Italian Reacts To Russian Invasion of Finland - The Winter War 1939-40

[@SK-nw4ig]

Simo Häyhä is indeed a national hero.

[@Kimi4548]

Yes, Simo Häyhä is a national hero. We remember our heroes for ever

[@tuomasreunanen1497]

mannrheim expected the false attack so he took Finnish cannons away from the border so they had proof that they did not shoot the mainilan laukaukset

[@KaptSuolisolmu]

3:33 start of Winter war (Talvisota) is know in Finland as ”Mainilan laukaukset” (Shots in Mainila) 7:31 There’s also finnish saying/idiom as ”Kollaa kestää” = Means ”we will do/survive it no matter it takes.” 14:35 At this point Stalin had summon it’s Eastern groups to west front ((before this they were afraid of Japan annexin eastern parts of Russia) Japan begun war with USA so Russian would move their eastern line to west against Germany/Finland)

[@MrBanaanipommi]

in beginning of winter war, finland had only ONE tank ready for battle, which was old renault and was not quite usefull at all lol. we had few other tanks but they lacked radios or turrets/main guns...

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

War in such harsh relief made any tanks almost useless. RKKA has mostly Vickers descendants (T-26), showing no any special help. It is on Karelian isthmus - to the Nortn lies taiga with one or two muddy roads, doubt if there were any tanks...

[@0mgz0mg]

There was one point of foreign aid to finland that I remember. Because of Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Nazi germany blocked all aid through their "allies". Italy was one of the countries that were trying to send carcano rifles and some fighter plains for aid. Until thay were capured by Germany and only released after the war.

[@spoonzor1]

I dont get why the narrator says the soviets was afraid of germany at that point, they where in a pact already and literally divided the eastern Europe up to what they would take.

[@japekki666]

Lauri Törni aka Larry Thorne is even more famous than Häyhä. Both are national heroes. Check him out too. Check out Raatteentie Battle so called RaateRoad...its massive massacre..you will be shocked how many died on that road.

[@tahhah3449]

105 days of Honor💪💪💪

[@jyritaskinen8954]

"The country had no anti-aircraft guns whatsoever" @4:16 is incorrect.

[@toomasargel8503]

15.000 troops was at Estonia helping Finland .

[@MrDefaultti]

That picture of Simo at 7.35 disturbs me so much. It is in most clips about Finnish winter war. CHECK YOUR specks please!! That is not even a Finnish rifle used in the war. That bis Swedish!!!!

[@jounilojander8821]

6 th January 1940. 6 DB-3 bombers was shot down in 4 minutes Focker D.XXI fighter which is also Soviet Unions bad day!

[@Spugedelia77]

Perkele, my late grandfather was born in Salmi, which was at the old Finnish border. He told me, that those Russians were a brave boys. They were hard to kill. My grandpa also told me, that the next time russians will come over (he was sure, they'll come) we'll need some allies. He would happy, that we are in NATO. You can smile now, Niilo! Niilo, we are part of Nato now. You told me, that we don't need our land back. This is now, live with it.

[@Spugedelia77]

Russia is ruzzia, it'll never change. You just got live by it. I'm so sorry for russian people to be ruzzian people. Get grip of yourselves, STOP BEING SLAVES TO YOUR GOVERNMENT, please? If that is impossible, stay being SLAVES. Other people have done it. Why can't YOU do it? Wanna be a slave for the rest of your life? Pathetic. Perkele ( google it) Are you that weak? Really?

[@juhanivaltonen2456]

My grand pop took out 14 soviets plus wounde couple too. He was normal infantry guy then like most were. So that number 10/1 is normal otherwise we would have been taken.

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

How did you manage to lose with such superiority? :) Like German Nazis, who were also say about 1/10 losses of Ivans? :)

[@Juhani96]

10 K/D ratio was must :D

[@Gibbetoo]

Soviet invasion.

[@jounilojander8821]

All our veterans are herous! But Simo was bad nightmare for Russians! Over 500 kills with old hunting rifle without scope and still world record! We have also one other world record from Winter War if I remember right one our pilot used all ammo and only one enemy plane get safe!

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

Couple of comments from historian buff :) First, Finland had a civil war between red and white Finns, ended by German invasion and massacre of losing reds. Historians say about tens of thousands victims including women and children and many thousands flee to Soviet Russia.

[@mauronicolo89]

Thank you for the insights Batka! Really appreciate knowing more about it

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

@Kalevic Finland faced the lack of workforce after repressions, so they have been forced to free some prisoners for work - that is the reason. About Stalin - you cannot narrow history of political clash of clans to just one person. Mass shootings in 1937-38 were qualified as crimes of security forces, were stopped (before Stalin and his team could be called enemies of the people themselves :) and punished. Since then there were no such massive death penalties, even after WWII. More to say, all of my grandads had an opportunity to overthrown Stalin's state in 1941, or at least to ignore mobilisation, take German side. They didn't know yet about Generalplan Ost, so it could be - if Soviet state had no or small support in masses. But no - Soviet people allied with their rulers from the beginning of war. That says much. My grandads forgave regime's crimes, and who am I to judge them for that?

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

@Kalevic You wrong about total annihilation of opposite civil war side members. Our Civil war was full of examples of changing sides. A lot of soldiers were forcely mobilisated and only seeked an opportunity to run away somewhere in fores. There were a lot of such gangs called "green" along with red and white. And a lot of white officers have changed sides, later become RKKA commanders. Not of them were killed or fired, of course.

