My grandfather fought in the Winter and continuation wars. For Finland. He was on patrol when he tripped over a tree root. A soviet grenade went off where he would have been standing if he hadn't tripped. I'm only here because of that tree root.
My great grandpa served in the navy. He died month before I was born to the grenade shrapnel that found it's way to his heart eventually. He had been on deck of a vessel in a some skirmish and a grenade landed to the deck. He jumped on it saving seven other men in the deck and survived, but the doctor couldn't remove all of the shrapnels.
My great grandmothers brother fought in finland. He was first denied an education because his ancestors owned more than 8 acres of land. Then they drafted him and he died in finland, not allowed to go to school, but allowed to die. I think you can easily tell which side he fought for.
@@Kamellion Yeah I remember the time I first time visited Vyborg or Viipuri. It was nothing like our Finnish cities. Mangy wild dogs that were fed by local police and litter everywhere. You knew you arrived to Russia.
Yes. Majority of the Karelian area we gave up is now looking like some underdeveloped country. Soviets didn't really give a crap about the areas outside military importance, and current day Russian government hasn't done much to improve the area either
"The Miracle of Ihantala." One of the greatest battles of World War II was fought in the Tali-Ihantala area. In Tali-Ihantala, the massive avalanche of the Red Army stopped in hell when Finland did not give up. "
@@haisulful8245 No, Tali-Ihantala artillery bombardment was one the biggest artillery barrages of WW2, in two weeks, Finns shot around 120 000 shells, and soviets around 144 000
Well, it is true that most of the finnish soldiers did not give up, but the fact remains that the battle of Tali-Ihantala almost certainly would have been lost without the aid from the German Army, a "small" detail that the finns almost never mention, especially Detachment Kuhlmey who played a major part in the battle.
@@mxlex9991 The German help was a major asset but FInnish troops did majority of the figthing. Out of five divisions on the finnish side there was only one german Sturmgeschütz-Brigade
There was never a real door to door battle in Viipuri. Finns thought there might be some way to get the city back to finnish hands, some way. Besides, as the 2nd largest city of Finland, the city had plenty of Finnish cultural heritage (architecture etc.) So Finns did not want to see the city completely in ruins, and left the city when it was clear that the defence line south- southeast of the city could no longer be held.' EDIT: The city of Viipuri (Vyborg) is now in ruins, not because of being bombed in the WW2, but because of nearly 80 years of complete lack of maintenance or repair after the Annexation in 1944. This is what hurts us Finns the most. Even many Russian nationals are ashamed for how little their nation has respected the former Finnish property and infrastructure and how little they have done to take care of it.
The company of my grandfather was attacked by a whole battalion of storm groups. They were all armed with submachine guns, had light footwear, were wearing sportwear-like uniforms and carried only ammo, explosive charges and hand greandes. They broke through minefields and barbered wire by means of a huge underground detonation unopposed. The Finns were taken by surprise and took cover in their underground accomodation bunkers while the Soviet storm battalion captured the surface succesfully. Next they started to clean the underground bunkers unhindered. Finns trapped inside defended the doorways with submachine guns and handgrenades. Soviet gun and mortar fire cut phone lines. However, the desparate Finnish company artillery observer had requested heavy artillery fire on own positions just before communications had been lost. The bombardment cleaned the surface killing most of the Soviet storm battalion. Soviet reinforcements were pinned down with artillery too. The Finns resurfaced and executed their rehearsed counter attacks and succeeded to take back their positions from the remaining storm battalion. Finnish casualties were in the end minimal. Luck, swift thinking and endlessly rehearsed counter strikes had saved grandfather and his comrades.
Few inaccuracies in source video. Molotovs were anti-tank weapon and not anti-infantry with little use against infantry. Fortifications would not retreat as the bunker is still best place to be. There's even case of artillery's forward observer noticing that russian troops had circled them and calling fire on himself.
@@BigAl2-u7e you could, but it would've been considered waste of munitions. you're far less likely to actually break the bottle when it hits soft soil. likewise, just because you can kill infantry with a bazooka, doesn't mean you should ;)
Also calling M/27 "copy of mosin-nagant" is false, as those were mostly modified from old russian M/91 Mosin's, new shorter barrel, re-engineered firing mechanism and better front sight. Also Finnish M/27 used 7.62x53R where Soviet ones used 54R
In fact, there are so many inaccuracies in this video that I would like to see the sources the authors claim to have examined during their research ...
There is an age old finnish army joke. I don't know if it's actually funny, but since I'm bored I might as well try to translate it for you all. During winter war, there was a soviet company marching on a forest road. The march became to a halt as the commander of the company hear a shout over the hillside. "One finnish soldier equals two russian ones!" he heard. Curious, he send two men to investigate. Two cracks of rifle, then silence. The silence was broken by another shout "One finnish soldier equals ten russian ones!" Angered by the cheek of this guy, the commander send out ten men over the ridge. A fight erupts, rifle fire, grenades and then silence. Which is broken by another shout. "One finnish soldier equals a hundred russian ones!" Furiated, the commander sends one hundred man to root out this persistent Finn. A huge fight erupts. Intense firing, grenades, fully automatic fire. After a good half hours of fighting, one russian soldier crawls back over the ridge. With his dying words he tells the commander. "Don't go there. It's a trap. There is two of them."
Battle of Viipuri (Vyborg) happened 1944 (not 1943) and it last less than 5 hours. It was succesful evacution operation (all who wanted to move to somewhere else in Finland were succesfully moved). Red Army shock troops were known to be bad ass in city fight, so to lose less Finns, battles were prefered to fight in wilderness or trenches. City of Viipuri has been lost in war many times in history and won back in peace (by deals).
My grandfather's father and three brothers died during the Winter War. His father and two brothers died at the front lines and one was murdered when he tried to prevent Soviet soldiers from stealing their horses from their homestead in Karelia. :( War is Hell.
I'd quite like you to do a video about yourself. Your childhood, what inspired you to join the US Marines, your time in boot camp. Graduation, the tours you went on. I think that would be an awsome and fascinating watch.
