>>2431956>Didn't the superior Red Army in terms of equipment, technology, numbers were holded back by Finland with a ridicule casualty ratio?hat fact that it took the Red Army several months to defeat the Finnish forces was used in many quarters to denigrate the efficiency of the Red Army. As Edgar 0'Ballance* puts it:
"The picture spread abroad was that of an inefficient, bumbling, primitive army, which only with difficulty had managed to subdue a poorly armed foe, one-fifth of its size. . . . This view was widely and gladly accepted, because it was what many people wanted to believe."
(E. O'Ballance: op cit.; p. 152).
In fact, testifies O'Ballance:
"The strategical plan . . . was reasonably sound. .
Mass assaults were continually going on night and day. To keep this up for four weeks . . . was in itself an extraordinary performance. .
The Red Army soldier came out of this campaign magnificently, and his bravery, his endurance and his fortitude in the face of deadly fire, on short rations and under extreme climatic conditions was amazing. He had warm clothing (contrary to what is frequently alleged".
(E. O'Ballance: op. cit.; p. 152, 153, 154).
Major Arthur Hooper, in his detailed study of the Soviet-Finnish war, goes even further:
"General Meretskov's plan, well conceived and boldly executed, was on a scale worthy of the past great masters of the art of war".
(A. S. Hooper: 'The Soviet-Finnish Campaign'; London; 1940; p. 24).
and the Military Correspondent of 'Tribune' declares:
"In the main attack on the Mannerheim Line there were no indications of serious military weaknesses. The artillery preparation and support was clearly very heavy; there was no relaxation of pressure; the number of strong points and concrete artillery positions, etc., taken by the Russians was announced regularly, and that number increased. . . . There are few large offensives against defended positions in the Great War of which that could be written."
('Tribune', No. 168 (15 March 1940); p. 9).
As the 'News Chronicle 'pointed out after the Soviet victory:
"Those foreign commentators who stated that Stalin had made a fatal mistake in Finland have been proved wrong".
('News Chronicle', 14 March 1940; p. 2).
The Soviet campaign against Finland was regarded by Soviet military scientists as a model. As Sergey Biriuzov* says, the strategy and tactics adopted by the Red Army in the war with Finland were later successfully applied on a larger scale in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45:
"The storming of the 'Mannerheim Line' was regarded as a model of operational and tactical art. Troops were taught to overcome the enemy's protracted defence by a gradual accumulation of forces and a patient gnawing through of breaches in the enemy's fortifications".
(S. S. Biriuzov: 'The Lesson Learned too well', in: S. Bialer (Ed.): op. cit.; p. 137).
A number of Western correspondents pay tribute to the tactical skill of the Red Army:
"The Russians are reported to have shown considerable tactical skill in managing their tanks".
('Daily Telegraph', 14 February 1940; p. 1).
to its ingenuity and inventiveness:
"The Russians had experimented intelligently themselves, introducing such new devices as armoured sleighs, three-storeyed dug-outs and dummy encampments to draw bombing aeroplanes to anti-aircraft guns. . .
Most of the armament was first-class stuff – anti-tank rifles, machine pistols, machine guns, and a new type of revolver that does not jam. The Russians, indeed, must have a remarkable inventiveness."
(‘Times’, 18 March 1940; p. 7).
and to the bravery of its soldiers:
"There (on the Isthmus – Ed.) the Russian divisions had fought with a courage which has rarely been equalled by Russian soldiers in this century".
('Daily Telegraph', 6 March 1940; p. 1).
This did not prevent 'Daily Herald' from reporting in February that
"Informed circles in Moscow state that Meretskov and his entire staff were shot soon after General Shtern arrived on the Finnish front from the Far East".
('Daily Herald', 23 February 1940; p. 6).
A month later, after the war had ended and General Meretskov had been decorated with the Order of Lenin, the press was reporting:
"Decorations awarded today suggest that the Soviet campaign was conducted by a staff presided over by General Meretskov.
General Shtern – reported to have been put in command of the Soviet forces in the later phases of the campaign – is not mentioned, which suggests that he never left command of Soviet forces in the Far East."
('News Chronicle', 23 March 12940; p. 2).
The final word on the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-40 may be given to Read and Fisher:
"In strictly strategic terms, as far as Stalin was concerned. the Winter War had been a success. It had been brief; it had not spilled over into the larger conflict, . . . and, above all, had achieved its purpose, The northern approaches to Leningrad were now secure and the USSR controlled access into the Gulf of Finland".
(A. Read & D. Fisher: op. cit.; p. 416).
http://ml-review.ca/aml/CommunistLeague/CL-FINLANDWAR90.html