The Winter War: The Russo-Finnish War of 1939-40

What makes historical books such as these work, are the vignettes and character sketches not only of individuals but groups of people. The Finnish courage and sense of humor, the sad pitiful state of Soviet soldiers, the Soviet's inhumanity and indifference to its own people, the waffling and Realpolitik of Western nations, the indepedence of Mannerheim, all come through in Trotter's writing. The stories of Soviet soldiers trapped in barbed wire calling out to Stalin, the night-time hunter-seeker raids by pairs of Finns, the foolish tactics of the Soviets who would push their tanks far ahead of the troops and allow the Finns to ignore the tanks and slaughter the unprotected troops, the snow un-drinkable because of artillery contamination...I guess I was a little disappointed that the "ski attacks" weren't as prevalent as I had believed. One of the most visual scenes in WWII combat is the image of camoflauged Finns sweeping through trees w/ submachine guns blowing away Soviets, but the book tells of other Finnish tactics that were more successful (and realistic), such as the nighttime raid that forced the Soviets to get into a firefight w/ themselves. An excellent book on guerilla warfare in the snow and ice.

The Russo-Finnish War of 1939 is remembered an obscure offshoot of the broader Second World War, but technically it was a self-contained conflict whose belligerents were not then parties to the conflict between Germany and the Allies. That said, the Soviet Union had just assisted Germany in the invasion of Poland - annexing its eastern provinces - and was regarded as unbeatable in this contest. Ultimately it did "win" - in the sense of getting more territory out of the peace settlement - but the win was entirely Pyrrhic, with vastly one-sided losses, numerous Finnish tactical victories (particularly north of Lake Ladoga where the Finnish "sausage" tactics decimated entire divisions of Russian troops) and catastrophically bad generalship. This book looks at the war from mainly a Finnish perspective, and there is little mention of the (infinitely less romantic) "Continuation War" of 1941-44, when Finland joined the Axis. Trotter is at his best when describing the heroism of individuals at the front: small units of lightly armed men conducting anti-tank operations; ski patrols cutting off Russian forces in the blinding snow; teams in the trenches grimly defending their positions against seemingly interminable waves of assaults. Superb military history.

This history book is probably the most breathtaking I've ever had the pleasure to read. Being from Scandinavia myself, I was pleased to see how unbiased this book is. Mr Trotter has great sympathy for the Finnish struggle and the hopeless odds against them, but also shows us the tragical fate of the ordinary Soviet soldier: Cold, exposed, sent out to die for Stalin, which almost 300,000 of them eventually did.Other readers have already explained the thrilling contents of this book and its eye for detail, so I would like to underline here Mr Trotter's impressive ability to tell even such a dramatic story with a brilliant touch of irony. Just take a look at these two examples:1. "At 9:20 a.m., November 30, 1939, the first Russian planes appeared over Helsinki.... () .. On their way out, the planes took time to strafe a complex of working-class housing units and to drop their last few high-explosive bombs on the inner city, some of which severely damaged the front of the Soviet Legation building"2. "To head the new puppet regime, Stalin dragged out O. W. Kuusinen and set him up as "president". Kuusinen was the most influential of all the old-guard Reds who had fled Finland in 1918...().. Broadcasts were soon made in the name of this new government, telling the captive proletariat of "plutocratic Finland" about all the wonderful reforms that would be promulgated after the Red Army had finished liberating them. (Kuusinen) promised the workers an eight-hour day. The workers were not impressed. The eight-hour day had been legislated in Finland twenty five years earlier... Kuusinen had certainly kept up with things".Admittedly, I, being a non-native English speaker, for obvious reasons will perceive written English in another way than would a native speaker. But I certainly like Mr Trotter's style.Thanks to the author for a magnificent account of this dramatic piece of Scandinavian history.

Unfortunately, the Russo-Finnish war is usually given short shrift in most histories of WWII. This, in spite of the fact that it resulted in hundreds of thousands of casulties, in spite of the fact the Finns performed some of the most brilliant feats of arms in modern history, and, in spite of the fact that the Western Allies sacrficed the Finns on the alter of political "necessity".The courageous, remarkable defense of their homeland by the Finns in the face of insurmountable odds is no less inspiring or intriguing for its ultimate futility. With an even hand, Trotter guides the reader through the ferocious Finnish winter, and takes us into the minds of both Russian and Finnish soldiers as they fight in some of the most appalling battlefield conditions ever.In conclusion, my sysmpathy for the Finns is obvious, as is Trotter's, but don't doubt that this is a serious work of history. Trotter deals judiciously with all parties to the conflict based on fact; popular mythology plays no role in this work.

I have read both William R. Trotter's "A Frozen Hell" and Engle & Paananen's "The Winter War: The Soviet Attack on Finland 1939-1940". In addition to these books I am in the process of reading 2 books by Max Jakobson, one of which is specifically on the Winter War, as well as a number of academic journal articles on Finland between 1937-1945.Trotter has done a great job of recounting the Winter War from both the Finnish and Russian political and military perspecives, using available documents. I am an American-Finn who is very proud of my Finnish heritage, yet I was not insulted by Trotter's treatment of the Russian perspective at all - it was very enlightning. I prefer to understand ALL the "why?"s surrounding an event as momentous as the Winter War. It is nice to have some idea what the Russian reasoning and motives were, even if I don't agree with them. Life is rarely black and white as we would like it to be.The short biography of Marshall Mannerheim in the beginning was especially useful. Understanding the man sheds light on his actions and opinions. It also explains a bit of the history of Russian-Finnish relations as well.Improvements: More maps would be very helpful. Also, as a Finnish speaking American I can appreciate Trotter's attempt to make understanding easier for non-finnish speakers, however the occasional reference to places in Finn-glish was a slight annoyance. An example would be "... east of Lake Kuokjärvi" where the word "Lake" is redundant because the name of the place says it is a lake. This is a very picky detail and does not detract from the content.Overall I thoroughly enjoyed reading "A Frozen Hell". The more balanced and objective view taken by Trotter does not take away from the heroics and Sisu of the Finns. I also appreciated inclusion of a more detailed explanation on the surrounding political climate/situations.