@@CombatArmsChannel Great document:"Törni - Sotilaan tarina (A Soldier's Story) English Subtitles" ( Lauri Törni, Larry Allan Thorne: Fought under 3 flags: Finnish, German and American)
The body armor worn by the Red Army was an old-style rigid steel shield with an opening to go to the head and was tied with a string to the belt. It was rare and used only by some of the better trained assault units in the 1944.
river , lake , swamp and sea ice was a common path to advance during winters. And when people noticed that someone is advancing through some area they just fired artillery to break the ice. Other option is to put ice mines , which will trigger something to break the ice when enemy tries to cross it.
The thing about crossing a frozen water body is that a visual inspection tells you pretty much nothing. You have to have knowledge of the area (currents in the water etc.) and have to take into account the recent temperatures and stuff like that. So unless you really think about it and pay close attention to it, it can be pretty much impossible to tell whether the ice will hold up or not. Maybe in their rushed panic they didn't consider all these things and thought it was a good idea to cross the water. And based on the Finnish narrator I would say these audio clips are definitely voice actors instead of official audio recordings. As a Finnish native I can confidently say that the language they use is modern and not what they would have said in the 40's. My Russian is not good enough to judge that side though.
My Russian is not good enough either (it's rather zilch), but the "Soviet" reader's voice sounds much more convincing than the Finnish counterpart's. Both sound more like in Soviet propaganda films. Of course Finns made propaganda, too, but the tone was not like that. It reminds me more of some Agit Prop style singing.
Pretty unreal to witness a funeral today. 4 men who lost their lifes in this war 15th of february 1940, were buried with military honors on churchyard in their home village. They were M.I.A for 80 years, and behind the border, but finally got back home. Literally. History have rarely felt so real.
Yeah there are many instances where they pushed the soviets on to a lake or placed the positions in a way that a water had to be crossed. Once on it they used light mortars to brake ice around them and just drown the enemy.
There's a movie made in 1988 called "Talvisota" (Winterwar) You should see this movie. I tried to find it on TH-cam for you but I'm not good at computer. The film is very good and is over 3 hours long. In the real story, my grandfather was one of the men in this troupe. This film is considered to be the best ever made and received many awards. "Tavisota" is the only name, not Sabaton or Syskyjärvi or anything else that it can be easily associated with. I'll keep looking but you may find it easier. Thank you for your very good channel. Esa from Finland.
The thing about roads, thats one of the reason Finland had such an easy time (relative to most Soviet assaults) against the Soviets, there were few roads leading to Russia and most of them were long and narrow, everything else is just wilderness with a few villages and small towns here and there. They were kind of forced to use the few roads available unless they wanted to traverse the wilderness, so it was easy for the finns to ambush the soviets, there weren't many alternative roads to pick as would have been more the case in central/eastern Europe.
I’m only half fin but I’m all “ FIN “☺️☺️☺️☺️and proud of it!!Also my grandfather fought in the winter war in Taipale and was shot twice and survived and I’m just going to say that I’m so proud of him for his service and every other soldier that fought for freedom should never be forgotten ever!!!!!!! Amen…..
I trust you have seen the Pekka Parikka film Talvisota? It's a reality-based story of a squad from Kauhava, Ostrobothnia, fighting at Taipale in Winter War. The Battle of Taipale was one of the harshest in that war, and also significant, because the worn-out Finnish troops held to the end.
Here I found only a trailer without subtitles, but in Netflix there was/is a bit longer series version, if it's available in your region. th-cam.com/video/Yutfnfzm3qc/w-d-xo.html
The soviets did have an early form of body armor which was basically just a steel plate strapped to their chests. However it was mostly used by pioneers etc and later the vdv. Also it only worked on pistol caliber rounds, rifle rounds went straight through.
I think it goes without saying that the video has it's flaws (The battles, of which the second one specifically) but I'm not gonna get into that because the criticism is obviously not directed towards you. As for the Molotov Cocktails, (correct me if I'm wrong~) I'm pretty sure the weapon was thought up in the Spanish civil war, but the Finns gave it it's iconic name after they started using them against the soviets. The weapon is so easy and cheap to produce I'm pretty sure everyone used them back at ww2 and even today. I'm fairly certain this is the first time I'm commenting on one of you videos, but I'm very humbled that a man of your talents is showing interest in the history of my home country although through TH-cam video's. :P All in all, I really enjoy watching these reaction videos of yours specifically because our interests align when it comes to all the history and military stuff. Wish you and anyone else reading this all the best! EDIT: Just wanted to point out that by no means was the video bad, it's just that the creators could've put a little more time and *thought* into it!
Fire bottles were first used in the Spanish civil war, but they were pretty crude makeshift weapons. Finnish Molotov Cocktails improved upon the design and mass produced it.
Although the idea came from the Spanish civil war, those were just kerosene filled bottles. Finns improved the idea by adding Pine Tar to make the flammable liquid sticky. It worked like a little napalm bomb. Primarily used to melt the rubber tracks off of T-26's and other rubber tracked vehicles.
I hate how they used Nazi Waffen-SS Nordland Division uniforms to represent Finnish soldiers outfits during the continuation war..... Makes me a bit angry ngl
I'm certain the voice acting is made for this video and isn't some old recording. Also real life propaganda would never go to this amount of detail but this is to explain the situation for the viewers of this video. But at least the finnish voice actor is actually speaking finnish (the simo häyhä video where he's speaking english with a russian accent was kinda cringe) Also the mannerheim line scene is ridiculous. What would be closer to reality would be non-stop 20 minute artillery barrage by the soviets, followed by thousands of russians. You don't just cross an open field, get through barbed wire to grenade distance, and actually manage throw that grenade and hit multiple entrenched people with it. There's a reason why all military grenade training is done in trences. Because it's perfect cover against grenades. You might hit somebody, but trences provide cover for individuals meaning even an artillery shell shoudn't take out multiple guys at a time. I get what the video is trying to show but "squad vs squad" is a bit silly. It's a nation at war against another nation. PS Finns aren't and weren't nazis. And they sure as hell didn't dress like them.
I totally agree with you. Even they were a number of Finns volunteers to serve in SS unit. But that's different story from Finnish soldiers in Finnish army.
Story about Molotov Cocktail; Molotov stated in a pre-war conference that he will send picnic baskets to feed 'poor' finnish people... So after the bombardments started, finns stated that they will happily offer a cocktail for Molotov (in a form of petrol bomb).
my grandfather fought in the war and my mom has a story he told her that one time he snuck in some sort of trench, waited for a tank to get by and then sabotaged the tank. I can't believe the stress.
that last battle had the most inaccuracies. bodyarmour was only for the sapper troops. And for the finnish front on the continuation war there was not a single shock army/division contained in the armies there. So that battle was purely fictive as to who was against who. Not to mention molotovs being mainly for anti tank...
