Fight to the Finnish
How invading Russians got a cold reception during the Winter War of 1939
Finland has been neutral for decades, but it owes its existence as an independent nation to its asymmetric warfare and, in particular, Arctic combat.
Independent since 1917, Finland and its attitude to war were forged during the Soviet invasion of 1939, dubbed the Winter War.
Some 400,000 Soviet troops poured across the border into a country of just 3.5 million people. The Red Army brought 2,500 tanks while the Finns had just 32 Renault FTS. Yet rather than succumbing, the Finnish Army used the advantage of home turf and benefited from the Soviets’ lack of experience in winter warfare.
Light infantry travelled around on skis, allowing them to glide across Finland’s thousands of frozen lakes and slip through its forests with ease to outflank and outmanoeuvre the Red Army.
As in Ukraine, long Soviet columns were restricted to roads and unable to disperse when Finnish troops emerged from the woods to strike them. The road-bound Soviet forces were encircled and chopped into manageable chunks, which could then be taken out systematically. The Finns dubbed this “motti”, the Finnish for a block of wood.
Armed with
Molotov cocktails (first coined by the Finns during this war) and explosives, these highly mobile troops targeted weak spots in Russian tanks and armoured vehicles to disable or destroy them, taking out more than 350 tanks.
When isolating a convoy, troops would take out the lead and last vehicle to trap it and then pick off the remaining with mortars and grenades.
Those troops could then ski off into the woods before Soviet reinforcements or artillery could pin them down.