws of peril-Finland shows what free men can do."
-Winston Churchill, January 1940
Britain declared war on Finland, Hungary and Romania on 5 December 1941. And then they touht we are the bad guys.
@@annoyedchef7124 Britain absolutely did not declare war on Finland at any time.
@@ashleydixon4613 England most definitely declared war because Soviet union pressured to.
@@annoyedchef7124 OK never mind, don’t bother to look it up, much less just listen to me or the other person who corrected your statement, saying the same thing. The Soviet Union tried to get Britain to declare war on Finland, but they didn’t.
(Btw, I’m 99% sure just by looking at their name-Markku Klemelä-that the other commenter is Finnish. So I’m willing to bet they know considerably more about the situation than you do.
I’m just an Arkansan, someone who is not only a history buff, but knows significantly more about Finland than the average American, thanks to my now-deceased Finnish grandmother in-law.
Of course that doesn’t make me an expert on the Winter War or WWII, but I do know enough to know Britain did not declare war on Finland. Period.
@@ashleydixon4613 Finn here. Britain did declare war on Finland in 1941 because of Soviet pressure. They sent small raid to northern Finland, but basically only got their own men and airplanes destroyed.
Simo is an inspiration. His quote was so touching and the fact he was just a man on his land living a peaceful life after the war is even better. The Finns from my experience are exceptional people, few of words and love their nature and peace. Maybe why I am now engaged to one. Never get tired of hiss story.
My favourite bit is how his story ended. Moose hunting and dog breeding in his country home. Sounds pretty great to me 🙌
Watch the Finnish made film 'The Winter War'. It's four and a half hours long, but what a film. Doesn't skip around like most war films and shows you what life was like for the Finnish soldiers in the trenches. Amazing film.
Kudos to Simo Hahya for being an absolute (silent) beast out there in the field of war. Total badass.
Yeah... When Simo greets you you see the muzzle flash but only your friends hear the shot ring out in the snowy hills...
Finland also had two superior fighting pilots: Ilmari "illu" Juutilainen and Jorma "Zamba" Sarvanto, who both set records on air combat. Sarvanto flew 251 military flights. He shot down six Soviet bombers just in four minutes. Juutilainen achieved 94 air victories during the wars.
@@kipalampinen8460 the highest scoring Aces in WW2, save for the Germans, I might add.
@@bige2220 but the Germans didn't fly in Winter war in 38°C frost. Some days were even colder than that. aircraft maintanence was also impossible, but Finnish mechanics made impossible possible at nights, in that frost outdoors, in the light of blue lights alone.
You should do one about the continuation war, where another absolute legend fought against the russians: Lauri Törni. You've already made a video about him, one of my favorites. But also you should definitely do a video about Carl Gustaf Mannerheim. The man who truly saved Finland, a man who had to choose the lesser evil between Hitler and Stalin, eventually he met Hitler privately, and Mannerheim was told by one of the nazi Officers that he couldn't smoke during the meeting, because Hitler didn't like it very much. Well Mr Mannerheim was not taking any of that bs, and so when he met with Hitler: Carl just casually lit up a cigarrtte/cigar while keeping eye contact with Hitler. Who was visibly uncomfortable. Just to prove a point: shaking hands with the devil was a necessary gamble, an attemp to scare off russians. Hitler had no intrest in Finland.
When Mannerheim heard Hitler is visiting Finland he said what the heck is he doing here?
STARTED OUT AS A RESERVE
It should also be pointed out that the Finns had no fascist leanings or motivation and they did not serve the Axis cause in battles outside of their area. For them the alliance with Hitler was strictly one of convenience that allowed them to push back against the Soviets. They did NOT fight in furtherance of any of Hitler's demented obsessions with Jews and Slavs and others he considered less than human. Their fight was against the USSR only.
One more thing that may give people a false impression is the fact that Finnish warplanes had swastika insignia on them. This predated the Nazi use of the swastika as a symbol. In fact the swastika and other similar symbols are ancient in human culture going back to ancient India and probably predate any written language. Until Hitler and his verminous followers began using the swastika there was nothing negative or odious about the symbol at all. And the Finns quit using the symbol after Hitler ruined it for everyone.
It's just that Mannerheim had some flaws and today's finns mostly respect him as the leader for the war keeping independence, but don't idolize him.
@@josephledux8598 Finnish air force still uses the symbol to some extent, although it is being fazed out
It's amazing how the Soviet Union is repeating past mistakes today.
Just Russia now.
I was just going to say I can certainly see parallels between this and what happening with Russia and Ukraine today
@@teethgrinder83 if you aren't subscribed, watch the Chechnya video. It's another carbon copy...
If it weren't for superior numbers, I don't think that the Russians are actually very good at 'war'.