And during the 1944 Red Army massive attack on our lines the town of Viipuri (the2.largest in the country) was getting flanked by Soviet armor from the east and infantry from the west so it had to be left with mostly rear guard troops stalling the onslaught. Mostly completely worn out units with a serious ammo shortage and practcally no AT-guns. And by 1944 summer, the Soviet armor was pretty secured by infantry and they simply overwhelmed the defense on that sector. All the supply lines where strafed with Sturmoviks (my grandpa getting a nasty personal interest from one pilot who wanted to empty his 23mm shvak-cannon's baskets before turning home..) The Red Army had approx. 450 different cannons, howitzers and 120mm mortars and Katjushas per every kilometer on the line.. An entire Finnish regiment was pulverized at the break point on the Isthmus near the coast of the Gulf of Finland. When out numbered by 5/1 on fresh front line troops and 20/1 on artie and air power and fuel and firepower in general.. But later in the summer we got our then President Risto Ryti to fool Adolf Hitler to send a Luftwaffe ground attack fleet with Stuka's and Focke Wulf 190's to bomb the Soviet assembly areas with 500kg bombs and strafes.. And also Stu-40 assault cannons to drill those T-34's and SU-152's. The man went to prison as a claimed "war criminal".. Eternal honour for him for that how the head of the state sacrified his life for the nation like a true leader.
I agree with the video. Even nowdays we are a little bit lacking in urban warfare training. Back then it was even smaller thing because most soldiers were trained to defend and not capture cities. We do well in the wild, but urban warfare is a bit shaky. We are doing better nowdays, but still not enough if you ask me
The KP31 smg was extremely heavy. Weighing in at 6.5kg or over 14lbs with the big drum, you really didn't have an edge in mobility. Except when comparing to a fire support weapon, like the automatic rifles. And this is indeed the role it often served. So much more convenient than lugging around a DP for example. But superior fire rate, reload speed and controllability. The comparative lack of range didn't often come to play in the forests. Contrary to what the video kind of insinuates, the 9mm was very relevant most of the time. It doesn't completely replace the full size automatic rifle, of course. But in most situations just outperforms it wildly. Especially against enemies who insist on charging your positions. Basically a mini-MG42 with that accurate burst capability. Fortified positions would sometimes even have spare KP barrels laid out for use, just like with a crew served machine gun. I don't know if you see similar application with other SMG's really.
my immediate thought was " well that was lame opening of fire for an ambush ", also i think the first minute of the ambush would be sufficient casulties to justify to move to your fallpoint and rinse and repeat in a different spot. maximise enemy casulties and minimize own casulties, insert the psychologil elemet of fear of the snow and forest, thats the way of guerillas. But this is specific scenario for data so we can forgive it
I've honestly never heard of Finns using molotov coctails against infantry. Might have happened but not standard procedure. Russians did have the SN-42 body armour.
I'm not sure if it's true since, I've only heard about it. Doesn't sound unbelievable tho in my opinion. But the frozen lakes and rivers were apparently used as weapons by finns. Since soviet forces would try to use the ice planes to advance or retreat, as moving in the snow drifts of the forest is really difficult. Finns would order well timed artillery strikes on these ice planes, drowning soldiers in hundreds. The idea itself isn't as crazy as it would sound, since on normal circumstances the ice will freeze really thick during the winter. Easily able to carry tanks. It doesn't take artillery strikes that well tho.
Even when the Soviets were losing massively, they'd still have dedicated "Block Detachments" to shoot their own retreating troop. Not the most flexible and forgiving people to say the least.
Actually the blocking detachments mainly turned soldiers back to the line or arrested them where they would face charges. Thousands were executed but the majority were returned to the front in a different unit or assigned to a penal detachment
The "storm troops" in the video look and sound way more like the Soviet Assault Sappers/combat engineers with their submachine guns and SN-42 body armor
You can any one of those Vets on Russian side, what they think about commissars They got rank, not the leading officer. And those kill a lot of their own soldiers.
The Russian sounded pretty good to my ear, but I don't really speak it, so I don't know if it was real or genuine footage. The Finnish was pure in those depictions. Maybe just a voice actor (back then announcers would've been old men with prestigious pronounciation), but definitely a Finn saying the lines. As a Finn I can confirm.
Idiotic frontal assaults did happen, so they are used in scenarios on purpose. It tries to depict the tactics that weren't effective in Finland But were still in common use
For understanding Hitler's decision to launch Operation Barbarossa, knowledge of the Winter War is of utmost importance. Consider the Molotov - Ribbentrop pact where the Germans were happy to let the Soviets take Finland as Hitler did not believe Finland could be defended against the Soviets. Then Hitler notices the surprise result of the war and decides that Soviet Union is a rotting structure, just one firm kick away from collapsing.
"the Germans were happy to let the Soviets take Finland " And not only that, but Nazi Germany actively supported Soviet Union against Finland in 1939-40 by stopping western military aid to Finland. How funny, that only 15 months after the Winter War ended Germany attacked Soviet Union and Finland also attacked SU to get back the lost territories.
You should also mention, that Germans and what you called Nazi Germans backed up Finland too. Finland and German has long roots of fighting. But Finns have fight along with Soviets and Sweden also. There is plenty to dig in.
The animation, voice acting and all of that stuff in this video was great but in terms of historical accuracy it was all over the place. Really poorly done in that respect but maybe I missed the point somewhere, all of the scenarios presented here did not really depict the reality of the Finnish wars.
No, they most definitely didn't have body armor. They were lucky to have appropriate clothing and enough food and ammunition. Anyway, the story seems correct in the broad lines, but it does paint the stereotypical picture we have seen so many times before in these things. The 300 Spartans against the immortal horde from Persia etc.
yes they did have body armour, but only the pioneer-sappers were supposed to have them, and even then useually they never got the number they were supposed to have on paper.
if you want to see an example of defense-in-depth with multiple lines, look what russians did to germans near stalingrad and kursk. =D russians are not stupid, they learn and they made an art out of defense in depth.
kursk yes, stalingrad no. the actual defenses in stalingrad were not 'defense-in-depth', most of the battle they didn't even have reserves on the right side of the river.
