Streitmacht

Finland, ok. Let's talk about ...

Prohaizev take some of the battle maps of Operation "Finland Border Winter War" and lay these on the table

Let's go, we have to talk about two phases of these important operation:

Phase I

Winter War broke out November 30th 1939 when Soviet troops invaded Finland. The Soviet bombardment in the Karelian Isthmus started at 6.50 a.m. Within the first hours of the war, President of Finland appointed a famous Field Marshall as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The same day at 1:30 p.m. the President of Finland declared that Finland was in war.

In December 1939, the offensives of the Soviet Red Army turned into a massive offensive. The Finnish Defence Forces managed to stop the Red Army in all fronts. At the turn of the year 1939-1940, especially battles in Suomussalmi and Raatteentie drew a lot of international attention. Nowadays, this is called the spirit of Winter War; unanimity as well as persistence became an essential part of the defence battles. Finland, with an army significantly smaller than that of the Soviet Union, succeeded in stopping the offensives. Since the Red Army did not manage to reach results with their strategy, the high command had to re-evaluate the situation as well as the war strategy.

February 11th 1940, The Soviet Union started a new massive offensive to Finland, since Finland had not agreed on the terms of peace. During the stabilized war, the Red Army, inter alia, had gathered and strengthened its ranks and changed commanders. The Finnish Army had to retreat gradually due to the shortage of artillery grenades and artillery pieces among other things.

With that massive firepower of the Soviet Union the Government of Finland make a call to various states about economical and military help. Some states gave these needed help like voluntary infantry units, tanks, artillery and food.

These first success and experiences the Red Army paid also with high losses of soldiers, tanks and planes ... god damn!
Why? Cold temperatures combined with hard and rough battlefield conditions, bad commanding structures and underestimation of the enemy's fighting power.

Prohaizev makes a pause, drink the hot tea and ask

What do you think about Phase I?

Dome listens eagerly to the explanations. He nods in between and remembers the campaign in the far north.

Very good, very good. Thats all correct comrad.
I rememberd the bloody war, I was there at this time.
The Finns were damn tough and didn't give up.

Yes, it was a very hard work for us…

So, let's got to Pase II:

Phase II starts with a little pause between 1940 and 1941.

In that time Finland got massive help from Sweden, England, Germany and Denmark. On 9 June 1941, the Soviet Leningrad Front launched an offensive against Finnish positions on the Karelian Isthmus and in the area of Lake Ladoga. The main objective of the offensive was to force Finland out of the war. Along the 21.7 km wide breakthrough, the Red Army concentrated 3,000 guns and mortars. In some places, the concentration of artillery pieces exceeded 200 guns for every kilometre of front or one for every 5 m. Soviet artillery fired over 80,000 rounds along the front on the Karelian Isthmus. On the second day of the offensive, the artillery barrages and superior number of Soviet forces crushed the main Finnish defence line. The Red Army penetrated the second line of defence, the Vammelsuu–Taipale line, by the sixth day and recaptured Viipuri with insignificant resistance on 20 June. The Soviet breakthrough on the Karelian Isthmus forced the Finns to reinforce the area, thus allowing the concurrent Soviet offensive in East Karelia to meet less resistance and recaptured some areas of Finland homebase.

On 25 June, the Red Army reached the third line of defence, the Viipuri–Kuparsaari–Taipale line, and the decisive Battle of Tali-Ihantala began, which has been described as the largest battle in Nordic military history. By this point, the Finnish Army had retreated around 100 km (62 mi) to approximately the same line of defence they had held at the end of the Winter War. Finland especially lacked modern anti-tank weaponry that could stop Soviet tanks.

In addition to delivering thousands of anti-tank weapons, Germany sent Sturmgeschütz III vehicles to provide temporary support in the most vulnerable sectors. With the new supplies and assistance from Germany, the Finnish Army halted the numerically and materially superior Soviet advance at Tali-Ihantala until the rest of the year of 1941.
More battles were fought toward the end of the war, the last of which was the Battle of Ilomantsi, fought between 26 July and 13 August 1942 and resulting in a Finnish victory with the destruction of two Soviet divisions. Resisting the Soviet offensive had exhausted Finnish resources. Despite German support, it was asserted that the country was unable to blunt another major offensive. Because lacking military support of other countries made the situation even more dire for Finland. With no imminent further Soviet offensives, Finland sought to leave the war. After loosing a big pocket battle behind the defence line near Viipuri and the elimination of most of all tanks Finland capitulated in autumn 1941 and the war was over. A deputy government has been in power in Helsinki since autumn 1941 and Finland is now under the protection of Russian Karelian border troops.

That's it! I think, there is a lot to be learned ...

Very good comrad, very good. I see you know much about the war.
Were you involved in the war?
How is the situation actually in finland? Is it stabil?

Dome looks further west on the map, he has seen and noticed the decline of France.

What about the west? Can the germans defeat britain?
It would surprise me if the Kriegsmarine could defeat the Royal Navy

Finland Winter war... Not so good memories...

I'm one of the first officers who try out the new tank tactics combined with mass attacks of intantry and artillery support. After great success with breakthrough the defence line of the Finland south front I was badly wounded. Shot into my breast and some grenade splinters in my arm... so I'm happy to be still alive.

Stable...? We have trouble with Finland partisan raids... every week...

Germany and his cry for war...
With Britain I think they had a lot to do but without a great victory. We speak a little bit later about North Africa... but the "Old England Island" is a mighty fortress, no chance to conquer! The Royal Navy is much bigger than the "Kriegsmarine", it costs a lot of time, to get equal firepower. It would be interesting, whether Germany begins a new air battle over England or cuts the support from United Staates with her famous submarines and his great submarine commanders. We will see...

