...Finland was attacked by the Soviet Union. Many cities and civil targets were bombed the very first day, just to terrorise and demoralise the home front. The outcome was of course quite the opposite.
Vaasa: (swe: Vasa)
Helsinki: (swe: Helsingfors)
About 1000 civilians died and 2000 were wounded throughout that campaign known as the "Winter War" that lasted until March 13 1940. Finland had to give up the Karelian isthmus and other parts along the eastern border and the area around Hanko (swe: Hangö) town and peninsula inclunding big parts of the surrounding archipelago. The Soviet turned that area into a marine base.
The hostilities ended with some 23000 dead Finnish soldiers and 270000 dead Soviet soldiers.
My father was located on the coastal artillery in the easternmost parts of the Gulf of Finland in the beginning and was later transferred to the coastal artillery at Taipale in the lake Ladoga where fierce fights took place.
He escaped the Winter War without wounds but his soul was scarred...
7 comments:
I can imagine the soul not recovering from this. But how great he did survive it.
I was unaware of this attack. thank you for the lesson.
Yes, he even gave up hunting and got rid of all weapons after the end of WW2.
The most of the western civilized world did not really take any notice of the Soviet Unions assaults upon the eastern part of Poland, the Baltic countries and Finland. There were the mandatory condemnatory speeches given and that was that...
shame how parts of the world were not recoginized.
Hi Grace, on the political level yes. It seems that everyone except Great Britain were afraid of The Hitler-Stalin pact and tiptoed around like ballerinas trying to stay in equilibrium. And the US tried to isolate themselves from the outher world from the beginning.
On the other hand, there were fundraisers arranged and volountary soldiers arriving to Finland from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and even from the USA as time went by.
We are still grateful for all the support given.
My home village, Björköby, out in the archipelago between Sweden and Finland became an important base when there were opened an ice road between Sweden and Finland in February 1940, there arrived thousands of tons of supply, guns, cannons, howitzers, radio equipment, food, clothing, gasoline and diesel and it continued even after the hostilities ended in March 1940
So many times I've tried to defend the OH-land from the huge armada of russian bombers using The Brewster plane.. What can I say - it's nearly impossible to shooting down whole pile of these monsters.
Oh, course, I'm about simulation. But I hate that winter agression!
Hi there Andy!
Nice to see new faces around, especially HAM:s :)
Many of our fighter aces were though successful in downing Ilyushin DB-3s and Tupolev SB-2s during´that campaign using whatever could fly.
I know, Hans. And there was not too much modern fighters in Suomi Air Forces that winter - thanx to Molotov pact and German railways - no one Italy plane had'nt reached Finland. Yes. The more the glory of the pilots who defended the Finnish sky.
Time after time I'm trying to play that winter campain without any success. I already tired to burn in the plane :-)
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