@@williamjordan5554 there are More than couple russian army tanks in ukraine flying big soviet flag. Russia is russia only by name, its The same soviet union that it always was
@@anttitheinternetguy3213 It behaves like the USSR, but the differences are vast: government, population, business practices, virtual control over Poland, East Germany, former Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, etc.
The Finnish sniper needs his own Biographics video.
true
Had to look it up on Biographics' page and was actually pretty surprised Simon hadn't done one already.
@@jamesbernadette6216, I'm still waiting for the Biographics that elaborates on Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire."
There is one from a band called Sabaton. The sing a lot about military history. They have a song called White Death. On their channel Sabaton history they have a biography about him
I think he needs his own movie!
As you can see from the photo 7:05, Molotov Cocktail did not have a rag as a fuse. It was a sealed bottle with alcohol and tar as liquid. That made the weapon burn at high temperature, and tar made the fire stick everywhere and was hard to put out. This way throwing the bottle into tank air intake, that very often starved the engines due to lack of oxygen.
As a fuse, Finns used storm matches wired to the side of the bottle. That made the bottle very safe to use, and also easy. With a rag, you have to light it and throw it almost immediately to avoid the bottle burn in your hands and you can not back down after the rag has been lit. You also were exposed to enemy fire by doing that, and using this at night was also very visible.
With sealed bottle and storm match, you can light the bottle far away from the point of attack, wait for the right time, be almost invisible at nights too. And if there was no chance to throw the bottle, no problems. You just let the match burn away and try again, as the bottle had two matches which burned for about one minute. You were also able to crawl with the bottle without danger of spilling the flammable liquid and accidently burn yourself to death.
Yep, the Finns may not have invented this incendiary weapon, used initially in the Spanish Civil War, however the Finns indeed perfected it and gave it its world-renowned name, almost everyone knows what a Molotov Cocktail is, my job is to make sure everyone knows why it is named that!
You know your invasion is going to be hell when the Finnish line is your starting point!
Sabaton certainly chose well when they wrote about the White Death. Even though I've heard the story before on their history channel, it's still astounding to hear some of those numbers again and what he did to make himself so effective.
Simon would have his work cut out if he goes through Sabatons entire discography. Also have the added bonus of listening to a band that contains more high class metal than the Bismarck.
STARTED OUT AS A RESERVE
@@stephenscribbles Thats a line from the Sabaton's "Soldier of Three Armies", I believe, which is about Lauri Torni(Larry Thorne) another Finnish badass!!!
2:50 - Chapter 1 - Diplomacy
5:25 - Chapter 2 - The invasion
9:35 - Chapter 3 - White death
14:25 - Chapter 4 - Soviet reinforcements
17:10 - Chapter 5 - The aftermath
- Chapter 6 -
?
Thanks ig
"2:50 - Chapter 1 - Diplomacy"
The soviets had actually offered much more land in return and it was not some "worthless land". Finland tried multiple times to annex that land in 1918-1922, even after the two countries signed a treaty of Tartu in 1920.
"Chapter 2 - The invasion"
A propaganda myth about Molotov's bread baskets. Molotov never said anything like that.
7:47 No Soviet divisions were eliminated on December 12, 1939.
"Chapter 3 - White death"
One of the 'greatest' Finnish myths. While there is no doubt that Simo was a good sharpshooter, there are no documents the combat logs that would confirm his 'kills'.
Simo Hayha had to kill every fourth or fifth of the fallen fighters and commanders of the 56th SD, or in fact become the only one who killed the enemies in his 2nd Battalion of the 34th Infantry regiment.
There was no reports of enemy sniper fire in the combat logs of the 213th infantry regiment, nor the first or second battalions of the 183 infantry regiment that were positioned against the 2nd Battalion of the 34th Infantry regiment were Simo served.
At the same time, in the same reports, artillery fire, mortars and machine guns, gunfights and other enemy activity are regularly mentioned.
There is actually no mention of him in the combat log of his 2nd battalion, which is very strange, and the log of the 6th company either has not been preserved, or for some reason has not been digitized, but researchers, including Finnish ones, have not use. It is unlikely that a sniper who kills 25 enemy soldiers per day is such an ordinary occurrence for a battalion commander that it is not worth mentioning.
"Chapter 4 - Soviet reinforcements"
14:33 " 400 vs 6000 casualties"
i assume that's the Battle of Suomussalmi and these figures are complete nonsense. Even in wiki you could find that the Finns lost 858 soldiers killed and they are listed by the name at heninen /dot/ net, with 2700 total losses.
The Soviet losses were: KIA: 3,735 Prisoner of war: 1,800 Wounded: 3,738
18:04 "...over 150,000 deaths..." Really? Why not a million.
