- Contributed by听
- H. A. Bergenheim
- Article ID:听
- A1297406
- Contributed on:听
- 22 September 2003
It was a freezing cold day (-48C) in Yl盲-Sommee, on the Finnish-Russian Karelian isthmus front. It was so cold that every breath felt like one hundred needles in your lungs. My grandfather's brother, Jarl Bergenheim, captain in the Finnish Army, had just arrived in the village with his regiment; the 10 infantry regiment. A couple of days earlier, the regiment had withdrawn from a battered, naked hill called Marjapellonm盲ki, which they had successfully defended for several tough weeks despite many fierce, massive attacks and artillery concentrations by the Russians. Before the war the hill had been covered by trees, but when the regiment withdrew all that was left was a grey mess consisting of snow, splinters from split trees, grenade craters, gunpowder, blood and flesh. The entire hill was covered in thick black smoke.
The regiment had suffered heavy casualties, mostly in the artillery concentrations, but the Russians had lost a lot more men in their attacks, and when the regiment withdrew, it wasn麓t because of an attack, but because a new, better line was being established in Yl盲-Sommee. The Russians took the hill several days later, when they noticed that the defenders had left.
Let's now return to that freezing cold day, when Jarl and the regiment had arrived in Yl盲-Sommee village. The village was located on a low hill, with valleys surrounding it on two opposite sides, the two other sides being occupied by woods. It was sometime in the early morning when the Russians attacked. They came silently, and in large numbers through the woods south-east of the village. They caught the Finns on guard by surprise, and immediately occupied a few houses and a barn with stone walls. But the Finns defended themselves ferociously, with vast firepower. Jarl's company was ordered to take back the area, and they cleared all the houses in a short time, but were then pinned down outside the barn. Jarl then hurried to call for artillery support and ordered two machine-guns to the flanks. Then a Russian grenade, an eight-pounder, exploded a few yards away from Jarl, and the entire calf on one of his legs was ripped off. He was immediately transported by horse-sleigh to the field hospital, several miles away. Luckily however, his orders had gone through before he was wounded, and the barn was cleared of enemies with the help of machine-guns after the artillery concentration. Jarl later died in the field-hospital, and he was truly missed by his company. His last orders had saved many of their lives.
I told this story as a tribute to my grandfather's brother, his regiment, and the entire Finnish Army that fought in WW2. The Finnish Army often fought against Russian forces with up to ten times more men, artillery, tanks (the Finns only had a few tanks during the winter war) and bomber and fighter planes. However, the Russians were usually defeated, and suffered far larger casualties than the Finns. I owe my independence as a Finn to people like my grandfather's brother. Thanks for reading his story.
Alexander Bergenheim, aged 16
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Message 1 - Which year?
Posted on: 06 October 2003 by L Jackson
Alexander
Thanks for posting this interesting account. You mention the Winter War between Russia and Finland in 1940 and Finnish involvement in World War II 1941-1945. Which conflict were you describing?
Thanks again, L Jackson.
听
Message 2 - Which year?
L Jackson
Sorry I haven麓t answered your question before, I麓ve had some problems with my computer. But to your question:
The battle I wrote about took place in late january or early february 1940, during the winter war. Once again, sorry I didn麓t answer earlier.
A Bergenheim
Message 1 - note
"I owe my independence as a Finn to people like my grandfather's brother. "
I would like to note, that you also owe your independance as Finn to Sovet People who defeated fascists by means of 26-30 millions of lives.
Of course Russian- Finnish war was a great mistake that could be avoided, but for the sake of justice, here is another point of view:
Finland has never been independent, all its independence is owing to Russian revolution of 1917. You know that before the revolution it was a Russian Princehood bought by Russian Tzar Peter the Great from Sweden (btw, in an honest way and for a huge sum of money). That piece of Earth included the Karelian Isthmus and Ladozhskoe Lake along with other territory. The Karelian Isthmus was PRESENTED to Finland by Russia, absolutely for free.
