Love the Finns! Massive respect for such a smaller force, fighting for good, against a much larger oppressor. Goes to show what good training and discipline can do, along with better tactics. Long live Finland!
Could also be for better equipments too, since Russian Oppressors only had massive vehicles for road movements, but no winter clothing or equipments for snow. Finnish equipments were not most modern, but light and fit to the conditions.
I passed through those forests travelling from Helsinki to St Petersburg 2 years ago. Gave me a sense of what tough terrain this is, especially in Winter. Truly a force multiplier if ever there was one.
Just the fact that the Finns could all pretty much use cross-country skis made a huge difference. The Soviets had numbers the Finns had every other advantage and made the most of every single thing they had. It's not the first time a small number of defenders have defeated a huge number of attackers but its definitely one of the biggest and most impressive times.
I live in Suomussalmi, in the parts that were burnt down... Most People didnt come back to live here because it took way too long to repair the town, they moved to Ämmänsaari, a bit more south. Im honoured to see my home town in a video like this, Oh yeah. Happy indpendance day Finns! 🇫🇮
The first dokumented use of motti-tactics is from 16th century when a small force of skiers with crossbows fought off a superior Russian force on the Carelian isthmus outside Viborg.
@@poowaffle Nah, it is only few loud ones who think like that, dont be fooled. When it comes to our sovereignity and defence, our parliament is delightfully unanamous, and clear majority of Finnish people have a strong willingness to defend our country.
The 3 most dangerous sounds: When the mountainside starts to speak farsi. When the jungle starts to speak vietnamese. And when the snow starts to speak finnish.
My great uncle,Captain and a surgeon, walked miles on that road after the fighting was over. He said at some parts you have to walk on bodies due the heavy russian losses.
Small nitpick: I'm not sure if Finnish Army ever had artillery propaganda shells aviable. Air forces did drop some leaflets but lot of them were spread simply by ski patrolls. Just to add to the last one: I'm sure that air dropped leaflets were most numerous but i think that the ones spread by patrolls were most effetive due to the more precise delivery.
yes to be honest I'm not so sure about that one either. And I have caught a few other mistakes by the author I got this from whenever I read about Talvisota, so I'm not sure.
no matter the outcome, i would have helped the finns, as a swede it should have been everyones duty to do back then, sad they didnt send more of us to help our brothers. cant also imgaine a more beautiful place to die in then a nordic forrest with brothers around you.
Greetings from Oulu! :) Excellent video and reminds me of my grandfather who fought there and lost his life. Another grandfather survived and told some stories about the war but not much.
@@cinderellaandstepsisters Depends, English is usually the only foreign language we know. Atleast for me, If I concentrate on pronouncing it, I can speak pretty much the same as Americans, but if I'm tired, I start being sloppy.
Soviet Russian: _Suomipojat! Tulkaa hakemaan leipää! (Finn boys! Come get some bread!)_ Finn: _Tulkaa TE hakemaan leivän päälle VOITA! (YOU come get BUTTER on your bread!)_
My great grandfather fought in the 16th independent battalion. The battalion was formed from reservists of the town of Kuusamo which lies above Suomussalmi. My great grandfather survived the war but was traumatized and never spoke about it. He also fought in the continuation war and the Lapland war. I'm forever thankfull for him and his bravery.
3:29 The blockaid was formed by ” Osasto kontula” that was made of two seperste companys (Kontula and Simola) and a combat engineer platoon. It was later inforced with a gorilla warfare battalion on the 21.12.1939. And a machine gun platoon from seperate battalion 15.
0:59 The 9. Army under Mikhail Duhanovin was supposed to take Suomussalmi, Oulu and Rovaniemi. In the first step of the war the 54. Mountain Division was to go to Kuhmo, 163. Division to Suomussalmi and 122. Division to Salla, the 44. Division started fighting at the midpoint of December.
As a young man, I lived in Finland for 2 years including Lappeenranta, close to the Russian border. Two years ago, I went back and also stayed a night in Suomussalmi and visited many of the battle grounds including Raate Tie and to the border. Having visited this and other battle sites, I understand better the reason for Finland's conscription law--all male citizens are required to serve in the military or public service for around 6 months. Did I get that right? Kiitos.
Awesome videos buddy. Was disheartened to see how few views you have relative to the quality of these videos. Signed up on patreon to help cover a portion of your expenses. Keep it up!
Finns has pointed out what a small but well trained and determined troops can do against idiots poorly lead and motivated by propaganda . Another proof that soviets were idiots was that this lesson was ignored and not much later another disaster rain down when nazis invaded Soviet Union . Finns are fighters , they have my respect .
Let's be fair, soldiers motivated by propaganda have achieved impressive feats at multiple points in history: the Assassins proved that in the Crusades, as did the Hitler Youth at Berlin. The individual Soviet soldier often fought bravely, but he was let down by inadequate training, inexperienced leadership, and inflexible tactical doctrine.
@@stephenwood6663 Propaganda has its use , when is a substitute for training , adequate equipment and leadership as it were for red army , is pure stupidity .
@@Mr_Fu_Manchu The Red Army's failures in training and leadership were, in large part, the result of its simultaneous expansion, and the purging of its officer corps. The former was going to result in inexperienced troops seeing combat, and there was very little way around that. The latter had a lot to do with Stalin's fears of a military coup. These fears were not unfounded (some of Trotsky's supporters actively pleaded with him to use a coup to reclaim power!), so I hesitate to call them 'stupid', but their deletrous results on the Red Army's effectiveness are undeniable.
