As if England 🏴 was going to upset the only ally it had at a critical point in the war for a Pro Axis minnow like Finland 🇫🇮 in 1941. Churchill personally requested Mannerhiem to keep out of the continuation war, and he wouldn't.
@Mr_Bob_Loblaw For the Finns, Yes. The official peace was not signed with UK and Soviet Union until 1947. Under its terms, Finland 🇫🇮 lost almost 100,000 men killed and about 11% of their pre 1939 territory, mainly in Karelia. They also had to pay back $300M USD in war reparations to Stalin, resettle 400,000 civilians, AND reconstruct most of Finnish Lappland after it was treated to 'scorched earth' by the retreating Nazis, their former Allies. It kept Finland 🇫🇮 impoverished well into the 1950s to put all this right. For the record, prior to Mannerheims declaration of war on the Soviets in 1941, Churchill had requested him 'not to get involved' in a renewed war with Stalin, and supporting the Nazis against Stalin. High Politics were at stake...Stalin was at that time the only ally Britain had. It would not tolerate possible Axis threat to the Murmansk convoys or Leningrad. But the story is more 'nuanced' than that. Mannerheim 'dupped Hitler' in exchange for weapons and military support. Finland 🇫🇮 never joined the Axis, but it did sign the anti Commintern pact. It cleverly fought to protect its independence and Soverignty from The Soviets. It was the only country in Mainland Europe that retained democracy from the Soviets in their "sphere of influence", during and after the war. It achieved this by signing a separate peace with Stalin in Autumn 1944. It got very little out of WW2, but it did remain independent, albeit at great cost. For a nation of 4 millions in 1939-45, and entering into combat alongside The Axis in 1941, it was a remarkable achievement. The bravery and stoitude of Finland 🇫🇮, its people and its soldiers was remarkable in both the Winter and Continuation wars. But it came at great practical cost.
I thank God for the Finnish people who resisted the Soviet Army. If this had not happened, Finland would have become communist and would have lived behind the Iron Curtain. I wouldn't be alive today, for my parents only met after they separately emigrated to the US from Finland during the Cold War, and perhaps they wouldn't have lived either if their ancestors were resettled in Russia or sent to Siberia for any reason (I had family who lived in Karelia). This is how much I honor the Winter War.
Winter War Joke: It is 1939 and a Soviet army is marching on Finland. As they pass the border, they hear a Finnish voice over the hill; "One Finnish soldier is better than 10 Soviet soldiers!" The Soviet general laughs, as he sends 10 men on the hill to capture it. There is gunfire for a minute and then everything goes silent for a moment, and they then hear the same voice; "One Finnish soldier is better than a hundred of yours!" Annoyed, the Soviet general sends hundred men to capture the hill. There is gunfire and bombs going for ten minutes, and everything goes silent again. Suddenly, the same voice yells out; "One Finnish soldier is better than thousand of Soviet soldiers!" Enraged, the general sends a thousand men, accompanied with tanks, artillery, mortar teams, and tells them to not return until the hill is theirs. For half an hour hell breaks loose, bombs and explosions, gunfire, screams and death all around, and then it goes silent again. One Soviet soldier crawls back, severely wounded and battered. Before the general could say anything, the soldier says; "Do not send more troops, comrade general, it's a trap! There are two of them."
I am an Iranian. I was socked to find what Finnish did on this war. I respect and admire Finnish. There are a lot to be learnt from Finnish. Congratulation to your nation who hunted the bear :-)
God, i dont know if we could do that again, but we would sure as hell try. So proud to be a Finn, too bad its been a year of my great grandfathers death, he was in this war, RIP and respect.
TRANSLATION to the parts in Finnish: 12:20 So we left to Karelia on 10th of October to participate in additional drills. In Vyborg an old lady came to give me a flower, since there was no-one else there to defend them at that time. There were also no trenches, no obstacles whatsoever and so we had to build them all by ourselves. 13:22 We had 32 old Renaults, not battle-worthy, and 32 Vickers-tanks from England without cannons, sights or radios - We had 1 operational tank. 13:43 We had old English planes that could fly at 160km/h (100mph), as the Russians had fighters reached 370km/h. 17:43 The other way was to use "kasapanos" (a bomb). With kasapanos you had to get even closer to the tank, because you couldn't throw it accuratelly very far.If you were fierce enough, you could have used a log to stop a tank. 25:47 These red army soldiers were very brave men: It didn't matter even if we kept firing at them with machine guns, assault rifles and rifles. They just kept coming climbing over their dead comrades and charged towards us until they all died. 29:40 We fought on our own soil in familiar conditions. Every finn knew how to ski and how to operate in forest in very low temperatures and so on. 31:25 Our company got in the middle of the sausage mutiny. We just pointed towards flashes of light, since you couldn't aim in the darkness... 36:30 If felt awfuel to see the russians so hungry, that they had eaten all their horses: There were just horse skins and bones left. We could even see teeth marks all over the limbs of the horses: Where ever you could find some fat. 42:21 It was like hell - well I haven't been to there, but I couldn't imagine any situation worse than that. 45:29 I started skiing back and stopped and I ended up close to a bank of a road and placed the rods against my armpits and looked at my troops walking by. I must have waved at them too - and thats when I fell asleep. 46:05 ...and I'm happy that the war ended when it did, since we were all so totally exhausted as one can be. 47:27 there was this young soldier... must have been a student of some sort... his other leg had been amputated and he was very anguished and asked me that did I leave my other leg behing in the Karelian isthmus just to let the ruskies have it? I told him that at least we remained independent. 47:55 Grandad started to cry when he read the peace terms: We don't get to return to our homes, since the part of Karelia isn't part of Finland anymore. 50:25 It woul have felt very hard if those boys would have been our own, but as they were enemies, we didn't have any respect for them, alive or dead. Not at that time anyway.
When I was young, I was told about this war. It was about my country, so of course I was interested. When I asked that did Finland win, my dad said yes, but then soon after that I was told that Finland actually lost this war. I wasn't sure why my dad said what he said. Now I know why. We never lost in spirit. We never will.
You guys technically did win. The so called "Soviet victory" in both the Winter and Continuation war existed on paper only. Strategically, tactically, and morally, it was a Russian disaster. Not only did Russia fail to conquer Finland like it wanted to, it ruined the image of the Soviet Union.
***** Wise text you have there. To me Stalin was just another crazy maniac, nothing more. And to be honest, I wouldn't call my peoples war a sacrifice for the greater good, u know, for our world.. We fought for our people. Our families were in danger. The idea of sacrifice for the greater good was just a after thought. And we gave 'em the fight. Because you don't fuck with our people. For Stalin this was something else maybe. To the other world this was something else. To us this was a battle, and we didn't fall. We lost men, they lost more. We didn't care about lesser evil that time. We cared about protecting our beloved ones. Some people might think this was a chess thing or whatever, but when you get to that moment when it happened and where it happened, you see normal men kicking enemies ass, for their families, without failing. Of course, just my opinion and sorry about my sloppy English. Not sure if the point came out right.
Ukrainian people, please watch this document if you have time. I hope this gets you more stronger. Please do not give your country to invaders of any kind. You are free and independent country and I always love you. #ukraine
Thumbs up. The Winter War should serve as a lesson to everyone. I have an m-39 that served later but it is testament to the tenacity, the honor and the perseverance that defined the Finns.
The moment at 8:30... absolutely breaks my heart. I don't remember the last time I cried, let alone of sadness, however there is so much true emotion in the words of this old woman that it gets to me.
There is no more noble a reason to fight than in the defense of your homeland. You are fighting to protect your family and friends, your home, the graves of your ancestors. The Finns fought heroically against the Soviets who were vastly superior in numbers. It's a shame that this struggle isn't well known to most, having been overshadowed by the second world war. Its truly a chapter in Finland's history that they should be proud of and all free men should wish to emulate.
Thanks for sharing, and giving the world a little knowledge of the struggle and sacrifice of the brave Finnish people, For to preserve freedom faced one of the biggest army in the world, Greetings from Brazil
This is one extremely informative documentary. I must admit, that after all the History I have studied in the USA, this is the first time I have really learned about this conflict. It certainly is not stressed in our History classes. Yet it produces some incredible lessons. It should definitely be taught. Sad to say, that the USA supported the Russian Army in WWII-Stalin was a complete butcher. Hitler became insane-yet the German high command could have been dealt with much easier than the Red Army.
I should’ve known someone was going to somehow put blame on America for something. It never fails!! Disgusting! America was about defeating Nazis and helping France and Britain. If it was only a war between Russia and Germany, we don’t know what would’ve happened, so please quit blaming America like so many idiots do!
This has to be the documentary with the best reenactment sequences I had the privilege of watching in a long time. Many productions could learn from this excellent piece of work.
I wish I knew about the history of Finland many years ago as it would have helped me to understand and appreciate more its people and culture. One has to admire the will and mental strength to survive by a determined nation. This story should be a lesson to aggressors who fight and invade out of paranoia, greed and insecurity while other countries fight to reclaim and defend what is rightfully theirs. Note to Fabers186: I agree with you, Long Live Finland!!! Aggressors from any country, in any century, is not welcome in any continent in this planet. I happen to be Asian and I don't want those kind in my continent, I disown them!!!
Thank you so much for adding this. Really a great story of what a small group of people can do when it comes to defending their homelands. I chose this war for a project in high school. Unfortunate how overlooked this is in history classes in the US. I view it as somewhat similar to what bleeding-kansas was to the US civil war. Almost like a prelude of what was to come.