Russians were not very intelligent and way too arrogant relying on their manpower. They walked by roads and using non suitable clothes and had poor support, they suffered from cold and hunger unlike Finns they had good support with civilians troops like "Lotta" organization, female non armed troops. Finland worked like a machine, every part had a purpose of their own.
btw, i really would love to see you react to the awesome finnish movie called Talvisota. it shows very realistic way all the aspects of the war. it really just is amazing war movie fro early 80's FINNISH movie. :)
The audio before battles are not historical audio but they talk The same as news report during The war Time what i Have come across looking at Finnish history documents
The Soviet "assault sappers" or combat engineers actually were issued the SN-42 body armor. Made of a steel strong enough to defeat pistol rounds from longer smg barrels. Some examples of the armor still exist today with dents from the 9mm round of the MP-40
If you didn't notice already, Finns love you and actually it's a miracle that Finns didn't kidnapping you when you visited in Finland. Next time you will get the Finnish passport without questions... So we expect that you will join to us if the Russia attack ^^
Go down shoot, go around shoot, look the olece make a spot, hole and wait and look where to shot next. I remember my jeager school. And many smart things hoiw to fisght, I think finnish soldies are maybe not best, but wise.
The animations are a bit off, there were no body armors in WW2, and the continuation war uniforms are not accurate. The Soviets did win the 1944 battle of Viipuri, though to be fair their numerical strength was 8 to 1.
One military tactic i can tell, i hope it is not some war secrect. You attact, make hole put bomb go back push up dynatic rope and take your hole again, then boom track it again, go back and foward, sorry badly english, nut we know how to faight, i am so filled differend tecnics.
Actually the Mannerheim line was not really impressive at all, but it was good propaganda for the Soviets who were terrified because of it and tried to go around it wich lost them thousands of men
Nobody wore body armour in the IIWW.. Somehow the Soviet infantry soldier's rolled blanket tied around the upper body has evolved into a sort of a single strap flak jacket in this video. Also the camo was not in use back in 1944. The Finnish Unknown Soldier from 2017 is pretty accurate on gear and clothing on both sides. Another gem is the Cross of Iron by Sam Peckinpah from 1977. The T-34/85 attack on the factory building is to this day a classic. All the Red Army and Wehrmacht gear seems to be spot on. The whining roar which was typical for the T-34's diesel engine is the cherry on top for that scene.
lol, you're ignorant look up SN-42 (aka steel bib) body armour, issued to soviet combat engineers (pioneer-sappers). infact they had SN-38, SN-39, SN-40, SN-40 and SN-46 (the post-war variant) too. it was intended for close combat where SMGs (pistol rounds), bayonets and grenade shrapnel were the biggest killers. however it could also stop rifle rounds at the right ranges and angles. in modern rating systems, they would fall under Class II vests. the germans also produced similar vests for the SS in very small quantities (and mostly used captured SN-42s)
@@matthiuskoenig3378 my entire point was that the battle described here never happened in the first place.. There was no house to house fighting in the town of Viipuri.. I have never heard either of my grandfathers or anyone else who fought the Red Army here, in my home country, to even mention any sort of body armour with the Soviet troops they fought against..
@@StPaul76 you said no one in ww2 had body armour, that is false. and yes it was used by the soviets in finland. Finish troops even captured some of it and photographed it.
No it's not, not even close. The Great Wall of China is some thousands of kilometers wide, while the Mannerheim Line was 132 km. I mean, I know you are joking, but some of the viewers might not. :)
My grandfather fought in the Winter and continuation wars. For Finland. He was on patrol when he tripped over a tree root. A soviet grenade went off where he would have been standing if he hadn't tripped. I'm only here because of that tree root.
Yea those tree roots are a menace here. And kiitos isoisällesi palveluksesta isänmaan puolesta!
The mother nature working it´s magic.
My great grandpa served in the navy. He died month before I was born to the grenade shrapnel that found it's way to his heart eventually. He had been on deck of a vessel in a some skirmish and a grenade landed to the deck. He jumped on it saving seven other men in the deck and survived, but the doctor couldn't remove all of the shrapnels.
My great grandmothers brother fought in finland. He was first denied an education because his ancestors owned more than 8 acres of land. Then they drafted him and he died in finland, not allowed to go to school, but allowed to die. I think you can easily tell which side he fought for.
Losing Vyborg was a sad thing for Finland. It was a beautiful and international city
@@Kamellion Yeah I remember the time I first time visited Vyborg or Viipuri. It was nothing like our Finnish cities. Mangy wild dogs that were fed by local police and litter everywhere. You knew you arrived to Russia.
@@OddysChannel I visit Viipuri 1965... Ruins and Shit !!!
Yes. Majority of the Karelian area we gave up is now looking like some underdeveloped country. Soviets didn't really give a crap about the areas outside military importance, and current day Russian government hasn't done much to improve the area either
"The Miracle of Ihantala." One of the greatest battles of World War II was fought in the Tali-Ihantala area. In Tali-Ihantala, the massive avalanche of the Red Army stopped in hell when Finland did not give up. "
If I'm not mistaken the most massive artillery bombardment of the entire human history happened in the battle of Tali-Ihantala.
@@Skerrry I doubt it surpassed the ww1 German pre battle barrage in Verdun.
@@haisulful8245 No, Tali-Ihantala artillery bombardment was one the biggest artillery barrages of WW2, in two weeks, Finns shot around 120 000 shells, and soviets around 144 000
Well, it is true that most of the finnish soldiers did not give up, but the fact remains that the battle of Tali-Ihantala almost certainly would have been lost without the aid from the German Army, a "small" detail that the finns almost never mention, especially Detachment Kuhlmey who played a major part in the battle.
@@mxlex9991 The German help was a major asset but FInnish troops did majority of the figthing. Out of five divisions on the finnish side there was only one german Sturmgeschütz-Brigade
There was never a real door to door battle in Viipuri. Finns thought there might be some way to get the city back to finnish hands, some way. Besides, as the 2nd largest city of Finland, the city had plenty of Finnish cultural heritage (architecture etc.)
So Finns did not want to see the city completely in ruins, and left the city when it was clear that the defence line south- southeast of the city could no longer be held.'