I like the point that the 44th division had brought their ceremonial uniforms to participate in a victory parade, before being nearly annihilated. I always felt that Battle of Ratte road needs more attention. There are almost no videos, or lectures on TH-cam about it.
Raate. The double a means it's long as in fAther. Finnish doesn't have the 2 th sounds of English, so we Finns would spell that word 'faadör', and mother as 'madör'. Then matter we would spell 'mätör'. Ratte would be said like 'rut-teh'. That teh is best achieved by saying 'tet' (or bet), like the English speakers who drop the last t - so not as 'tay' - Finnish spelling 'tei' (like vein).Furtherspelling ee means just that eh sound stretched long (same with all the vowels) - important because all the ei, ee & single e happen frequently. Compare the mother and father 'a & aa' above. Texas drawl might help in Finnish :)
@@timomastosalo cool story bro. raate ratte, sama mies eri verkkarit. I think we all know what he means knowing the context off this comment section. And he's 100% right these are good tactics and these are not so popular. There are bit some tension when talking about the winter war on open platforms. Russians still view these conflicts in their own way. Not much is told there about the molotov ribbentrop pact secret protocol and if it's viewed, it's "necessary evil" said by Putin.😏 And the start off the conflict "mainilan laukaukset" are still said by Russian government channels that it was Finns that provoked them first or it is still unclear. Yes in 1989 and 1990 Russian admited the truth about these things but with Putins dictatorship the view point of these things have changed. Actually the whole nation is changing. Making closed internet for the nation. China is selling them the tech. And they are banning or not letting global platforms be part of their society. They have started making their own news media, social network etc etc. " At a press conference on 19 December 2019, Putin went further and announced that the signing of the pact was no worse than the 1938 Munich Agreement, which led to the partition of Czechoslovakia."in Krim Ukraine conflict. The propaganda structure during mainilan laukaukset was seen again in Krim conflict.
@@sampov8498 That comparison to the oartition of Czechoslovakia back fires: both are as wrong, bigger nations bullying the smaller ones. So it doesn't give it approval. I'm aware of the change after the early 90s - lived through those times as a young adult already. And the separate news source there has been working for 10 years or more. I mentioned the Raate road because English speakers can spell filer and filler, and notice the difference. I would get it if it was some name like Köyliöistenniitty. that not every letter or dot is there - but Raate doesn't have many strange moving parts. I'd rate it having just A difficulty . awkward as aardvark. And they write Greek names correctly, which are longer and more complex than Raate, they just usually drop the Greek endins, in the names off Antiquity. So it's just a too sloppy reading - which is even easy to fix, so I won't let that just slip. There's that same great country attitude as with other great powers, not caring enough. The Greek names they care about, coz it's linked with the idea of the roots of tehir civilization being there - so it's like owning the culture of Antiquity as your 'own history' - and the difficult names seem to form no problem to learn.
One thing for sure I would love to see the battle of taipale where the Soviet army with superior numbers were defeated by heavily fortified finish troops and this battle lasted from December6th to December 27th 1939
The channel is finally connected to a teespring shop. Take a look if you'd like to support our work. There are a few design for the time being, including some cool Winter War shirts and hoodies. And if you'd like to get something specific let me know in the comments and I will add the design for you. The delivery takes some time but the quality is decent and I ordered a couple samples for myself. teespring.com/stores/world-war-ii-epic-battles
It would be great if you covered and some of the Larger, yet unknown battles of WWII such as Operation Bagration or Operation Ichi Go. No matter what keep uploading great videos.
Yes, just so it happens I've been thinking about Operation Bagration recently. This is the shame how one of the greatest offensive operations of WWII doesn't get that much attention on historical channels.
@@Kopyrda Yes, it is weird how operations like Barbarossa and Typhon get so much attantion despite their failure. While the success of Bagration seems to have faded.
Finns found the communication codes on a Russian soldiers body. They were able to get direct information for a period of time. They also sent messages to the soviets pretending to be remnants of the units annihilated by the Finns.
Decisive factor of those battles was finnish ability to construct winter roads thru wildernes and supply troops with hot tents to rest ammunition to use and hot food to eat. That attack against soviet forces began when those roads are finnished.
3:28 You forgot to mention. The 27th regiment and Kajaani batallion attacked the road now called Kuhmontie. In the first step there was the 27th regiments second and third battalion who got lost about two kilometers west. The first one to get on the road was the first battalion led by Eino Lassinen. At that time ”Stalin alter ego” the Soviet Unions propaganda leader Mehls was leaving back to go home. The fins didn’t know what they had at hands so Mehls got away after a small skirmish. At that time Mehls realiced how weak a unit was when advancing on a narrow road.
Great video! I reccommend the mini-series on netflix called unknown soliders. Great series from the ww2 that shows the frontlines of the finland/russia war
Today marks the 82nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Winter War. The Winter War was a war between Finland and the Soviet Union from November 30, 1939 to March 13, 1940. The Soviet Union began the Winter War by attacking without a declaration of war, and the war ended 105 days later with the Moscow Peace Treaty. The League of Nations condemned the attack and resigned from the Soviet Union on December 14, 1939.
The Russian 44. Division was first supposed to be a part of a special unit attacking from Repola to Kuhmo. But based on how the offencive was going it went to Suomussalmi.