The greatest appreciation to all that made this documentary it is still unknown to many nations in this world how Finland kept its existence on the map of the world, it took the ultimate sacrifice of many may the rest in peace. When you look at the odds of army and armament it took one strong nation with extremely strong perseverance to exist!!
Hats of to him, did you know that Sir Christopher Lee was defending finss also, he was on ambulance squad at the back lines. Kalevala was the main reason, i think.
My Grandfathers was there. I still remember him telling stories. He was the youngest of his commando group. My other grandfather died there. My mother still can't listen of winter war. She was so young not even ten and she saw all that horror. She was living in Helsinki and a bomb was thrown right beside her. She never recowered from that. She still lives in fear of high noices and can't look at blood. That war was horrible.
The Finns were very good Light Infantrymen in winter combat. I own 2 Finnish rifles of Mosin Nagant origin modified and manufactured by them. They are really combat effective for accuracy even using old Soviet ammo. I can see why the Finns were excellent marksmen.
You're talking about Simo Häyhä, he scored 500 sniper kills and 200 submachinegun kills, a total of 700 whichmakes him the deadliest by miles. And that's only the confirmed kills, its not unreasonable to say he could had possibly killed 1,000+
yes, im talking about Simo Hayha, fine marksman. fighting in -40/50 aint easy. Job nicely done. hats off. Plus the Russian camo back in those days in the snowy white terrain was like begging to get shot at by Marksman. But must say, the sheer number of scores by this guys is a model to look up to for any marksman around the world. Thumbs Up
eckabacken9 HAHA true that, it was amaizing how the Finnish fought, complete destruction. They skiing through the dense forest hitting the mechanized coloums. Perfect improvisation of the surrounding terrain. seems like 100 would've been an overkill since 1 was enough to instill fear in the hearts of the Red Army. Nonetheless my respect goes out to the lads from both Red and Finnish army, since all these folks were patriots and fighting for their motherland.
The Russian soldiers were bad at fighting but they were brave, it takes some serious balls to invade Simo Häyhä's backyard. The Russian casualties exceeded the Finnish 40 times... thats' not even funny. To quote some guy on the internet "An Russian army compared to an equally sized (Finnish, German, British, really any nation) is just a bad joke. Also, its fun that the highest non-German flying ace ever is Finnish considering that the Russian airforce outnumbered them, what, like 500-1
Everybody don't want to learn history, only to watch videos... This war with Soviet Union was third, two previous were started by Finland. Finland wanted to take some territory from Soviet Union. Before this third war Soviet government was asking to exchange a land to another one three times bigger, but Finns didn't want it. Finland had military union with Germany, and Soviet Union just protect their borders, just like America on Cuba or even Iraq ("closest country to USA"). Soviet Union didn't destroy Finland only because of good behavior of Finnish authorities during the ww2. Well known fact that Finnish troops stops on the former Finnish borders, in spite of Hitler ask Mannerheim to attack Saint-Petersburg. Mannerheim said: "Finnish bombs never fall on to the city of my youth"(He studied in military academy in Russia, and was officer of Russian army before Finland got independence). Also well know fact that Mannerheim's headquarter had telephone line to Soviet territory and report some information about German plans. Finns are very wise boys, and I hope they understand that today becoming a NATO member means becoming an enemy of Russia. The best way for Finland is to have good relationships with Russians.
Оле Ба Stalinist propaganda. Finland in 1939 had 4 million people. They never started a war with anyone - least of all a country with 150 million people which statistically would have been insane. No. This was about Russia getting a buffer-zone in case of war with Germany. Had Russia left them alone Finland would have stayed neutral. I think your post underlines how strong Soviet propaganda still is in Russia. You have not atoned for the crimes of the Soviet Union. That is why chauvinism is still very strong in Russia.
mango2005 какая пропаганда, это история. Я не сталинист и поклонник идей коммунизма. В России тоже умиарали люди во время голодомора на Украине. На вологодчине и в других областях в том году от голода умерло очень много народу. Не надо валить все свои беды на русских. Да у меня есть шовинизм во взглядах и у любого нормального гражданина своей страны он должен быть, но при этом в России как то мирно уживаются люди разных национальностей а вот на Украине сейчас не могут найти мирного решения люди говорящие на одном языке и одной крови.
Оле Ба они бы никогда не начали войну, но ведь начинали. Дважды хотели отрезать кусок земли от России. И до сих пор финские генералы не скрывают что у них есть план действий на случай беспорядков в России, по которому они оккупируют мурманскую область, карелию и еще часть территории до ладожскоого озера. Добрые фины.
This tragic tale just makes me wanna travel back in time and give the Finns modern day weapons so they can kick Stalin's army back to where it belonged.
Maybe, but Finland ultimately prevailed. The sacrifices were terrible but they won their independence from a kleptocratic tyrant. Giving scumbag Stalin a bloody nose is definitely something to be proud of.
***** Dude, Finland only took weapons from Germany because no other nation would help them. Sweden refused to help on the grounds that they would remain neutral. England condemned the attack but did nothing because of the Anglo-Soviet Alliance, and America also didn't do much other than sell a few obsolete planes to them. Finland really didn't have a choice. It was either take the money from Germany or be conquered by Russia.
Ruskis cannot fight the smell of sausages...lol! Well done Finland!! Let this be a lesson to all foreign armies of the world. Stay home and defend your own borders. People tend to fight harder when they're protecting the own country!!
When Winston Churchill said "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" he was praising the efforts of the RAF against the German Luftwaffe during during the Blitz. Shamefully he forgot all about the Winterwar in Finland, where this sentence is more, in my opinion, appropriate to
SassyHershsey SassyHershey Why France and Britain didn't declare war against Soviet Union, when Soviets attacked Poland only a few weeks later than Germany? This was the mother of all conspiracies! To act the way France and Britain did, it must have been of utmost expediency!
SassyHershsey SassyHershey neither. He just gave a flying fuck about the fate of the finns. Churchil was english, he cared for his own kinsmen only - and who can blame him. The finns did not ask for pity, or after-war glorification - that does not bring us karelia back. The finnish have learned one important thing, when push comes to shovel - you can only rely on yourself.
***** we had no top notch anything in the winter war - do your homework. The finnish lines were short on everything, soldiers use their private hunting rifles (including famous sniper simo höyhä) artillery had no shells to fire with, the tanks we drove were bounties of war taken from russians - but mostly we used homemade mines and molotov cocktails. dont give me this "german hi tech" crap if you obviously have not the slightest idea of the winter war realities. moral of the troops were low because the russians could pound our lines 24/7 with heavy artillery, and we could not afford to return the favor ....
Finland had 250,000-340,000 men. The Soviet Union had 760,000+ men. Finland had no armored cars. The Soviet Union had 1500+ armored cars. Finland had 32 tanks. The Soviet Union had 2,514-6,541 tanks Finland had 114 aircraft The Soviet Union had 3,880 aircraft Casualties and injuries Dead or missing of Finland: 25,904 dead or missing Dead or missing of The Soviet Union: 126,875-167,976 Wounded of Finland: 43,557 wounded Wounded of The Soviet Union: 188,671 wounded Destroyed tanks of Finland: 20-30 tanks. Destroyed tanks of The Soviet Union: 3,543 tanks. Destroyed aircraft of Finland: 62. Destroyed tanks of The Soviet Union: 261-515 aircraft Total casualites of Finland: 70,000 Total casualties of The Soviet Union: 321,000-363,000 I think it's safe to say that Finland kicked the Soviets ass.
My grandfather was a veteran of the winter war. At that time my mother and her family were living in Vyborg and they had to flee north. They ended up settling in Tampere. My mother had a great uncle who was starved to death in a Russian prison and another who made a bold attempt and succeeded in escaping from a Russian death march, but i think those incidents happened many years before the winter war
There's only losers in war, however I always tend to take side for the underdogs. I always admire and have high esteem for those people (nations) that put up their stubborn defense against overwhelming odds. Praise be to those Finnish soldiers who fought. I pity the Russian soldiers who were sent to their death, lives carelessly squandered.
As a loving neighbor of Finland I can tell you, dont make them angry and for the love of god, whatever you do, dont you dare think about fighting them.
***** cyryllic ruSSian Mongols from east civilization with an MONGOLIAN balalika go home to Asia ! - EUROPE is LATIN CIVILIZATION as Poland or POLISH BROTHER FINLAND, Hungary, Holland, England etc.
My great grandfather volunteered too. I'm very proud of him. He was one of those soldiers who dug a hole in the snow, waited for tanks to pass by and then sabotage them. Must have been really damn scary.
Dmitri Kozlowsky: Back in the history, Muscovy (Russia whatever form of ruling it was) always did this with almost all neighbors. It is a nature of this country and it will never change until this country exists. This is what western politicians were never able to grasp.
I wondered the same thing, his poor face, i didnt know Finland was allies with Germany, look at their uniform. Makes sense, they both were resisting stalin and communism,bolshevism. Both are Nordic/Scandinavian which would be considered Aryan. The descendents of the vikings.
There is a few people wrong here when they saying that the finns were Nazis. They were only defending their country from the soviet/russian aggression. So if the Finns should clame back Karelia like the Russians did with Crimea? Yes I think they should, they got every right to it.