*A really crappy video.*
Thanks for making the video! Even though we lost the war, we Finns always talk of it as if we won. We get to keep our independence and that was a very big win when it came to Soviet Russia.
Oh you won alright. Ask Czechoslovakia or Hungary about the danger of getting swept into the Soviet orbit. Stalin would have done it to you too if you'd let him.
You didn't let him. You won.
Would love to see a warographics about Finland in the Continuation War!
Same!!
Yea it usually gets overshadowed by winter war and is often just a side note of presentations covering operation Barbarossa.
On 6 January 1940 Finnish fighter pilot Jorma Sarvanto engaged alone in an air fight with a group of seven Soviet Ilyushin DB-3s. In the ensuing encounter, Sarvanto managed to shoot down six of the enemy aircraft in quick sequence of just four minutes - a world record time. He was flying an obsolete Fokker D XXI fighter plane, with troubles to catch up with Soviet bombers and to inflict efficent damage with just rifle caliber machine guns of his plane. In fact the last Soviet bomber got away as Sarvanto was out ammo. Another Finnish fighter pilot shot down the last Soviet plane. So none of them returned to their base. And by the way, it’s not Vyborg (the Soviet name variant), but Viipuri (the Finnish name variant) which should be used as the name of the second largest city of Finland at the time of the Winter war.
7:00 The Molotov cocktails Finns used didn't use a rag for ignition but rather two storm matches taped to the side of the bottle.
When the trees start speaking Finnish, you're about to have a bad day. Especially when Simo is around
Rise, nations pride
Hold whats yours
Strike'em where it hurts
That sniper was beyond bad ass. This another one of those “Never underestimate your enemy.”
A False Flag attack on a border region of Russia ? Excellent timing Simon 🤨
"Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it"
Sadly, it seems like those who learn history only repeat it in another form. Like all the anti-fascism becoming like fascist, anti-nazism becoming similar unempathetic actor, a leader idolizing soviet russia repeating it.
I was just thinking that this sounds way too familiar.
except history doesn't repeat other than on the most surface level.... (like if you're shot, you bleed/die. yes that didn't change.)
everyone who uses this quote unironically 100% do not know neither the history nor the present time events outside the surface level.
Technology changes, geography change, politics change, societies change, economies change, everything fucking changes, and if you''d look into it in depth, you realize there's more to it than "not repeating history".
@@dr_birb Russia invades a sovereign nation without a battle plan are are halted by poor leadership, lack of proper equipment/clothing and an organised defence being supplied with western weapons. Which war am I describing?
@@w-james9277 Russia-Ukraine war. There was no Russia in ww2, so yeah.
See, that's what I mean. Shallow, superficial, generalized descriptors. Never mind the countless differences. "If I point out only the similarities, they are practically the same!"
You're like "I watched documentaries on Winter War, I'd know better than to send ill-equipped soldiers in the winter to storm the whole country"
And I'm like THAT'S FUCKING OBVIOUS BRO, without food you starve, didn't need history book to know that.
But when it comes to a war between two fucking complex entities that countries are, where the leader is not a fucking god like in Civilization or other game, there's no such thing as "press this button to research mittens for soldiers upgrade" for fucks sake.
My point is simple, if you're going to objectively analyze and think logically, you can achieve your goal.
Binding yourself to history is nothing but wrong, because in each second you're making the history.
Like, if you learn that 2+2=4 just by remembering that, without learning addition, then you'll get fucked when there comes 2+3.
And what I'm saying is right 100% objectively BECAUSE THE PAST ABIDES BY SAME LOGIC AS PRESENT PAST IN THE PAST WAS PRESENT.
Sure, commanders/generals propably learn about strategies and tactics with and the history around them. To understand what environment made them work/not work.
But history won't tell you how to fix core deep corruption in your military where people responsible for storage depo sell parts of their massive stock cus noone bothers to check thoroughly.
Another example to make you understand my point is, if there was corruption in history, why won't we just read history and eliminate it for good?
16 shots in under a minute from a bolt action rifle... so he had to manually pull the slide each time as well as reload the magazine 3 times.. and still hit the target with every shot. That's just insane
There are plenty of videos in youtube called "simo hayha challenge", so many have tried and almost every one has failed.
@@WhatisthisstupidfinghandleNot by him self but i think there was around 40-50 finns against 4000 russians but Simo and his brothers in arms held their ground
I know that the Finnish Mosin Nagant rifles were somewhat modified compared to the run-of-the-mill variants of the era... but it's still a rear-locking bolt action rifle that doesn't have a free floating barrel. This means that it shifts it's zero as it heats up. Especially if it heats up quickly, as the uneven expansion between the steel and the wood exacerbates the issue .... Simo knew his rifle extraordinarily well...