The ”Toinen rajaosasto” had 42 and not 58 soldiers. ”Retreated without offering much of resistance,” is what you said. Really it fought defencive battles in Lehtovaara, Juntsuranta, Salo, Keträ, Linnansalmi, Kaapinsalmi, Kiviaho, Palovaaran crossroad, Koiranvaara, Käpylä, Kuurtola, Myllyjoki, Heinäpuro and Kylänmäki where they were stopped.
Given the massive issues with the cold, I am unsure the finnns were really worse equiped. They might not have had tanks, but had appear to have been much better equipment keeping people warm, fed, camouflaged, mobile, ... .
6:34 That notion about the Finish airforce is false. The Russians sent a huge barrage of artillery and airplane fire onto Finish positions. The Finns thought they were going to counter-attack so the fins went into defencive positions, but instead of attacking the Russians fled over the ice. The retreat was a success and they retreated back to Juntusranta where they were for the rest of the war.
I highly Reccomend you find a way to watch the finnish Movie "The Winter War" from 1989, its like 2-3 hours but it worthwhile & showcase the Winterwar from Start & to its end. & if you want to know about the 1944 Finnish/SOVJET War watch the Movie "Talia-Ihantala"1944. there are atleast 3-4 movies about Finnish & Russo Early, Mid & late Parts of WW2.
Village Ketola..?its only one house. Battle was in Alassalmi not in Peranka and village is Haapovaara, where russian have their commandplace.. Good video and nice work!
yeah this is the problem I always have when searching for Talvisota information. One source is contradicting the other and I have no way to confirm which one is correct.
Finland's problems were that the Red Army was quickly trained. In addition, there are myths, that one Finnish platoon can stop an entire division. This is not the case at all. The ratio of 1:5 has not been canceled. Quite large forces fought against the Red Army in Karelia, which were not enough at Viipuri (Vyborg) in March 1940. The experience of the Winter War showed, that only the 44th and 18th infantry divisions were completely wiped out. However, if you remember the 168th and 54th divisions for the Fins, not everything is so brilliant.
@@allualex2606 1=10 is December and January. Then the attitude towards the enemy changed. When it became clear that the Red Army faced a serious opponent, the ratio of irretrievable losses changed. The result is 1 to 5.
@@allualex2606 It is very difficult to turn over the consciousness of the European man in the street about the Winter War. In February 1940, during the capture of Fort Poppius and other important defense nodes, there were no endless chains of Soviet soldiers. From the beginning there were "Stalin's sledgehammers" - 203 mm howitzer M1931 (B-4). Then there was a company of scouts with a company of sappers. The same myths about the Mongol army of the 13th century that they took in quantity and they sent countless crowds to the walls of the city.. No, they had excellent technology. As one of the smart people said, "Stalin is Genghis Khan with a telegraph."
The commander of the 44th division escaped by using the one airplane the division had. (It was meant for scouting IIRC) With him he took the flag of the division and the commissar of the division. ...This likely had a destructive effect on the morale of the troops. Also, the official reason why the commander was excecuted was that he abandoned a number of field kitchens to the enemy. The Soviets didn't want to write down all the losses because admitting in official papers that an entire division had been lost, would have been bad for morale.
None of the different sources I used mentioned the commander actually using an aircraft to escape. It's so difficult to find precise, legit informations on Talvisota.
The Army of the Isthmus was composed of six divisions under the command of Hugo Österman. The II Army Corps was positioned on its right flank and the III Army Corps, on its left flank. The IV Army Corps was located north of Lake Ladoga. It was composed of two divisions under Juho Heiskanen, who was soon replaced by Woldemar Hägglund. The North Finland Group was a collection of White Guards, border guards and drafted reservist units under Wiljo Tuompo. That is a cpy from wikipedia Winter war page. It seems to be quite accurate. There is more accurate description in some sources, but those are in books written in Finnish.
Pronunciation guide for Finnish words: Stress almost always on the first syllable (PEH-ran-kah, OH-lew). In composite nouns, stress independently on each composite word (SEW-mousse-SAL-me). All vowels are pronounced, double vowels with extra length (RAAH-teh). Double consonants pronounced with extra weight (LONK-kah)
1930-1940, finns were, mostly farmers. So, if you wanted to eat well during winter, then you hunt. So, during Winter war, day someone could call freezing day from white hell, finn calls that nice sunday.
@@TheNismo777 war is inevitable and necessary if there is to be peace, think about it if hitler had won WW2 there would be a constant state of proxy wars all over the globe still fighting the nazis and they’re idea of a dystopian era where the third Reich rules for a thousand years, look it up they weren’t fighting for freedom only we were and we won so there is peace between a lot of countries not all but still
Never heard Finns using propaganda shells. And i highly doubt it becouse our limited resources wouldnt allow that. I need to make some reseach for this.
@@loysanperai know Finland used propaganda leaflets but in artilleryshells those i havent heard. Usually airforce dropped propaganda in Soviet positions.
The Finnish intelegence about Russian forces in the area was completely wrong. On the first of December Finland flew an intelegence flight over Russia where they thought Russia had a company at Juntsuranta and a battalion at Raate, when in reality they had two regiments in Juntsuranta and one regiment in Raate. The leader of the ’Toinen rajaosasto’ Martti Elo chose to go tell the leader of Seperste batallion 15 leader that there really is two regiments there, but on the way he met liutenant Arvo Airanne. It still isn’t known what they talked about. Airanne went on his way and Elo took his boot and sock off put his toe on his rifles trigger and the barrel in his mouth, he killed himself. The next leader of ’toinen rajaosasto’ was Airanne. Elos message was really first beleaved on the 3rd of December when the seperste battalion 15 started to get the right picture of things.