EDIT: The city of Viipuri (Vyborg) is now in ruins, not because of being bombed in the WW2, but because of nearly 80 years of complete lack of maintenance or repair after the Annexation in 1944. This is what hurts us Finns the most.
Even many Russian nationals are ashamed for how little their nation has respected the former Finnish property and infrastructure and how little they have done to take care of it.
People always speak we should get our land back from Russians. Viipuri is a great example why we don't need them anymore, wasteland.
The company of my grandfather was attacked by a whole battalion of storm groups. They were all armed with submachine guns, had light footwear, were wearing sportwear-like uniforms and carried only ammo, explosive charges and hand greandes. They broke through minefields and barbered wire by means of a huge underground detonation unopposed. The Finns were taken by surprise and took cover in their underground accomodation bunkers while the Soviet storm battalion captured the surface succesfully. Next they started to clean the underground bunkers unhindered. Finns trapped inside defended the doorways with submachine guns and handgrenades. Soviet gun and mortar fire cut phone lines.
However, the desparate Finnish company artillery observer had requested heavy artillery fire on own positions just before communications had been lost. The bombardment cleaned the surface killing most of the Soviet storm battalion. Soviet reinforcements were pinned down with artillery too. The Finns resurfaced and executed their rehearsed counter attacks and succeeded to take back their positions from the remaining storm battalion. Finnish casualties were in the end minimal. Luck, swift thinking and endlessly rehearsed counter strikes had saved grandfather and his comrades.
Few inaccuracies in source video. Molotovs were anti-tank weapon and not anti-infantry with little use against infantry. Fortifications would not retreat as the bunker is still best place to be. There's even case of artillery's forward observer noticing that russian troops had circled them and calling fire on himself.
Hey man, just cause their main purpose was anti-tank, doesn't mean you can't use them against infantry.
@@BigAl2-u7e you could, but it would've been considered waste of munitions. you're far less likely to actually break the bottle when it hits soft soil.
likewise, just because you can kill infantry with a bazooka, doesn't mean you should ;)
Also calling M/27 "copy of mosin-nagant" is false, as those were mostly modified from old russian M/91 Mosin's, new shorter barrel, re-engineered firing mechanism and better front sight. Also Finnish M/27 used 7.62x53R where Soviet ones used 54R
In fact, there are so many inaccuracies in this video that I would like to see the sources the authors claim to have examined during their research ...
@@Lewisornot me too. I wouldn't give this video as a lecture of Finns vs. Soviets warfare in WWII.
There is an age old finnish army joke. I don't know if it's actually funny, but since I'm bored I might as well try to translate it for you all.
During winter war, there was a soviet company marching on a forest road. The march became to a halt as the commander of the company hear a shout over the hillside. "One finnish soldier equals two russian ones!" he heard. Curious, he send two men to investigate. Two cracks of rifle, then silence. The silence was broken by another shout "One finnish soldier equals ten russian ones!" Angered by the cheek of this guy, the commander send out ten men over the ridge. A fight erupts, rifle fire, grenades and then silence. Which is broken by another shout. "One finnish soldier equals a hundred russian ones!" Furiated, the commander sends one hundred man to root out this persistent Finn. A huge fight erupts. Intense firing, grenades, fully automatic fire. After a good half hours of fighting, one russian soldier crawls back over the ridge. With his dying words he tells the commander. "Don't go there. It's a trap. There is two of them."
Battle of Viipuri (Vyborg) happened 1944 (not 1943) and it last less than 5 hours. It was succesful evacution operation (all who wanted to move to somewhere else in Finland were succesfully moved). Red Army shock troops were known to be bad ass in city fight, so to lose less Finns, battles were prefered to fight in wilderness or trenches. City of Viipuri has been lost in war many times in history and won back in peace (by deals).
My grandfather's father and three brothers died during the Winter War. His father and two brothers died at the front lines and one was murdered when he tried to prevent Soviet soldiers from stealing their horses from their homestead in Karelia. :(
War is Hell.
I'd quite like you to do a video about yourself. Your childhood, what inspired you to join the US Marines, your time in boot camp. Graduation, the tours you went on. I think that would be an awsome and fascinating watch.
I have a few storytime videos but some stuff won't go up on here. But I will definitely consider doing some more!
@@CombatArmsChannel Great document:"Törni - Sotilaan tarina (A Soldier's Story) English Subtitles" ( Lauri Törni, Larry Allan Thorne: Fought under 3 flags: Finnish, German and American)
The body armor worn by the Red Army was an old-style rigid steel shield with an opening to go to the head and was tied with a string to the belt. It was rare and used only by some of the better trained assault units in the 1944.
To my understanding the units in this video were one of those. Assault engineers Sapper. Some shorten their name to Shturmoviki.
Sending love from Finland to you and all US SMs due to what's going on in Kabul
river , lake , swamp and sea ice was a common path to advance during winters. And when people noticed that someone is advancing through some area they just fired artillery to break the ice. Other option is to put ice mines , which will trigger something to break the ice when enemy tries to cross it.
Cool looking Saimaannorppa t-shirt my guy😎
The thing about crossing a frozen water body is that a visual inspection tells you pretty much nothing. You have to have knowledge of the area (currents in the water etc.) and have to take into account the recent temperatures and stuff like that. So unless you really think about it and pay close attention to it, it can be pretty much impossible to tell whether the ice will hold up or not. Maybe in their rushed panic they didn't consider all these things and thought it was a good idea to cross the water. And based on the Finnish narrator I would say these audio clips are definitely voice actors instead of official audio recordings. As a Finnish native I can confidently say that the language they use is modern and not what they would have said in the 40's. My Russian is not good enough to judge that side though.
My Russian is not good enough either (it's rather zilch), but the "Soviet" reader's voice sounds much more convincing than the Finnish counterpart's. Both sound more like in Soviet propaganda films. Of course Finns made propaganda, too, but the tone was not like that. It reminds me more of some Agit Prop style singing.
Pretty unreal to witness a funeral today. 4 men who lost their lifes in this war 15th of february 1940, were buried with military honors on churchyard in their home village. They were M.I.A for 80 years, and behind the border, but finally got back home. Literally. History have rarely felt so real.
Yeah there are many instances where they pushed the soviets on to a lake or placed the positions in a way that a water had to be crossed. Once on it they used light mortars to brake ice around them and just drown the enemy.