My grandpa told me once how much Russian soldiers feared of Finnish soldiers. He told me how their company fought much bigger company of Russian soldiers. One by one the enemy lost their soldiers and they had to fall back. When my grandpa's company chased the rest of the Russian company they found many of them lying dead here and there on the ground. They were committed suicide because of fear.
@@miikasikala5812 Siit oli jossi toisessa videossa, miten ainakin Itä Helsingis laitettiin paikkoja tuleen, jotta näyttäs et siellä ois tapahtumat menossa.
+The Stalker Tell me, what had to fight the Soviet troops? Or do not fight at all? Or, as the Finns to surrender without a fight and fight the Nazis on their side?
u ran out of bs to talk once i mentioned genocide of natives and everything i wrote abaut us and thouse countrys that alwas crying, u said russia did genocide, but what r u doing in this continent?
The Soviet invasion, the Finns pleaded with both the Axis and allied powers to intervene. Germany refused , while France and the UK ( government cowards ) both "considered" intervention after Finland resisted the initial Soviet invasion attempt in December. In January and February, they pretended preparations to deploy an expeditionary force to Finland to aid it against the Soviet Union, but ceased attempts in March.
Translation of interviews (though w/o proofreading): 12:18 - 13:14: …and we left to the Karelian isthmus on 10th October for a so called “extra war practise”. I acted as a commander of a train ride to Viipuri, and when arriving at Viipuri station an old Karelian woman brought me a flower to set on my chest and thanked me for coming to the isthmus to defend them. At the location where we fought there wasn’t initially anything, neither trenches nor barricades so we dug entrenchments and built barbed wire fences and dugout shelters (korsu). 13:20 - 13:39: We had 32 old Renault tanks no longer in battle condition and 32 Vickers tanks from England without cannons, observation equipment and radios. We had only one tank in battle condition! 13:44 - 14:02: …but those were old English Ripon (Blackburn Ripon IIF) airplanes that flew 160 km/h and the Soviets had fighter aircraft that flew 370 km/h. Hope this helps d:)
My grandpa lived before finland was indepented. He saw many things along his life. Im not sure if he fought in any war, i havent even met him. He was dead of old age before i was even born. My dad is now 70 and doesnt really talk abaut it that much.
There was a Swedish division in the north yes, but it didn't quite 'take over the front' as they were still in smaller numbers than the Finns there. Not taking anything away from them, just being historically accurate as we should be.
Interesting and informative. Excellent photography job making it easier for viewers to better understand what the orator was describing. Historians did a very good job presenting actual facts from fiction. Class A research project!!! Wonderful reenactments with actor soldiers. Rough and fierce combat operations on both sides. Special thanks to the guest speakers for sharing their personal experiences of the invasion/occupation/expungement of the Russian invaders. Also the under supplied Finnish forces whom fought/perished/survived fighting impossible military odds. Knowing certain death/debilitating wounds were often possible. Yet still advanced forward. That's called true grit determination. Unfortunately when Germany surrendered to the allied forces. Finland fell under the domination of the sickle & hammer 🔨.
Finland's army in ww2 was one of the best armed forces in the world. :D They have 337,000-346,500 troops, 32 tanks, and 114 aircraft Against 998,100 men (overall) , 2,514-6,541 tanks and 3,880 aircraft. So basically the Soviets outnumber the Finns 3-1 in Manpower, somewhere around 78 - 203 soviet tanks for 1 Finnish Tank, and around 34 soviet aircraft for 1 Finnish aircraft. Then Finland !@#$s up the Soviets and inflict 323,000 casualties on the soviets while taking only 70,000. Destroys 3,543 tanks and 261-515 aircraft while losing 20-30 tanks and 62 aircraft. You gotta admit, that takes real balls and skills to achieve. Too bad they lost :(
Finns lost 67 aircraft and 364 pilot (if I'm not mistaken) Could you explain how this is possible? all Army aircraft losses twice as high than in manpower. Of the downed aircraft you can jump out on a parachute. Plane with a dead pilot can not land at the airport. Forced landing almost impossible in Finnish forests. Maybe because can hide the loss of aircraft and human impossible. Relatives of the deceased are asked why not his in the list.
***** I know that Stalin tried to negotiate with the Finns on the exchange territory. Negotiations were about two years. Stalin suggested Finns twice as much territory in Karelia and compensation. Instead requested the move the border from Leningrad to protect the city. Winter on the ice Gulf of Finland could go into town and go to fleet. Why, then, after a line Mannerheim Soviet troops had occupied not Finland? Mannerheim wrote that there is nobody to defend the city (Helsinki). By the way, if the Finns had minor loss why he wrote it. Where are the troops? 1944 год. The first question that Stalin asked the head of its strategic aviation Golovanov was the question ... whether he knows the history of Finland? [653 - Golovanov AE long-range bomber ... Memories Chief Marshal of Aviation 1941-1945. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007. S. 405.] Operation prepared, but in any case, even though and gently - this bombing. Blow was delivered against the Helsinki port, railway junction and military installations located on the outskirts of the Finnish capital. Civilized Europeans during that war, bomb doors opened just above the living quarters and not particularly tormented by remorse. What about Stalin? "From the conversations, it was clear that ... Stalin had respect for the Finnish people ... It was obvious that the massive air strikes entail great sacrifices, and so a small nation ... Knowing Stalin is not the first I've seen that it varies in the final decision" [654 - Ibid. Pp. 406.]. February 6, 1944 order to strike at the outskirts of Helsinki was obtained. On the night of February 7, he was dealt. Finns understand the situation and soon made contact with the Soviet ambassador in Sweden. And for 16 February, the first informal meeting. However, the negotiation process has stalled immediately. Therefore, the same day attacked outlying Helsinki was repeated. But the consent of the Finnish government to withdraw from the war on our terms are still not reported [655 - Terms of Stalin were extremely considerate: 1. Severance of relations with Germany and the internment of its troops and ships. 2. Recovery Soviet-Finnish treaty in 1940 and retraction of the Finnish troops to the borders of 1940. 3. Immediate return of prisoners, as well as civilians. 4. Question of the demobilization of the Finnish army to solve subsequent negotiations in Moscow. 5. Issue of damages as to leave the talks in Moscow.]. Finland pulled to answer. Then, February 27, 1944 was dealt a third airstrike. "If the number of aircrafts that participated in the raid actually struck by Helsinki, we can say that the city would cease to exist. Raid was terrible and the last warning. Shortly me was obtained Stalin's instruction - long-range bombers combat activities in Finland stop. Thus began the negotiations Finland's withdrawal from the war "[656 - Golovanov AE long-range bomber ... Memories Chief Marshal of Aviation 1941-1945. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007. S. 411. Stalin bombed the forest, the sea and the port ... to persuade Finns withdraw from the war. Almost fatherly concern. In the center of Helsinki should be a monument to Stalin
***** You probably had a lot of pilots to fight in the infantry. Not invent for yourself something special. In worse conditions were Russian and German pilots later. Did you know that in Finland the German specialists built new airfields in 1938, which was more than 114 aircraft. The Germans fought from Finland and then have landed in the ports of Finland Entente troops. I think that the actions of the Soviet Union are fully justified. History has shown that the blockade of Leningrad endured due to changes boundaries of 1939-40. I'm not interested Russian opinion. I'm trying to judge regardless of any party. by the way,Mannerheim was agrees with the proposal of the Soviet side of the exchange of territories
He was a Special Forces (Green Beret) Sergeant and was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor, which is the highest award for bravery above and beyond the call of duty.
To some people here, originally the subs were there. When this video was transferred from google video to youtube video the subs vanished somehow. Don't blame me.
No doubt, it's always my country is better than yours. These morons are too primitive and stupid to realise they had zero to do with any of it. They have evolved little from humanity's primitive caveman days.
Gene Smolko my finnish grandpa was pioneer in this war.. he survived siberia and when he returned never again spoke about anything that happened in the war to anyone. In his working office hung countless medals.. but he didnt want to talk about it. The generation that fought, is modest and very silent - at least on the finnish side. Why do the children and grandchildren who never fought a war believe they are entitled to spill their respectless bullshit into the internet... Anyone has a good answer to that? respect the fallen, and prevent the next war -. taht is our job, the job of the following generations. Imperialism and nationalism causes only pain, and drains the brain.
Russia DID invade Finland, and the valiant and steadfast Finns crushed the invading Soviets. Equally, the suicidal tactics employed by Russ forces ensured defea
As a patriotic American I will never forget the story of Simo Häyhä, a finished man who was tough as nails who fought in the winter war. I wish more Americans could be like him, instead so many fight and worry about race and gender pronouns. Not the success of our country 😥
When the Kreml agreement was made in 1948 Stalin said: "Even though I am not really a soldier, I can say that we soliders are easily forgotten in times of peace but in wartime everything depends on us. A country with a bad army is not respected by anyone, but a country with a good army is respected by everyone. I raise my glass to the army of Finland and it's representatives here".
Fascinating. I could only corroborate a few of the major aspects but it SEEMED to me to be fairly accurate, nothing stuck out as dubious. I'm only moderately informed on such history.
That'd be awesome, thanks. I think to do it though you'd have to post the video yourself and then either annotate it using youtube or go into a video editing software suite and add subtitles that way.
When does Russia plan to return the taken Finnish parts including Finnish Artic shore? Why do we allow Russia and China special colonial privileges in the UNO?
When does Merica plan to return stolen Alaska to mother Russia? And why do we still allow USA to exist? Several nuclear explosians and everything is all right!