Winter won. The Finns had prepared, the Soviets had not. they died in vain like no others , frozen , starving, with the "white death "stalking your lines in the night. All were doomed. Stalin had all returned soviet prisoners executed.
I can only think of one reason why the Allies supported the evil Soviets against the evil Nazis. they wanted to let the soviets do the bulk of the fighting and take most of the casualties.
You think Soviets or germans are not aware of cold weather? Not very clever? It was significantly long supply line and it was also one of the coldest winters ever recorded
The nickel mines of Petsamo which was the main source for the reich was taken over and the114 th rifle division was stationed to secure , Finland lost its access to the Arctic , Rolled up the Finnish defenses which took 10 years of their military budget to beyond the impenetrable mannerheim line, in mere 3 months The Red army achieved all its objectives despite setbacks. Romania saw it and gave up Bessarabia without a fight. If conquering Finland was the objective, soviets could have simply walked into Finland in the summer.
You've read too much stalinist propaganda. The Mannerheim line was a poor man's defense line, not like it is portrayed in Russian historiography. It's obvious that Stalin attempted to annex Finland; he even founded a puppet government at Terijoki made up of Finnish communists. The British and French were preparing to come to Finland's help at the end of WW2 and Stalin needed to end the war as quickly as possible. Britain threatened the Soviet Union with war if they occupied Finland.
Love the Finns! Massive respect for such a smaller force, fighting for good, against a much larger oppressor. Goes to show what good training and discipline can do, along with better tactics. Long live Finland!
Could also be for better equipments too, since Russian Oppressors only had massive vehicles for road movements, but no winter clothing or equipments for snow. Finnish equipments were not most modern, but light and fit to the conditions.
I passed through those forests travelling from Helsinki to St Petersburg 2 years ago. Gave me a sense of what tough terrain this is, especially in Winter. Truly a force multiplier if ever there was one.
Love the Finns as well and long live Finland 🇫🇮 greetings from Sweden 🇸🇪
@@tommymagnusson Love you too 🇫🇮🇸🇪
Just the fact that the Finns could all pretty much use cross-country skis made a huge difference. The Soviets had numbers the Finns had every other advantage and made the most of every single thing they had. It's not the first time a small number of defenders have defeated a huge number of attackers but its definitely one of the biggest and most impressive times.
I live in Suomussalmi, in the parts that were burnt down... Most People didnt come back to live here because it took way too long to repair the town, they moved to Ämmänsaari, a bit more south. Im honoured to see my home town in a video like this, Oh yeah. Happy indpendance day Finns! 🇫🇮
Amazing. Welcome to the channel. I'll try to do a more general Talvisota video for the finale this year.
I live in finland
"Motti" - or 'motti-tactics' - taught at every military academy in the world to this day.
exactly
The first dokumented use of motti-tactics is from 16th century when a small force of skiers with crossbows fought off a superior Russian force on the Carelian isthmus outside Viborg.
im pretty sure that every finn are proud and thankful of the veterans who has been in these wars and fight for their lives
No. It's almost illegal to be proud of our history and heritage.
@@poowaffle so you are saying that its almost illegal to be proud that we dont speak russian rn
@@poowaffle Nah, it is only few loud ones who think like that, dont be fooled. When it comes to our sovereignity and defence, our parliament is delightfully unanamous, and clear majority of Finnish people have a strong willingness to defend our country.
The first reaction of Finnish border guard to Soviet column: *"Perkele."*
Or possibly even "Saatana." BTW: Loved your work at Austerlitz, Jena & Friedland.
Seems legit.
@@Perkelenaattori
Lets say that it was "Ei perkeleen saatana" or "Ei saatanan perkele".
@puks roope Vittua nää selität, sanoit "If you don't know word perkele you are not to Finland" Ookko kännissä tai jtn?
@@Pikkabuu No, it's: "ryssä Perkele!" :)
Ah yes more winter war. Always nice
The 3 most dangerous sounds:
When the mountainside starts to speak farsi.
When the jungle starts to speak vietnamese.
And when the snow starts to speak finnish.
When the snow starts singing 'säkkijärven polkka'
My great uncle,Captain and a surgeon, walked miles on that road after the fighting was over. He said at some parts you have to walk on bodies due the heavy russian losses.
How about the Ukrainian losses?
@@corvusduluth ukrainian = russian back then :DD
they had no national identity because of russian empire that banned ukrainian in ukraine :D@@corvusduluth
Russians: "We are the experts of winter warfare!"
Finns: "Hold my salmiakki"
Hold my Minttu!
@@rhoddryice5412 Hold my makkara
If you aren't sure what that means,it means sausage.
@@miksoinen2546 hold my KALJA(beer)
@@tuulasuikki1455 hold my hockey stick
Hold my mämmi
Small nitpick: I'm not sure if Finnish Army ever had artillery propaganda shells aviable. Air forces did drop some leaflets but lot of them were spread simply by ski patrolls. Just to add to the last one: I'm sure that air dropped leaflets were most numerous but i think that the ones spread by patrolls were most effetive due to the more precise delivery.
yes to be honest I'm not so sure about that one either. And I have caught a few other mistakes by the author I got this from whenever I read about Talvisota, so I'm not sure.
There was some leaflets but they were so efective that they become obsolete.
OMG so proud and amazed over how tough and brave our finnish brothers are (from a swede)
no matter the outcome, i would have helped the finns, as a swede it should have been everyones duty to do back then, sad they didnt send more of us to help our brothers. cant also imgaine a more beautiful place to die in then a nordic forrest with brothers around you.
