Finnish Maxim in a bunker
A Finnish position making use of the Sokolov mount with shield removed.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://ww2incolor.com/gallery/finnish-forces/30196/finnish-maxim-in-a-bunker
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://ww2incolor.com/gallery/finnish-forces/30196/finnish-maxim-in-a-bunker
Did a little reading. Hitler ‘assumed,…(was) convinced’ the Finns would join in a deep invasion of Russia. But there was no formal agreement for this. In the movie ‘Unknown Soldier’ a group of Finnish officers sing the Horst Wessel Leid and talk of ‘Greater Finland’. But the politicians and high military commander had no illusions about such ideas. Finland played a dangerous game of cooperation with the lesser of the two threats to their freedom in order to survive. Their game was won, but it had a high price. A loss of 2.2% of their population; 10% of their land area; resettlement of the Karelians displaced by the peace treaties. This is still the only example of a negotiation for national freedom with the Soviets during and after WWII.
True, vss1 - and yet it does leave an interesting question hanging. Where would Finland’s “neighbor” have been if the Finns had pressed on beyond the pre-Winter War border, and supported a German capture of Leningrad ? Even if they held on to Moscow, the strategic outlook for the Soviets, going into 1942, would have been much worse had the Germans succeeded in capturing, and holding, Leningrad and consolidated their position to its east. It would have opened a new potential line of attack into central Russia, and might have led to a very different unfolding of events. Not that the Germans seem to have perceived this at the time. They appear to have been very ambivalent about the possible capture of major cities - not only Leningrad, but Moscow itself. One of major reasons, I think, why they fluffed their best chance to win the war, in 1941 … Best regards, JR.