Chapter 424 The Winter War (27)

During this period, the Soviet and Finnish armies seemed to be living in different worlds.

In Finland's long winter, daylight lasted only a short 7 hours; even more deadly was that this winter was the coldest in Europe in a century, with nighttime temperatures in Finland generally below -35°C.

As previously mentioned, fearing that the troops near Finland might have indescribable relations or cultural ties with Finland, Stalin did not deploy the Leningrad Military District's troops but instead gathered troops from the southern part of the Soviet Union to participate in the war.

These Soviet soldiers, wearing thin Type 5 uniforms, "Budyonovka" field caps, and summer leather boots, had makeshift shelters built against slopes or shallow caves covered with branches as their so-called means of keeping warm; or they simply made a shelter with branches on the roadside or in dry ditches. If lucky, they could light a fire, of course, at the risk of being targeted by the "white death."

Once night fell, the temperature would rapidly drop to -30 to -40 degrees Celsius. The khaki cloth uniforms, soaked by ice and snow, would not dry in time and would soon freeze into a hard shell in the bone-chilling night wind. At best, this would cause frostbite; at worst, it would cost lives. These large numbers of non-combat casualties required medical treatment, adding to the already strained Soviet supply lines and severely depleting the Soviet army's combat effectiveness.

In contrast, the Finnish troops were comfortably stationed in military tents, each with a wood-burning stove inside. Even on the coldest nights, the 20 people in the tent felt very warm. Dressed in military uniforms and lying on soft pine branches, these Finnish soldiers didn't even need blankets when they slept at night.

These tents could be conveniently folded and transported in a sled called "ak," which resembled a small boat. The sled was pulled by three skiers, with another person maintaining the balance of the sled while skiing. The Finns also used this simple transport tool to pull mortars, heavy machine guns, and other supplies, as well as to evacuate the wounded.

The Finnish army also invented the "log pile (tti)" tactic. "Tti," in Finnish, refers to logs piled up to be split. The Finnish habit of logging is to first cut down trees and pile them up, to be dealt with later. The Finnish army used a similar method against the Soviet Red Army—first, the terrain and weather blocked the Soviet columns, then continuous harassing tactics were used to probe the strength of each part of the enemy column, and then they chose weak points to break through, establishing a blockade line across the road, cutting the Soviet column into small pockets at the company and platoon level, and finally consuming them one by one.

The first victims of this tactic were the Soviet 163rd and 44th Divisions.

On December 7, the Soviet 9th Army's 163rd Division, under the command of Chuikov, attacked the Finnish village of Suomussalmi. The Soviet goal was to capture the city of Oulu, divide Finland into two, forcing Finland to fight on two fronts to defend the country, and at the same time cut off an important railway line to Sweden.

Only a Finnish battalion was stationed in the village of Suomussalmi. When the Soviet troops arrived, the villagers had all evacuated, and the entire village had been set ablaze by the Finnish forces, leaving the 163rd Division without any supplies or shelter.

After a brief rest on December 8, the Soviet troops continued their westward attack but encountered Finnish reinforcements and had to retreat to the village of Suomussalmi, in a precarious situation.

Seeing his main forces about to be trapped, Tukhachevsky had no choice but to call for help from the rear. The 44th Motorized Division, led by Vinogradov, came to support the 163rd Division.

The 44th Motorized Division, from Ukraine, had been awarded the title of "Honorary Kiev Division" during the Russian Civil War and had won the Red Banner Medal in the early 1930s in the All-Soviet Military Competition. Both its equipment and training were first-rate. However, this division was also unprepared for winter warfare, and due to the urgent rescue order, the entire division went into battle wearing the autumn uniforms they brought from Ukraine! Nevertheless, their commanders were very confident; this troop, which had participated in the Red Square parade, even brought their own band and beautiful uniforms, ready to hold a victory parade in Finnish cities.

Finnish reconnaissance aircraft spotted the Soviet 44th Division's column approaching Suomussalmi. Colonel Siilasvuo, sensing the Soviet intent, realized that he must find a way to separate the enemy's 163rd and 44th Divisions, or failure was inevitable.

Siilasvuo dispatched two companies to a ridge line 10 kilometers away, between Lake Kiantajärvi and Lake Kuomasjärvi, to set up a defensive line to intercept the Soviet 44th Division.

The area was heavily forested, with frozen lakes on both sides, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.

After a fierce battle, the 44th Division was forced to halt its advance. The Finnish forces, with 350 men, successfully blocked a Soviet division at their position.

The success of this blocking battle was mainly due to the Finnish army's full initiative and mobility, and the fact that the Soviet army, which could only move along roads, had no understanding of the Finnish army's strength and deployment was also an important reason.

The Soviet 44th Motorized Division had a large number of motorized vehicles and about fifty tanks, but these vehicles could only move along the only narrow dirt road through the pine forest. In this situation, it could not exert firepower against the Finnish forces defending the roadblocks. Although the division was equipped with hundreds of pairs of skis, they were hardly used.

Therefore, even the infantry could only move near the sides of the road. The situation for the Finnish forces was the exact opposite; skiing was a skill everyone was proficient in. The Finnish army adopted mobile guerrilla tactics, launching continuous attacks on the flanks of the division day and night, and the flanks of the 44th Division stretched nearly 20 miles from the border line to the Finnish pre-set roadblocks. The Finnish attack squads, dressed in white camouflage suits, approached the division on skis, often achieving complete surprise. When the attack squads opened fire from close range using the forest as cover, their "Suomi" submachine guns were particularly effective.

The Finnish forces launched frequent attacks and achieved good results. The commander of the Soviet 44th Motorized Division, Vinogradov, mistakenly believed he had encountered a large Finnish force and hastily ordered his troops to stop advancing, completely forgetting his mission to rescue the 163rd Division. He defensively turned into Haukila beside the Raate Road, completely disregarding that advancing another ten kilometers would have allowed him to meet up with the 163rd Division.

With the threat from behind eliminated, the Finnish army called out to the 163rd Division: "Lay down your weapons, surrender and you will not be killed." Major General Zelentsov of the 163rd Division angrily responded, "I'd rather die standing than live on my knees!"

Finnish Division Commander Siilasvuo then issued the order to launch a fierce attack on the 163rd Division.

After a fierce battle, the 163rd Division suffered heavy casualties and, unable to wait for reinforcements, left behind more than 5,000 bodies and retreated in panic to the northeast. They held onto the slim hope of returning to their homeland, scattering in the icy wilderness.

But the Soviet troops, each looking out for themselves, were cut off and divided by the Finnish forces, broken into several large pieces. After a whole day of bloody battle, the Soviet 163rd Division was annihilated, and the division commander was killed in action.