Episode 16-The Phony War and Finland’s defeat.

[0] Welcome to True Spies, the podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.

[1] Suddenly out of the dark, it's a bit in love.

[2] You'll meet the people who live life undercover.

[3] What do they know?

[4] What are their skills?

[5] And what would you do in their position?

[6] Vengeance felt good seeing these.

[7] People paid for what they'd done, felt righteous.

[8] True Spies, from Spyscape Studios, wherever you get your podcasts.

[9] This episode is brought to you by Audible.

[10] In case you didn't know, Audible .com is the premier provider of digital audiobooks with over 85 ,000 titles to choose from.

[11] Listeners of this podcast can sign up for a free 14 -day trial and receive a free audiobook download.

[12] You can cancel at any time before your 14 days are up and keep the audiobook.

[13] Or you can continue on and choose from one of their subscription plans.

[14] Today, I would like to recommend Bloodlands, Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder.

[15] Summary.

[16] While conventional wisdom locates the horrors of World War II and the 6 million Jews killed in German occupation camps, the reality is even grimmer.

[17] In 13 years, the Nazi and Soviet regimes killed 13 million people in the lands between Germany and Russia, and not one of these unfortunate souls were soldiers.

[18] Now, there are two ways to sign up for this free trial.

[19] You can go to my website, worldwarpodcast .net, and click on the banner, or you can go to audibletrial .com slash worldwarpodcast.

[20] I know that's a lot to type, but hey, I'm still figuring all this out.

[21] Again, that's audibletrial .com slash worldwarpodcast.

[22] That way, they'll know who sent you.

[23] Hello, and thank you for listening to a History World War II podcast, Episode 16, The Phony War and Finland's Defeat.

[24] Poland was gone.

[25] Hitler was right about the West.

[26] Kind of.

[27] Britain didn't have enough troops ready on the continent to help Poland in any way, and the French weren't armed or thinking to fight offensively.

[28] But Britain was determined to stop Hitler, and they would drag the French along as best they could.

[29] Now, some French forces had advanced a few miles and occupied a town in between the Maginot Line and the Siegfried Line.

[30] They held it for a couple of days, then they retreated back behind their line.

[31] But that was pretty much all the offensive action in the West.

[32] With the lack of expected fighting in the West, the average German on the street called the war a sit -down war, or Sitzkrieg.

[33] Now, Germany had about 26 divisions behind their defensive Western Wall, the Siegfried Wall.

[34] And Hitler guessed pretty quickly, probably by the end of the first week of fighting with Poland, that the West, besides not having the desire for war, was not ready for an offensive war materialistically.

[35] So maybe Germany should attack them.

[36] Now, almost anything can change an attitude, fear, or anger, but when you're not ready for a war with the right arms, nothing can change that.

[37] So on September 9th, Hitler issued Directive No. 3 for the conduct of the war.

[38] He wanted to send his army and air force to the west as fast as he possibly could, but not necessarily to attack.

[39] He had made it clear that only with his express permission were any planes allowed to fly into French airspace or the troops to advance.

[40] He was still holding out hope for a peace with Britain even if it would be a shaky one and if that didn't work he wanted to have his forces in place to attack when it became convenient or suitable for Germany.

[41] Now, the French treaty with Poland had been very specific about when they would attack and with what, and what timeline.

[42] But now General Gamelin, the chief of general staff of France, was saying that he would need at least two years and supplies from Britain and the U .S. to be ready for any kind of offensive against Germany.

[43] And of course, the U .S. is not even involved at this point.

[44] Now, the British treaty had been very vague in helping Poland, and it used general terms about their support.

[45] And it wasn't until October the 11th that Britain had four divisions in France anyway.

[46] Clearly, if anyone was going to save Poland, it was going to be France.

[47] So why didn't France fight?

[48] Memories from World War I were still strong.

[49] They had suffered incredible loss of property and mostly of their young men.

[50] And there was still a defeatist attitude within the high command and the citizenry, which is to be expected.

