After the outbreak of the European War, many German companies like the Munich Ocean Shipping Company were forced to close down.
Of course, there were more people who made huge war fortunes. Krupp took advantage of Germany's economic boom and completed a magnificent turn, binding all his wealth to the German Third Reich and returning to its peak.
After the annexation of Poland, throughout last winter, apart from sporadic confrontations with the British Royal Navy at sea, Germany took no further action.
The first to attack was Russia.
Russia acted preemptively and became the biggest beneficiary of the outbreak in Europe.
After joining forces with Germany to carve up Poland, Russia targeted Finland.
Before the last world war, Finland was part of Russia.
In 1809, the Finnish War broke out between Sweden and Russia. Russia won the final victory and obtained a large amount of territory from Sweden. Russia established the Grand Duchy of Finland as a buffer state between Russia and Sweden. The then Czar Alexander I gave the Grand Duchy of Finland considerable autonomy.
rights, which lays hidden dangers for Finland's future independence.
In 1917, the Finnish Senate took advantage of the great changes in Russia to declare independence, and then a civil war broke out in Finland.
The brief but bloody civil war ended with the victory of the White Army, which had German support.
Just a few months later, Germany announced its surrender, and Finland once again broke away from German control and truly became an independent country.
In February 1920, during the Soviet-Polish War, Finland took the opportunity to sign the Treaty of Tartu with Russia to determine the border between the two countries. Finland obtained a very favorable result. The border of the southern Karelian Isthmus is about 30 kilometers from the Russian capital St. Petersburg (Leninga).
Le) only 32 kilometers.
Since then, Finland has maintained good relations with Western countries. Until the outbreak of the European War, the United Kingdom and Germany were helping Finland train troops. The United Kingdom also provided Finland with equipment worth 211 million Finnish marks, and the Germans helped the Finns build a large number of
Airport.
With the help of Britain and Germany, Finland built the solid Mannerheim Line of Defense on the Russian-Finnish border.
The Mannerheim Line of Defense is named after the Finnish Commander-in-Chief Mannerheim. It consists of three defense zones about 90 kilometers in depth.
Each defense zone relies on natural obstacles such as swamps and lakes, and has 670 permanent launch fortifications and civil fire points, as well as nearly 800 underground bunkers, which are connected by trenches and communication trenches.
There is a 20-60 km deep support zone in front of the main defense zone. Anti-tank and anti-infantry mines, anti-tank piles, anti-tank trenches and anti-tank cliffs are widely installed in front of the main defense zone and in the support zone.
Did you see that in the above introduction, the word "anti-tank" appeared many times.
For the Russian tank force, the combat environment of the Mannerheim Line of Defense is very unfavorable.
While carving up Poland, Russia began to build up troops on the Russian-Finnish border.
By the end of 1939, Russia had concentrated 4 group armies, 18 infantry divisions, 1 tank corps, 4 tank brigades, about 1,000 tanks, and more than 800 aircraft near the border, with a total strength of 300,000 troops.
Before October 1939, Finland had only 32,000 standing troops.
After Russia began to build up its troops, Finland announced a nationwide mobilization and expanded its troops to 127,000, organized into 5 corps, 9 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry brigade and some independent border defense forces.
In addition to the regular army, Finland also has 300,000 reserve personnel, 100,000 reserve "People's Guards" and 100,000 women's service corps.
In 1939, Finland's total population was only 4.4 million.
At this time, Russia's total population was 160 million.
The huge gap in population made all parties not optimistic about the prospects of a Russo-Finnish war.
In terms of weapons and equipment, Finland is seriously short of anti-tank guns, ammunition and oil. Before the war broke out, there were only about 100 anti-tank guns in Finland. The ammunition was only enough for 2 months and the artillery shells were only enough for 3 weeks of combat. The air force only had enough.
There are 30 bombers, 56 fighter jets, and 59 reconnaissance aircraft.
Simply looking at the data on paper, Finland cannot win.
So the Russians were so confident that they took the initiative to invite the Finns to St. Petersburg for negotiations on October 11 and put forward harsh conditions to the Finns.
Russia hopes to sign a mutual assistance treaty with Finland to jointly defend the Gulf of Finland.
At the same time, Finland is required to move the Russian-Finnish border on the Karelian Isthmus 40 kilometers northward, and cede several islands in the Gulf of Finland and Finnish territory on the Rybach Peninsula to Russia.
At the same time, the Hanko Peninsula was leased to Russia for 30 years at a cost of 8 million Finnish marks per year.
In order to compensate for Finland's territorial losses, Russia expressed its willingness to hand over to Finland twice the land in the northwest of Lake Onega that was ceded by Finland.
The above points are all easy to say, the Hanko Peninsula is Finland’s natural barrier against Russia.
Russia's request to lease the Hanko Peninsula made Finland very suspicious of the Russians' motives.
When the negotiations broke down, Russia couldn't wait to create the "Manila Incident", claiming that the Finnish army shelled the village of Manila, causing the death of Russian soldiers, and demanded an apology from the Finnish government and a retreat of 20 to 25 kilometers.