If you didn't know, Russia sold Alaska to USA. They didn't steal it. So, if Russia wants it back now, they should pay. You know, money? No one stole it. Anyway, when Russia is so big anyway, I don't believe Russia actually needs Alaska. And also I don't see why they wanted Finland, since it too is pretty small and hardly effects things anyway. But that's not important at the moment. You get my point, anyone?
~DREV~ Yeah, but Russia didn't get money so the bargain is unlegal. Well, anyway, now you see : the probability that Russia will return anything to Finland = the probability that USA will return Alaska to us.
Derpa .Derpa I don't believe that Stalin wanted to take all Finland. He wanted to remove the border but finnish government refused. So he just needed another government in Helsinki to sign the treaty with it, not to occupy Finland. But just after finns agreed to sign the treaty at last Stalin stopped the army and the war finished.
What should be remembered is that most of the soldiers in the Soviet army were Ukrainians, who had no idea how to survive in the northern winter. This is because Stalin was afraid that if the U.S.S.R. used soldiers from Karelia or other areas near Finland they would feel sympathy towards the Finns.
+Markus FIN - That's interesting information! I had heard that the Soviet army wasn't prepared for the brutal cold in Finland and that many soldiers froze to death due to not having the proper winter gear. Which always seemed crazy to me! I mea, why?? Russia is every bit as cold as Finland! But that explains it, somewhat, as the Ukraine is further south than Finland. Man, I've seen some images of Soviet soldiers frozen to death in the Finnish war; in whatever position they were in when they died-curled up, whatever, grimacing... Like this one image where Finnish soldiers had mounted a dead, frozen Soviet soldier in a ghastly position on a stake, as a warning to his fellow Russian soldiers... But it's war, it's brutal by definition. And Finland was attacked! This much smaller country, with limited resources (they used reindeer and sleds to move supplies! For real. Though actually, they were kind of kicking ass with their white snow camouflage clothing, traveling on skis, with their reindeer... ) Seems so quaint! But in a way it was like guerilla warfare. Though we tend to associate guerilla warfare with jungle. The Soviets were certainly the bad guys in this conflict-but you've got to feel bad for the individual soldier (or at least a lot of them) who were just drafted and told where to go.A cold ass ass place in their autumn coats and thin boots, freezing to death... Fuck.
Perhaps the international version would have had the subtitles, but this video was shown on the Finnish national TV, so naturally there are no subtitles for the parts in Finnish.
sergio ketteler@ So what? It's absolutely usual for armies, charging so strong defence lines. One good example : the defence of Port-Artur during Russia-Japan war in 1905. Casualities were 110 thousand from Japan side and 10 thousand from Russians. But inspite of absolutely terrible losses it considered that Japan won the war. So really the victory deserves any losses, that's why we're victors, Finland fucked.
how do you explain the Continuation war then ? Finns were the ones attacking... F I N L A N D *Men: 700,000* Dead: 40,000 Wounded: 150,000 S O V I E T S *Men: 1,520,000* Dead: 265,000 Wounded: 575,000
Derpa .Derpa Maybe you don't know it, but in Russia almost nobody knows about this "Continuation war" and about Finns participation in WW2 at all. People know about the Great Patriotic War, and that Germans advanced from Finland too, cause everybody saw the movie "Dawns are quiet here". So really Finns are very small story for our war memories... Of cause there were some losses in Karelian front too, but very small and unimportant comparing to all the war...
Федя Бочкин *"Germans advanced from Finland too"* lol wut ? :D, the Germans were not allowed to advance any deeper into soviet soil from Finland, the German troops were under Finnish command... Finnish troops gained those lost last back in 2,5 days, besides the heavy Soviet resistant... and then the trench warfare lasted from 1941 to 1944... *"Maybe you don't know it, but in Russia almost nobody knows about this "Continuation war" and about Finns participation in it WW2 at all"* yes I know :), _"The Russians have white pages on their history"_, the Soviet propaganda has done a great job on wiping the Blunder the Finnish campaing from the Russian history books... even the Soviet casualties are still uncertain because the Soviets burned a lot of their field reports... and the ppsh-41 was a major factor for the Soviets winning the war againt Germany, and from who you got the idea for it ?... oh yeah, the Finns :) *"The impetus for the development of the PPSh came from the Winter War against Finland, where the Finnish army employed the Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun as a highly effective tool for close-quarter fighting in forests or built-up urban areas"* ~ Wikipedia ~ + we invented the Molotov Cocktail that you used also...
Derpa .Derpa "Molotov Coctail"? Yeah, I know... But seems not many people else in Russia - Russians are sure that Molotov Coctail was invented by Molotov himself and very proud of it! About PPSh - it has nothing to do with "Suomi", because already earlier it was PPD submachine gun (invented by Dekteryov in 1930 it seems) and PPSh was a further development of this conception.
Федя Бочкин hahaha :D the name for the "Molotov Cocktail" was given to MOCK Molotov himself, just like the "Molotov's Breadbasket"... xDDD You could destroy a IS-2 with price of a half-a-galon of fuel... *KP31:* designed in 1921 *PDD40:* designed in 1934 *PPSH41:* designed in 1941 :P quite strange that the PDD has the same specs and outlook as the KP31
de bra I am aware, that many nations sent many troops to help us Greatest Thank You and I am glad that you brought that up there is no better man than the man that gives the ultimate sacrifice, God Bless Their Souls !!
It isn't really a blitzkrieg when you don't use schwerpunktprinzip (gravity/concentration principle). The Soviets used a massed armoured attack across the line, instead of using concentrated armoured point attacks (armoured "fists") to punch through enemies lines instead of actually fighting all of them at once.
My sympathies are completely with Finland. What a fool Churchill was for letting Stalin talk him into declaring war on Finland.
As if England 🏴 was going to upset the only ally it had at a critical point in the war for a Pro Axis minnow like Finland 🇫🇮 in 1941. Churchill personally requested Mannerhiem to keep out of the continuation war, and he wouldn't.
What did England declaring war on Finland actually result in? Anything?
@Mr_Bob_Loblaw For the Finns, Yes. The official peace was not signed with UK and Soviet Union until 1947. Under its terms, Finland 🇫🇮 lost almost 100,000 men killed and about 11% of their pre 1939 territory, mainly in Karelia. They also had to pay back $300M USD in war reparations to Stalin, resettle 400,000 civilians, AND reconstruct most of Finnish Lappland after it was treated to 'scorched earth' by the retreating Nazis, their former Allies. It kept Finland 🇫🇮 impoverished well into the 1950s to put all this right. For the record, prior to Mannerheims declaration of war on the Soviets in 1941, Churchill had requested him 'not to get involved' in a renewed war with Stalin, and supporting the Nazis against Stalin. High Politics were at stake...Stalin was at that time the only ally Britain had. It would not tolerate possible Axis threat to the Murmansk convoys or Leningrad. But the story is more 'nuanced' than that. Mannerheim 'dupped Hitler' in exchange for weapons and military support. Finland 🇫🇮 never joined the Axis, but it did sign the anti Commintern pact. It cleverly fought to protect its independence and Soverignty from The Soviets. It was the only country in Mainland Europe that retained democracy from the Soviets in their "sphere of influence", during and after the war. It achieved this by signing a separate peace with Stalin in Autumn 1944. It got very little out of WW2, but it did remain independent, albeit at great cost. For a nation of 4 millions in 1939-45, and entering into combat alongside The Axis in 1941, it was a remarkable achievement. The bravery and stoitude of Finland 🇫🇮, its people and its soldiers was remarkable in both the Winter and Continuation wars. But it came at great practical cost.
Greetings from Latvia! Finnish people are legendary for their bravery!!!
Latvians as well! greetings from an exiled anti communist cuban from the US.
I thank God for the Finnish people who resisted the Soviet Army. If this had not happened, Finland would have become communist and would have lived behind the Iron Curtain. I wouldn't be alive today, for my parents only met after they separately emigrated to the US from Finland during the Cold War, and perhaps they wouldn't have lived either if their ancestors were resettled in Russia or sent to Siberia for any reason (I had family who lived in Karelia). This is how much I honor the Winter War.
Winter War Joke:
It is 1939 and a Soviet army is marching on Finland. As they pass the border, they hear a Finnish voice over the hill;
"One Finnish soldier is better than 10 Soviet soldiers!"
The Soviet general laughs, as he sends 10 men on the hill to capture it.
There is gunfire for a minute and then everything goes silent for a moment, and they then hear the same voice;
"One Finnish soldier is better than a hundred of yours!"
Annoyed, the Soviet general sends hundred men to capture the hill. There is gunfire and bombs going for ten minutes, and everything goes silent again. Suddenly, the same voice yells out;
"One Finnish soldier is better than thousand of Soviet soldiers!"
Enraged, the general sends a thousand men, accompanied with tanks, artillery, mortar teams, and tells them to not return until the hill is theirs.
For half an hour hell breaks loose, bombs and explosions, gunfire, screams and death all around, and then it goes silent again.
One Soviet soldier crawls back, severely wounded and battered.
Before the general could say anything, the soldier says;
"Do not send more troops, comrade general, it's a trap! There are two of them."
I am an Iranian. I was socked to find what Finnish did on this war. I respect and admire Finnish. There are a lot to be learnt from Finnish.
Congratulation to your nation who hunted the bear :-)
Thanks for that buddy, I feel better now! :)
Mohsen Asghari the Finnish didn't hunt the Bear. They stopped the Bear from coming in their woods.
