70TH ANNIVERSARY DISCUSSION (5) SUOMUSSALMI 1940


  • The battle of Suomussalmi is considered THE battle of The Winter War…amazing how the Finnish Ski Troops held off a superior Russian force here…what do you experts think?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Suomussalmi


  • Cmon guys…how about the Finnish Ski troops whipping a little Russian butt in this great but little know battle of WW2?


  • Not effectively using radio silence doomed the Soviet command.  The Finns received the Soviet plans through the Raate road over clear radio transmissions the Soviets were sending each other between Dukhanov (Commander of 9th Army) and Vinogradov (Commander of th 44th).  Dukhanov sent Vinogradov’s 44th to link with the 163rd.  The Finns well informed of the link up encircled the two divisions on the road and steadily destroyed them.  The Divisions were strung along 8 Kilometers of road and were cut down piece meal in what the Finns called “motti” battles, meaning little logs of firewood.  The Finns swiftly outflanked them on ski’s along the road.  The Soviets already deprived of upper echelon leadership from purges and being ill equiped were hopelessly out foxed.  The Finns smartly destroyed their field kitchens leaving them stranded and with out any will to fight in severe winter.


  • didnt the Finns also capture a lot of tanks and guns and other materiel?


  • @RJL518:

    didnt the Finns also capture a lot of tanks and guns and other materiel?

    Very much indeed, from small arms, tanks, artillery to even cavalry horses. I think the more astonishing numbers is when the soviets retreated and made it back to the Soviet-Finnish border they had 1,001 dead, 1,430 wounded, 82 suffering severe frostbite, and over 2,000 missing!  This was a battle of (Finn) 11,000 men vs. (Soviet) 45,000 plus.  The use of landline communication and no radio silence was key.  The Finns new almost every detail to their operations and elemental objectives.


  • The Wikipedia statistics claim that the soviet casualties were over 13,000 to over 25,000 dead and wounded, but these statistcs were often innacurate back then between Finnish statistics and Soviet ones.  The statistics I gave above are from Chris Bellamy of Vinogradov’s division the 44th.  The Wikipedia stats seemed to be a bit inflated according to some Eastern front and Soviet historians.


  • Whatever the real stats are between the Finns and Soviets, it takes nothing away from the impressive victory between two Finnish divisions (11,000) and elements of the Soviet 9th army (45,000).


  • @RogertheShrubber:

    Whatever the real stats are between the Finns and Soviets, it takes nothing away from the impressive victory between two Finnish divisions (11,000) and elements of the Soviet 9th army (45,000).

    youre right about that Roger…a lot of people dont realize that this was actually a PIVOTAL battle very early in World War II…bcuz the Finns held out in this battle…it prevented Russia from winning the Winter War at that time…

Suggested Topics

  • 1
  • 3
  • 3
  • 1
  • 14
  • 2
  • 13
  • 104
Axis & Allies Boardgaming Custom Painted Miniatures

40

Online

17.0k

Users

39.3k

Topics

1.7m

Posts