They only sent volunteers. If sweden had sent a real military force the out come of this whole war would have been way different
One of my favourite campaigns (and channels), thumbs up even before watching the video :)
Thank you.
Greetings from Oulu! :) Excellent video and reminds me of my grandfather who fought there and lost his life. Another grandfather survived and told some stories about the war but not much.
the city is OULU not OULOU. Great video once again!
Oulun torilla tavataan, perkele!
And finns can pronounce english so well?
@@cinderellaandstepsisters Depends, English is usually the only foreign language we know. Atleast for me, If I concentrate on pronouncing it, I can speak pretty much the same as Americans, but if I'm tired, I start being sloppy.
@@cinderellaandstepsisters Most of us do. Especially the younger generation.
@@cinderellaandstepsisters As you can see on the map at 1:00, it's misspelled. It's not about the pronunciation.
Battle of Raate road real number of captured items:
4,822 rifles
190 machine guns (mostly degtjarjova pehotnyi)
106 machine guns
29 anti-tank guns
71 field and anti-aircraft guns
43 tanks
10 armored vehicles
16 anti-aircraft rifles
1,170 horses
260 trucks
20 tractors
15 motorcycles
47 field kitchens
2 cars
@Tearjerker those 1170 horses were alive
Gotta love underdogs standing against all odds.
Excellent video, really awesome illustration of what Motti tactics actually looked like
Make more of these winter war vids, they are so good
Winter war are the most difficult videos.
@@ww2-epicbattles why?
Really An underrated channel to my opinion
One of the most interesting wars in Ww2. Nice work from Greece
You greeks were just as brave in WW2 :)
Soviet Russian: _Suomipojat! Tulkaa hakemaan leipää! (Finn boys! Come get some bread!)_
Finn: _Tulkaa TE hakemaan leivän päälle VOITA! (YOU come get BUTTER on your bread!)_
Mut kukaan ei tarjoa juustoa sen leivän ja voin kaveriksi....
@@Pikkabuu Ei passaa olla liian antelias :P
Ei kuitenkaa olis ollu mitään leipää jos olis käynyt hakemassa.
My great grandfather fought in the 16th independent battalion. The battalion was formed from reservists of the town of Kuusamo which lies above Suomussalmi. My great grandfather survived the war but was traumatized and never spoke about it. He also fought in the continuation war and the Lapland war. I'm forever thankfull for him and his bravery.
@@aarolamsa2756 Legend!!!
Exellent video. Cheers from Finland
3:29 The blockaid was formed by ” Osasto kontula” that was made of two seperste companys (Kontula and Simola) and a combat engineer platoon.
It was later inforced with a gorilla warfare battalion on the 21.12.1939. And a machine gun platoon from seperate battalion 15.
Great job. Thank you .
0:59 The 9. Army under Mikhail Duhanovin was supposed to take Suomussalmi, Oulu and Rovaniemi. In the first step of the war the 54. Mountain Division was to go to Kuhmo, 163. Division to Suomussalmi and 122. Division to Salla, the 44. Division started fighting at the midpoint of December.
Appreciate the video!
As a young man, I lived in Finland for 2 years including Lappeenranta, close to the Russian border. Two years ago, I went back and also stayed a night in Suomussalmi and visited many of the battle grounds including Raate Tie and to the border.
Having visited this and other battle sites, I understand better the reason for Finland's conscription law--all male citizens are required to serve in the military or public service for around 6 months. Did I get that right? Kiitos.
Minimum 6 months armed service. Minimum 9 months unarmed service in auxiliary units. 12 months civil service.
I love these videos! Proud to be a Finn! And I just last day watched the video about battle of frozen lakes too..
Great work and videos you deserve more views for the quality of your work.
This is what the History Channel used to be, back around 1998-2003ish, when it was actually good.
Excellent. Well done. Thank you.
An excellent video!
Awesome videos buddy. Was disheartened to see how few views you have relative to the quality of these videos. Signed up on patreon to help cover a portion of your expenses. Keep it up!
thank you so much. And I have some big plans for next year.
@@ww2-epicbattles can't wait to watch them :)
Finns has pointed out what a small but well trained and determined troops can do against idiots poorly lead and motivated by propaganda . Another proof that soviets were idiots was that this lesson was ignored and not much later another disaster rain down when nazis invaded Soviet Union . Finns are fighters , they have my respect .
Let's be fair, soldiers motivated by propaganda have achieved impressive feats at multiple points in history: the Assassins proved that in the Crusades, as did the Hitler Youth at Berlin.
The individual Soviet soldier often fought bravely, but he was let down by inadequate training, inexperienced leadership, and inflexible tactical doctrine.
@@stephenwood6663 Propaganda has its use , when is a substitute for training , adequate equipment and leadership as it were for red army , is pure stupidity .
@@Mr_Fu_Manchu The Red Army's failures in training and leadership were, in large part, the result of its simultaneous expansion, and the purging of its officer corps. The former was going to result in inexperienced troops seeing combat, and there was very little way around that. The latter had a lot to do with Stalin's fears of a military coup. These fears were not unfounded (some of Trotsky's supporters actively pleaded with him to use a coup to reclaim power!), so I hesitate to call them 'stupid', but their deletrous results on the Red Army's effectiveness are undeniable.
My grandmother was a strong Finnish woman, I was reminded of this battle like it was a bed time story
Well made video!