@@dwaynejeffers1632 And turned itself to bear and killed foe bear
God, i dont know if we could do that again, but we would sure as hell try. So proud to be a Finn, too bad its been a year of my great grandfathers death, he was in this war, RIP and respect.
Hats off to the Finns they fought hard for their Country !
yeah....for breaking border rules!!!!!!!!!
Nadeem Najimdeen what u mean?
TRANSLATION to the parts in Finnish:
12:20 So we left to Karelia on 10th of October to participate in additional drills. In Vyborg an old lady came to give me a flower, since there was no-one else there to defend them at that time. There were also no trenches, no obstacles whatsoever and so we had to build them all by ourselves.
13:22 We had 32 old Renaults, not battle-worthy, and 32 Vickers-tanks from England without cannons, sights or radios - We had 1 operational tank.
13:43 We had old English planes that could fly at 160km/h (100mph), as the Russians had fighters reached 370km/h.
17:43 The other way was to use "kasapanos" (a bomb). With kasapanos you had to get even closer to the tank, because you couldn't throw it accuratelly very far.If you were fierce enough, you could have used a log to stop a tank.
25:47 These red army soldiers were very brave men: It didn't matter even if we kept firing at them with machine guns, assault rifles and rifles. They just kept coming climbing over their dead comrades and charged towards us until they all died.
29:40 We fought on our own soil in familiar conditions. Every finn knew how to ski and how to operate in forest in very low temperatures and so on.
31:25 Our company got in the middle of the sausage mutiny. We just pointed towards flashes of light, since you couldn't aim in the darkness...
36:30 If felt awfuel to see the russians so hungry, that they had eaten all their horses: There were just horse skins and bones left. We could even see teeth marks all over the limbs of the horses: Where ever you could find some fat.
42:21 It was like hell - well I haven't been to there, but I couldn't imagine any situation worse than that.
45:29 I started skiing back and stopped and I ended up close to a bank of a road and placed the rods against my armpits and looked at my troops walking by. I must have waved at them too - and thats when I fell asleep.
46:05 ...and I'm happy that the war ended when it did, since we were all so totally exhausted as one can be.
47:27 there was this young soldier... must have been a student of some sort... his other leg had been amputated and he was very anguished and asked me that did I leave my other leg behing in the Karelian isthmus just to let the ruskies have it? I told him that at least we remained independent.
47:55 Grandad started to cry when he read the peace terms: We don't get to return to our homes, since the part of Karelia isn't part of Finland anymore.
50:25 It woul have felt very hard if those boys would have been our own, but as they were enemies, we didn't have any respect for them, alive or dead. Not at that time anyway.
thank you so much. how is this not top commentary?
Thank you for this excellent work!
Alipate Qalovaki : What?
You can translate kasapanos as satchel charge.
Joel Pajuniemi ii
Maximum respect to Finland, from the United States.
When I was young, I was told about this war. It was about my country, so of course I was interested. When I asked that did Finland win, my dad said yes, but then soon after that I was told that Finland actually lost this war. I wasn't sure why my dad said what he said. Now I know why. We never lost in spirit. We never will.
I'm pretty sure it's not losing if your country achieves independence from the Soviet Union and does not become a satellite country.
You guys technically did win. The so called "Soviet victory" in both the Winter and Continuation war existed on paper only. Strategically, tactically, and morally, it was a Russian disaster. Not only did Russia fail to conquer Finland like it wanted to, it ruined the image of the Soviet Union.
We lost, but then again. we kind of won. because we kept our independence..
***** Wise text you have there. To me Stalin was just another crazy maniac, nothing more. And to be honest, I wouldn't call my peoples war a sacrifice for the greater good, u know, for our world.. We fought for our people. Our families were in danger. The idea of sacrifice for the greater good was just a after thought. And we gave 'em the fight. Because you don't fuck with our people.
For Stalin this was something else maybe. To the other world this was something else. To us this was a battle, and we didn't fall. We lost men, they lost more. We didn't care about lesser evil that time. We cared about protecting our beloved ones.
Some people might think this was a chess thing or whatever, but when you get to that moment when it happened and where it happened, you see normal men kicking enemies ass, for their families, without failing. Of course, just my opinion and sorry about my sloppy English. Not sure if the point came out right.
Because the Soviets fought....poorly.
"never give up, always fight for what is right"
Ukrainian people, please watch this document if you have time. I hope this gets you more stronger. Please do not give your country to invaders of any kind. You are free and independent country and I always love you. #ukraine
Ukrainians should come get the wreck they left at Raateentie in -1939.
Instead they get millions from our WEF-controlled prostitute government.
Thumbs up. The Winter War should serve as a lesson to everyone. I have an m-39 that served later but it is testament to the tenacity, the honor and the perseverance that defined the Finns.
Respect to Finland
The moment at 8:30... absolutely breaks my heart. I don't remember the last time I cried, let alone of sadness, however there is so much true emotion in the words of this old woman that it gets to me.
That lady with knife... "under your ribs" ..👀
Respect to the all Finnish people.❤💪🏼
There is no more noble a reason to fight than in the defense of your homeland. You are fighting to protect your family and friends, your home, the graves of your ancestors. The Finns fought heroically against the Soviets who were vastly superior in numbers. It's a shame that this struggle isn't well known to most, having been overshadowed by the second world war. Its truly a chapter in Finland's history that they should be proud of and all free men should wish to emulate.
Thanks for sharing, and giving the world a little knowledge of the struggle and sacrifice of the brave Finnish people, For to preserve freedom faced one of the biggest army in the world, Greetings from Brazil
This video proves one thing, Don't mess with Finland or else Simo Häyhä and those brave Finns will retaliate with no mercy
This is one extremely informative documentary. I must admit, that after all the History I have studied in the USA, this is the first time I have really learned about this conflict. It certainly is not stressed in our History classes. Yet it produces some incredible lessons. It should definitely be taught. Sad to say, that the USA supported the Russian Army in WWII-Stalin was a complete butcher. Hitler became insane-yet the German high command could have been dealt with much easier than the Red Army.
I should’ve known someone was going to somehow put blame on America for something. It never fails!! Disgusting! America was about defeating Nazis and helping France and Britain. If it was only a war between Russia and Germany, we don’t know what would’ve happened, so please quit blaming America like so many idiots do!
Read the book--"Frozen Hell". Great narrative and helps grasp the slaughter.
This has to be the documentary with the best reenactment sequences I had the privilege of watching in a long time. Many productions could learn from this excellent piece of work.
I wish I knew about the history of Finland many years ago as it would have helped me to understand and appreciate more its people and culture. One has to admire the will and mental strength to survive by a determined nation. This story should be a lesson to aggressors who fight and invade out of paranoia, greed and insecurity while other countries fight to reclaim and defend what is rightfully theirs. Note to Fabers186: I agree with you, Long Live Finland!!! Aggressors from any country, in any century, is not welcome in any continent in this planet. I happen to be Asian and I don't want those kind in my continent, I disown them!!!
Thank you so much for adding this. Really a great story of what a small group of people can do when it comes to defending their homelands. I chose this war for a project in high school. Unfortunate how overlooked this is in history classes in the US. I view it as somewhat similar to what bleeding-kansas was to the US civil war. Almost like a prelude of what was to come.
The greatest appreciation to all that made this documentary it is still unknown to many nations in this world how Finland kept its existence on the map of the world, it took the ultimate sacrifice of many may the rest in peace. When you look at the odds of army and armament it took one strong nation with extremely strong perseverance to exist!!
My neighbor's dad was a ski trooper in the Finnish Army during that conflict.
Hats of to him, did you know that Sir Christopher Lee was defending finss also, he was on ambulance squad at the back lines. Kalevala was the main reason, i think.
My Grandfathers was there. I still remember him telling stories. He was the youngest of his commando group. My other grandfather died there. My mother still can't listen of winter war. She was so young not even ten and she saw all that horror. She was living in Helsinki and a bomb was thrown right beside her. She never recowered from that. She still lives in fear of high noices and can't look at blood. That war was horrible.
The Finns were very good Light Infantrymen in winter combat. I own 2 Finnish rifles of Mosin Nagant origin modified and manufactured by them. They are really combat effective for accuracy even using old Soviet ammo. I can see why the Finns were excellent marksmen.
This is the war where a Finnish sniper scored record of kills against the Soviets. Till this day his number of kills is unmatched.
You're talking about Simo Häyhä, he scored 500 sniper kills and 200 submachinegun kills, a total of 700 whichmakes him the deadliest by miles. And that's only the confirmed kills, its not unreasonable to say he could had possibly killed 1,000+
yes, im talking about Simo Hayha, fine marksman. fighting in -40/50 aint easy. Job nicely done. hats off. Plus the Russian camo back in those days in the snowy white terrain was like begging to get shot at by Marksman. But must say, the sheer number of scores by this guys is a model to look up to for any marksman around the world. Thumbs Up
Yea, imagine 100 Simo Häyhä's, it would be the apocalypse bigger brother ^^
eckabacken9 HAHA true that, it was amaizing how the Finnish fought, complete destruction. They skiing through the dense forest hitting the mechanized coloums. Perfect improvisation of the surrounding terrain. seems like 100 would've been an overkill since 1 was enough to instill fear in the hearts of the Red Army. Nonetheless my respect goes out to the lads from both Red and Finnish army, since all these folks were patriots and fighting for their motherland.