Great channel, their discord server even lets the community contribute with the research, it's great
There's a movie made in 1988 called "Talvisota" (Winterwar) You should see this movie. I tried to find it on TH-cam for you but I'm not good at computer. The film is very good and is over 3 hours long. In the real story, my grandfather was one of the men in this troupe. This film is considered to be the best ever made and received many awards. "Tavisota" is the only name, not Sabaton or Syskyjärvi or anything else that it can be easily associated with. I'll keep looking but you may find it easier. Thank you for your very good channel. Esa from Finland.
The thing about roads, thats one of the reason Finland had such an easy time (relative to most Soviet assaults) against the Soviets, there were few roads leading to Russia and most of them were long and narrow, everything else is just wilderness with a few villages and small towns here and there. They were kind of forced to use the few roads available unless they wanted to traverse the wilderness, so it was easy for the finns to ambush the soviets, there weren't many alternative roads to pick as would have been more the case in central/eastern Europe.
I’m only half fin but I’m all “ FIN “☺️☺️☺️☺️and proud of it!!Also my grandfather fought in the winter war in Taipale and was shot twice and survived and I’m just going to say that I’m so proud of him for his service and every other soldier that fought for freedom should never be forgotten ever!!!!!!! Amen…..
I trust you have seen the Pekka Parikka film Talvisota? It's a reality-based story of a squad from Kauhava, Ostrobothnia, fighting at Taipale in Winter War. The Battle of Taipale was one of the harshest in that war, and also significant, because the worn-out Finnish troops held to the end.
Here I found only a trailer without subtitles, but in Netflix there was/is a bit longer series version, if it's available in your region.
th-cam.com/video/Yutfnfzm3qc/w-d-xo.html
2:42 I will say that I love from Finland!
Love your service!
My grandmother was born in Viipuri and she was 6 years old when her family had to escape from the war
My grandmother had 15 minutes to leave everything behind to flee to safety in Turku.
Check out the battle of raatteen tie. There a small group of finnish forces took out a whole russian divison
23:11 got a laugh, thanks CAC you're really a blessing.
The soviets did have an early form of body armor which was basically just a steel plate strapped to their chests. However it was mostly used by pioneers etc and later the vdv. Also it only worked on pistol caliber rounds, rifle rounds went straight through.
yes the soviets had body armor it was a steel bib that stopped mp40 rounds and frag.
I think it goes without saying that the video has it's flaws (The battles, of which the second one specifically) but I'm not gonna get into that because the criticism is obviously not directed towards you. As for the Molotov Cocktails, (correct me if I'm wrong~) I'm pretty sure the weapon was thought up in the Spanish civil war, but the Finns gave it it's iconic name after they started using them against the soviets. The weapon is so easy and cheap to produce I'm pretty sure everyone used them back at ww2 and even today.
I'm fairly certain this is the first time I'm commenting on one of you videos, but I'm very humbled that a man of your talents is showing interest in the history of my home country although through TH-cam video's. :P
All in all, I really enjoy watching these reaction videos of yours specifically because our interests align when it comes to all the history and military stuff. Wish you and anyone else reading this all the best!
EDIT: Just wanted to point out that by no means was the video bad, it's just that the creators could've put a little more time and *thought* into it!
Fire bottles were first used in the Spanish civil war, but they were pretty crude makeshift weapons. Finnish Molotov Cocktails improved upon the design and mass produced it.
Although the idea came from the Spanish civil war, those were just kerosene filled bottles. Finns improved the idea by adding Pine Tar to make the flammable liquid sticky.
It worked like a little napalm bomb. Primarily used to melt the rubber tracks off of T-26's and other rubber tracked vehicles.
I hate how they used Nazi Waffen-SS Nordland Division uniforms to represent Finnish soldiers outfits during the continuation war..... Makes me a bit angry ngl
true :D
oh yeah I just realised that
oh that's not nordland it's the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking
Yeah, like every finn was part of SS-wiking division 😂
Yes. It ruined the whole video for me.
I'm certain the voice acting is made for this video and isn't some old recording. Also real life propaganda would never go to this amount of detail but this is to explain the situation for the viewers of this video. But at least the finnish voice actor is actually speaking finnish (the simo häyhä video where he's speaking english with a russian accent was kinda cringe)
Also the mannerheim line scene is ridiculous. What would be closer to reality would be non-stop 20 minute artillery barrage by the soviets, followed by thousands of russians. You don't just cross an open field, get through barbed wire to grenade distance, and actually manage throw that grenade and hit multiple entrenched people with it. There's a reason why all military grenade training is done in trences. Because it's perfect cover against grenades. You might hit somebody, but trences provide cover for individuals meaning even an artillery shell shoudn't take out multiple guys at a time.
I get what the video is trying to show but "squad vs squad" is a bit silly. It's a nation at war against another nation.
PS
Finns aren't and weren't nazis. And they sure as hell didn't dress like them.
I totally agree with you. Even they were a number of Finns volunteers to serve in SS unit. But that's different story from Finnish soldiers in Finnish army.
6:33 That roadside ditches! 😅
Literal trenches haha
Someone even cleared all the snow from those ditches, how convenient.
Why are my passed grandpas dressed in Wehrmacht uniform and gear.? MP-40 mag pack doesn't help much with M-31 drums.. :D
One Finnish korpisotilas was worth of ten soviet soldier. I.e. Soviet had the man power and thr equipment. Finland had the will.
“Suojautukaa” that gives me ptsd from cbrn training and running up hills with a gas mask.
There's another Jeremy Clarkson WW2 documentary I highly recommend reacting to. It's called 'PQ17: An Arctic Convoy Disaster'.
Story about Molotov Cocktail; Molotov stated in a pre-war conference that he will send picnic baskets to feed 'poor' finnish people... So after the bombardments started, finns stated that they will happily offer a cocktail for Molotov (in a form of petrol bomb).
Great video👍
Suomi PERKELE
my grandfather fought in the war and my mom has a story he told her that one time he snuck in some sort of trench, waited for a tank to get by and then sabotaged the tank. I can't believe the stress.
"I'm not going over the frozen water" you'd be shot lol
that last battle had the most inaccuracies. bodyarmour was only for the sapper troops. And for the finnish front on the continuation war there was not a single shock army/division contained in the armies there. So that battle was purely fictive as to who was against who. Not to mention molotovs being mainly for anti tank...