@@andersjjensen He didn't even have the best and final version of the Finnish Mosin Nagant which makes it even more impressive.
@@mantelikukkapenkki2368
>i think there was around 40-50 finns against 4000 russians
think again, lol. There was one Finnish battalion against Soviet regiment
Well perkele, how did I only now hear about this channel? Great video, greetings from Finland. ✌🏼
“History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes” - Mark Twain.
Putin's Russia could learn a thing or two from they're own history
6:40
Finland: its over Russia. I have the high ground
Russia: you underestimate my power
While he's been a footnote here, I'd love to see a biographics video on CGE Mannerheim. A swedish speaking noble descended from German nobility, a cavalry and intelligence officer of imperial russia, then one of the founding fathers of Finland, serving as regent, then commander in chief, and finally president of the country. He was the commander of Finnish forces during the Winter War. Really intriguing guy, who stands completely apart from other Axis leaders during WW2.
Very true, except that he was not descended from the German nobility.
Henrik (Hinrich) Marhein (b. 1618) was a Hansa merchant. He traded in Gävle, Sweden and died in Stockholm in 1667. His son Augustin Marhein did well in life in Sweden and was ennobled 1693 with the name Mannerheim.
@@timoterava7108 ah, my bad, thanks for the correction!
Proud to have a little Finnish heritage 🇮🇪 🇫🇮.
Sauna, Sisu and Perkele 🙂
Irish-finn... what a combo! Cheers dude
Just a note hat at ~18:30 you mention weapons and airplanes from Sweden (and other countries) and volunteer fighters from Norway and Denmark. Maybe it's implied that it included also Swedish fighters - but to me it was unclear. Just wanted to highlight the almost 10 000 volunteer fighters from Sweden that also participated in the war.
Great video, as always. You forgot to mention the biggest badass in Finland back then: the commander-in-chief who organized the defense - Carl Gustaf Mannerheim.
Great program but it should have mentioned this: It is sometimes said that Finland lost the Winter War because Stalin got more than the territories he had demanded. That is only one point of view.
However, this is also true: "On 1 December 1939, the Soviet Union formed a puppet government, called the Finnish Democratic Republic and headed by Finnish Communist Otto Wille Kuusinen, in the parts of Finnish Karelia occupied by the Soviets." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War#Start_of_the_invasion_and_political_operations
If the goal was NOT to conquer the whole territory of Finland, then why a puppet government? The puppet government coincides the Soviet declaration, where "the Red Army marches to Finland to liberate it from the oppressing bourgeois government". So, quite evidently the purpose was to take whole Finland. The Soviet troops even had an order not to cross the Swedish border.
People also don't understand Soviet Union. Stalin didn't just want land and be done with it. It was his way of trying to get through the natural and built defenses on Karelian Isthmus without firing a shot. Luckily it failed.
The administration led by Kuusinen based at Terijoki was recognised by the Soviet Union as the legitimate representative of the Finnish nation, from which the Eduskunta in Helsinki realised that it had no option but to defend its territory to the utmost. This is why the Finnish armed forces fought with such courage, dedication and sisu despite the odds. They earned their respect the hard way, and they are an example to follow.
The worst thing the Finns could have done in 1939 would have been to show Stalin that his threats would bring results. There would have been no end of it until what used to be Finland was a puppet controlled by Stalin. One thing that the Finns clearly understood is that any negotiation with a bully must start with punching the bully in the fucking face. Even if Finland lost the Winter War and some precious territory they won the future. Never again did some Soviet leader make the mistake of trying to take a piece of Finland. Probably from then on just saying "Finland" around any Soviet leader probably caused him to get a migraine.
This is the exact video I've been waiting for! Thank you! I'd love to hear more about continuation war and Finland's early history. It's so hard to find it in detail
My mother still remembers the bomb shelters in Helsinki. Both of my grandfathers fought in the Winter War and the more unsuccesful Continuation War.
18:40 or so;
There were volunteers from America fighting for Finland, as well as volunteer American pilots. The USA also sent an army unit to Finland. They ended up being stuck there when the rest of WW2 kicked off. Their story might make either a good Bio-Graphic or a good War-O-Graphic video...
Thank you for the video. My great grandfather fought in the winter and the continuation war where he was wounded when granade shrapnel took his eye. He lived to be over 90. Winter war is a major part of Finlands cultural heritage and we will never forget the heroes who sacrificed their lives for our nation. I applaud you for telling the story onwards for your audience.
18:35 you musn't forget the volounteers from Sweden. After all, with over 8000 men it was the largest number of foreign volounteers in the war, and thousands more had signed up but didn't get shipped of to Finland. It just felt wrong hearing you say they got volounteer help from just Norway and Denmark :P
The Man who led the Finnish Army, Carl Gustafson Mannerheim, knew the Russians VERY well. He had served in the Russian Army, he was actually a part of the coronation of Czar Nicholas II.