The Russian soldiers were bad at fighting but they were brave, it takes some serious balls to invade Simo Häyhä's backyard. The Russian casualties exceeded the Finnish 40 times... thats' not even funny. To quote some guy on the internet "An Russian army compared to an equally sized (Finnish, German, British, really any nation) is just a bad joke.
Also, its fun that the highest non-German flying ace ever is Finnish considering that the Russian airforce outnumbered them, what, like 500-1
Hail the heroic dead! May they sleep as we should live, in peace. Forever.
Thank you for posting this.
excellent,chilling and eye opening,thanks for posting
i'm so proud that my name is finnish, if things keep going the way they are going in CANADA i might repatriate to the country of my father's birth
Utterly unprovoked Soviet aggression. Well done Finland
Everybody don't want to learn history, only to watch videos...
This war with Soviet Union was third, two previous were started by Finland. Finland wanted to take some territory from Soviet Union.
Before this third war Soviet government was asking to exchange a land to another one three times bigger, but Finns didn't want it.
Finland had military union with Germany, and Soviet Union just protect their borders, just like America on Cuba or even Iraq ("closest country to USA").
Soviet Union didn't destroy Finland only because of good behavior of Finnish authorities during the ww2. Well known fact that Finnish troops stops on the former Finnish borders, in spite of Hitler ask Mannerheim to attack Saint-Petersburg. Mannerheim said: "Finnish bombs never fall on to the city of my youth"(He studied in military academy in Russia, and was officer of Russian army before Finland got independence). Also well know fact that Mannerheim's headquarter had telephone line to Soviet territory and report some information about German plans. Finns are very wise boys, and I hope they understand that today becoming a NATO member means becoming an enemy of Russia. The best way for Finland is to have good relationships with Russians.
Оле Ба Stalinist propaganda. Finland in 1939 had 4 million people. They never started a war with anyone - least of all a country with 150 million people which statistically would have been insane. No. This was about Russia getting a buffer-zone in case of war with Germany. Had Russia left them alone Finland would have stayed neutral. I think your post underlines how strong Soviet propaganda still is in Russia. You have not atoned for the crimes of the Soviet Union. That is why chauvinism is still very strong in Russia.
Оле Ба I think after Ukraine everyone wants to join NATO so they wont be next.
mango2005 какая пропаганда, это история. Я не сталинист и поклонник идей коммунизма. В России тоже умиарали люди во время голодомора на Украине. На вологодчине и в других областях в том году от голода умерло очень много народу. Не надо валить все свои беды на русских. Да у меня есть шовинизм во взглядах и у любого нормального гражданина своей страны он должен быть, но при этом в России как то мирно уживаются люди разных национальностей а вот на Украине сейчас не могут найти мирного решения люди говорящие на одном языке и одной крови.
Оле Ба они бы никогда не начали войну, но ведь начинали. Дважды хотели отрезать кусок земли от России. И до сих пор финские генералы не скрывают что у них есть план действий на случай беспорядков в России, по которому они оккупируют мурманскую область, карелию и еще часть территории до ладожскоого озера. Добрые фины.
This tragic tale just makes me wanna travel back in time and give the Finns modern day weapons so they can kick Stalin's army back to where it belonged.
I am with you brother.
Maybe, but Finland ultimately prevailed. The sacrifices were terrible but they won their independence from a kleptocratic tyrant. Giving scumbag Stalin a bloody nose is definitely something to be proud of.
*****
Dude, Finland only took weapons from Germany because no other nation would help them. Sweden refused to help on the grounds that they would remain neutral. England condemned the attack but did nothing because of the Anglo-Soviet Alliance, and America also didn't do much other than sell a few obsolete planes to them.
Finland really didn't have a choice. It was either take the money from Germany or be conquered by Russia.
Shame on them, who did not help....
in the pits of hell right?
Ruskis cannot fight the smell of sausages...lol! Well done Finland!! Let this be a lesson to all foreign armies of the world. Stay home and defend your own borders. People tend to fight harder when they're protecting the own country!!
When Winston Churchill said "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" he was praising the efforts of the RAF against the German Luftwaffe during during the Blitz. Shamefully he forgot all about the Winterwar in Finland, where this sentence is more, in my opinion, appropriate to
he didn't forget. He wanted to make Stalin look good.
Yeah of course, a fair point
SassyHershsey SassyHershey Why France and Britain didn't declare war against Soviet Union, when Soviets attacked Poland only a few weeks later than Germany? This was the mother of all conspiracies! To act the way France and Britain did, it must have been of utmost expediency!
SassyHershsey SassyHershey neither. He just gave a flying fuck about the fate of the finns. Churchil was english, he cared for his own kinsmen only - and who can blame him.
The finns did not ask for pity, or after-war glorification - that does not bring us karelia back.
The finnish have learned one important thing, when push comes to shovel - you can only rely on yourself.
***** we had no top notch anything in the winter war - do your homework.
The finnish lines were short on everything, soldiers use their private hunting rifles
(including famous sniper simo höyhä)
artillery had no shells to fire with, the tanks we drove were bounties of war taken from russians - but mostly we used homemade mines and molotov cocktails.
dont give me this "german hi tech" crap if you obviously have not the slightest idea of the winter war realities.
moral of the troops were low because the russians could pound our lines 24/7 with heavy artillery, and we could not afford to return the favor ....
Excellent documentary. Thanks for uploading. :)
Dont mess whit finland because we use puukko
Thank you! Totally enjoyed this story of my heritage.
Finland had 250,000-340,000 men. The Soviet Union had 760,000+ men.
Finland had no armored cars. The Soviet Union had 1500+ armored cars.
Finland had 32 tanks. The Soviet Union had 2,514-6,541 tanks
Finland had 114 aircraft The Soviet Union had 3,880 aircraft
Casualties and injuries
Dead or missing of Finland: 25,904 dead or missing Dead or missing of The Soviet Union: 126,875-167,976
Wounded of Finland: 43,557 wounded Wounded of The Soviet Union: 188,671 wounded
Destroyed tanks of Finland: 20-30 tanks. Destroyed tanks of The Soviet Union: 3,543 tanks.
Destroyed aircraft of Finland: 62. Destroyed tanks of The Soviet Union: 261-515 aircraft
Total casualites of Finland: 70,000 Total casualties of The Soviet Union: 321,000-363,000
I think it's safe to say that Finland kicked the Soviets ass.
@bubibuLo13 STFU
Love people Finland together you can beat anything
AWESOME!!!Thank you for posting this.
My grandfather was a veteran of the winter war. At that time my mother and her family were living in Vyborg and they had to flee north. They ended up settling in Tampere. My mother had a great uncle who was starved to death in a Russian prison and another who made a bold attempt and succeeded in escaping from a Russian death march, but i think those incidents happened many years before the winter war
Finland will forcefully take the throne and the coming winter years shall be filled with great peace and prosperity throughout Westeros
There's only losers in war, however I always tend to take side for the underdogs. I always admire and have high esteem for those people (nations) that put up their stubborn defense against overwhelming odds. Praise be to those Finnish soldiers who fought. I pity the Russian soldiers who were sent to their death, lives carelessly squandered.
Well there wasn't any given choices.
What awesome soldiers the Finns were. What a few good men can do. Skill and will do out way technology.
As a loving neighbor of Finland I can tell you, dont make them angry and for the love of god, whatever you do, dont you dare think about fighting them.
LONG LIVE FINLAND ! - cyryllic ruSSian Mongols from east civilization go home to Asia !
winny phh Tiny, tiny dick that only picks on unarmed airliners.
***** cyryllic ruSSian Mongols from east civilization with an MONGOLIAN balalika go home to Asia ! - EUROPE is LATIN CIVILIZATION as Poland or POLISH BROTHER FINLAND, Hungary, Holland, England etc.
No one likes russia except for russians
Matias Kouhi But that's normal. For example no one likes finland or knows about it's existence except several finns..
+Anton Rebrov then explain the popularity we gained with the best education in the world
My grandfather volunteered for the Finnish Army.
Alexandra Hansen thanks for him
My great grandfather volunteered too. I'm very proud of him. He was one of those soldiers who dug a hole in the snow, waited for tanks to pass by and then sabotage them. Must have been really damn scary.
If russia invades Finnland again, we will all stand with Finnland.
Dmitri Kozlowsky: Back in the history, Muscovy (Russia whatever form of ruling it was) always did this with almost all neighbors. It is a nature of this country and it will never change until this country exists. This is what western politicians were never able to grasp.
Ei kun Vitun tyhmä
An hour of video and not one word of Simo Hayha: A Finnish sniper with over 500 confirmed kills.
yea i wonder why they didnt add him
I wondered the same thing, his poor face, i didnt know Finland was allies with Germany, look at their uniform. Makes sense, they both were resisting stalin and communism,bolshevism. Both are Nordic/Scandinavian which would be considered Aryan. The descendents of the vikings.
I thought it was 505?
vikings have nothing to do with aryan
here he is ... :)
ruclips.net/video/hfZuTLKDeXA/видео.html
There is a few people wrong here when they saying that the finns were Nazis. They were only defending their country from the soviet/russian aggression. So if the Finns should clame back Karelia like the Russians did with Crimea? Yes I think they should, they got every right to it.