I like the point that the 44th division had brought their ceremonial uniforms to participate in a victory parade, before being nearly annihilated. I always felt that Battle of Ratte road needs more attention. There are almost no videos, or lectures on TH-cam about it.
Raate. The double a means it's long as in fAther. Finnish doesn't have the 2 th sounds of English, so we Finns would spell that word 'faadör', and mother as 'madör'. Then matter we would spell 'mätör'.
Ratte would be said like 'rut-teh'. That teh is best achieved by saying 'tet' (or bet), like the English speakers who drop the last t - so not as 'tay' - Finnish spelling 'tei' (like vein).Furtherspelling ee means just that eh sound stretched long (same with all the vowels) - important because all the ei, ee & single e happen frequently. Compare the mother and father 'a & aa' above. Texas drawl might help in Finnish :)
@@timomastosalo cool story bro. raate ratte, sama mies eri verkkarit. I think we all know what he means knowing the context off this comment section.
And he's 100% right these are good tactics and these are not so popular. There are bit some tension when talking about the winter war on open platforms. Russians still view these conflicts in their own way. Not much is told there about the molotov ribbentrop pact secret protocol and if it's viewed, it's "necessary evil" said by Putin.😏 And the start off the conflict "mainilan laukaukset" are still said by Russian government channels that it was Finns that provoked them first or it is still unclear. Yes in 1989 and 1990 Russian admited the truth about these things but with Putins dictatorship the view point of these things have changed. Actually the whole nation is changing. Making closed internet for the nation. China is selling them the tech. And they are banning or not letting global platforms be part of their society. They have started making their own news media, social network etc etc.
" At a press conference on 19 December 2019, Putin went further and announced that the signing of the pact was no worse than the 1938 Munich Agreement, which led to the partition of Czechoslovakia."in Krim Ukraine conflict.
The propaganda structure during mainilan laukaukset was seen again in Krim conflict.
@@sampov8498 That comparison to the oartition of Czechoslovakia back fires: both are as wrong, bigger nations bullying the smaller ones. So it doesn't give it approval. I'm aware of the change after the early 90s - lived through those times as a young adult already. And the separate news source there has been working for 10 years or more.
I mentioned the Raate road because English speakers can spell filer and filler, and notice the difference. I would get it if it was some name like Köyliöistenniitty. that not every letter or dot is there - but Raate doesn't have many strange moving parts. I'd rate it having just A difficulty . awkward as aardvark.
And they write Greek names correctly, which are longer and more complex than Raate, they just usually drop the Greek endins, in the names off Antiquity. So it's just a too sloppy reading - which is even easy to fix, so I won't let that just slip. There's that same great country attitude as with other great powers, not caring enough.
The Greek names they care about, coz it's linked with the idea of the roots of tehir civilization being there - so it's like owning the culture of Antiquity as your 'own history' - and the difficult names seem to form no problem to learn.
One thing for sure I would love to see the battle of taipale where the Soviet army with superior numbers were defeated by heavily fortified finish troops and this battle lasted from December6th to December 27th 1939
The channel is finally connected to a teespring shop. Take a look if you'd like to support our work. There are a few design for the time being, including some cool Winter War shirts and hoodies. And if you'd like to get something specific let me know in the comments and I will add the design for you. The delivery takes some time but the quality is decent and I ordered a couple samples for myself. teespring.com/stores/world-war-ii-epic-battles
@OrangeManBad I got the same one.
It would be great if you covered and some of the Larger, yet unknown battles of WWII such as Operation Bagration or Operation Ichi Go. No matter what keep uploading great videos.
Yes, just so it happens I've been thinking about Operation Bagration recently. This is the shame how one of the greatest offensive operations of WWII doesn't get that much attention on historical channels.
@@Kopyrda Yes, it is weird how operations like Barbarossa and Typhon get so much attantion despite their failure. While the success of Bagration seems to have faded.
25 dislikes from the 25 escaped soviet officers executed by Stalin.
Finns found the communication codes on a Russian soldiers body. They were able to get direct information for a period of time. They also sent messages to the soviets pretending to be remnants of the units annihilated by the Finns.
Decisive factor of those battles was finnish ability to construct winter roads thru wildernes and supply troops with hot tents to rest ammunition to use and hot food to eat. That attack against soviet forces began when those roads are finnished.
3:28 You forgot to mention. The 27th regiment and Kajaani batallion attacked the road now called Kuhmontie. In the first step there was the 27th regiments second and third battalion who got lost about two kilometers west. The first one to get on the road was the first battalion led by Eino Lassinen. At that time ”Stalin alter ego” the Soviet Unions propaganda leader Mehls was leaving back to go home. The fins didn’t know what they had at hands so Mehls got away after a small skirmish. At that time Mehls realiced how weak a unit was when advancing on a narrow road.
maybe I didn't forget but didn't know because english sources about talvisota are rare.
@@ww2-epicbattles Ok
Thanks for the vid. Subscribed. My grandfather lived his life at Suomussalmi and fought the wars. I have visited many times at these battlefields.
Mans wit the comeback in a time of need
Great video! I reccommend the mini-series on netflix called unknown soliders. Great series from the ww2 that shows the frontlines of the finland/russia war
Today marks the 82nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Winter War. The Winter War was a war between Finland and the Soviet Union from November 30, 1939 to March 13, 1940. The Soviet Union began the Winter War by attacking without a declaration of war, and the war ended 105 days later with the Moscow Peace Treaty. The League of Nations condemned the attack and resigned from the Soviet Union on December 14, 1939.
