Winter War

So they didn't have the manpower.

They were kind of like Finland in the 39-40 Winter War.

They were heroic and they stopped the Soviet Union for five months and they obtained their autonomy.

But when it was all said and done, Stalin ground them down, even though he lost 600,000 casualties.

So, there's a wonderful book from 1975 called The Soviet View of War and Peace, and they kind of outline it in the sense that, you know, there's no such thing as a true peace in the Soviet mind until the whole world has transformed into socialist.

And because capitalism is inherently aggressive, things such as the Winter War is not only righteous war, it's a defensive war.

Even though, you know, Soviet Union, you know, obviously started it and same, you know, the Cuba crisis and everything, Cuban Missile Crisis.

It is not just righteous, it's defensive, because there cannot be peaceful coexistence with the capitalists.

While World War II was defined by mobile warfare, trenches were still used in static situations.

The Finnish Army used the Mannerheim Line to resist the Soviet Union during the Winter War, relying on a system of flexible fieldworks that allowed troops to move between positions.

At Sevastopol, Soviet forces held out in trenches for months, and at the Battle of Stalingrad, both sides dug into the ruins of the city.

the Battle of Kursk saw the construction of massive Soviet defenses that successfully stopped German armor.

We're talking a very small man, so, you know, when you think of a great soldier, you don't think of somebody like Audie Murphy, who was this tiny little skinny guy that the wind could blow him away kind of thing, you know.

Up next, we have Ghost Division, about Rommel and his 7th Panzer Division, which is tanks, during the invasion of France, and how they kind of seem to come and go, kind of like a ghost, you know, as Rommel would have, you know, become very famous, especially during the African campaign, you know, You know in things like that Patton himself was actually a very In very inspired by Rommel and how he did things so it's kind of cool to get something like that And then of course the last song that we're gonna go off this list And probably my favorite of the World War two songs Maybe by Sabaton is white death which about is about finished sniper Seymour high during the Winter War of 1939 to 1940 in Finland against the USSR, and is the deadliest sniper in history with like 505 kills with a sniper, you know, which is just crazy.

And to really think about it, it was all open sights, you know, just so that he didn't have a glare from his his scope you know and he gets the nick you know he gets the nickname white death by the russians because he basically he just blends in with the snow you know the song really kind of tells you about it like you know putting snow in his mouth to hide your breath and stuff like that so it's a really it's a really cool Really cool song.

You know, there's not much known about the gentleman as he never wrote anything about it.

Finland has enormous amount of artillery.

The Russians still remember the, the Winter War.

So I think in the long scheme of things, we're coming up on the anniversary of their admission in the spring.

In the, the long term, this is a big deal and a big progress point.

Many of the concrete barriers and steel nets that now line alpine slopes above villages date from the decades of building that followed that winter.

The Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1939 and 1940 was fought in extremely heavy snow, and Finnish ski troops used their familiarity with snowy terrain to great tactical advantage.

Finnish soldiers dressed in white camouflage and moved silently on skis through deep forests, striking quickly and then disappearing.

The phrase White Death was used to describe Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä, who was credited with over five hundred kills during the Winter War, often operating in deep snow, where he packed the snow in front of his position so that the muzzle blast would not lift a telltale puff into the air.

Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow in 1812 was devastating in part because of the early onset of heavy snow and extreme cold.

Tens of thousands of soldiers died from exposure, starvation, and the difficulty of moving through deep snow with inadequate winter equipment.