foreign
The Winter War began with the Soviet invasion of Finland on November 30th 1939 three months
after the outbreak of World War II and ended only three and a half months later with the
Moscow Peace Treaty on March 13th 1940.
But why was the war over so quickly?
What happened to the Soviet Army that had them so shaken?
[Music] When Legends and folklore connect in a historical context the story becomes
even more bizarre.
One of these theories of the war is steep in pagan folklore and is as of yet unproven
through research and documentation, although the little evidence that was available makes
for a compelling case.
What really killed over 100 Russian soldiers in the depths of a January winter in 1940?
If the Finns killed them in battle why did they not take credit to bolster home morale,
to impress the Germans whom they wanted as an ally and demoralize their enemies?
How could so many Soviet soldiers have been killed in a battle without any Finnish casualties?
Hello I'm Colin Heaton a veteran of the United States Army and Marine Corps, former history
professor, book author, and welcome to this episode of Forgotten history [Music]
[Music] Finland is still a predominantly Lutheran Nation with other Christian and a few Jewish
groups.
However there are many Finns especially among the Sami people in Lapland and in Karelia
who were and are still polytheistic pagans.
Believing in Shamanism, superstition and mythology they worship a god called Ukko and they were
a small minority as well as a rather isolated group.
Many of the Finnish soldiers still had their superstitions and some places were deemed
mysterious and were to be avoided.
Such locations were Vottovaara Mountain and the Khibiny Mountains which were sacred to
the Sami people.
The mountains were known for their pagan populations, complete with their own language, religion,
superstitions, and folklore.
It was one of the superstitions that would take root during the Winter War.
The Soviets invaded Finland on November 30th 1939 and the war ended three and a half months
later, but there was something that happened during that war that has never been explained.
Part of that short war was the Battle of the Kolaa which lasted from December 7th 1939
to March 13 1940 which extended into both the Kolaa Peninsula and the Karelian Isthmus.
The only direct avenue of approach for the Soviets into Finland was through the Karelian
Isthmus, a narrow strip of land bordered by mountains and lakes and rivers or they could
come across the White Sea into the Kolaa Peninsula with Red Army units based in Murmansk driving
in from the north.
The Finnish Army of 160, 000 men faced an invading Soviet Army consisting of about 450,000
soldiers and two thousand tanks.
The Finns planned on making Karelia a choke point, a bottleneck in which they could block,
starve and kill the communists.
As the war started the Finns faced the onslaught of the Soviet Eighth Red Army commanded by
Ivan Nikitich Khabarov and they stopped the massive force inflicting heavy casualties
on several occasions.
However, some small units managed to get through specific areas successfully, but they also
took heavy losses.
The Battle of Tolvajarvi on December 12, 1939 was part of a larger Battle of Kolaa and was
the first major Finnish victory of the war and came at a crucial time for the morale
of the entire Finnish military and the nation at large.
Its importance to not only the fighting on the northern shore of Lake Ladoga forced the
Soviets to also launch a mass attack into the Kolaa Peninsula as a flanking maneuver.
As a result of these setbacks Khabarov was removed from his post on December 13, 1939
and replaced by Spanish Civil War and Russo-Japanese War of 1938 veteran Colonel General Grigory
Mikhailovich Shtern.
The Finnish 12th Division commanded by Colonel Laurie Tevetti Tiainan until January 31st
1940 was quite successful and then he was succeeded in command by Antaro Svensson.
The 12th Division was part of IV Corps commanded by Major General Johann Woldemar Hagglund
a World War One veteran and a seasoned commander.
Tiainan was responsible for placing his 8,000 men along a 70-mile front as he had limited
resources and few men.
His plan was to defend key points in strength and set ambushes along the forest trails.
The Finns had very few artillery pieces while the Soviets had several hundred guns of varying
calibers.
The fight would be one of hit and run guerrilla warfare, and the Finns would leave one area
open for the Soviets to occupy.
This small forested mountain would have been advantageous for either side especially for
artillery, but the deep snow and thick woods made transporting the heavy guns impossible.
The Finns had several advantages; they were bred and properly prepared, trained, and clothed
for the brutal winter They knew the terrain they controlled the few unimproved roads.
They had excellent snipers such as Simo Hayha and commandos such as Lauri Alan Torni.
They also had highly mobile arctic ski commandos used as the reconnaissance and harassing force.
Also, the Finnish soldiers knew how to live off the land growing up as stealth hunters
and farmers.
They could stalk and track game which is far more difficult than tracking men.