This request was again rejected by Finland.
This is how the Russo-Finnish War broke out.
On November 30, 450,000 Russian troops invaded Finland, and the Finnish capital Helsinki was bombed by the Russian Air Force that day.
With the experience of the Polish campaign ahead, people have reason to believe that Russia has the ability to end the war before 1940.
The subsequent development of the war was astonishing.
During the Battle of Poland, Russia launched an attack on Poland on September 17, and the war ended on October 6, less than 20 days after Russia invaded Poland.
Judging from Russia's speed after it invaded Poland, it would only take half a month for Russia to annex Finland.
On November 30, the day the war broke out, the Russian army had already arrived at the scheduled combat position and launched an attack on the Mannerheim Line of Defense.
Half a month has passed, and the Russian attack has made no progress.
A month has passed and the Russians are unable to move forward.
Two months have passed. Except for achieving the intended purpose on the northern front, all Russian offensives on other fronts have failed, and they have suffered a disastrous defeat. In the northeastern region of Lake Ladoga alone, two Russian divisions were completely wiped out.
Since Napoleon's attack on Russia in 1912, there has been a saying in Europe that the biggest enemy of attacking Russia in winter is the weather.
Russia ignored that Finland is also an Arctic country, with one-third of its land in the Arctic Circle, and it also has the bonus of weather buffs.
In the past two months, almost all European countries have participated in the Russo-Finnish War.
In the process of carving up Poland between Russia and Germany, the two countries showed an amazing tacit understanding. So after the Russo-Finnish War broke out, Britain and France chose to support Finland and Russia in the war in order to curb Russia's expansion.
If Britain and France want to support Finland, they need the cooperation of the other two polar countries, Norway and Sweden.
In particular, aid from Sweden, Britain and France to Finland must pass through Sweden.
Germany once again showed amazing tacit understanding with Russia.
Sweden had not yet entered the war at this time.
From the very beginning of the war, Germany issued a warning to the Swedish government that if the Swedish government allowed British and French materials and personnel to transit, Germany would immediately launch an attack on Sweden.
The British and French forces really wanted to enter Finland.
However, the purpose of the British and French governments was not to defend Finland, but to occupy the iron mines in northern Norway and cut off Germany's resource supply.
In the process of Germany regaining its strength, the role of Norwegian iron ore cannot be underestimated. Iron ore is related to the lifeblood of Germany. Britain and France hope to cut off the supply of iron ore to Germany.
Mustache knew the purpose of the British and French forces.
Therefore, Mustache's threat to Sweden is not to help Russia, but to protect its own source of iron ore supply.
Sweden is in a dilemma.
Look at the powerful Germans and Russians, and then look at the magical sit-down war on the Western Front.
Sweden decided to be completely neutral, cut off supplies to Finland, and refused to allow the British and French forces to pass through Sweden.
At this time, the Finns finally understood that the fate of Finland has never been controlled by the Finns.
It is no longer realistic to continue fighting. Although Finland won the first stage of the war, its domestic material reserves have been completely exhausted. The Russians are gathering more troops and preparing to launch a larger attack on Finland. The Finns can no longer hold on.
.
Russians also sit on wax.
The performance of the Russian army in the first phase of the Russo-Finnish War was so bad that not only the British and French forces could not stand it, but even the Germans began to doubt the strength of the Russians, which also laid the foundation for Mustache's attack on Russia.
Looking back now, the reason why the Russians attacked Poland so smoothly was because the Polish army had already suffered all losses in the battle against Germany. The Russians did not encounter any decent resistance at all after they invaded Poland. Rather than saying that the Russians were
To attack, it is better to say that the Russians are marching.
Now that the Russians are attacking Finland independently, their true combat effectiveness is finally exposed.
So when Finland said it wanted to negotiate, the Russians were ecstatic.
Sometimes, benefits that cannot be obtained on the battlefield can really be achieved through negotiation.
On March 12, Finland and Russia, under the mediation of Sweden, signed the Peace Agreement in St. Petersburg.
In this agreement, Finland lost Karelia, including Finland's second largest city Viborg. This area has 10% of Finland's arable land, 1/5 of its industrial output value, and 222,000 residents, accounting for Finland's total population.
12% lost their homes and were deported.
The Russians were victorious. Such examples are extremely rare. The last one seemed to be the Sino-French war.
Although the scale of the Russo-Finnish War was small, its impact was extremely far-reaching.
The relationship between Germany and Russia changed after the Russo-Finnish War.
Germany also gained a deeper understanding of the appeasement policies of Britain and France through the Russo-Finnish War.
Russia paid a heavy price. In addition to the losses of its troops, the League of Nations determined that Russia was an invader in the Russo-Finnish War and removed Russia from the list on January 15.
Well, when it comes to the League of Nations, Russia doesn't care at all.
Since the outbreak of the world war, the League of Nations has become a decoration and has completely lost its function.
The letter Fat Baldhead sent to Mustache at the end of February made Mustache completely determined.
