A note from moderator. I'm trying to avoid portraiting ONLY the brave pilots, aces, heroes of that time - so from time to time in WW II Ace Stories appeard some most controversion pieces of text (see also Poland 1939 - The Diary of Luftwaffe Atrocities). For some, unknown for me, reason, a lot of people don't like to remember about all atrocities of war, but I would like to clearly show also the dark side of war...
The Winter War started on the 30th Nov 1939 as Stalin decided to enforce his will on Finland with force as Finland could not be intimidated into submission. At 06.00 the Red Army crossed the border and Soviet aircraft took off as soon as it was enough light. Soviet Union deployed against Finland 1500 to 3200 aircraft, the sources give different numbers. The Finnish Air Force had initially 36 Fokker D.XXI fighters, 17 Blenheim Mk.I bombers and 31 Fokker C.X dive-bombers. The Anti-aircraft artillery comprised initially 38 pcs 75mm guns, 30 pcs 40mm guns, 49 pcs 20mm guns and 125 pcs 7,62mm machine-guns. The number of guns was roughly tripled by the end of the war.
On the very first day of the war 16 cities and towns in Southern Finland were bombarded by 200 bombers of the Soviet Air Force (VVS). A particularly murderous surprise raid was carried out against Helsinki whose inhabitants did not yet comprehend that they were in war. Nine Soviet SB-2 had according to Soviet sources been searching for the two Finnish Navy monitors "Vainamoinen" and "Ilmarinen", but failing to find them attacked the spare target: the Presidential Palace in Helsinki near the Market Square. The enemy airmen failed to locate that target, too, and the bombs fell in the center of the city near the bus terminal at 14.50 hours, more than one kilometer from the target, causing panic and destruction. 91 people, mainly women and children, were killed and 36 seriously plus 200 slightly wounded. Several houses were destroyed. The anti-aircraft guns shot down three of the SB's, that had been able to surprise the air defence by making use of the cloud cover.
(However, some questions remain. If the Soviet bombers were to attack armoured ships, they should have been loaded with heavy armour piercing bombs. According to Finnish sources, 133 high explosive bombs and 60 incendiary bombs had been deployed. Secondly, the Presidential Palace is prominently situated near the Market Square. Even when disturbed by AA, trained bomber-navigators should have been able to locate it. Suspicion of a purposeful terror attack is strong!)
The strategic objective of the Soviet bombing campaign was to persuade the Finnish government to give up resistance and surrender, maybe even to make the resistance collapse physically, and plain terrorise the civilian population into submission. Strategic raids were carried out against harbours and railways. Tactical raids were carried out in the immediately vicinity of the front line and against air bases.
The result of the strategic raids, however, was counterproductive.
Firstly, the Finnish people did not feel any wish to surrender to a brutal enemy but instead they began to hate Soviet Union even more and hope for a revenge on the enemy. The civilians in the air raid shelters felt that they, too, were fighting for their country.
Secondly, the world's opinion in 1939 was not yet dulled by massive air bombardment of cities, and attacking civilian targets was considered an outrage. U.S. president Roosevelt sent a message to Moscow wishing that Soviet bombers should not be allowed to bomb Finnish cities. Comrade Molotov, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, answered in the honest Soviet style that Soviet bombers have not bombed and shall not bomb Finnish cities, but only air bases, which cannot be seen from America which is 8000 km away. The Soviet propaganda claimed indeed, that the photos of burning houses and killed civilians were taken in 1918. Also, the Soviet Aircraft were said to drop bread for the starving Finnish people, absolutely no bombs. Soon the Soviet fire bomb dispenser pod was nicknamed "Molotov's bread basket".
Stalin had planned to occupy Finland in two weeks, whereafter Molotov's lies would soon be forgotten. The Soviet Union had already set up a puppet government, "the People's Government of Finland" (made up of Finnish -born Soviet Communist party functionaries surviving the purges of '37) and claimed that all military action was only to help that government. There was no war, just action against the "armed bands" of the Helsinki government to help the oppressed people of Finland: this was the official line of the Kreml. The Finnish people, however, tenaciously refused to be liberated by Stalin.
The Soviet commanders learned from their mistakes and in February 1940 concentrated the air raids on the railroad system to disrupt the Finnish army supplies of war material to the front. That was a fairly successful strategy, the trains could run only in the night, and due to te massive schale of the raids the Finnish railway system was on the verge of collapse as the war ended. The repair crews could not keep pace with the damage inflicted at the rolling stock and the rail network. But it was not the VVS that decided the outcome of the war but the masses of the Red Army.
By the end of the 105 day war the 13th of March 1940 the Soviet Air Force (VVS) according to Finnish statistics had raided 690 cities, towns and villages. The Soviet sources state that the Army bombers flew 44041 missions and the Navy bombers some 8000 more. 25000 tons of bombs were dropped.
According to Finnish statistics the VVS bombers had dropped 55000 pieces bombs and 41000 pcs incendiary bombs and the enemy fighters had carried out 440 ground strafing raids against civilians. There may have been some incidents when infuriated civilian mob attacked captured Soviet airmen and lynched them... But these are only rumours. Dead Soviet airmen were unceremoniously buried by local people where found and no questions asked.
The VVS lost 207 aircraft shot down by FAF fighters and 314 to Finnish AA. The share of bombers is not known.
The casualties of Finland's civilian population were - 956 killed, 540 badly wounded and 1300 lightly wounded.
Material losses included (industrial and military excluded) - 157 town houses and 1800 wooden houses destroyed - 99 stone houses burnt out, - 600 town houses and 4100 wooden houses damaged
The Soviet Air Force bombing campaign is best summed up by the following anecdote:
The town of Porvoo was bombarded heavily three times (a fact), and one Soviet airman was taken prisoner as his bomber had been shot down. He was asked why they attacked Porvoo, an undefended small town without any military significance: there was but a shallow harbour and no rail link. The Soviet airman answered:
- Vot, the infamous agitator Runeberg is living there ! (J.L.Runeberg, born 1804, died 1877. He is the national poet of Finland.)
The Soviet airmen were insufficiently and often unsuitably trained, inexpertly led and their morale was not very high. Also the defender had enough AA artillery in the most important targets to force the attacker to bomb from high altitude (about 7000m) resulting in reduced accuracy. Moreover, the bombs were stowed in the SB-2 tail down, and after release the bombs developed an oscillation further reducing accuracy.
From the point of view of modern international law the Soviet attack on Finland was a crime, air raids at civilian targets likewise. But since these deeds and people who committed them have never been tried in court, nobody has any legal right to call them the crimes that they are...
pic 1 This is the famous Molotov's Bread Basket. It has been delivered, there is visible the dent at the bottom. The soldier supporting it is a FAF Lance Corporal. There is one sample "buhanka" inside! When dropped, the winglets in the top folded out and made the "basket" rotate and the centrifugal force scattered the incendiary "loaves".
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