[51] And Poland's war was practically over by the second week, and they knew that.

[52] And also the French had to acknowledge the German superiority when it came to their armed forces and their air force.

[53] Also, no one knew about the secret protocol with Russia until after the end of the war.

[54] Now, some of the options that were open to France was they could have bombed the Ruhr region, which was the industrial center of Germany.

[55] Geography had placed it uncomfortably close to the French border.

[56] It was on the southwest of Germany.

[57] It was located near the town of Essen, which is where the Krupp dynasty was at, and they were the largest armaments builder for Germany.

[58] There's a book called The Arms of Krupp, K -R -U -P -P, but I think it's by William Manchester, and that is an amazing book.

[59] I certainly recommend it to you.

[60] Now, the German Navy had not been held back like the Army.

[61] The first week of the war, German U -boats sunk 11 British ships with a loss of about 64 ,000 tons.

[62] But then the losses started to go down.

[63] By the second week, it's 53 ,000 tons.

[64] By the third week, it's down to 12 ,000 tons.

[65] So for September, the British lost 26 ships to U -boats and three more to mines.

[66] Now, the reason for the reduction in losses was that Hitler and Admiral Rader got together, and they decided to take it easy on Britain.

[67] They were hoping, at least in their minds, that there was still a chance of peace.

[68] So they wanted to take it easy on them and kind of see what shakes out from all this.

[69] France is doing nothing that Berlin can see, and Britain seems hesitant to Germany.

[70] But again, really, they're just not ready.

[71] There's a difference between not being prepared.

[72] and not having the will to fight.

[73] So the pocket battleships Deutschland is in the North Atlantic, and the pocket battleship Graf Spee is in the South Atlantic, and they are told to go to waiting stations as opposed to action stations.

[74] And a pocket battleship is like a heavily armed cruiser.

[75] It's not as fast as a cruiser, but it can certainly outgun a cruiser.

[76] Hitler and Admiral Rader had also agreed not to discuss or try to solve the sinking of the Athenia, which we talked about on the last episode, where I think 112 people died.

[77] out of 1 ,400, and 28 of those were Americans.

[78] Their only answer was to deny it strenuously, because at the time, the Hay Convention said that a ship had to be warned before it was being sunk, so the people could have a chance to prepare and save themselves.

[79] Because really, you're after the ship, you want to seek the ship, the means of your enemy to move forces or goods around.

[80] And Hitler had told all the U -boats to observe the Hay Convention, but with the radio silence observed by the U -boats, it made accurate communication difficult.

[81] But then Hitler decided to go on the offensive and he had Dr. Goebbels go on the radio on October 22nd and declared that the British had sunk their own ship with a bomb to bring the U .S. into the war with their vast population and their resources.

[82] Adding to this, Weisacker, Ribbentrop's second, sent for the American Charge Day affair, Alexander Kirk, and denied it to his face that Germany had anything to do with the sinking.

[83] But U -boat 30, or U -30, which had left the port like all the other U -boats on September 3rd and had returned on September 27th, was met by Admiral Carl Donitz, who suspected the truth.

[84] He swore the commander Lemp and his crew to silence.

[85] Later testimony would verify that U -30 did sink the Athenia.

[86] Commander Lemp thought it was an armed merchant vessel on patrol.

[87] which was a common mistake, but they just couldn't afford to have that get out at this point.

[88] And of course, there was no court -martial to attract attention, and they decided that it would all be handled politically by Berlin.

[89] The U -Boats logbook was altered.

[90] And as stated, the official Nazi newspaper ran the headline that Churchill sank the Athenia.

[91] And of course, as the First Lord of the Admiralty, he was in a position to make that happen.

[92] But the few Nazis who were in the know were upset by Hitler going too far, but they didn't say anything, which would be typical as the years go on.

[93] Hitler would push the envelope on reality, but no one had the courage to say anything.

[94] So by September 19th, the war with Poland is practically over.

[95] Hitler was pushing for peace with the Western powers, not because he wanted it, but to confuse his enemies and to keep them passive until he was ready to attack them.

