Episode 7 - The Red Army 44th Division is crushed on the Raate road
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This is episode 7 and I’m covering the first week of January 1940. The Russian invasion of Finland has stalled as their mechanised units find the defenders extremely motivated, and the use of various innovations such as the Molotov cocktail and the Motti attack system have stymied Moscow’s grand Red Army.
Instead of flooding over the border and seizing Finland, the Russians have already lost thousands of men and they’ve been stopped dead in their tracks both in the crucial Karelian Isthmus battlefront, and further north of Lake Ladoga around Suomussalmi.
They’ve also come to a frozen halt in the far north, near the Arctic Sea as -40C temperatures stun Russian troops.
So it is with Suoussalmi we start, where the Soviet 44th Division was to face imminent destruction. Colonel Hjalmar Siilalsvuo who commanded the Finnish 9th Division Regiment with the code name JR-27 was facing the Russian 44th Division led by Alexei Ivanovich Vinogradov.
Siilasvuo was a veteran of the World War One Jaeger Battalion, the son of a newspaper editor, he was also going to become known as one of the Finns master tacticians. Vinogradov on the other hand was not a master tactician as you’ll hear.
Siilasvuo’s intention was to ambush the 44th, as it approached Suomussalmi along the main road from Raate, then to break it into pockets, isolate each and destroy them one-by-one.
This was the Motte system, the chopping up of bundles of firewood.
Two task forces were ready by New years eve and moved into position along the ice road the Finns cut in secret to the south of the main Raate to Suomussalmi route. One of these task forces was led by Major Kari, the other by Colonel Fagernas.
Kari took up his position near a town called Makala, and FAgernas near Heikkila. A third raiding detachment was also on the move, traversing a tiny wagon track near Raate, stopping at the village of Vanka.
The Finns had already destroyed the Russian 163rd Division on the Juntusranta road as the Red Army tried to flee back to their homeland — leaving 5 000 bodies littering the snow covered road. That was a sign of things to come as you’re going to hear.
Instead of flooding over the border and seizing Finland, the Russians have already lost thousands of men and they’ve been stopped dead in their tracks both in the crucial Karelian Isthmus battlefront, and further north of Lake Ladoga around Suomussalmi.
They’ve also come to a frozen halt in the far north, near the Arctic Sea as -40C temperatures stun Russian troops.
So it is with Suoussalmi we start, where the Soviet 44th Division was to face imminent destruction. Colonel Hjalmar Siilalsvuo who commanded the Finnish 9th Division Regiment with the code name JR-27 was facing the Russian 44th Division led by Alexei Ivanovich Vinogradov.
Siilasvuo was a veteran of the World War One Jaeger Battalion, the son of a newspaper editor, he was also going to become known as one of the Finns master tacticians. Vinogradov on the other hand was not a master tactician as you’ll hear.
Siilasvuo’s intention was to ambush the 44th, as it approached Suomussalmi along the main road from Raate, then to break it into pockets, isolate each and destroy them one-by-one.
This was the Motte system, the chopping up of bundles of firewood.
Two task forces were ready by New years eve and moved into position along the ice road the Finns cut in secret to the south of the main Raate to Suomussalmi route. One of these task forces was led by Major Kari, the other by Colonel Fagernas.
Kari took up his position near a town called Makala, and FAgernas near Heikkila. A third raiding detachment was also on the move, traversing a tiny wagon track near Raate, stopping at the village of Vanka.
The Finns had already destroyed the Russian 163rd Division on the Juntusranta road as the Red Army tried to flee back to their homeland — leaving 5 000 bodies littering the snow covered road. That was a sign of things to come as you’re going to hear.