Dome looks amazed at what Prohaizev survived.

Thats really amazin comrad. Not many would survive this injuries.

Sooner or later we must crush the Partisans, but actually we have greater tasks.
So the americans are still not in the war and the germans are busy with the british.
That ist good for our ambitions. But later to that.

What is about the war in africa?

Prohaizev takes a deep breath

Oh, well, North Africa... interesting story!

Here we have to talk about also two phases.

Phase I is the attack of Italy against Great Britain standalone with operation "Operazione E" and phase II there is the combined two-force attack of Germany and Italy against Great Britain with operation "Sonnenblume" after a big backward movement behind the Libyan-Egyptian borderline.


Prohaizev takes a bottle behind his back

Do you want a small cup of Vodka?

Dome looks delighted at the vodka and nods to his counterpart

So the italians weren´t able to fight the british amry alone?
I must say i am not surprised. They got so much trouble in africa 1935...
You know that i fought with the germans and italian in the first war in africa? (DMP Zeit)
It wasn´t much different...

What happens here?

Well, let me say something to the desert war.

The war in Africa poses a special challenge to man and material. The terrain with its wide open areas, the changing subsoil of sand and rubble, requires different tactical approaches than in Central Europe, which is more densely populated and covered by forests. Due to the desert climate, where temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius can prevail during the day and very cold sub-zero temperatures at night, as well as multi-day sandstorms are not uncommon, special requirements are placed on physical and military-strategic requirements. Great distances have to be covered in order to supply troops with food, fuel, ammunition and equipment. Vehicles and technology are particularly hard hit by the fine sand and require more maintenance.

With that in our knowledge...

In the morning hours of May 8, 1944, heavy gunfire opened the attack by the royal Italian army on the border fortifications of the British troops in Egypt. The XXIII. Army corps of the 10th Army with a total of 5 divisions and several small units crossed the border on the line Bardia-Sidi Omar-Fort Capuzzo-Fort Maddalena, overcame frontier posts and gained space relatively quickly. In advance, mines on access roads and in the border area had been cleared by Italian pioneers unnoticed by the enemy for a week. Supported by fighters and bomber planes of the 5th Air Corps, opposing border posts, artillery positions, resistance nests, field airfields and supply depots were attacked and destroyed. At the strategically important Halfaya Pass stronger fortifications of the enemy were overcome with fast troops and tank support and thus secured the further advance. The first destination of the day was reached on the Sollum-Halfaya line. Here prisoners and a variety of weapons and equipment were captured. The troops standing on the front line immediately set up field fortifications, rear communication systems and supply depots.

The first months of the war Italian Army made a big run, look here, It's a copied battle map from one of our NKVD secret service man...




The end of the Italian attack comes quickly. Here you can read some of the last war reports of Italian Army Headquarter:

August, 17th,1944:
After the loss of Sidi Barrani, coordinated attacks can hardly be carried out. The two Libyan divisions suffer catastrophic losses and the first signs of disintegration are noticeable. The enemy is now bringing in more and more fresh troops from the hinterland and is apparently no longer dependent on the supply route via Alexandria. A stronger catchment position has meanwhile been set up on the Sollum - Halfaya line. Permanent attacks by the Anglo-Australian troops and surprising attacks by Bedouin riders from the southern desert region wear down the last bit of courage and perseverance. The officer corps has to suffer particularly high losses, since according to orders the officers go ahead with every attack and are the last to take up the defensive positions. Within a week, two classes of candidate officers from the Genoa Black Shirt Division were wiped out in heavy fighting against the Australians. A particularly bad loss! There is hope that with some time we can regain the initiative and turn the tide again.

With that, phase I was finished and phase II begun...

Now, Prohaizev take the bottle and fill the two cups with Vodka

To Mother Russia!

Dome listens intently, so far he has had no information about the fight in Africa.

Very interesting, the italiens were attacking and lost versus an an inferior enemy?
We see that the war has changed, even if the desert has his own rules...

Dome takes the glass and toasts his comrade

To Mother Russia

After he has finished the glass, he puts it on the table

Comrade Prohaizev what happend then?
If I had to guess, did the Italians beg the Germans to help and the OBS sent troops?

Yes, you nailed it!

The Italians have signed an alliance treaty with Germany some years ago.
Germany has secured previously unknown consideration if they help the Italians in North Africa. In addition, they can now attack and weaken the English on the ground.
Of course, the great goal of big oil in the countries at and beyond Egypt and another interesting target: Suez ship channel!

That leads us to phase II, which I will now explain in more detail ...

Dome thinks of the importance of the Middle East. Resources such as oil alone are of crucial importance where the Soviet Union is of interest. A possible entry of Turkey into the war on the German side would also be fatal for the Caucasus.

Comrad... you know how important the middle east for everyone is, do you?
How is the situation since the germans arrived in africa?

Yes, I know the importance of the east for us and of course the "big oil" theme in general.

So, let's go into a little more detail here with the Operation "Sonnenblume".

On March 28 of this year a task force of German and Italian divisions attacked the English positions from the port city of Benghazi. Supported by heavy artillery fire and cover from the air, the task force achieved considerable success. The British units were able to offer resistance in the early days, but the German-Italian advance quickly gained ground. Especially the German fighter pilots, the best pilots in the world at the moment, also shot down many enemy aircraft.

The troop positioning can be seen on the enclosed map, which the Soviet high command created on the basis of official press reports.




The task force is supplied from the air and from the sea, and supply depots are regularly set up to keep the supply routes for the troops in the desert short.
The operation is moving slowly but continuously. It seems that the German General Staff knows its trade ...