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Winter War
The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. Despite superior military strength, especially in tanks and aircraft, the Soviet Union suffered severe losses and initially made little headway. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from its organization. The Soviets made several demands, including that Finland cede substantial border territories in exchange for land elsewhere, claiming security reasonsprimarily the protection of Leningrad, from the Finnish border. When Finland refused, the Soviets invaded. Most sources conclude that the Soviet Union had intended to conquer all of Finland, and cite the establishment of the Finnish Democratic Republic, puppet Finnish Communist government and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foreign Support Of Finland In The Winter War
Foreign support in the Winter War consisted of materiel, men and moral support to the Finnish struggle against the Soviet Union in the Winter War. World opinion at large supported the Finnish cause. The Second World War had not yet begun in earnest and was known to the public as the Phoney War; at that time, the Winter War saw the only real fighting in Europe besides the Invasion of Poland, German and Soviet invasion of Poland, and thus held major world interest. The Soviet aggression was generally deemed unjustified. Various foreign organizations sent material aid, such as medical supplies. Finnish immigrants in the United States and Canada returned home, and many volunteers (one of them future actor Christopher Lee) traveled to Finland to join Finland's forces: 8,700 Swedes, 1,010 Danes (including Christian Frederik von Schalburg, a captain in the Danish Royal Life Guards (Denmark), Royal Life Guards and later commander of the Free Corps Denmark, a volunteer unit created by Nazi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Theatre Of World War II
The European theatre of World War II was one of the two main theatres of combat during World War II, taking place from September 1939 to May 1945. The Allied powers (including the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and France) fought the Axis powers (including Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy) on both sides of the continent in the Western and Eastern fronts. There was also conflict in the Scandinavian, Mediterranean and Balkan regions. It was an intense conflict that led to at least 39 million deaths and a dramatic change in the balance of power in the continent. During the 1930s, Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, expanded German territory by annexing all of Austria and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia in 1938. This was motivated in part by Germany's racial policy that believed the country needed to expand for the pseudoscientific "Aryan race" to survive. They were aided by Italy, another fascist state which was led by Benito Mussolini. Wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grigori Shtern
Grigory Mikhailovich Shtern (; – 28 October 1941) was a Soviet officer in the Red Army and military advisor during the Spanish Civil War. He also served with distinction during the Soviet-Japanese Border Wars and the Winter War. The Soviet authorities accused him of treason and had him shot during Stalin's military purge of 1941. Career Shtern was born into a Jewish family in Smila, Kiev Governorate in 1900. He started his military career as a Commissar of a Red Army brigade in 1919, the same year he joined the Communist Party. Shtern graduated from the Military Academy of the Red Army in 1929 and worked for the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs. He was appointed commander of the 7th Cavalry Division in 1936. Shtern served as a Soviet military advisor to the Spanish Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War between January 1937 to April 1938. After returning from Spain, Shtern became chief of staff of the Far Eastern Front, commanded by Vasily Blyukher, who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
T-26
The T-26 tank was a Soviet light tank used during many conflicts of the Interwar period and in World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and was one of the most successful tank designs of the 1930s until its light armour became vulnerable to newer anti-tank guns.Franco, ''El Tanque de la Guerra Civil Española'', p. 74. It was produced in greater numbers than any other tank of the period, with more than 11,000 units manufactured giving it the title of the most produced tank during the interwar period. During the 1930s, the USSR developed 53 variants of the T-26, including flame-throwing tanks, combat engineer vehicles, remotely controlled tanks, self-propelled guns, artillery tractors, and armoured carriers. Twenty-three of these were series-produced, others were experimental models. The T-26 and BT were the main tanks of the Red Army's armoured forces during the interwar period. The T-26 was the most important tank of the Spanish Civil War and pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wiljo Tuompo
Viljo (Wiljo) Einar Tuompo (23 September 1893 – 27 February 1957) was a Finnish lieutenant general during World War II. He commanded the Finnish Border Guard from 1935 to 1939, and from 1940 to 1941. During the Winter War, he was commander of the North Finland Group. During the Continuation War, Tuompo was the Chief of the Command Staff at General Headquarters in Mikkeli. He retired in 1945 and moved to Sweden with his family. When Tuompo returned to Finland in 1948, the "Red ValPo" (pro-Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ... State Police of Finland) detained him upon arrival. Tuompo was imprisoned and interrogated for five days, and then released as no formal charges against him were able to be presented. References External links General.dk 18 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woldemar Hägglund
Johan Woldemar Hägglund (August 10, 1893 – February 12, 1963) was a Finnish lieutenant general during the Second World War, and an early volunteer of the Jäger Movement. He participated in the Eastern Front of World War I, the Finnish Civil War, the Winter War and the Continuation War, commanding army corps in the latter two. In 1944 and 1945, he was in charge of a committee investigating Finnish war crimes, especially those committed against prisoners of war. Early years Johan Woldemar Hägglund was born on 10 August 1893 in Helsinki to parents Johan Alfred Hägglund and Aleksandra Henriksson. He graduated as an ylioppilas in 1912 from a lyceum in Vyborg after which he studied civil engineering for four terms at the Helsinki University of Technology. During his studies, he worked as a train driver on the Vyborg- St. Petersburg railway. During his studies, he became involved in the Finnish Jäger Movement, traveling to Germany in February 1915 to receive military ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erik Heinrichs
Axel Erik Heinrichs (21 July 1890 – 16 November 1965) was a Finnish military general. He was Finland's Chief of the General Staff during the Interim Peace and Continuation War (1940–1941 and 1942–1944) and Chief of Defence for a short time after the war (1945). Biography Heinrichs went to the Swedish co-educational school Nya svenska samskolan. He was one of the Finnish Jaeger troops trained in the volunteer Royal Prussian 27th Jäger Battalion between 1915 and 1918. During the Finnish Civil War he served as a battalion commander in the battles of Tampere and Viipuri. He commanded the III Corps in the Winter War, and from 19 February 1940 the Army of the Isthmus. He was made Chief of the General Staff in June 1940 and promoted to General of Infantry in 1941. During the Continuation War he commanded the Army of Karelia until January 1942, after which he was again appointed the Chief of the General Staff. After the war he served as the Army's commander-in-chief b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harald Öhquist
Harald Öhquist (1 March 1891 – 10 February 1971) was a Finnish Jäger and Lieutenant General during World War II. Biography Öhquist was of Ingrian Finnish descent through his father, Finnish writer Johannes Öhquist, and of German descent through his paternal grandmother. He joined the Jaeger Movement in 1915 and trained and fought in the Royal Prussian 27th Jäger Battalion. Known for events in the Vyborg massacre. "Orders for conducting the executions were mainly given by the officers of the Jäger Movement. For example, the Jäger Major Harald Öhquist admitted that his company had shot some 150 "Red Ruskies", but did not mention who had given the order. After the war, General Karl Fredrik Wilkama was considered to be responsible for the massacre, but neither he nor anyone else was ever convicted or even charged in a court of law. Wilkama himself described the massacre as a "little accident." During the Finnish Civil War he was promoted as Major, and Öhquist lead th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