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

@Kalevic Civil war is a mess, agree, but it always has very deep roots and sometimes its better for country's future, American Civil war for example. What Stalin's books are you talking about? Death penalty and jail for bribes and corruption were worldwide practices then. USSR was not any special in that. Honestly, if laws will begin to work here for real, and for working class demands, we will get hundreds of thousands of convicts. I'm against death penalty, so just jail would be enough for 30 year robbery of my country :)

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

@Kalevic Ah, sorry, you are speaking about Mein Kampf. I can say, that a lot of my ancestors just cannot read absolutely. And if they can, I doubt that many of them read Hitler's book.

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

Second, Finland twice invaded into Soviet Karelia in 1920s, trying to conquer some significant territories and twice had been thrown back. So its not so simple

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

@Kalevic Strange state, having independent military forces with misterious supply sources :) Some like Donbass "independent" republics. As for the other - USSR has red Finnish government of Kuusinen, that begging to come and help :)

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

@Kalevic Cant deny any fight for power in Finland. But the fact is that Finnish government signed the peace treaty, so took the responsibility of invasion. Besides, it was struggle between far right and ultra-right forces in Finland, both sides hated Soviet regime, differed only in tactical measures against USSR. It resulted in Finland's friendship with Hitler's regime long before 1939. Francisco Franco in Spain turned out much clever not to get to Hitler too close, so his country did not suffer such losses in WWII, only volunteeres.

[@Jahvec]

@@БатькаМахно-я7с It was not "ultra-right" and "far right", it was nationalists and rightist along with large socialist social democrats party (left leaning) that signed the Treaty of Tartu (1920). Ultimately it was after Alexander III's and Nicholas II's russification of Finland which flared up the hostilities. You know, changing the legal language and all that, should sound quite familiar. Quite hard pill to swallow after what Alexander II gave Finns. Also most of the Red Guard were Finns, not Russians (Civil War). Finns had warmth towards Germany because they helped us reach independence, but Hitler nor his regime was in power and latter didn't even exist in 1917. Wilhelm II was German Emperor back then, and Finns opted to be Monarchy under german lord who did not accept the position. Thus Finland became republic in 1919. Even Mannerheim - Hitler meeting took part after Winter War in 1942, in which Finns had renewed grievances with USSR. Nevertheless, Soviets broke Soviet-Finnish Non-Aggression Pact 1939, not Finns. Before that Stalin ordered NKVD to do ethnic purge (1935-1938), so most Finns or Ingrian Finns were either executed or sent to gulag where majority either starved of froze to death. You can only speculate if Finns would have allied with German Reich, but if you look what Finnish military consisted in Winter War, its highly unlikely Finns would have joined war against USSR with 32 tanks and 114 aircratfs. I myself think if Winter War wouldn't have happened, Finns would have stayed neutral, wouldn't have given military access to Germans nor would have started Continuation War and maybe even Hitler wouldn't have been convinced to break Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact. Memorandum by the State Secretary in the German Foreign Office (Weizsäcker) BERLIN, October 9, 1939. St. S. Nr. 793 document quote: "The Minister added that, on her part, Finland had tried her best during the last few weeks to regulate her commercial relations with Germany and maintain them on a normal basis and to carry out the policy of neutrality desired by Germany also."

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

@@Jahvec A lot of beautiful words, but what about Hungary? Stalin did not invade here, but Haungary took part in "Anti-Soviet Crusade". So Finland will be the part of Nazi forces anyway. Frozen and starved in gulag? Really? They were moved into internal regions from hostile border, before the war. Just like Koreans in the Far East. Absolutely the same as Anti-Japan actions in US these years.

[@Jahvec]

@@БатькаМахно-я7с Did Hungary have direct border with Russia? You can only speculate of what would and would not happen in past. All the released communications of German reich back then advice German foreign affairs people to stand on Soviet side on Winter War conflict. It's also a fact USSR was in non-aggression pact with Germany, Finland was not. Finland had non-aggression pact with USSR. Those declassified communications would in fact show USSR being buddies with Hitlers reich more than Finns before and during Winter War. Also, you might wanna see Wikipedia for "Genocide of the Ingrian Finns", "Finnish Operation of the NKVD". There is a reason why its called "Great Purge", and Stalin did not only target his political rivals. It also doesn't help you that it happened well before Winter War (1935 - 1938), Internment of Japanese Americans happened during war (1942 - 1946). Amount of people who died in America was also ~2 000 in those camps, but in Russia it was ~110 000. Those number of deaths in gulag don't match that of an Internment of Japanese Americans, it matches the lowest estimate of deaths caused by nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nakasaki combined, and it doesn't even count the people who were executed rather than sent to gulag.

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

Third, Finland cought a moment to secretly mobilize her reserves, so 100 vs 400 thousand is an end of war. Beginning was 100 vs 100 thousand - Soviet HQ underestimated the enemy. Only months later they enforced army group up to 400 thousands and quickly broke through Mannerheim Line, thus won the war.

[@jm-holm]

lmao

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

@@jm-holm Will be more sensible arguments?

[@jm-holm]

@@БатькаМахно-я7с That's the most any of your writing deserves.

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

@@jm-holm That's the most you can formulate, right? :)

[@jm-holm]

@@БатькаМахно-я7с Certainly not, but why argue with a propagandist. I doubt you even believe what you write yourself.

[@БатькаМахно-я7с]

As I always say - if you're right you don't need to lie...

[@penttitapper]

💪🇫🇮 We have more trained military personnel than Germany and Poland combined.We are not even 6 million and Germany and Poland are more than 120.If Russia step on our territory it will be war again.We are enemies with the russians.This time we are in a nuclear alliance and our Armed Forces are much stronger.Don't underestimate our country