DonFck wrote:
If you're going to attack in the winter, wear some warm clothes, for Christ sake. If you're planning to invade a country and make it a part of the communist USSR and end up in a peace treaty after conquering maybe 150km land and getting more troops killed than.. ..I don't know what, you have lost. If you are fighting wars on several fronts and haven't thought that someone might actually want to hold on to their country.. ..well, you know where I'm going with this one.
The continuation war was basically USSR trying to penetrate into Finland again, but the Red machine just couldn't get through. Obsolete combat tactics vs. guerilla warfare, tbh.
As for winning land in the war, yes, the USSR succeeded (and later on totally ruined the land). If by winning the wars, that can be argued. IMO it was a Finnish victory, and if anything in favor for the USSR, maybe, just maybe it could be called a tie.
Considering the strength of attacking forces vs. the defence, Finland > USSR.
Oh, I forgot Mannerheim's (sp?) line - one of the strongest defence lines known to humanity. Speaking of losses, Finland definitely won. But yet, USSR reached it's goal - territories, that were actually a reason of the war, were given to USSR.
And USSR attacked in winter - 2+ methers of snow + landscape full of different size stones (under winter snow) made it close to impossible to attack with tanks. And how are you going to break heavy fortified line without tanks?
Don't take me wrong, I'm not saying that Finish sucked at this war - they were heroes, their small military hold USSR army for 3 months and they had exellent cold weather equipment, but yet, you cant deny the fact that USSR succeed in impossible situation. Most of western militaries won't even try to fight in that conditions. Imo, considering all factors, losses were quite adequate.
130 aircraft vs. 3800 aircraft
30 tanks vs. 6541 tanks
War took place in the middle of subarctic winter. Weather and landscape made them almost useless. Note that most of USSR losses were infantry - because infantry was the only military branch that was able to fight in that conditions. +most of that vehicles were quite outdated, only in the middle\end of war USSR army began to recieve shell-proof (early tanks were only bullet-proof) T-34's, KV-1, KV-2 - tanks with wide trucks, which was a crusial factor in winter war.
Last edited by Longbow (2008-02-08 13:37:34)