Don't Mess with the Finns: Even In Their 1944 Defeat, They Fought Brilliantly
The guerrilla warfare fought in the endless forests of the far north was worlds apart from the reality the war had evolved in the European theater.
-Intelligence analysis can’t be neglected and the expectation that the enemy will continue to operate in the pattern they’ve “always” done is extremely dangerous.
-Determined and well-trained army can turn around a desperate situation and turn from a failed paradigm into a new and successful one in a matter of weeks. In this case from static defense with infantry into combined arms operations where infantry, armor, artillery, air-force and special operations forces work seamlessly together to defeat a vastly superior enemy in a meeting engagement.
-Don’t mess with the Finns, this offensive caused 189 000 men in KIA, WIA and MIA to the Red Army, even they had a limit to the casualties they could sustain.
This article by Petri Mäkelä originally appeared on Vantage Point North in 2019.
Image: Wikimedia
