Winter War | |||||||
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Part of World War II | |||||||
![]() A Finnish machine gun crew during the Winter War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
![]() • Foreign volunteers |
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
337,000–346,500 men[F 2][5][6] 32 tanks[F 3][7] 114 aircraft[F 4][8] |
425,640–760,578 men[F 5] 3,880 aircraft | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
25,904 dead or missing [F 7][14] 43,557 wounded[15] 1,000 captured[F 8][16] 957 civilians in air raids[14] 20–30 tanks 62 aircraft[17] 70,000 total casualties |
126,875 dead or missing[18][F 9] 188,671 wounded, injured or burned[18] 5,572 captured[20] 3,543 tanks[F 10][21][22][23] 261–515 aircraft[F 11][23][24] 323,000 total casualties |
The Winter War (30 November 1939 – 13 March 1940) was a conflict fought between the Soviet Union and Finland.
It began when the Soviet Union invaded Finland soon after the invasion of Poland. The Soviet military forces expected a victory over Finland in a few weeks because the Soviet Army had many more troops, tanks and planes than the Finnish Army.
However, the Finnish forces resisted better and much longer than expected. They had good winter clothes and wore white coats, which camouflaged them in the snow. As well, the Finnish soldiers moved around on skis, which made it easy for them to sneak up on the Soviet soldiers. The Soviets did not have good winter clothes, and they wore dark green coats, which were easy to see in the snow.
The peace treaty that ended the war in March 1940 left the Finns as a free people. They had to give up 11% of their country and tried to get it back during the Continuation War.
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