In the context of Suomussalmi battles they were never fought in Peranka but in Piispajärvi
The Russian 44. Division was first supposed to be a part of a special unit attacking from Repola to Kuhmo. But based on how the offencive was going it went to Suomussalmi.
Be great to have such an country as Finland as part of Nato.
They continue to prepare....
The Russian 163division was supposed to attack from Raatteentie staight away but its vommander Zelentsov changed it at the last moment.
The ”Toinen rajaosasto” had 42 and not 58 soldiers. ”Retreated without offering much of resistance,” is what you said. Really it fought defencive battles in Lehtovaara, Juntsuranta, Salo, Keträ, Linnansalmi, Kaapinsalmi, Kiviaho, Palovaaran crossroad, Koiranvaara, Käpylä, Kuurtola, Myllyjoki, Heinäpuro and Kylänmäki where they were stopped.
Given the massive issues with the cold, I am unsure the finnns were really worse equiped. They might not have had tanks, but had appear to have been much better equipment keeping people warm, fed, camouflaged, mobile, ... .
6:34 That notion about the Finish airforce is false. The Russians sent a huge barrage of artillery and airplane fire onto Finish positions. The Finns thought they were going to counter-attack so the fins went into defencive positions, but instead of attacking the Russians fled over the ice. The retreat was a success and they retreated back to Juntusranta where they were for the rest of the war.
Stop here, the Russians did too -Suomussalmi
@@trumpjongun8831 Nyhän sie vitsin murjasit voi, että mie sain nauraa makiasti.
I live in Suomussalmi!
Onks siel ees mitään :D joku sale ja kyläbaari.
@@allualex2606 Ei täällä ole mitään :DD Joku K-Marketti ja muita liikkeitä ja kauppoja ainakin
@@vKit_ Onks siel joku muisto homma liittyen toho Raatteentiehen?
@@allualex2606 On täällä tuo Raatteen Portti fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raatteen_Portti
Amazing how little has changed in the Russian army since then til now in Ukraine.
One more reason for me to finish my feature length documentary which is relevant with Russia's agressive stance.
Wait your the guy from simple history
This video makes me proud to be finnish
Even though I'm not from finland
TALVISOTA!!!!
... And Simo the World's greatest sniper?
There has to a separate video about this historic person. I've read about him. Very interesting.
10:56
6:55
Both of these anecdotes sound like absolute horseshit.
I mean the 10:56 sounds so badass so lets just pretend its true
What is that pistol in 7:09?
I highly Reccomend you find a way to watch the finnish Movie "The Winter War" from 1989, its like 2-3 hours but it worthwhile & showcase the Winterwar from Start & to its end. & if you want to know about the 1944 Finnish/SOVJET War watch the Movie "Talia-Ihantala"1944. there are atleast 3-4 movies about Finnish & Russo Early, Mid & late Parts of WW2.
one of the best ww2 movies.
how many troops in a "regiment"?
In the Finnish army less than one thousand.
Village Ketola..?its only one house. Battle was in Alassalmi not in Peranka and village is Haapovaara, where russian have their commandplace.. Good video and nice work!
yeah this is the problem I always have when searching for Talvisota information. One source is contradicting the other and I have no way to confirm which one is correct.
Finland's problems were that the Red Army was quickly trained. In addition, there are myths, that one Finnish platoon can stop an entire division. This is not the case at all. The ratio of 1:5 has not been canceled. Quite large forces fought against the Red Army in Karelia, which were not enough at Viipuri (Vyborg) in March 1940. The experience of the Winter War showed, that only the 44th and 18th infantry divisions were completely wiped out. However, if you remember the 168th and 54th divisions for the Fins, not everything is so brilliant.
1 Finn = 10 Russians
@@allualex2606 1=10 is December and January. Then the attitude towards the enemy changed. When it became clear that the Red Army faced a serious opponent, the ratio of irretrievable losses changed. The result is 1 to 5.
@@rurikhistorik6338 and those are just official numbers. Probably way more soviets died in Finland than reported.
@@allualex2606 It is very difficult to turn over the consciousness of the European man in the street about the Winter War. In February 1940, during the capture of Fort Poppius and other important defense nodes, there were no endless chains of Soviet soldiers. From the beginning there were "Stalin's sledgehammers" - 203 mm howitzer M1931 (B-4). Then there was a company of scouts with a company of sappers.
The same myths about the Mongol army of the 13th century that they took in quantity and they sent countless crowds to the walls of the city.. No, they had excellent technology. As one of the smart people said, "Stalin is Genghis Khan with a telegraph."
@@rurikhistorik6338 Finnish destroyed Russians with high kd and superior tactics and morale.
The commander of the 44th division escaped by using the one airplane the division had. (It was meant for scouting IIRC) With him he took the flag of the division and the commissar of the division. ...This likely had a destructive effect on the morale of the troops. Also, the official reason why the commander was excecuted was that he abandoned a number of field kitchens to the enemy. The Soviets didn't want to write down all the losses because admitting in official papers that an entire division had been lost, would have been bad for morale.
None of the different sources I used mentioned the commander actually using an aircraft to escape. It's so difficult to find precise, legit informations on Talvisota.
Bardzo dziękuję. Super ciekawy film 💐💐💐💐🌛🐶🌝😺🎶😃💖🎶🎶🎶😃
I have book about this battle, "Suomussalmen Sankarit" very nice book to read before going to sleep if you understand finnish
Anyone has a good source of Finnish army organization/order of battle in WW2?