So he knew exactly how to fight the Red Army.
Also he was so badass that he could get away with smoking right in front of Adolf Hitler (Hitler hated smoking normally).
I think Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim is the name you are looking for :-P
There were other very important generals like Aksel Airo who was Mannerheim's right hand man and responsible of several plans done by the army leadership. They had many heated arguments of plans but Mannerheim respected him because of it.
The smoking in front of Hitler was a test from Mannerheim to see how strong Germany was. If Hitler would have told him to stop he would have known they were strong and did not really need Finland, but if he let him smoke it told Mannerheim that Germany was not that strong and that Hitler needed finnish troops to keep on fighting. It was intentional to get information out of him of what Finland should do and it enforced the idea that getting out of the war separately from Germany was the right thing to go for before they drag Finland down with them.
Hitler also drank alcohol during the meeting when he rarely did that most likely because Mannerheim liked to take snaps of drink now known as "Marskin Ryyppy" (The Marshal's shot) as he was Marshal of Finland and usually everyone at the table had to take it too and most definitely on his birthday that they were celebrating.
The one thing you can say about Mannerheim was that he did not want power. He was made President of Finland after the war because Finland needed a known leader to be in power to reassure the people. Only way he accepted the office was that he will be the President only as long as he needs to and he kept his word. Only about year and half later he resigned stating that his job was done so keeping his word. He could have been President longer but he left when the job was done.
Yes, typo there.
Mannerheim is to Finland what Bismarck is to Germany or Garibaldi to Italy, their greatest leader and statesman, the single person responsible for creating/cementing a national identity in their people and not only that Mannerheim remained humble all his life, only accepting power when absolutely necessary and relinquishing it when his job was done, truly a great man.
@@marcofava and William of Orange for the Dutch.
My grandmother was in Lotta Svärd as air recon. She was from Vyborg.
I absolutely love all of your team's channels. I listen to you while I work and the days just melt away while I learn about... well, everything. Thank you and your team so much for existing.
Love learning about the Winter War. It is one of those great times in history where the little guy stood up to the Bully and gave him a bloody nose.
Shit like that is built in our dna.
Every negotiation with a bully should start with punching the bully in the goddamn face. It does appear that the Finns were well aware of that.
Ah yes, my favourite WW2 bedtime story. The winter war and the continuation war.
Definitely need a video on the continuation war.
10:30 Everyone in Finland still knows who Simo Häyhä is. He's a legend.
🎵You’re in the sniper’s sight
The first little light
Time to die
You’re in the bullet’s way
The White Death’s prey
Say goodbye🎵
“White Death” by Sabaton
There's been some Russian revisionism regarding the Mainila incident. On it's 80th anniversary in 2019, the war museum in Moscow tweeted that Finland started the war, despite the fact that the Yeltsin administration already admitted the false flag operation in the 90s.
exactly... it's disgusting
Damn tankies.
Oh yeah ofcourse Finland started the war. And poland started ww2 by attacking germany
It's even funnier when we have witness accounts from actual Red Army soldiers about Mainila, like a pilot, who described that on one of his patrol flights near the border, he witnessed Soviet artillery firing from Kirjasalo (the little Soviet wedge into Finland) to what he believed was towards Mainila over Finnish territory between Kirjasalo and Mainila. Then there are also reports from the previous months from Finnish border guards describing peculiar "military exercises" conducted by the Red Army, where soldiers would charge at the border screaming and making noise and then at the last second, stopping and calmly walking back. This was likely in an attempt to get the border guard to open fire, but luckily they didn't.
@@WurrzagsMorkyMischeif Poland was truly a bad ass as first they attacked Germany, then two weeks later they attacked Soviet Union. After the fighting 40000 polish officers overeat at the victory dinner and died as a result of overeating.
It's so often forgotten among the atrocities of the Nazi's and the Japanese that the Soviet Union was among the initial instigators of WW2.
There isn't really an instigator - it is everyone's fault. World Wars don't start because one nation decided to attack someone. They are geopolitical disasters decades in the making. Shots fired are just the last drop in the bucket that overflows it - but rarely do people notice the one who filled the bucket. It is the equivalent of you being verbally bullied for a year, then you finally snap and slam the bully. Are you the instigator of violence? By your logic, yes. But in reality, one would overlook the entire history of the conflict which was non-physical up to that point.
World Wars happened because dominant powers at the given time had absolutely zero interest in letting anyone join their club and they actively worked to prevent others from joining. Conflict, then, was inevitable. Countries who's empire stretched over the entire globe and was built upon the countless millions of casualties over the centuries. And when the new player comes in and wants the piece of that cake - he is the bad guy, right?
