The Winter War - 2nd December - 9th December
The Winter War - 2nd December - 9th December
The Northern Theatre (Karelian Front)
With the capture of Oulu, the Karelian Front had succeeded in it's initial operational goals. Staying idle was out of the question, however, as lack of breakthroughs further south meant that the Mountaineers would have to advance down the coastline to Turku itself. First stop on that route was the town of Vaasa.
While the 2nd Mountaineers were moving southwards, the 1st and 3rd Mountaineer Corps were tasked with reducing the finnish pocket on the Arctic Railway-Petsamo line. Over 20 thousand troops were stationed in the cut-off area, formed into the 4th and 10th Division, and destroying them would decisively eliminate all resistance to the Karelian Front. For such an operation, nearly 70 thousand troops could be mustered.
The attack was launched at 15:00 on the 2nd of December. The finnish resistance in the area was fierce, but being utnumbered three to one and being completely cut off from further supplies and reinforcements had a definite effect on the combat capabilities and morale of the finns. The defending general, Lt. General Heinrichs, was a skilled defender as well as a potent foe in any cold environment, but his foe, General Frolov, was no fool either, being responsible for the only military victory in the Finnish Campaign so far.
The defending finns were living off the stockpiles of ammunition previously gathered, but would not last for sustained combat. Every day their situation grew worse - by the 3rd of December, lack of supply became an even more serious concern tha hostile terrain or Soviet artillery support.
The following day, the 3rd Mountaineer Corps, attacking Arctic highway itself, was pulled off by a worried Frolov. The 3rd M. Corps would also have to defend the thrust of the 2nd Corps to Oulu and beyond, and a battered force could result in the 2nd Corps being completely cut off. Only elements of the 3rd Corps were left in the battle, leaving the 1st M. Corps, led by Lt. General Batov, in charge of pushing back the finns. This move, while showing good understanding of economy of force, as well as a cautious one to allow the main thrust to proceed unhinderedly, also opened an avenue of retreat for the finns defending Petsamo through the Arctic Highway.
The following day, the 3rd Corps was pulled out completely from the attack, for not so much ctrategic considerations but the fact that they had lost nearly 20% of their personell and were near collapse in the dense forests of Northern Finland.
The finns defending Petsamo couldn't hold out without ammo and food, and their commander Heinrichs understood that. When teh Soviet attack had lasted for three and a half days, he took advantage of Frolov's caution and ordered a retreat down the Arctic Highway, hoping to reach Tornio and either evacuating by sea or fleeing into Sweden. The attack on Petsamo had cost the Red Army nearly four thousand dead, compared to finnish casualities of over a thousand. But the finns yielded. Their material situation was horrible and their men near collapse.
Petsamo itself was fully occupied four days later, as select elements of both the 4th and 10th divisions were left behind as a vanguard of the majority of finnish troops fleeing towards Tornio, delaying the soviet troops enough to not give away Heinrichs' intentions to Frolov, keeping the Arctic Highway clear.
2nd Corps kept advancing southwards, however, and captured Vaasa on teh 5th. It was estimated that Turku would be captured in a week, assuming that the finns would not try to defend it with all their forced in the east.
The Southern Theatre (Leningrad Front)
The defeats on the Mannerheim line and north of Ladoga had worn out both of the belligerents. Soviet losses in numbers were appaling, but their hardware was still relatively intact and plentiful. When word came to Timoshenko's HQ of the 2nd Corps moving southwards at the coastline, he decided to move against the Mannerheim line once more, to both redeem his reputation and provide a mighty distraction to the finns.
The order of attack was given to the infantry of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Corps' on the 3rd of December. The troops, previously used in a support role, were eager and unscathed, but their commanding officers knew the night ahead of them would be hell. Timoshenko's plan counted on mass infantry attacks in the night, meant to throw off the finns, followed by a massive strike of combined arms after dawn, at which point the battered infantry would be pulled out of the battle.
The infantry was being slaughtered. A hundred thousand troops clashed against a foe equal in size, but with superior training, weaponry, leadership and morale. The night was the only thing saving the common soldier, as progress was to slow thanks to the proximity of the fighters. While soviet losses were shocking, they managed to lull the finns into a sense of superiority. Still, by dawn, nothing had been really accomplished.
Then, 7 'o clock, all hell broke loose. Two air fleets of bombers, composed of SU-2s and DB-3s, descended on the rear troops of the formations manning the Mannerheim line. This would soon prove a great factor in the eventual outcome of the battle.
Following their bombardment was the same 1st Mechanized Army of Marshal Konev, eager to give the finns revenge for their first failure. The finns, exhausted from a night of intense close-quarters fighting, were shocked by the amount of soviet hardware again charging to their positions. Still entangled in unfavourable positions to fight infantry, the finnish troops were caught with their pants down.
However, they had beaten this mechanized armada earlier. Even more importantly, Mannerheim had been immediately informed of the offensive and ushered two divisions down to the other side of Lake Ladoga. General Levandovski's troops facing them immediately took advantage of this large movement of men, as they had been instructed by Timoshenko, and hoped to pin down the divisions guarding Sortavala for long enough to Konev to break through the Mannerheim line.
However, unlike the other elements in the offensive, these men had not yet rested from their previous attack, and were still demoralized and disorganized. While nine divisions were still enough to cause Mannerheim a serious problem, they couldn't sustain a proper offensive for longer than a few days. By the dawn of the 6th of December, the attack was called off, resulting in over two thousand Soviet dead and finnish casualities of a quarter of that. But the divisions were pinned down for those two days, and even though they now rushed southwards, the situation on the Mannerheim line was different.
The massive bombardment of the finnish rear resulted in a critical breakthrough - the destruction of most of finnish anti-armor equipment. The men of the Mannerheim line were extremely short on ammo for their rifles, and had nearly no way to counter the masses of tanks advancing on them. Makeshift weaponry like the "Molotov cocktail" were holding the gap, but even they were of short supply and little effectiveness.
By the 7th, the Soviet breakthrough came at last. Half of the defense of the Mannerheim line had fled, and only 4 underequipped, undermanned divisions remained. Mannerheim didn't let them retreat yet in hopes of his troops from the north would save the situation.
The following morning he ordered the retreat. The Mannerheim line was broken, and Viipuri lost. The finns had lost two and a half thousand men trying to hold the line, but in vain. The Soviet losses amounted to twice that, but a far better ratio than had been achieved so far. The finns sent out their first offer of peace right after Mannerheim's order to retreat.
The Situation on the 10th of December
The war had lasted for 26 days. Soviet losses until that point amounted to 33 thousand men killed or MIA. However, their strategic goals were near completition - Oulu had been captured and the Mannerheim line breached.
The situation in the north:
The situation in the south: