The Soviets found themselves corralled into MottisВ or pockets, unable to move forward or backwardsВ due to marauding Finns, who lacked the numbers to assault the now dug-in Soviets. Using their increased mobility and local knowledge to their advantage, the Finnish army inflicted massive casualties on the Soviets, attacking then melting away into the trees before a counter-attack could be mounted. Knowing they would be unable to beat the Soviets in open battle, the Finns began a guerrilla campaign against the strung-out Soviet columns. While the weight of numbers would eventually grind through the Finnish defences, it would cost the Soviets a vast amount of men and material.ДЇurther to the north, Soviet offensives became bogged down by abysmal weather conditions and freezing conditions. Using Molotov cocktails and improvised weapons (logs and crowbars), the Finnish defenders were able to counter head-on tank assaults with relative ease.ДЇinnish soldiers inspect a captured Soviet tank during the Winter War. These fortifications repulsed numerousВ Soviet attacks, despite a high concentration of armoured vehicles and aircraft. The first (and largest) of these struck up the Karelian Isthmus, straight into the teeth of the Finnish Mannerheim line. While it would later come out that an NKVD unit had orchestrated the attack, it provided the Soviet Union with all they needed to launch an all-out assault on their northern neighbour.ДЇour Soviet armies crossed the Finnish border in December 1939. An isolated border post at Mainila came under sustained artillery fire from Finnish territory, supposedly killing four men and injuring a further nine. The war began with a typically Soviet deception. This appalling statistic neatly illustrates the brutality of the Winter War and highlights the numerous defects in Soviet war-making that would almost be their undoing during Operation Barbarossa two years later. In three short months, the Soviet army suffered over 300,000 casualties. With winter closing in around us here in Nottingham, weвЂ™re casting our eyes eastward to the frozen forests of Finland and the bitter struggle of the Winter War 1939!

Finnish winter war uniform