The sin of the countries you mentioned as "instigators of WWII" was that they started their conquering and killing 50 years too late. And that they were doing it in an area that had a lot of journalists. That's basically it.
But it is substantially not at all different from what all other big players were doing up to that point, and for much longer and in bigger scale. It's just that atrocities were done far away from European news agencies and were done on "black, brown and yellow people" of which those moral white folk did not care much.
Just an example - when Japan invaded China in 1931 and then resumed in 1937, what was the response of the world? Some sanctions. Because powers that be did not consider some "slant eyed Asians" worth the trouble. After all, they were the ones colonizing them up to that point as well. 1935, Italians invade Ethiopia, mostly black country and in Africa? Some sanctions, at best. Germans attack Poland, which is white and European? The whole world gets up on their feet.
World Wars are the results of decades (maybe even centuries) of imperialism and intrinsic racism of Europeans. Germany, Japan, USSR, Italy are no more or less to blame for it than USA, UK, France and so on. Takes two to tango. But, of course, the victor can never be blamed, so we have this nicely washed narrative.
@@Wustenfuchs109 Stop playing apologetics. What other European powers did in the past doesn't excuse the Soviets' actions in Finland and Poland, and it's the same with the Japanese in China and Korea. Now kindly take your "whataboutisms" and shove it.
Vaya con dios.
3:15 you should be showing maps of all this while describing it. Most people have no idea what or where those places are. You need more maps in general; any time you mention a city, battle, or fortification, a map should be shown. I follow a lot of war/history channels, and this channel has the least amount of maps, although I admit you have a decent number of photos.
He doesn't care much about facts. The Soviet Union actually offered a much larger territory as compensation than it demanded Finland to cede. Not that that in any way justifies anything the Soviet Union did and that Finland should have accepted it, but he wrongly states that this was "a few tiny border villages". This is typical for him.
@@francisdec1615 repola and porajärvi
I agree that maps would be better than watching someone’s face talking about it. I truly do not care what the content provider looks like when it comes to History.
@@francisdec1615 ok comrade...
If you know geography you don't need a map educate your better, than comment.
Thank you for this video. I must say I'm quite proud of Finnish soldiers; my grandfather was one of them. And so were two of my uncles. They all survived, but this older uncle who was a fighter on Taipale, carried a fragment of a grenade very close to his spin for the rest of his life. He never talked of the Winter war or the Continuation war, where he also fought.
Rarely do I see such accurate presentation of the Winter War in English. Keep up the good work!
So far, I've seen two Soviet apologists on here: One did a simple Whataboutism: A legit tactic, but still showing his support for communist tyranny.
The other actually went beyond the Soviets' own arguments and suggested that Russia might be justified in launching the war if Finland refused proposals that were "good" for it. He kinda forgets that a sovereign power can say no to even "good" proposals. He then suggested that Finland would need a casus belli to "defend" itself, suggesting that a nation might not have the right of self-defense unless certain standards were met. Such a useful idiot.
Stalin: "Hey, look over there at that Hitler guy yoinking Poland!" [invades Finland]
Communist are rarely smart
@@jeast417 I'm not gonna disagree with you, but also want to chime in that war apologists/revisionists exist on the entire political spectrum
@@jeast417 People aren't very smart. Its sadly not unique to communist apologists.
The same ones defending Russias right to invade Ukraine but not the US invading Iraq and Afghanistan after 9 11
The Finns have Sisu! There’s no direct translation; it could best be described as fortitude. A mental as well as physical strength against adversity. You certainly had to have Sisu in the days before indoor plumbing, heating, and electricity, living in a place like that!
No, I’m not Finnish; far from it, I’m from Arkansas. Lol My now deceased grandmother in-law was the daughter of Finnish immigrants, and grew up speaking it as a second language. I loved learning some Finnish history and customs, and listening to her sing Finnish children’s songs and lullabies.
This was a great video! Please do a part 2 about the Continuation War.
Yeah, Factboy... how you HAVE to do The Continuation War... including the cool bits of trivia surrounding Simo in this respect! :D
Simon, I love your channels and appreciate the work that you and your team do. Would you be able to put in more maps to illustrate locations of battles, the position of defensive lines and directions of movements? They don't have to be fancy - just basic maps with some arrows would greatly enhance the videos. Thanks again for so many fascinating topics.
"I HAVE THE HIGH GROUND, ANAKIN"-- some Finnish dude to the Soviets, probably
Amazing video! Please try to get around to making one on the Continuation War!
Please do a video on the continuation war it’s honestly such a interesting part of ww2
I can't be the only person who notices the parallels between this video and the current Russian Mis-adventures into Ukraine.