My grandpa told me once how much Russian soldiers feared of Finnish soldiers. He told me how their company fought much bigger company of Russian soldiers. One by one the enemy lost their soldiers and they had to fall back. When my grandpa's company chased the rest of the Russian company they found many of them lying dead here and there on the ground. They were committed suicide because of fear.
Salute for Finland
31:00 what stopped them was the field kitchens..... That's amazing.
Does anyone know what the name of the song during the very beginning of the introduction? Thank you.
Mannerheim was clever. He set fires in the forests, the russians thought it was Helsinki, and dropped their bombs, hahaha!!!
I have never heard about that even if I am Finn :D How do you know that?
@@miikasikala5812 Siit oli jossi toisessa videossa, miten ainakin Itä Helsingis laitettiin paikkoja tuleen, jotta näyttäs et siellä ois tapahtumat menossa.
i do not think russian soldiers were evil but their leaders were. most of them must have been misguided for what they fight.
+The Stalker Tell me, what had to fight the Soviet troops? Or do not fight at all? Or, as the Finns to surrender without a fight and fight the Nazis on their side?
+The Stalker WOW BUT DO U KNOW HOW MANY TIMES TRUOUT THE 1000 YEARS FINLAND ATACKED RUSSIA? READ ON
***** I SAW IT PROPOGANDA, THERES OTHER ONES OPPISATE ONES
u ran out of bs to talk once i mentioned genocide of natives and everything i wrote abaut us and thouse countrys that alwas crying, u said russia did genocide, but what r u doing in this continent?
like ur solders r different, order is order
You can see in the top right corner it says YLE TV1, which is a finnish tv station. So, this has been recorded straight from a finnish television.
Is there a version of this video with English subtitles for the Finnish commentary/interviews?
The Soviet invasion, the Finns pleaded with both the Axis and allied powers to intervene. Germany refused , while France and the UK ( government cowards ) both "considered" intervention after Finland resisted the initial Soviet invasion attempt in December.
In January and February, they pretended preparations to deploy an expeditionary force to Finland to aid it against the Soviet Union, but ceased attempts in March.
All the Finn dads always told their sons that war is cruel, insane, and stopid. Hope russians do so also..
Translation of interviews (though w/o proofreading):
12:18 - 13:14:
…and we left to the Karelian isthmus on 10th October for a so called “extra war practise”. I acted as a commander of a train ride to Viipuri, and when arriving at Viipuri station an old Karelian woman brought me a flower to set on my chest and thanked me for coming to the isthmus to defend them. At the location where we fought there wasn’t initially anything, neither trenches nor barricades so we dug entrenchments and built barbed wire fences and dugout shelters (korsu).
13:20 - 13:39:
We had 32 old Renault tanks no longer in battle condition and 32 Vickers tanks from England without cannons, observation equipment and radios. We had only one tank in battle condition!
13:44 - 14:02:
…but those were old English Ripon (Blackburn Ripon IIF) airplanes that flew 160 km/h and the Soviets had fighter aircraft that flew 370 km/h.
Hope this helps d:)
My grandpa lived before finland was indepented. He saw many things along his life. Im not sure if he fought in any war, i havent even met him. He was dead of old age before i was even born. My dad is now 70 and doesnt really talk abaut it that much.
🎶oi maamme suomi synnyin maa🎶
so proud of our finnish neighbour, but we did send troops from sweden too. volenteer troops, that took over the northen part of the front
I thank your country for Finland! :) Tack så mycket!
There was a Swedish division in the north yes, but it didn't quite 'take over the front' as they were still in smaller numbers than the Finns there. Not taking anything away from them, just being historically accurate as we should be.
Kiitos!
i'm from finlad and thanks you make the videi):(:
orcs thought finland was walk over
We should insist that Korillia goes back to Finland.
The guy at 4:15 sounds like Zoidburg haha. Great video,makes me proud to own a Mosin and Finnish M39.
Interesting and informative. Excellent photography job making it easier for viewers to better understand what the orator was describing. Historians did a very good job presenting actual facts from fiction. Class A research project!!! Wonderful reenactments with actor soldiers. Rough and fierce combat operations on both sides. Special thanks to the guest speakers for sharing their personal experiences of the invasion/occupation/expungement of the Russian invaders. Also the under supplied Finnish forces whom fought/perished/survived fighting impossible military odds. Knowing certain death/debilitating wounds were often possible. Yet still advanced forward. That's called true grit determination. Unfortunately when Germany surrendered to the allied forces. Finland fell under the domination of the sickle & hammer 🔨.
Finland's army in ww2 was one of the best armed forces in the world.
:D
They have 337,000-346,500 troops, 32 tanks, and 114 aircraft
Against 998,100 men (overall) , 2,514-6,541 tanks and 3,880 aircraft.
So basically the Soviets outnumber the Finns 3-1 in Manpower, somewhere around 78 - 203 soviet tanks for 1 Finnish Tank, and around 34 soviet aircraft for 1 Finnish aircraft.
Then Finland !@#$s up the Soviets and inflict 323,000 casualties on the soviets while taking only 70,000. Destroys 3,543 tanks and 261-515 aircraft while losing 20-30 tanks and 62 aircraft. You gotta admit, that takes real balls and skills to achieve. Too bad they lost
:(
***** great job Finland!
Kudos for being one of the badass countries in the world
It is really hard to be beat Russia, which is really formidable
Richard Park
By Putins logic we could demand the lost land back from Russia :)
Finns lost 67 aircraft and 364 pilot (if I'm not mistaken) Could you explain how this is possible? all Army aircraft losses twice as high than in manpower. Of the downed aircraft you can jump out on a parachute. Plane with a dead pilot can not land at the airport. Forced landing almost impossible in Finnish forests. Maybe because can hide the loss of aircraft and human impossible. Relatives of the deceased are asked why not his in the list.
***** I know that Stalin tried to negotiate with the Finns on the exchange territory. Negotiations were about two years. Stalin suggested Finns twice as much territory in Karelia and compensation. Instead requested the move the border from Leningrad to protect the city. Winter on the ice Gulf of Finland could go into town and go to fleet. Why, then, after a line Mannerheim Soviet troops had occupied not Finland? Mannerheim wrote that there is nobody to defend the city (Helsinki). By the way, if the Finns had minor loss why he wrote it. Where are the troops?
1944 год.
The first question that Stalin asked the head of its strategic aviation Golovanov was the question ... whether he knows the history of Finland? [653 - Golovanov AE long-range bomber ... Memories Chief Marshal of Aviation 1941-1945. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007. S. 405.] Operation prepared, but in any case, even though and gently - this bombing. Blow was delivered against the Helsinki port, railway junction and military installations located on the outskirts of the Finnish capital. Civilized Europeans during that war, bomb doors opened just above the living quarters and not particularly tormented by remorse. What about Stalin?
"From the conversations, it was clear that ... Stalin had respect for the Finnish people ... It was obvious that the massive air strikes entail great sacrifices, and so a small nation ... Knowing Stalin is not the first I've seen that it varies in the final decision" [654 - Ibid. Pp. 406.].
February 6, 1944 order to strike at the outskirts of Helsinki was obtained. On the night of February 7, he was dealt. Finns understand the situation and soon made contact with the Soviet ambassador in Sweden. And for 16 February, the first informal meeting. However, the negotiation process has stalled immediately. Therefore, the same day attacked outlying Helsinki was repeated. But the consent of the Finnish government to withdraw from the war on our terms are still not reported [655 - Terms of Stalin were extremely considerate: 1. Severance of relations with Germany and the internment of its troops and ships. 2. Recovery Soviet-Finnish treaty in 1940 and retraction of the Finnish troops to the borders of 1940. 3. Immediate return of prisoners, as well as civilians. 4. Question of the demobilization of the Finnish army to solve subsequent negotiations in Moscow. 5. Issue of damages as to leave the talks in Moscow.]. Finland pulled to answer. Then, February 27, 1944 was dealt a third airstrike.
"If the number of aircrafts that participated in the raid actually struck by Helsinki, we can say that the city would cease to exist. Raid was terrible and the last warning. Shortly me was obtained Stalin's instruction - long-range bombers combat activities in Finland stop. Thus began the negotiations Finland's withdrawal from the war "[656 - Golovanov AE long-range bomber ... Memories Chief Marshal of Aviation 1941-1945. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007. S. 411.
Stalin bombed the forest, the sea and the port ... to persuade Finns withdraw from the war.
Almost fatherly concern. In the center of Helsinki should be a monument to Stalin
***** You probably had a lot of pilots to fight in the infantry. Not invent for yourself something special. In worse conditions were Russian and German pilots later. Did you know that in Finland the German specialists built new airfields in 1938, which was more than 114 aircraft.
The Germans fought from Finland and then have landed in the ports of Finland Entente troops. I think that the actions of the Soviet Union are fully justified. History has shown that the blockade of Leningrad endured due to changes boundaries of 1939-40. I'm not interested Russian opinion. I'm trying to judge regardless of any party. by the way,Mannerheim was agrees with the proposal of the Soviet side of the exchange of territories
WHEN YOU FIGHT ,FOR YOUR VERY BIRTH PLACE ,,,,,WELL DONE FINLAND .BE PROUD
He was a Special Forces (Green Beret) Sergeant and was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor, which is the highest award for bravery above and beyond the call of duty.
To some people here, originally the subs were there. When this video was transferred from google video to youtube video the subs vanished somehow. Don't blame me.
What I hate about WW2 documents in RUclips is that the comments always devolve into a dick-waving contest.