[96] So on the 19th, he gives his first speech since his last one on September 1st, and this one he gives in Danzig.

[97] But he was in a very ugly mood, because he wanted to give a speech from Warsaw, but the Poles there were holding out.

[98] And he confessed confusion at the West.

[99] He wanted peace.

[100] Why wouldn't they agree with him?

[101] The war with Poland would soon be over, and Poland was not coming back.

[102] Germany and Russia would see to that.

[103] So he was asking, why get millions killed, spend millions more, and destroy millions more in property over a country that doesn't exist anymore?

[104] Russia joined in the call for peace, and of course they had what they wanted, and it served them to stop the fighting so they could digest their part of Poland.

[105] Also, they had other plans, which we'll get to soon.

[106] So Russia declares with Germany that they want peace, and if the West does not agree with them, then any future war will be their fault.

[107] So by September 26th, the Nazi hierarchy are taking their cue from Hitler.

[108] Everyone's talking about peace.

[109] Everyone's proposing peace.

[110] Hitler, Goering, Dolores, who's still trying to be involved.

[111] But the day before, Hitler had gathered together the commanders -in -chief of the Werkmarkt at the Chancellery, and he told them of his decision to attack in the West as soon as humanly possible.

[112] It was clear to him now that the French and British forces were not ready.

[113] He even set the date for the offensive to begin on November 12th.

[114] And once again, the German generals...

[115] shocked and they knew they would have to explain the reality to Hitler.

[116] The equipment used in Poland had to be refitted, it had to be repaired.

[117] The plan used in Poland would not work in France.

[118] In Poland you had these open fields you could swing around, you could maneuver with your tanks, but in France obviously there was a bigger, better army.

[119] They had the Air Force, they had the Maginot Line, and of course that's not even considering the British Air Force and the British Navy.

[120] So this wouldn't work and they had to explain it to them.

[121] Now, Ciano, the Italian foreign minister and son -in -law of Mussolini, met with Hitler on October 1st, and he probably came closest to guessing Hitler's thinking.

[122] His hatred for the Germans now probably gave him some kind of clarity.

[123] And he figured out, and he wrote in his diary, that Hitler would certainly enjoy the idea of giving his country peace after this very successful war.

[124] But he thought if he could get away with anything, if there was something that was due to him, he would certainly be going for it.

[125] Now, to confuse his enemies even more, Hitler spoke in the Reichstag on October 6, and again he was pushing for peace.

[126] And it was a speech that everybody had heard many times before.

[127] There was sincerity in his voice.

[128] There was concern for the masses of men who would suffer in the fighting.

[129] It's just that the speech was so generic, you could have taken the places that he'd conquered so far, put them in the speech, and it would have fit just fine.

[130] And then he suggested a grand council of great nations to get together to solve all these problems.

[131] He hoped the West would not ignore his outstretched hand of peace.

[132] He then warned Churchill that there would not be another November 1918 in German history.

[133] Hitler was more confident than he should have been when he gave this speech because he had heard from Chiano, the Italian foreign minister, that the French government was struggling about what to do as far as helping Poland.

[134] And word got back to Berlin that Marshal Pétain was leading the side in France talking about peace with Germany at almost any price.

[135] And of course Hitler will remember this name for the future.

[136] And so trying to turn this French uncertainty to his advantage, Hitler talked of arms reduction.

[137] But the French Premier Deladier was vague in saying no. But honestly, Hitler really wanted to hear from Chamberlain.

[138] And Chamberlain was still resolute.

[139] He replied on October the 12th saying, we need action, not words.

[140] Prove your desire for peace.

[141] So Hitler had his excuse.

[142] Chamberlain was not willing to accept the remake of Europe the way it was.

[143] And so obviously Chamberlain wanted war.

[144] So Hitler would give it to him, which is what he really wanted to do anyway.

[145] To prove this, on October 10, two days before Chamberlain replied, Hitler had called together his military chiefs and gave them Directive No. 6 for the conduct of the war.

