This illustrates the Soviet positions along the road into and out of the city of Suomussalmi and shows the subsequent Finnish attacks from many different positions which halted the Soviet advances toward the powerful 44th Rifle Division. (Young and Natkiel, 27)
The Turning Point in the War
The Battle of Suomussalmi began just eight days after the outbreak of the war.
Soviet Army General Mikhail P. Dukhanov’s strategy was to travel all the way
across Finland’s countryside in order to take the city of Oulu. The idea was to
theoretically divide Finland in half to cut off supplies from the south to the north
(Irincheev, 105). The Soviets believed that the easiest way for them to achieve their
objective was to advance through the small city of Suomussalmi. Military historian
John Hughes-Wilson describes Suomussalmi as a village that “lies about 25 miles west
of Raate, on the Russian border. It is at a crossroads connected to the border by a
network of dirt roads weaving through a wilderness of lakes and forest.” This exact
location was the reason that the Finns would be able to defeat the much larger
Soviet forces.
Even before the Red Army arrived at the city, the Finns were harassing
the Soviet ground troops at every possible window of opportunity. They began
using tactics like an insurgency would. The Finns found out early that they
would benefit from ambushing the Soviets and then retreating before they could
be heavily fired upon. The Soviets brought two fully equipped mechanized
divisions with them but the majority of their forces could not be utilized
because they were often packed into traffic jams because there were only two
usable roads leading in and out of Suomussalmi. The Finnish forces around the
city realized that this was a major advantage for them. Finnish sniper teams
were virtually invisible to the Soviets as they blended into the snow while they
wore white snow capes. The snipers targeted the Soviet traffic regulators which
were assigned with moving the divisions along the roads as fast as possible. Any
attempts to leave the roads by the Soviets lead to disarray. They continued to
rely on their tanks and it was too difficult to travel over the snow covered
terrain with the tanks. Finnish ski troops continued to harass the Soviets from
the rear as they sprayed their machine guns and threw Molotov cocktails at the
enemy. The Red Army soldiers began to realize how ill-equipped they were and
even more so as they entered the city.
The Soviets entered the city with little resistance. In fact, “The regiments
of the 163rd Rifle Division captured Suomussalmi on the evening of 9
December. The 15th and 16th Detached Battalions of the Finnish Army
could do little to stop them” according to military author Bair Irincheev.
However, the majority of the Finnish soldiers had retreated from the city and
booby-trapped the entire area. Explosives and mines were planted in and around
the whole city and the Soviet casualties mounted. The winter cold was an increasing
threat to the Soviet soldiers and they could not escape the frigid temperatures because
of the buildings being packed with explosives. The Soviets desperately needed
reinforcements and attempted to come in contact with the powerful 44thRifle Division
in the Soviet Army that could easily overrun the Finnish forces. In order to meet the
division, the Soviets had to exit the city and they chose to follow a narrow road out of
the city that was surrounded by two frozen lakes and created a bottleneck of their forces.
This would prove to be the ultimate demise of the Soviet divisions.
The free moving Finns were able to continually strike the slow moving
masses due to bad communication, the creation of a bottleneck on the roads, and the mud
on the roads that was also a major factor in slowing them down. This gradually divided the
Soviet units into smaller and smaller pockets until there was no hope for victory (Bellamy, 75).
The buildup of mud along the road, in fact, turned out to be a larger factor than the Red Army
anticipated. Transporting the men and equipment for two large divisions was taking a toll
on the Soviet army’s only transport route. The mud that began to collect along the roads
accumulated in the wheel wells and tracks of the trucks and tanks that the Soviets were
traveling with. This slowed them down even more. All of these factors combined together
caused them to be completely vulnerable to Finnish attacks from multiple angles. The
Finns used antitank gunners to disable the Soviet tanks and slow them down even more.
Soviet Army General Mikhail P. Dukhanov’s strategy was to travel all the way
across Finland’s countryside in order to take the city of Oulu. The idea was to
theoretically divide Finland in half to cut off supplies from the south to the north
(Irincheev, 105). The Soviets believed that the easiest way for them to achieve their
objective was to advance through the small city of Suomussalmi. Military historian
John Hughes-Wilson describes Suomussalmi as a village that “lies about 25 miles west
of Raate, on the Russian border. It is at a crossroads connected to the border by a
network of dirt roads weaving through a wilderness of lakes and forest.” This exact
location was the reason that the Finns would be able to defeat the much larger
Soviet forces.