The Army of the Isthmus was composed of six divisions under the command of Hugo Österman. The II Army Corps was positioned on its right flank and the III Army Corps, on its left flank.
The IV Army Corps was located north of Lake Ladoga. It was composed of two divisions under Juho Heiskanen, who was soon replaced by Woldemar Hägglund.
The North Finland Group was a collection of White Guards, border guards and drafted reservist units under Wiljo Tuompo.
That is a cpy from wikipedia Winter war page. It seems to be quite accurate. There is more accurate description in some sources, but those are in books written in Finnish.
Are you Simple History?
no. we just hire the same voice actor.
@@ww2-epicbattles Okay, thats still cool because he is really fitting for these kinds of videos
@@Mokkilaituri real question here is: are you Aake Kalliala?
Pronunciation guide for Finnish words:
Stress almost always on the first syllable (PEH-ran-kah, OH-lew). In composite nouns, stress independently on each composite word (SEW-mousse-SAL-me). All vowels are pronounced, double vowels with extra length (RAAH-teh). Double consonants pronounced with extra weight (LONK-kah)
aren't you the narrator for simple history?
yes it's him
Where have I heard this narrator before???
Simo Hayho helped win the war against Soviet Union.
1930-1940, finns were, mostly farmers. So, if you wanted to eat well during winter, then you hunt. So, during Winter war, day someone could call freezing day from white hell, finn calls that nice sunday.
Is it normal that the voice in almost each video is from Simple history?
Or is this like a side hobby?
He's a full time voice actor. We all pay him to narrate in our videos.
You are that simple history guy RIGHT?
Canadians and Finland’s would love to fight along each other or not
You mean finns?
No, we would not. Stop even dreaming about that. No more wars, what has been in the past shall stay there. Lets not repeate mistakes.
@@TheNismo777 war is inevitable and necessary if there is to be peace, think about it if hitler had won WW2 there would be a constant state of proxy wars all over the globe still fighting the nazis and they’re idea of a dystopian era where the third Reich rules for a thousand years, look it up they weren’t fighting for freedom only we were and we won so there is peace between a lot of countries not all but still
Never heard Finns using propaganda shells. And i highly doubt it becouse our limited resources wouldnt allow that. I need to make some reseach for this.
Finns actually used propaganda leaflets like everyone in the war, like every country back in the days. Just in limited quantities.
@@loysanperai know Finland used propaganda leaflets but in artilleryshells those i havent heard. Usually airforce dropped propaganda in Soviet positions.
Man, I’ve been stumbling on some really good battle simulation channels. Kings and Generals and now this. More power to y’all guys!💪
The Finnish intelegence about Russian forces in the area was completely wrong. On the first of December Finland flew an intelegence flight over Russia where they thought Russia had a company at Juntsuranta and a battalion at Raate, when in reality they had two regiments in Juntsuranta and one regiment in Raate.
The leader of the ’Toinen rajaosasto’ Martti Elo chose to go tell the leader of Seperste batallion 15 leader that there really is two regiments there, but on the way he met liutenant Arvo Airanne. It still isn’t known what they talked about. Airanne went on his way and Elo took his boot and sock off put his toe on his rifles trigger and the barrel in his mouth, he killed himself. The next leader of ’toinen rajaosasto’ was Airanne. Elos message was really first beleaved on the 3rd of December when the seperste battalion 15 started to get the right picture of things.
Hyvää Suomi!
Winter won. The Finns had prepared, the Soviets had not. they died in vain like no others , frozen , starving, with the "white death "stalking your lines in the night. All were doomed. Stalin had all returned soviet prisoners executed.
I can only think of one reason why the Allies supported the evil Soviets against the evil Nazis. they wanted to let the soviets do the bulk of the fighting and take most of the casualties.
you sound like simple history guy
that's because it's him.
defeat your enemy and treat them humanely = chad
hey Erich. Nice to see you here
My grandfather was there
Wait am I watching Simple History?
no you're just listening to the same voice actor.
I cannot believe that in place where i live has done war.
Öö mitenniin et believe?
Soviets like Germans later in1941 went to war with summer clothes. Not very clever?
You think Soviets or germans are not aware of cold weather? Not very clever? It was significantly long supply line and it was also one of the coldest winters ever recorded
@@ripvanwinkle1819 soviets started 30. 11. Frost should not be surprise. Suply lines were not so long
@@brianoidperson true, ask the dead russians in Finland tho
Respect to the Finns
Here we have to say that the left wing around Europe wasn't negative about Nazis early in 2ww as rusia had aggriment with germany
the narrator supposed to be Simple History member
Perkele Suomi!
Onko tanki online hyvä peli
@@xuserx67 ihan paska
The nickel mines of Petsamo which was the main source for the reich was taken over and the114 th rifle division was stationed to secure ,
Finland lost its access to the Arctic ,
Rolled up the Finnish defenses which took 10 years of their military budget to beyond the impenetrable mannerheim line, in mere 3 months
The Red army achieved all its objectives despite setbacks. Romania saw it and gave up Bessarabia without a fight.
If conquering Finland was the objective, soviets could have simply walked into Finland in the summer.
You've read too much stalinist propaganda. The Mannerheim line was a poor man's defense line, not like it is portrayed in Russian historiography. It's obvious that Stalin attempted to annex Finland; he even founded a puppet government at Terijoki made up of Finnish communists. The British and French were preparing to come to Finland's help at the end of WW2 and Stalin needed to end the war as quickly as possible. Britain threatened the Soviet Union with war if they occupied Finland.