[146] Now, the German high command had been anxious since September 25th, when Hitler first mentioned attacking in the West as soon as possible.

[147] They even put a report together, giving it to Hitler on October 7th, saying, the tanks aren't ready, we don't have enough steel, we don't have enough ammunition, and of course Hitler dismissed all that.

[148] So on October 10th, when he pulled everybody together at 11 a .m., he said, you're not here for your advice.

[149] If Britain and France do not want peace, then I will act aggressively.

[150] He wanted to see plans to attack through Luxembourg, Belgium, and Holland, and he wanted to attack as soon as possible.

[151] He wanted the plan to go through northern France and the Low Countries and smash the French army.

[152] He wanted to use the area in northern France and the Low Countries as air bases to bomb Britain and hopefully bring them to the peace table.

[153] And it was an incredible document that he had written for this day.

[154] It talked about the new way of fighting, and it had an interesting way of looking at history through the German point of view.

[155] But mostly he was trying to shake the generals out of their way of thinking.

[156] As far as everybody knew, you put your troops in the front, you put your cannon in the back, you put your horses on your flanks.

[157] So tanks come along, will you just switch out the horses for the tanks?

[158] But he's saying, no, think totally differently.

[159] Let's put the planes and let's put the tanks in front, have them fight.

[160] have them be the tips of the spear.

[161] They push through and then the men can come behind that and they can occupy and keep the tanks going.

[162] So he had this new way, this new vision of fighting and he's trying to explain it to the generals and to fire them up.

[163] And he said it was time to settle with the West, France in particular, once and for all.

[164] Time was only on the enemy's side, not theirs.

[165] Germany had done well so far because they only had one front to fight.

[166] Russia wouldn't always be neutral.

[167] How long will Russia stay within its treaty?

[168] Who knows?

[169] So Germany has to be ready.

[170] Germany only had so much material, and he decided it was better to use it now offensively than defensively later.

[171] That is the recipe for defeat as far as he's concerned.

[172] And he kept stressing to the generals to think outside the box, improvise, don't think like World War I, those days are over.

[173] And for Hitler, the attack could not come soon enough.

[174] Now, for the German Navy, again, the situation was the opposite.

[175] As mentioned earlier, Hitler was putting the brakes on the Navy, trying to bring Britain to the peace table.

[176] But this was only gradually done.

[177] On September 17th, the German U -boat had torpedoed the British aircraft carrier, Courageous, off the southwest coast of Ireland.

[178] And on September 27th, Admiral Rader had ordered the pocket battleships, there were three of them, to go back to action stations and start attacking.

[179] So by the middle of October, they had...

[180] sunk seven British merchantmen and captured the American ship City of Flint.

[181] But most amazingly, was a U -boat...

[182] U -47 had gone all the way up the eastern side of Great Britain and had gone up to Scotland.

[183] And there's some islands right north of Scotland, the mainland.

[184] And there's a big naval base there called Scapa Flow.

[185] And they had gone up there and torpedoed and sank the British battleship Royal Oak.

[186] So the battleship and 786 men were lost.

[187] And Hitler, who was never much of a person for naval warfare, a lot like Napoleon, was impressed.

[188] But the German generals are still giving Hitler problems.

[189] They stall in their planning to attack the West, but Hitler will not listen to them.

[190] Besides General Wilhelm Ritter von Lieb, there's no moral obstructions in their way, just logistics.

[191] But for Lieb, he can only cringe when he thinks about Germany attacking the completely neutral country of Belgium twice in 25 years.

[192] So Generals Halder, who's the chief of army staff, and Brodich, the commander -in -chief, kept working on Hitler to make him try to see the logistical reality of the situation.

[193] Holder mentions removing Hitler, but Brodich decides that it goes too far, and he is the superior officer.

[194] So Halter tries again with Hitler on October 17th, and he gets nowhere.

[195] And Hitler's losing what little respect he has for his generals.

[196] So Hitler decides to take a new tact.

[197] On October 27th, Hitler awards 14 generals the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, hoping that will inspire them and fire them up.