No doubt, it's always my country is better than yours. These morons are too primitive and stupid to realise they had zero to do with any of it. They have evolved little from humanity's primitive caveman days.
Gene Smolko my finnish grandpa was pioneer in this war.. he survived siberia
and when he returned never again spoke about anything that happened in the war to anyone. In his working office hung countless medals.. but he didnt want to talk about it.
The generation that fought, is modest and very silent - at least on the finnish side.
Why do the children and grandchildren who never fought a war believe they are entitled to spill their respectless bullshit into the internet...
Anyone has a good answer to that?
respect the fallen, and prevent the next war -. taht is our job, the job of the following generations. Imperialism and nationalism causes only pain, and drains the brain.
Russia DID invade Finland, and the valiant and steadfast Finns crushed the invading Soviets. Equally, the suicidal tactics employed by Russ forces ensured defea
This is a surprisingly well made documentary...overall anyway.
does anyone know what that (grave site?) is called? the one with all the stones and the bells? its so pretty
As a patriotic American I will never forget the story of Simo Häyhä, a finished man who was tough as nails who fought in the winter war. I wish more Americans could be like him, instead so many fight and worry about race and gender pronouns. Not the success of our country 😥
When the Kreml agreement was made in 1948 Stalin said: "Even though I am not really a soldier, I can say that we soliders are easily forgotten in times of peace but in wartime everything depends on us. A country with a bad army is not respected by anyone, but a country with a good army is respected by everyone. I raise my glass to the army of Finland and it's representatives here".
Fascinating. I could only corroborate a few of the major aspects but it SEEMED to me to be fairly accurate, nothing stuck out as dubious. I'm only moderately informed on such history.
That'd be awesome, thanks. I think to do it though you'd have to post the video yourself and then either annotate it using youtube or go into a video editing software suite and add subtitles that way.
Much smaller Finland won . I really hope for same outcome in Ukraine.
100 % lol
Lol there were no russian soldiers in ukraine in 2014
soldaten SS Are there any now?
Milan Matovic No only russian volunteer fighters
soldaten SS Thanks! How strong militaries have the opposite sides in general?
When does Russia plan to return the taken Finnish parts including Finnish Artic shore?
Why do we allow Russia and China special colonial privileges in the UNO?
When does Merica plan to return stolen Alaska to mother Russia? And why do we still allow USA to exist? Several nuclear explosians and everything is all right!
If you didn't know, Russia sold Alaska to USA. They didn't steal it. So, if Russia wants it back now, they should pay. You know, money? No one stole it. Anyway, when Russia is so big anyway, I don't believe Russia actually needs Alaska. And also I don't see why they wanted Finland, since it too is pretty small and hardly effects things anyway. But that's not important at the moment. You get my point, anyone?
~DREV~ Yeah, but Russia didn't get money so the bargain is unlegal. Well, anyway, now you see : the probability that Russia will return anything to Finland = the probability that USA will return Alaska to us.
Derpa .Derpa I don't believe that Stalin wanted to take all Finland. He wanted to remove the border but finnish government refused. So he just needed another government in Helsinki to sign the treaty with it, not to occupy Finland. But just after finns agreed to sign the treaty at last Stalin stopped the army and the war finished.
winny phh Do you have proof Russia didn't get it's money for the Alaska Purchase?
...does anyone knows the background music in the beginning ?
I'd gladly translate this for anyone who is interest if I could. Is there any way to add translates to these videos?
What should be remembered is that most of the soldiers in the Soviet army were Ukrainians, who had no idea how to survive in the northern winter. This is because Stalin was afraid that if the U.S.S.R. used soldiers from Karelia or other areas near Finland they would feel sympathy towards the Finns.
+Markus FIN - That's interesting information! I had heard that the Soviet army wasn't prepared for the brutal cold in Finland and that many soldiers froze to death due to not having the proper winter gear. Which always seemed crazy to me! I mea, why?? Russia is every bit as cold as Finland! But that explains it, somewhat, as the Ukraine is further south than Finland.
Man, I've seen some images of Soviet soldiers frozen to death in the Finnish war; in whatever position they were in when they died-curled up, whatever, grimacing... Like this one image where Finnish soldiers had mounted a dead, frozen Soviet soldier in a ghastly position on a stake, as a warning to his fellow Russian soldiers... But it's war, it's brutal by definition. And Finland was attacked! This much smaller country, with limited resources (they used reindeer and sleds to move supplies! For real. Though actually, they were kind of kicking ass with their white snow camouflage clothing, traveling on skis, with their reindeer... ) Seems so quaint! But in a way it was like guerilla warfare. Though we tend to associate guerilla warfare with jungle. The Soviets were certainly the bad guys in this conflict-but you've got to feel bad for the individual soldier (or at least a lot of them) who were just drafted and told where to go.A cold ass ass place in their autumn coats and thin boots, freezing to death... Fuck.
+Markus FIN
Most of the Red Army soldiers in the Winter War were Ukrainians.
Иштен Кардья That is correct.
+Markus FIN Yes but alot of the soldiers were Russians too. Not only ukranians.
+Markus OMG, Another one funny story from great specialist about russian history...
SISU !!! LONG LIVE FINLAND!!!
Perhaps the international version would have had the subtitles, but this video was shown on the Finnish national TV, so naturally there are no subtitles for the parts in Finnish.
The auto captions are terrible. I haven't a clue whats being said if it's not in english.The translator seems to be making up most of it.
sergio ketteler@ So what? It's absolutely usual for armies, charging so strong defence lines. One good example : the defence of Port-Artur during Russia-Japan war in 1905. Casualities were 110 thousand from Japan side and 10 thousand from Russians. But inspite of absolutely terrible losses it considered that Japan won the war. So really the victory deserves any losses, that's why we're victors, Finland fucked.
how do you explain the Continuation war then ?
Finns were the ones attacking...
F I N L A N D
*Men: 700,000*
Dead: 40,000
Wounded: 150,000
S O V I E T S
*Men: 1,520,000*
Dead: 265,000
Wounded: 575,000
Derpa .Derpa Maybe you don't know it, but in Russia almost nobody knows about this "Continuation war" and about Finns participation in WW2 at all. People know about the Great Patriotic War, and that Germans advanced from Finland too, cause everybody saw the movie "Dawns are quiet here". So really Finns are very small story for our war memories... Of cause there were some losses in Karelian front too, but very small and unimportant comparing to all the war...
Федя Бочкин
*"Germans advanced from Finland too"*
lol wut ? :D, the Germans were not allowed to advance any deeper into soviet soil from Finland, the German troops were under Finnish command...
Finnish troops gained those lost last back in 2,5 days, besides the heavy Soviet resistant...
and then the trench warfare lasted from 1941 to 1944...
*"Maybe you don't know it, but in Russia almost nobody knows about this "Continuation war" and about Finns participation in it WW2 at all"*
yes I know :), _"The Russians have white pages on their history"_, the Soviet propaganda has done a great job on wiping the Blunder the Finnish campaing from the Russian history books...
even the Soviet casualties are still uncertain because the Soviets burned a lot of their field reports...
and the ppsh-41 was a major factor for the Soviets winning the war againt Germany, and from who you got the idea for it ?... oh yeah, the Finns :)
*"The impetus for the development of the PPSh came from the Winter War against Finland, where the Finnish army employed the Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun as a highly effective tool for close-quarter fighting in forests or built-up urban areas"*
~ Wikipedia ~
+ we invented the Molotov Cocktail that you used also...
Derpa .Derpa "Molotov Coctail"? Yeah, I know... But seems not many people else in Russia - Russians are sure that Molotov Coctail was invented by Molotov himself and very proud of it! About PPSh - it has nothing to do with "Suomi", because already earlier it was PPD submachine gun (invented by Dekteryov in 1930 it seems) and PPSh was a further development of this conception.
Федя Бочкин
hahaha :D
the name for the "Molotov Cocktail" was given to MOCK Molotov himself, just like the "Molotov's Breadbasket"... xDDD
You could destroy a IS-2 with price of a half-a-galon of fuel...
*KP31:* designed in 1921
*PDD40:* designed in 1934
*PPSH41:* designed in 1941
:P
quite strange that the PDD has the same specs and outlook as the KP31
That history shows us how an ass (actually bear ass) is kicked.Greetings from Turkiye Fins!
Alaattin Gönül Well, Russia kicked Turkish ass many many times
Alex Peace We both kicked our asses many times.Don't be just a supporter.Be objective!
Alex Peace I do believe Turkish army is second biggest in Nato after US, it could be a painful ass kicking for both sides...
Seems to be a wrong aspect-ratio here. Should be widescreen (16:9) and not 4:3!
Beautiful
Could someone please tell me what the name of the beginning music?
Sure thing, composer is Jamie Lawrence and song is called _"The Alzheimer's Project Theme"_
@realtsarbomba Thaaanks man , I really appreciate your response .
de bra I am aware, that many nations sent many troops to help us Greatest Thank You and I am glad that you brought that up there is no better man than the man that gives the ultimate sacrifice, God Bless Their Souls !!
4:42 Are they marching with AVS-36 rifles? Or am I not seeing straight?
i like how they have some of the movie scenes
It isn't really a blitzkrieg when you don't use schwerpunktprinzip (gravity/concentration principle). The Soviets used a massed armoured attack across the line, instead of using concentrated armoured point attacks (armoured "fists") to punch through enemies lines instead of actually fighting all of them at once.