Sorry Simon, but there's a HUGE mistake in th ebeginning of your movie. Stalin wasn't afraid of a Nazi occupation of Finland because the USSR had signed the Molotv-Ribbentropp pact which was basically the nazis and the stalinist dividing Europe between them. Finland was to fall under Soviet rule.
The Soviet casualties presented in the video are very generous estimates.
Most would agree that there were over 200 000 dead and an additional 250k wounded.
Nikita Kruschev even once said 1 million
'most'? It is something like 'everybody knows that...'?
We are happy with 400k 6 feet under, thats very high price. (not counting injured)
It's SO wonderful how Russia has learned from their mistakes!
Yeah, nowadays they just get along great with their neighbours! :D Everyone just loves Russia and their chill attitude!
Yup, nowadays they just hire mercenaries to do their conquest so they can feign ignorance.
@@donthasselthehoff5753 America has been pretty good at that too to be fair, especially in S.America. Russia can't feign ignorance now though as far as Ukraine goes
Now I watched the video and damn, I felt shivers all over my body. I guess I love my beautiful country and our strong people :) Btw, I live in Kainuu and we have a lot of memories from the wars of 1939-45. The battle of Suomussalmi, known as "road of Raate", Raatteentie in Finnish by the name of the road that leads from Russia to Suomussalmi, Kainuu, Finland happened 60 miles from where I live. There's a huge monument for the memory of soldiers KIA. We are always prepared to give it all for our small, beautiful country. ❤️ from Kajaani, Kainuu, Finland!
Yeah, I wish the video had mentioned the road of Raate. And how what happened there is memorialized in the Finnish language for generations to come. "Looks like the road of Raate" is a saying one would use for a sight of complete mess and utter devastation. I last saw it used in the paper by someone describing a huge car pile-up.
Well the one advantage that the Finns in 1939 had in common with the Ukrainians of today is this: a soldier who believes in what he's fighting for will always outfight a soldier who doesn't. That was the single greatest advantage your people had in 1939.
Oh, and _sisu_ . Lots and lots of _sisu_ .
Simo: *dies*
Also Simo: "Rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated"
I’ve been watching Mr Whistler for many years now. I am grateful everyday for the hard work of him and the team behind him. Educational, informative, witty and relevant, every video is a trip into a world they being to life. Thank you Simon and team!
Amazing video, the quality of the animation only gets better everytime! 💗🤞✨
This episode 👌.
Under-rated, under-covered, and throughly misunderstood this conflict be.
Loving the new channel. I don't know how you do it Simon but your output is amazing. Sincerely thank you for such hardwork from each and every one of your teams on all channels
This is ten percent luck..
Twenty percent skill..
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will..
Five percent pleasure..
Fifty percent pain..
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name...
Fort minor
@@sandhilltucker As the wind blows past, the leaves whisper.... "Simon... Leafblower."
I watch maybe a dozen channels regularly and I feel like about eight of them are generic bald youtubers that look and sound exactly like Simon.
Simo always seems like the kind of man that was made up by a propaganda machine, but the sheer number of corpses he left in the snow has cemented his legacy as one of the greatest snipers in history. I'm glad the war on the Finnish front ended when it did, but I can't help but wonder how his legacy would have grown if it lasted longer and he returned to service after getting shot. What a man.
Just found this new channel of yours, Simon! Another binge session coming up
11:40 this was a lesson he learned during the invasion as he initially used a scope like his peers until he used the glint on a russian scope to end a life and he didn't want that being him, he did miss occasionally when not under alot of preassure and I like to remember these human parts to what can almost sound like mythical stories to humanity and its ability to adapt to survive.
I only think of one man when I think of this conflict, Simo Häyhä. Absolute legend. Rest In Peace sir.
We worked as a team, no Finnish soldier should be forgotten. Simo was great, but as an army we were greater. Our military leaders knew how to plan stuff too.
Kiitos, hyvä video.
A fairly problem free account of the winter war, which is not all that usual. Thank you.
Listening to this on march 11th, 2022. It sounds really, REALLY similar to what is going on now.
My girlfriend is from Finland and took up biathlon (skiing and marksmanship) recently as a hobby. It's pretty badass, especially knowing some Finnish history.
You better treat her right or shit will hit the fan, believe me 😂😂
If you want a longer, deeper look into this war, I highly recommend the documentary called Fire and Ice, the winter war. It's a fantastic, in-depth look at the war from the Finnish point of view.
Very interesting and well presented.
It's refreshing to see a video on this subject that is not full of errors.
Good job.
The Polish war of independence against the Soviet Union would be an interesting subject to cover on this channel.
Simon, suggestion for an episode
La Guerra de los Cristeros.