[198] But then he lays down his law.

[199] The attack on the West will start on November 12th, period.

[200] No more discussion.

[201] So the generals now have the choice of either planning the attack like he tells them to, or to remove him.

[202] Now, for all of the swagger, confidence, and ability that one thinks of when they picture these great German generals, or at least that's what I imagine, Their ability to see their own weakness or to over -assess their rival strength, Hitler in this case, was amazing.

[203] Some of them, and their political naivety as well, some of them had thought that if they brought down Hitler, Britain and France would attack right away.

[204] But again, with what?

[205] Britain only had four divisions on the continent, and France wasn't even close to thinking offensively.

[206] So the generals kept focusing on keeping their contact with London.

[207] So if Hitler is taken down by one of their little league, London would know that the good guys are now running the war against them, whatever that means.

[208] But contact was kept going through the Vatican and through an English professor at the University of Königsberg.

[209] Now, the German generals have enough political savvy to know that if there's going to be a coup d 'etat, it has to happen before the low countries are attacked.

[210] You can't attack more innocent countries and then ask for peace.

[211] It just doesn't work that way.

[212] And the attack date of November 12th is coming fast.

[213] But generals Halder and Braulich keep passing the buck, and very little happens.

[214] Honestly, most of the blame should go for Braulich.

[215] He's the superior officer.

[216] And again, most of the army hierarchy are still at Zozin, you know, conducting the war against Polk.

[217] or at least the winding down of the war.

[218] And finally, the conspiratorial activity is starting to heat up.

[219] And someone sets, probably Halter, sets the date of November 5th as the date for a showdown with Hitler.

[220] Now...

[221] November 5th was the day that the troops were to move to their jump -off point in attacking the West.

[222] And the plan was for Bratich to go to Hitler and try one more time to talk him out of it.

[223] And if that doesn't work, then Bratich will join the conspiracy, which is now being headed by Halder, the Army's number two man. So Bratich talks to Hitler.

[224] He's got his reports.

[225] We're not ready.

[226] He's got his weather reports.

[227] You know, it's still winter.

[228] He's got the view from the front -line commanders, but nothing will impress Hitler.

[229] Finally, out of desperation, And, of course, Hitler totally freaks at this.

[230] And, you know, we're all sitting here in 2011.

[231] Safe for us to say, I'm not afraid of Hitler.

[232] But I imagine being in a room with Hitler when he totally loses is a very impressive sight.

[233] Hitler totally freaks and he starts screaming at Braulich.

[234] And, you know, he's getting his full wrath.

[235] And Hitler's asking, you know, a mutiny.

[236] Is anything being done?

[237] Which units?

[238] Where are they?

[239] How's it been dealt with?

[240] How many death sentences have been passed out?

[241] I will fly there tomorrow.

[242] I will handle everything myself.

[243] And he's just freaking out.

[244] And Braulich just, you know, he just lit a powder cake he wasn't ready for.

[245] He just kind of walks away from Hitler.

[246] The conversation is over.

[247] So the Zosen conspiracy, as it was called, was over.

[248] There was a little more talk, and Colonel Oster at least kept his head enough to warn Belgium and the Dutch legations in Berlin to expect attack on November 12th.

[249] He's hoping if they meet stiff resistance, Hitler will back down and start to talk peace, or at least negotiate.

[250] But then on November 7th, Hitler postpones the attack.

[251] And this would turn out to be the first of 14 postponements.

[252] Each time Hitler mentions the weather or the rail situation, but it's generally believed now that Hitler was finally hearing his generals, who should know what they're talking about, and he wanted to give the military more time to be ready.

[253] Also, the King of Belgium and the Queen of Netherlands were talking about peace and negotiations.

[254] And of course, this makes it hard for Hitler to attack when his next victims are talking about peaceful settlements through negotiations.

[255] But then two events happen that distracts everyone.

[256] And for one of those events, that was probably the point.