"Podv. Gruppa Vyborg" had some Shturmoviki amongst their number.
And during the 1944 Red Army massive attack on our lines the town of Viipuri (the2.largest in the country) was getting flanked by Soviet armor from the east and infantry from the west so it had to be left with mostly rear guard troops stalling the onslaught. Mostly completely worn out units with a serious ammo shortage and practcally no AT-guns. And by 1944 summer, the Soviet armor was pretty secured by infantry and they simply overwhelmed the defense on that sector. All the supply lines where strafed with Sturmoviks (my grandpa getting a nasty personal interest from one pilot who wanted to empty his 23mm shvak-cannon's baskets before turning home..) The Red Army had approx. 450 different cannons, howitzers and 120mm mortars and Katjushas per every kilometer on the line.. An entire Finnish regiment was pulverized at the break point on the Isthmus near the coast of the Gulf of Finland. When out numbered by 5/1 on fresh front line troops and 20/1 on artie and air power and fuel and firepower in general.. But later in the summer we got our then President Risto Ryti to fool Adolf Hitler to send a Luftwaffe ground attack fleet with Stuka's and Focke Wulf 190's to bomb the Soviet assembly areas with 500kg bombs and strafes.. And also Stu-40 assault cannons to drill those T-34's and SU-152's. The man went to prison as a claimed "war criminal".. Eternal honour for him for that how the head of the state sacrified his life for the nation like a true leader.
The Finnish army and the big fathers have been on that front, so thank you for these videos
I agree with the video. Even nowdays we are a little bit lacking in urban warfare training. Back then it was even smaller thing because most soldiers were trained to defend and not capture cities. We do well in the wild, but urban warfare is a bit shaky. We are doing better nowdays, but still not enough if you ask me
The adio bit on 13:00 sound like a radio bit from that time
The KP31 smg was extremely heavy. Weighing in at 6.5kg or over 14lbs with the big drum, you really didn't have an edge in mobility. Except when comparing to a fire support weapon, like the automatic rifles. And this is indeed the role it often served. So much more convenient than lugging around a DP for example. But superior fire rate, reload speed and controllability. The comparative lack of range didn't often come to play in the forests.
Contrary to what the video kind of insinuates, the 9mm was very relevant most of the time. It doesn't completely replace the full size automatic rifle, of course. But in most situations just outperforms it wildly. Especially against enemies who insist on charging your positions. Basically a mini-MG42 with that accurate burst capability. Fortified positions would sometimes even have spare KP barrels laid out for use, just like with a crew served machine gun. I don't know if you see similar application with other SMG's really.
my immediate thought was " well that was lame opening of fire for an ambush ", also i think the first minute of the ambush would be sufficient casulties to justify to move to your fallpoint and rinse and repeat in a different spot. maximise enemy casulties and minimize own casulties, insert the psychologil elemet of fear of the snow and forest, thats the way of guerillas. But this is specific scenario for data so we can forgive it
about the finnish audio in the video, i never heard that so i think that one is just voice acted by someone young guy just for this video :)
like my grandfather says we keep them 2 times away you can try even once
*Fire and Ice* (Winter War).
Vyborg was taken in 44, not 43..
I've honestly never heard of Finns using molotov coctails against infantry. Might have happened but not standard procedure. Russians did have the SN-42 body armour.
I'm not sure if it's true since, I've only heard about it. Doesn't sound unbelievable tho in my opinion. But the frozen lakes and rivers were apparently used as weapons by finns. Since soviet forces would try to use the ice planes to advance or retreat, as moving in the snow drifts of the forest is really difficult. Finns would order well timed artillery strikes on these ice planes, drowning soldiers in hundreds. The idea itself isn't as crazy as it would sound, since on normal circumstances the ice will freeze really thick during the winter. Easily able to carry tanks. It doesn't take artillery strikes that well tho.
it is true, the soviets acknowledge it.
You might want to react to the Tali-Ihantala movie with war footage.
Even when the Soviets were losing massively, they'd still have dedicated "Block Detachments" to shoot their own retreating troop. Not the most flexible and forgiving people to say the least.
Actually the blocking detachments mainly turned soldiers back to the line or arrested them where they would face charges. Thousands were executed but the majority were returned to the front in a different unit or assigned to a penal detachment
My grandpa was in Suomussalmi. If you want stories put message to me.
actually viipuri was lost mostly due to bad finnish communication, intelligence failures and routs. I have never heard of these soviet "storm troops"
The "storm troops" in the video look and sound way more like the Soviet Assault Sappers/combat engineers with their submachine guns and SN-42 body armor
You can any one of those Vets on Russian side, what they think about commissars
They got rank, not the leading officer. And those kill a lot of their own soldiers.
I can imagine a finnish soldier standing on a hill and giving a war cry...
It's not real battle audio, but she is speaking finnish, so I guess the russian spoken is actual russian too... That's impressive
we needed to jump to icy water in our border jaeger training when it was -23 degrees...can say it was not the best experience... :D
I really don't get the idea of this animation.
These Finish mosin-nagants were not copy of russian mosin-nagants, actually these guns were reburfished russian guns.
The Russian sounded pretty good to my ear, but I don't really speak it, so I don't know if it was real or genuine footage. The Finnish was pure in those depictions. Maybe just a voice actor (back then announcers would've been old men with prestigious pronounciation), but definitely a Finn saying the lines. As a Finn I can confirm.
Vyborg was not fought in 1943. And Finnish troops were not trained for street fights.
Idiotic frontal assaults did happen, so they are used in scenarios on purpose. It tries to depict the tactics that weren't effective in Finland But were still in common use
Right. Those were the Assault Sappers, the Soviet’s own assault engineers. Their body armor can withstand a pistol round only though.
well it depends on the range, most at about 200m it could stop a full-powered rifle cartridge.
16:22 there was around 10 times more attackers than defenders so its not that simple
Im a finn, and this is the first time im hearing we using barbed wire in winter war. I seriously doubt it.
For understanding Hitler's decision to launch Operation Barbarossa, knowledge of the Winter War is of utmost importance.
Consider the Molotov - Ribbentrop pact where the Germans were happy to let the Soviets take Finland as Hitler did not believe Finland could be defended against the Soviets.
Then Hitler notices the surprise result of the war and decides that Soviet Union is a rotting structure, just one firm kick away from collapsing.