Tiainan decided to control these open avenues of approach, run commando units to hit and
run behind the Soviet lines inflicting whatever damage they could and constantly harass the
enemy.
The Soviets had planned a two-prong attack up through Karelia and also from the east
by pushing through Kolaa from the north.
One of the objectives was the Khibiny Mountains which rise over three thousand feet and dominate
the forested region and valleys below.
If the Soviets wanted the mountain they could have it, for a while.
The only way up and down the mountain was by a series of narrow pathways that were controlled
by Finns in the valley below.
However as the story goes the Soviets were warned not to go to the mountain by the local
Sami people.
They claimed that bad spirits, demons such as the Otso, or "bear man" and the Vironsusi
a type of werewolf lived there.
Understandably the Soviets laughed at such suggestions believing that the locals were
either rubes or trying to dissuade them.
Seeing that the approach to the Khibiny Mountains was not covered by Finns a reconnaissance
company was sent.
Every commander wants to control the high ground.
When Finnish scouts saw a Soviet patrol scouting around the mountain they did not molest; them
they just watched and counted how many men were in the unit.
A company of Soviet infantry, over 100 men passed right by a platoon of Finns in perfect
winter camouflage, never seeing them as they walked up to the mountain just passing the
Finns hiding away few yards from their site.
The Soviets took up their positions as an observation unit and waited for their main
force to arrive.
This is where things took a strange turn.
According to the story an alternative reason why the Finns did not occupy the mountain
and let their enemy have it was superstition.
The exact date of this event is not recorded, but possibly during the second week of January
1940 the Finnish forces relaxed in their defensive positions, the closest being one mile away
from the mountain.
This gave the Finn's perfect visibility to monitor any daylight movement by the Soviets
should they come down the mountain and push to the forest and into the valley.
Finnish commando teams from the 12th Division consisted of four men each and they were scattered
along the forest, each able to fall back if they saw the enemy advance.
Eventually if the Soviets came, each of the several dozen teams would then engage, fall
back past the group behind them, like a collapsing bag.
This was to lure more of the enemy into the final Kill zone while reducing their numbers
as they advanced.
Wolves and bears were a constant threat to farmers and soldiers especially in winter
so when the soldiers on both sides heard the mournful howling.
They posted lookouts as a precaution.
After several nights of -20 to -40 below zero without any activity the quiet of the night
was shattered.
The sounds of howling, screaming and gunfire echoed across the valley from the mountain
and the Finns wondered which of their units were engaging the enemy.
Through two nights they heard battle, clearly rifle a machine gun fire and explosions such
as grenades.
As dawn came on the third day a Finnish patrol went forward slowly and after a full two days
came back with a report.
What they claimed to have seen was unbelievable.
They reported that every Soviet soldier was dead.
Men were torn apart, torsos hanging in trees minus arms, heads and legs.
Limbs and heads lay everywhere, the bodies all contorted on the ground with some seeming
to have been disemboweled.
Bodies in a similar condition were buried head first into the iron hard frozen ground
far beneath the meter deep snow.
Spent ammunition casings littered the ground, frozen blood was everywhere painting the snow
red.
Their conclusion was that the firefight must have been furious, but what about the state
of the bodies?
Weapons did not do that type of damage yet the most puzzling thing was if the enemy fought
was a Finnish unit where were the dead Finns?
Why were there no wounded on both sides?
Why did this attack or this battle come as a complete surprise to the Finns?
This disconcerting situation was from what very little was known probably sent to Stalin
hence his removing several officers for incompetence.
Major General Haaglund's response was supposedly quote; "They met their fate, however it arrived.
and I would decorate the men involved if I knew who they were."
The most recent list of the number of Finnish soldiers killed related to the Winter War
between November 30th 1939 and December 31st 1940 were 16,725 killed in action with another
3,671 who were badly wounded who died in hospital.
During that short time of period one month the Soviets lost over 200,000 soldiers in
battle and most due to the weather and cold.
Yet the Soviets would come back to invade Finland again in 1941.
Finland would join Germany as an ally in the massive struggle on the Eastern Front, but
these questions still lingered.
So who or what killed the Soviet soldiers on that mountain.
If it was wolves or bears but the amount of ammunition expended where were with the dead
animals?
Was there an evil presence at least for the Soviets that attacked them perhaps defending
the Finnish people?
Did werewolves or werebears exist and kill the soldiers?
As crazy as that may sound.
This is all supposition but it does make for an interesting discussion regarding the paranormal.
Perhaps we will know the answer one day.
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