The point of that senseless war was that both sides couldn't agree. While Finland got close with Fascist Germany Russia had to enable security of Leningrad which turned to be on the border. It was not a matter to worry about while Finland was Russian Princehood, but when Finns became friends with Germany, Leningrad became 'naked'. Russians started endless negotiations with Finnish government about the possibility to rent some places on Karelian Isthmus to use them as observation posts. The answer was 'No'. Finnish government refused to let russian observers even on few deserted islands in Gulf of Finland (for money). They also refused to exchange the Karelian Isthmus for a twice as big piece of Russian land. Hence Russian government decided that Finns are are preparing for war against us or would be on the side of our enemies in case of war. A small provocation was enough for Russians to start the war first.
I just wanted to present another point of view, because as far as I notice there are no stories from Russia on this site, and our country is always mentioned as Monster, mostly by Poles of course, who try to present Soviet regime worse than fascist. Yes, soviet life was not sweet as sugar, but by far not so dark as Poles try to present it, forgetting, btw, that if we would get to the roots of Pole- Russian relations it would be not to the advantage of Poland, as it was Poland (alone and allied with other states) who constantly invaded Russian territories for many centuries before the WW-II. Sorry, if I've gone too far.
听
Message 2 - note
Posted on: 15 August 2005 by Johanna80
Dear spectatorMaria V,
I would like to correct quite a few false historical facts included in your reply. I am myself a Finn, and not particularly interested in war history but your input had some quite false notions of general history I would like to correct.
"Finland has never been independent, all its independence is owing to Russian revolution of 1917."
Finland was under the Swedish influence for over 650 years. Swedes made their first crusade to Finland in 1150s and during the 12th and 13th century Finland was gradually integrated to the Swedish kingdom. During the 17th and early 18th century Sweden expanded its territory in the Baltic sea, also pushing the Finnish border eastwards. This lead to conflicts with Russia, and Sweden had constant wars and border restlessness with its giant eastern neighbour during the 17th and 18th century. A big leaf in Finnish history was turned in 1808, when Russia declared a war on Sweden and invaded Finland. Thus, almost seven centuries of Swedish rule in Finland came to an end.
Russia awarded its newly-annexed province with a status of a Grand Duchy. The laws enacted during the Swedish period stayed in force. The grand duchy was endowed its own administration and Swedish as the language of government. This extensive autonomy made Finland a unique entity of the Russian empire, in effect a state within a state. The new autonomy also enabled the growing sense of nationalism during the 19th century, which resulted in the declaration of independence in 1917 when the Czarist rule in Russia ended.
The 19th-century social, economic and political development was the main cause to the Finnish independency, not the Russian revolution per se.
"You know that before the revolution it was a Russian Princehood bought by Russian Tzar Peter the Great from Sweden (btw, in an honest way and for a huge sum of money). That piece of Earth included the Karelian Isthmus and Ladozhskoe Lake along with other territory. The Karelian Isthmus was PRESENTED to Finland by Russia, absolutely for free."
Finland was not bought from Sweden by Peter the Great. Peter the Great was a Czar in early 18th century, Finland was INVADED by Russia as a result of war in early 19th century. No large sums of money there. The Czar in power was called Alexander the First.
I don麓t quite understand when did Russia "present" the Karelian Isthmus _to_ Finland. The isthmus was ethnically Finnish and Karelian (the majority), and it had been annexed to Sweden in the 14th century, thus making the easternmost part of the Swedish Kingdom and later the easternmost province of the Grand Duchy of Finland. During the Winter War and later in Continuation War Finland had to give over this province to Soviet Union. Today, the province is Russian territory.
"The point of that senseless war was that both sides couldn't agree. While Finland got close with Fascist Germany Russia had to enable security of Leningrad which turned to be on the border. It was not a matter to worry about while Finland was Russian Princehood, but when Finns became friends with Germany, Leningrad became 'naked'. The reason Russians started endless negotiations with Finnish government about the possibility to rent some places on Karelian Isthmus to use them as observation posts. The answer was 'No'. Finnish government refused to let russian observers even on few deserted islands in Gulf of Finland (for money). They also refused to exchange the Karelian Isthmus for a twice as big piece of Russian land. Hence Russian government decided that Finns are are preparing for war against us or would be on the side of our enemies in case of war. A small provocation was enough for Russians to start the war first."
