History

The Winter War

On August 23, 1939 the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. With that treaty Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin di¬vided Eastern Europe into two spheres of interest. Soon, the Baltic nations, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, were incorporated into the Soviet Un¬ion. Meanwhile Poland was attacked and occu¬pied by Germany as well as by the Soviet Union. Finnish leaders refused to cooperate with Soviet demands that they hand over border areas and allow a base on the southern coast of Finland. With international law and moral right on its side, the Finnish government sought to maintain neutrality and keep its territories intact.The Soviet Union attacked Finland in the early morning of November 30, 1939. Thus the Winter War began. The main theatre of war was the Karelian Isthmus, which took the brunt of the Soviet offensive. The Russian army, far superior in manpower and equipment, launched heavy attacks on the sparse Finnish fortifications along the so-called Mannerheim Line. This line consisted of a small number of outdated and un¬evenly spaced fortifications. Russian propaganda painted it as uniquely invincible. More likely, any advantage the Finns may have had lay in «the bravery and perseverance of Field-Marshal Mannerheim’s warriors – the Finnish sisu.»The «steel hurricane»on the Karelian Isth¬mus was far different from the battles in the vast, roadless wilderness to the north of Lake Ladoga and in Finnish Lapland. In the north, the mechanized Russian units were stranded in the deep snow and freezing cold. The Finns, who traveled on skis, worked the situation to their ad¬vantage; they cut off Russian lines of supply and communication, driving wedges between Russian units. This forced the Russians to operate from isolated fortifications, or mottis. Thus ensconced, and under constant attack by Finnish artillery fire and ski troopers, the Russians put up a long lasting, though rather passive resistance.

In early February the Red Army began a major attack on the Karelian Isthmus. Three Soviet divisions attacked a weakened Finnish division. The Soviet Union had six times more artillery than the Finns. Artillery and air forces hammered against Finnish positions. Emphasis on the attack was at the Summa village, where the Finnish troops had succeeded, during two weeks, to repel the overpowering enemy attack. When the main defense line was broken by the sector of Lähde, Summa, the defense withdrew to middle position and then further on to the rear defense line; Viborg-Vuokse.
After 105 days of fighting, the Soviet Union pressed the Finns into a harsh peace treaty. Finland was made to cede almost 10 percent of its territories – the Karelian Isthmus along with other border areas. In addition, Finland had to lease the Hanko peninsula, in the southwest, to the Soviet Union for 30 years. Around 27 000 Finnish soldiers perished in the Winter War and 45 000 were wounded.

The Continuation War

During the summer, fall and winter of 1940, the war in Europe escalated into a world war. Germany attacked and vanquished Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and France in quick succession. In a matter of weeks, the machinery of the Blitzkrieg rolled through the same areas where millions of soldiers had died in the long drawn out trench warfare of World War I. In early 1941, to maintain the momentum of the Axis powers, the German army came to the aid of Mussolini’s troops in the Bal¬kans and North Africa. On June 22, 1941 the world watched as Ger¬many and its allies attacked the Soviet Union along a front that stretched from the Arctic Sea in the north, to the Black Sea in the south. In the first days of this offensive, code-named Operation Barbarossa, German troops and aircraft oper¬ated out of Finnish territory while Finland bided its time. On June 25, Russian planes bombed Helsinki, and other towns, Finland declared war on the Soviet Union. This marked the start of the Continuation War.Finland achieved several strategic goals in the second half of 1941. Hanko was liberated. Parts of the Karelian Isthmus that had been lost in the Winter War were re-conquered, as were areas on the Aunus Isthmus, between Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega. Along with German forces in the north, the Finns pushed through the wilderness, on toward the White Sea. With that, a war of attrition commenced. The Finnish army set up fortifications against the Russians, in spite of German disapproval.

The Continuation War did not end until the fall of 1944, when heavy fight¬ing on the Karelian Isthmus secured Finland’s future as a free and sovereign nation.The Finns had fought side by side with the Germans for three years, but the Soviet Union now compelled them to drive their former al¬lies out of the country. During their retreat to northern Norway, the Germans took revenge by burning and looting large parts of Finnish Lapland. The last German troops were kicked out of Finland in April 1945. Approximately 63 000 Finnish soldiers were killed and about 160 000 were wounded in the Winter War.

The Swedish volunteer effort for Finland 1939-1944

During the Winter War, Sweden established the Swedish Volunteer Corps. More than 12 000 people signed up (including 700 Norwegians). Around 8000 of these made it to Finland. At the end of February 1940, more than half saw duty on the front west of the small village of Märkäjärvi (Salla) in Finnish Lapland. But the Swedish effort on the Salla Front was cut short after two weeks, when Finland made peace with the Soviet Union. Other Swedish volunteer efforts included artillery and anti-aircraft units, as well as the Swedish Voluntary Air Force. There was also significant Swedish humanitarian and monetary aid to Finland, from private citizens as well as from industry.

During the Winter War, Swedish support of Finland was near universal, under the slogan «Finland’s cause is ours.» Swedish opinion shifted in 1941 with the start of the Continuation War. Finland then fought alongside the Ger¬man army – which by then had attacked most of Western and Southern Europe. Sympathy for Finland waned, both in government circles and among the public. The organization for Swedish veterans of the Winter War split regarding what to do about the situation at hand.
Despite this, upwards of 1000 Swedes enlisted in a Swedish volunteer battalion, which partici¬pated in the siege of Hanko during the summer and fall of 1941. After Hanko had been recap¬tured in December of that year, the volunteer bat¬talion was dissolved. However, the war was not over. Around 400 Swedish volunteers organized in a Swedish volunteer company. They fought at the river Jandeba, on the Svir Front, where they remained until 1944. They were then shipped to Karelia, where they participated in heavy fight¬ing around midsummer 1944 and onward, until that war ended on September 4, 1944.
More than 140 Swedes perished in this war.

Text: Nicolas von Schmidt-Laussitz and The disabled war veterans association of Finland