Even before the Red Army arrived at the city, the Finns were harassing
the Soviet ground troops at every possible window of opportunity. They began
using tactics like an insurgency would. The Finns found out early that they
would benefit from ambushing the Soviets and then retreating before they could
be heavily fired upon. The Soviets brought two fully equipped mechanized
divisions with them but the majority of their forces could not be utilized
because they were often packed into traffic jams because there were only two
usable roads leading in and out of Suomussalmi. The Finnish forces around the
city realized that this was a major advantage for them. Finnish sniper teams
were virtually invisible to the Soviets as they blended into the snow while they
wore white snow capes. The snipers targeted the Soviet traffic regulators which
were assigned with moving the divisions along the roads as fast as possible. Any
attempts to leave the roads by the Soviets lead to disarray. They continued to
rely on their tanks and it was too difficult to travel over the snow covered
terrain with the tanks. Finnish ski troops continued to harass the Soviets from
the rear as they sprayed their machine guns and threw Molotov cocktails at the
enemy. The Red Army soldiers began to realize how ill-equipped they were and
even more so as they entered the city.
The Soviets entered the city with little resistance. In fact, “The regiments
of the 163rd Rifle Division captured Suomussalmi on the evening of 9
December. The 15th and 16th Detached Battalions of the Finnish Army
could do little to stop them” according to military author Bair Irincheev.
However, the majority of the Finnish soldiers had retreated from the city and
booby-trapped the entire area. Explosives and mines were planted in and around
the whole city and the Soviet casualties mounted. The winter cold was an increasing
threat to the Soviet soldiers and they could not escape the frigid temperatures because
of the buildings being packed with explosives. The Soviets desperately needed
reinforcements and attempted to come in contact with the powerful 44thRifle Division
in the Soviet Army that could easily overrun the Finnish forces. In order to meet the
division, the Soviets had to exit the city and they chose to follow a narrow road out of
the city that was surrounded by two frozen lakes and created a bottleneck of their forces.
This would prove to be the ultimate demise of the Soviet divisions.
The free moving Finns were able to continually strike the slow moving
masses due to bad communication, the creation of a bottleneck on the roads, and the mud
on the roads that was also a major factor in slowing them down. This gradually divided the
Soviet units into smaller and smaller pockets until there was no hope for victory (Bellamy, 75).
The buildup of mud along the road, in fact, turned out to be a larger factor than the Red Army
anticipated. Transporting the men and equipment for two large divisions was taking a toll
on the Soviet army’s only transport route. The mud that began to collect along the roads
accumulated in the wheel wells and tracks of the trucks and tanks that the Soviets were
traveling with. This slowed them down even more. All of these factors combined together
caused them to be completely vulnerable to Finnish attacks from multiple angles. The
Finns used antitank gunners to disable the Soviet tanks and slow them down even more.
Transition Toward Defeat
One of the division commanders, Kombrig Zelentsov, time and again asked for permission to withdraw from the battle. He was forbidden to leave due to the belief that the 44th Division would arrive soon (Irincheev, 107). The Soviets realized their only hope for survival was to surrender to the Finnish forces who took pity on many of them and gave them food and warmth in order to keep them alive.
The war ended on March 13th, 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty. Although the Soviet Union did gain some territory in the treaty, it was much less than they had hoped and they accrued over 100,00 casualties due to the fighting and extreme conditions that they were exposed to. This was seen by many nations in the world as a humiliating loss for the Soviets and ultimately the principle reason that Hitler
decided to invade the Soviet Union around 15 months later with Operation
Barbarossa. However, the loss triggered many positive changes to the Soviet
Army that were critical to the country’s success in some major battles with
Germany such as the Battle of Moscow. WWII author Chris Bellamy states,
“The events at Suomussalmi and the Soviet response provide valuable
indicators of what would happen in 1941.”
The war ended on March 13th, 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty. Although the Soviet Union did gain some territory in the treaty, it was much less than they had hoped and they accrued over 100,00 casualties due to the fighting and extreme conditions that they were exposed to. This was seen by many nations in the world as a humiliating loss for the Soviets and ultimately the principle reason that Hitler
decided to invade the Soviet Union around 15 months later with Operation
Barbarossa. However, the loss triggered many positive changes to the Soviet
Army that were critical to the country’s success in some major battles with
Germany such as the Battle of Moscow. WWII author Chris Bellamy states,
“The events at Suomussalmi and the Soviet response provide valuable
indicators of what would happen in 1941.”