The reason for the outbreak of the Winter War was as well the Russian fear of Finland allying with the Germans but also some Soviet expansion interests. You forget to mention, that Hitler and Stalin signed a non-aggression pact in August 1939. In a secret protocol in this pact, Finland was allotted to the Soviet sphere and influence. In 1939, Finland rejected Soviet territorial demands of Karelian Isthmus, the islands in the Gulf of Finland and an observation post in Hanko, in western Finland. About 25 percent of the Finnish industrial base of that time was on Karelian Isthmus, and so was almost 20 percent of the population. The second most important Finnish city, a cultural and economic centre, Viipuri (Vyborg), was also in this area. The government decided to refuse to change this populous industry base for a vast forest in Eastern Karelia.
After the rejection, SU rescinded the 1932 non-aggression pact and attacked on Finland Nov 30, 1939, starting the Winter War.
After the end of Winter War, there was a year of peace after which the Continuation War broke out. In this war Finland was allied with Germany. But that is a different story.
听
Message 3 - note
thank you johanna for straigthening out a couple of facts to spectatorMAria V, who obviously doesn't know what she's talking about.
besides everything you pointed out i also fail to understand how the allies' victory over the nazis saved Finland's independancy. Of course the whole world should be grateful that that the nazis were defeated, for humanity's sake, but it had nothing to do with Finlands independence. Please straigth out your facts before your start rambling next time spectatorMaria V, thank you.
听
Message 4 - note
Posted on: 24 December 2005 by MariaVSpectator
Sorry I'm not a historian either, i'm rather ignorant girl. I posted it after reading several articles about WWII that made me feel a bit offended by impudent injustice with which almost all our europen neighbours treat us. Our country lost almost 30 millions of people in war with fascism and western press dared TO MOCK the celebration of Victory Day on Red Square, forgetting that if not the SU, fascists might rule the world now. It is strange that Russia is often presented as guilty in everything. Baltic republics hate us and demand astronomical compensations, forgetting that soviet russians brought resourses there which they practicaly had no (except bad quality forest), built there infrastructura. ports, hospitals, railway stations, etc. Poland forgot how they invaded our territory, came into Moscow and behaved disgraceful there, (there is a monument on Red Sqaure to citizen Minin and prince Pozharsky, heroes of freeing Moscow from Poles invasion), but they consider us as the most terrible monsters. And noone rememberes that we for ages protected europe from eastern militant hordes about which the majority of europeans even didn't hear of. Of course it has nothing to do with Finland.
[quote]"Finland has never been independent, all its independence is owing to Russian revolution of 1917."
Finland was under the Swedish influence for over 650 years. Swedes made their first crusade to Finland in 1150s and during the 12th and 13th century Finland was gradually integrated to the Swedish kingdom. During the 17th and early 18th century Sweden expanded its territory in the Baltic sea, also pushing the Finnish border eastwards. This lead to conflicts with Russia, and Sweden had constant wars and border restlessness with its giant eastern neighbour during the 17th and 18th century[/quote]
I agree that i made some rude mistakes. Tzar Peter received Vyborg province by the Nishtadt Peace Treaty in 1721. 'For a huge sum of money' he bought territories of present Baltic states TOGETHER WITH Karelian Isthmus, which is of course not whole Finland. The whole Finland was added to Russia at the reign of AlexanderI by manifest of 1818 as a result of war with 'restless neighbour' Sweden. And i agree that my fraze that 'finland has never been independent' was not correct, perhaps it is more correct to call it a state within state, like jewish autonomia on far east within Russian Federation .Sorry if my comments offended you.I posted that emotional and extempore comment because it seemed to me that there was some pleasure in words that russians (not soviet troops) lost a lot more men than finns. Those soldiers definately had no enthusiasm to fight,it was the decision of the heads.
A few words about WWII, as this section is about WWII.
All my granddads and great-grandfathers fought with fascism, as practically all soviet men and women fought. When my great-grandfather was killed, his 16 years old son (my great-uncle) run away to the front and at the age of 18 he was already a commander of tank. Several his tanks were burned and he was wounded very hard. Grandfather didn't like to talk about war.
听
Message 5 - MariaVSpectator?
Posted on: 30 December 2005 by ben4nz
I am intrigued!
How have you formed such undersanding and opinion of WW2 like you present it here?
School? Russian media? Russian books?
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