"the Germans were happy to let the Soviets take Finland " And not only that, but Nazi Germany actively supported Soviet Union against Finland in 1939-40 by stopping western military aid to Finland. How funny, that only 15 months after the Winter War ended Germany attacked Soviet Union and Finland also attacked SU to get back the lost territories.
You should also mention, that Germans and what you called Nazi Germans backed up Finland too.
Finland and German has long roots of fighting. But Finns have fight along with Soviets and Sweden also.
There is plenty to dig in.
We finns Actually invented The Molotov cocktail
The animation, voice acting and all of that stuff in this video was great but in terms of historical accuracy it was all over the place. Really poorly done in that respect but maybe I missed the point somewhere, all of the scenarios presented here did not really depict the reality of the Finnish wars.
No, they most definitely didn't have body armor. They were lucky to have appropriate clothing and enough food and ammunition. Anyway, the story seems correct in the broad lines, but it does paint the stereotypical picture we have seen so many times before in these things. The 300 Spartans against the immortal horde from Persia etc.
yes they did have body armour, but only the pioneer-sappers were supposed to have them, and even then useually they never got the number they were supposed to have on paper.
They got more men to throw to the fight.
If Finland got same amount of men, they have no change.
if you want to see an example of defense-in-depth with multiple lines, look what russians did to germans near stalingrad and kursk. =D russians are not stupid, they learn and they made an art out of defense in depth.
kursk yes, stalingrad no. the actual defenses in stalingrad were not 'defense-in-depth', most of the battle they didn't even have reserves on the right side of the river.
Russians were not very intelligent and way too arrogant relying on their manpower. They walked by roads and using non suitable clothes and had poor support, they suffered from cold and hunger unlike Finns they had good support with civilians troops like "Lotta" organization, female non armed troops. Finland worked like a machine, every part had a purpose of their own.
btw, i really would love to see you react to the awesome finnish movie called Talvisota. it shows very realistic way all the aspects of the war. it really just is amazing war movie fro early 80's FINNISH movie. :)
Same 👍
The audio before battles are not historical audio but they talk The same as news report during The war Time what i Have come across looking at Finnish history documents
Heard ever about word "Motti"?
The Soviet "assault sappers" or combat engineers actually were issued the SN-42 body armor. Made of a steel strong enough to defeat pistol rounds from longer smg barrels. Some examples of the armor still exist today with dents from the 9mm round of the MP-40
For every Finnish soldier there were 10 russian soldiers. That' Was up!
yeah 71 rounds, also takes about 71 years to load
Sen takia oli yleensä myös lataaja erikseen joka lipasti rumpuja sitä mukaa kun niitä tyhjennettiin, ainakin puolustus asemissa
@@Juhani96 Juu näin oli👍
If you didn't notice already, Finns love you and actually it's a miracle that Finns didn't kidnapping you when you visited in Finland. Next time you will get the Finnish passport without questions... So we expect that you will join to us if the Russia attack ^^
Go down shoot, go around shoot, look the olece make a spot, hole and wait and look where to shot next. I remember my jeager school. And many smart things hoiw to fisght, I think finnish soldies are maybe not best, but wise.
actually come to think of it, in the aftermath of raate road, soviets escaped via a frozen lake iirc.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Suomussalmi
The animations are a bit off, there were no body armors in WW2, and the continuation war uniforms are not accurate.
The Soviets did win the 1944 battle of Viipuri, though to be fair their numerical strength was 8 to 1.
One military tactic i can tell, i hope it is not some war secrect. You attact, make hole put bomb go back push up dynatic rope and take your hole again, then boom track it again, go back and foward, sorry badly english, nut we know how to faight, i am so filled differend tecnics.
It was a about superior enemy not about any lightning forces at Viipuri... lightning my ass.
The animation makes Finns to look German. The look is totally wrong.
Jostain syystä SS-wiking uniformut päällä tos viipuri klipissä 😂
Actually the Mannerheim line was not really impressive at all, but it was good propaganda for the Soviets who were terrified because of it and tried to go around it wich lost them thousands of men
Can you please make a reaction video to the "OPLAN EXODUS" of the Special Action Force-Philippine National Police!😊❤️
Nobody wore body armour in the IIWW.. Somehow the Soviet infantry soldier's rolled blanket tied around the upper body has evolved into a sort of a single strap flak jacket in this video. Also the camo was not in use back in 1944. The Finnish Unknown Soldier from 2017 is pretty accurate on gear and clothing on both sides. Another gem is the Cross of Iron by Sam Peckinpah from 1977. The T-34/85 attack on the factory building is to this day a classic. All the Red Army and Wehrmacht gear seems to be spot on. The whining roar which was typical for the T-34's diesel engine is the cherry on top for that scene.
lol, you're ignorant look up SN-42 (aka steel bib) body armour, issued to soviet combat engineers (pioneer-sappers). infact they had SN-38, SN-39, SN-40, SN-40 and SN-46 (the post-war variant) too.
it was intended for close combat where SMGs (pistol rounds), bayonets and grenade shrapnel were the biggest killers. however it could also stop rifle rounds at the right ranges and angles. in modern rating systems, they would fall under Class II vests.
the germans also produced similar vests for the SS in very small quantities (and mostly used captured SN-42s)
@@matthiuskoenig3378 my entire point was that the battle described here never happened in the first place.. There was no house to house fighting in the town of Viipuri.. I have never heard either of my grandfathers or anyone else who fought the Red Army here, in my home country, to even mention any sort of body armour with the Soviet troops they fought against..
@@StPaul76 you said no one in ww2 had body armour, that is false. and yes it was used by the soviets in finland. Finish troops even captured some of it and photographed it.
At some point numbers will win
🔥🔥🔥
Mannerheim line is longest barrier line, longer than Chinese wall. 😁
No it's not, not even close. The Great Wall of China is some thousands of kilometers wide, while the Mannerheim Line was 132 km.
I mean, I know you are joking, but some of the viewers might not. :)
@@heikkisuora2500 😁
was a superior enemy not any lightning forces
Some say that Soviet lost like 1,5m
Would you react to the Kurdish special forces?
Where was häyhä? And why theres nothing about that soviet had 1milj soldier and we had under 500k...
No soviets definitely not have bodyarmor neither had our Finnish heroes