A rebellion/civil war in Mexico between an ardent Catholics and a secular government supporters.
It is one of the darkest episodes in proper Mexican history (proper as in Mexico was an actual country by this point, not in the "this geographical area with Aztecs, Toltecs, Tlaxcallans, etc").
As always, a fan of your videos and half-of-youtube-encompassing empire of channels!
Simon great video! You can do one about the Greco-Italian war of WWII?
The Finns tactics sounds remarkably like what the Ukrainians are currently doing to the Russian invasion force!
There were a lot of Ukrainians in that war. There is even a monument of Ukrainians who died there. That is what awaits them if the bow down to Vladimir.
I don't know how strategically or tactically similar the modern Ukrainians are to the 1939 Finns. But one thing the two peoples unquestionably share is a willingness to fight. If there are any similarities between them at all it's primarily this: a soldier who truly believes in what he's doing will always outfight those who don't. Today as in 1939 the enemy Soviets/Russians are poorly led and trained, and are led through coercion and not inspiration. When you give an order to a soldier and your authority is "because I said so" or "because I'll shoot you if you don't obey" then those soldiers have no reason or desire to go above and beyond. As opposed to Finns and now Ukrainians who are fighting for their lives on their own soil, well it will inevitably turn out that those soldiers are willing to die to accomplish their mission while their enemy just wants to get home without too many holes in them. Not what you'd call a good basis for inspired and gallant soldiering. The single biggest advantage Ukraine has today is that they have friends who genuinely like them and who are pissed off at what Putain is trying to do, so their friends give them lots of interesting stuff they can and do use to punish Vladimir Putain and his minions. While I do know that many friendly countries contributed weapons and materiel to Finland during their war, unfortunately the logistic framework simply wasn't there in 1939 to give more than token assistance to Finland as quickly as it was needed in the short time available.
Another way of looking at it, is in watching what the Ukrainians are doing today it's obvious that _somebody_ did their homework and studied the Winter War. And it sure as hell wasn't Vladimir Putain.
Winter war is good remainder for those who starts wars. They often dont go as you expect and prize might be higher than you are able or willing to pay and there will be consequences you didnt expect. Lesson in life is that you never give up to bully or eventually he/she takes it all. You have to stand up and fight and you have just to find out right way to fight. It is simple as that.
Lesson in life that if you was politely asked to give your wallet by a large guy, but stand up and fought for it and lost that wallet anyway (and a broken jaw)- you're an idiot
Better to make it hard as possible to that bully too or atleast if you dont have that option in that moment then plan how to make him pay in future, or both. In winter war both options happened. Bully was hitted hard there and later in continuation war too. The worst thing is that it is usually the common people like soviet citizens that hurt most in conflicts and not evil dictators like Stalin. People like him are ready throw to last baby to volwes to save himself or just gain ego boost. The one thing that saved Finland from becoming soviet satelite was to fight back and fight back hard. You just have to watch what happened to baltic states who didnt fight back. Thank god the soviet empire did die out eventually for good. World became little better place after that. And in 10-20 years will the last soviet "leaders" die out naturally. I think youngest of them are 70 years old by now...
@@Warpushaukka
>Better to make it hard as possible to that bully
to what purpose?
Love your videos Simon! I wish you kept uploading them as podcasts! Love to listen to biographics while driving.
everybody gangster until the snow speaks finnish
I hope Simon does a video about the continuation war next which was basically round 2 of the Finn’s vs the Russians
Much like the Winter War the Continuation War has some of the greatest battles in history. Look forward to the Continuation War.
Glad to see that Simon’s stamina wheel is full
better be making a second video on the continuation war
Alternative titles:
"Don't F with Finland"
"Soviet nightmare fuel"
Little has changed in 80 years. 🇫🇮🐯🇺🇦
Came here to say please make a video about the Czechoslovak Legion in WW1. Such a badass story of an army without a country riding the Trans-Siberian railway the wrong way around the world during the Russian Revolution to make it home. It took around 3 years, via the port of Vladivostok and America! Their activities near Yekaterinburg led to the last Tsar and his family being murdered. Eventually they returned to their new country, formed after the breakup of Austria-Hungary. Would make a great video! Have a great day, love your work! Cheers
What, another channel from Simon? Subbed!
Yesss, the Winter War is one of my fave history topics! Finns are badass.
Russians forgot there's folks even more cold-hardy than they are. General Winter isn't strictly Russian. He was definitely with the Finns on this one.
Then there's the small matter of The White Death.
We are! Thanks and love from Finland ❤️🇫🇮
Not just the Finns, there were Norwegian soldiers there too, including War Hero Max Manus.
He thought of the might he possessed
And not of his foe
Rage of winter!
Sabaton I hear 😏👌🏼
Thank you Simon