Subdeacon Joe Posted September 26, 2020 Share Posted September 26, 2020 From the front line to the home front 1939-1945 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brazos John Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 Wow, those photos are something! The Nazis were wrong to invade Finland. It shows what can happen when the wrong leader is followed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 33 minutes ago, Brazos John said: Wow, those photos are something! It shows what can happen when the wrong leader is followed. Huh?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted September 27, 2020 Author Share Posted September 27, 2020 1 hour ago, Brazos John said: Wow, those photos are something! It shows what can happen when the wrong leader is followed. Care to expand on that comment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brazos John Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 Referring to the Nazis in the photos. And the burned and burning buildings. Did you look at the photos? What do you think I meant? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brazos John Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 Look through the photos. Enemy planes with their bombing missions marked on the tail. Propaganda posters on buildings, and propaganda photos being taken of a blonde woman on a surveillance tower. The Finnish even used reindeer as pack animals. It's a whole part of the War that I never learned much about. Google can translate the captions. Finnish words are longer than the German's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted September 27, 2020 Author Share Posted September 27, 2020 4 hours ago, Brazos John said: Referring to the Nazis in the photos. And the burned and burning buildings. Did you look at the photos? What do you think I meant? I haven't looked at all the photos, but war is war. And I think that you were saying that the Finns blindly followed Hitler for ideological reasons. Let's back up some. In late 1939 the Soviet Union invaded Finland. Quote Following the invasion, defeat, and partitioning of Poland by Germany and the Soviets in 1939, the Soviet Union sought to push its border with Finland on the Karelian Isthmus westward in an attempt to buttress the security of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) from potential German attack. To that end, the Soviets also endeavoured to gain possession of several Finnish islands in the Gulf of Finland and to secure a 30-year lease for a naval base at Hanko (Hangö). The Soviet proposals for those acquisitions included an offer to exchange Soviet land. When Finland refused, the Soviet Union launched an attack on November 30, 1939, beginning the Russo-Finnish War. Soviet troops totaling about one million men attacked Finland on several fronts. The heavily outnumbered Finns put up a skillful and effective defense that winter, and the Red Army made little progress. In February 1940, however, the Soviets used massive artillery bombardments to breach the Mannerheim Line (the Finns’ southern defensive barrier stretching across the Karelian Isthmus), after which they streamed northward across the isthmus to the Finnish city of Viipuri (Vyborg). Unable to secure help from Britain and France, the exhausted Finns made peace (the Treaty of Moscow) on Soviet terms on March 12, 1940, agreeing to the cession of western Karelia and to the construction of a Soviet naval base on the Hanko Peninsula. Having approached Germany without reaching a formal alliance, Finland allowed German troops transit through the country after the outbreak of war between Germany and the Soviet Union in June 1941. The Finns then joined the fight against the Soviets, undertaking the “War of Continuation.” An armistice signed on September 19, 1944, effectively concluded that conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland, contingent on Finnish recognition of the Treaty of Moscow and the evacuation of German troops (who refused to leave). The formal end of the Soviet-Finnish conflict came with the signing of a peace treaty in Paris on February 10, 1947. Basically, the Finns saw Germany as a way to get the Soviets out of their country. Using the tiger to push the lion out, so to speak. Not unlike some countries that had been incorporated into the Soviet Union by force initially welcoming the Germans as liberators. Their air force had been using the swastika insignia since 1918, although not on their aircraft since 1945, and just this year stopped using it at all do to political correctness. https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-century-on-finland-air-force-drops-swastika-symbol-researcher/ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53249645 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Louis Suomi SASS #31905 Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 Wrong leader was Joe Stalin. A million or so Dead Soviet troops - followed the wrong leader. The Nazis were a means to an end. They were told to go home and were sluggish about it until the Finns kicked them out (part of the treaty where war was halted between Finland and the Soviet Union). Otherwise, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The swastika had been used on Finnish Airplanes WAAAAY before Hitler came around. I believe they removed it from their air force insignia just recently as some folks took offense at it. STL Suomi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 The Finns used the Swastika o their aircraft since it was organized in 1918. Years before Hitler. Mayne that's where he got the idea. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53249645 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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