Frozen Hell by William Trotter

[oldcrowcv63]

Picked it up in a book kiosk at Helsinki airport during a stopover. Definitely worth reading. Gives a whole new meaning to war is hell as well as an account of some inspiring history. Looking at a current map of Finland I get angry over th loss which I assume is now irreversible.

 

[Lucky13]

About the Finnish Winter War then, or...?

 

[oldcrowcv63]

Yes, the Finnish winter war Nov. 1939 to March, 1940.

 

[Lucky13]

Seem worth while to look into then, since we had volunteers there...

 

[oldcrowcv63]

USA did too evidently. Not many, I think about a platoon strength.

 

[Lucky13]

Really!? Didn't know that!

 

[vikingBerserker]

I didn't either, cool info!

 

[oldcrowcv63]

The book doesn't realy cover their actions just that the USA sent some volunteers, and of course he mentions the Brewstr B-239's that arrive at the end of the wnter war, just before the truce. Just read an instance where a Finn officer uses his pistol to provide cover to a fellow oficer (the officers lead from the front and suffered heavy losses.) who was attempting to take out a russian T-28 tank with a roll of dynamite sticks. The one stands and shoots at the view slits while the other crawls toward the tank, dropping into cover, the shooter continues to drop, reload and then stand again each time emptying three clips before the tank retreats never giving dynamie guy a chance to throw. They both had cast iron ones...

So many of the Finns were essentially well lead militia and paramilitary (police border, guards) and it was a hunting skiing culture that heavily favored light automatic weapons.

 

[oldcrowcv63]

Reading further (around page 200), covering events after the remarkable Finn December victories in both set piece battles and guerrilla engagements against far larger oppnents, the number of international volunteers rose dramatically. Looks like The Swedes sent roughly a regiment of reasonably competent troops while the USA sent something approaching a battalion in numbers although many were found to be unfit for combat. Next to the passion of the Swedish support, apparently the Italians were very prominent in providing both volunteers and materiel support in the form of aircraft!

 

[davebender]

"Frozen Hell" is a good quick read. The two books by Henrik O. Lunde are much more in depth concerning events in WWII Scandinavia. Mr. Lunde provides the diplomatic messages which show how the European war spread to Norway and Finland.

"Hitler's Pre-Emptive War"
"Finland's War of Choice"

 

[Capt. Vick]

I have and started reading "Hitler's Pre-Emptive War"...It was a hard read for me and I finally put it down part wat through, intending to pick it up maybe at some future date, but I lost my place!

 

[davebender]

History in depth can be that way.

IMO the most important stuff is in the first 200 pages which contain details of British plans to invade Norway and German plans to pre-empt the British attack. You won't find that information on The History Channel or most popular history books of the war.

 

[oldcrowcv63]

Frozen Hell goes into some of that fairly complex history and the somewhat tortured Brit rationale for invading Norway to help Finland, not to mention the questionable french (PM Deladier) efforts to refocus WWII into a localized pan scandanavian conflict.