[257] On November 8th, Hitler had just finished a relatively short speech to the old guard at the Berger Brackeller in Munich to commemorate the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch.

[258] Normally, he could be counted on to talk for a very long time and then sit around and reminisce for a while with a beer in his hand.

[259] But this time, Hitler gave a short speech, said goodbye and left, and he took his minions with him.

[260] Minutes later, a bomb exploded, located right behind the speaker's platform.

[261] Seven people died and 63 were wounded.

[262] The next day, Hitler's newspaper blamed the British Secret Service and Chamberlain for the deed.

[263] The more cynical foreign press believed that Hitler was trying to raise hatred against Britain for a future war that Hitler was planning against that country.

[264] But Hitler and Dr. Goebbels need proof besides the volume that they're using in accusing the British.

[265] So a month before, an SS officer, Walter Schellenberg, has been in contact with two British Secret Service agents, Captain Best and Major Stevens, who've been trying to contact anti -Nazi elements within Germany.

[266] The SS tricked the two Secret Service men into a meeting and kidnapped them near the German -Dutch border on November 9th.

[267] So on November 21st, Himmler announces to the world that the assassination plot against Hitler has been solved, and it was the British.

[268] He also mentioned that the actual planner of the bomb was a German communist carpenter from Munich, George Elser.

[269] Welcome to True Spies.

[270] The podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.

[271] Suddenly out of the dark it's appeared in love.

[272] You'll meet the people who live life undercover.

[273] What do they know?

[274] What are their skills?

[275] And what would you do in their position?

[276] Vengeance felt good.

[277] Seeing these people pay for what they'd done felt righteous.

[278] True Spies from Spyscape Studios.

[279] Wherever you get your podcasts.

[280] Now, the complete truth about the bomb will never be found out, but Elser and the two British Secret Service agents had not met before.

[281] the explosion, but they were all sent to Saxon housing concentration camp.

[282] Later, Elser admitted that someone had come up to him, asked him to build the cabinet that can hold the bomb, promised him money, and a safe passage to Switzerland.

[283] So he does what he's asked, he gets paid, but then after the explosion goes off, he's arrested by the SS and he's held.

[284] Obviously, he was just a patsy.

[285] And of course, there never was a trial, and at the express order of Hitler, George Elser is treated relatively well in the concentration camp, but of course he's killed by the Gestapo on April 16, 1945, as the Allied troops are coming towards Sachsenhausen.

[286] So with the generals cowed and the assassination temp behind him, it's time for Hitler to think about attacking the West again.

[287] His delays earlier were only that, delays.

[288] At no time did he consider peace, negotiations, or even another Munich for territorial demands.

[289] So he summons the commanding generals and the general staff officers to the chancellery at noon on November 23rd for pep talk.

[290] He started with the fact that he was the leader and he was irreplaceable.

[291] Therefore, the tough decisions were on him.

[292] Everyone else had to just do what they were told.

[293] Let him worry and stress about the big decisions.

[294] And he claims that he made the armed forces to fight.

[295] That was always the goal.

[296] The weak must move aside and the strong must rule.

[297] That is the way of things.

[298] He goes on to say that a defeat for Germany can only come from a two -front war, and his genius has kept Germany from that.

[299] But how long will Russia be neutral?

[300] Only as long as it serves them, and he knows that.

[301] So for now, we have a treaty with Russia, and it will be occupied with its sphere of influence, the Baltic countries.

[302] But after that, who knows?

[303] And of course, it's not November 30th yet, so Finland has not been attacked.

[304] And also, he says, Italy is all dependent on Il Duce.

[305] If he goes, we will lose Italy.

[306] So Hitler finishes up with, Make no mistake, I will attack the West as soon as I can when it's most favorable.

[307] No one will ask us about Belgium and Holland when we win.

[308] Defeating the West will be the end of war.

[309] Think of all the great men in German history, including myself, and be inspired by that.

[310] I will always fight and I will never stop.

[311] I want to annihilate the enemy.

[312] So later that day, about 6 p .m., Hitler calls Braulich and Halder to his office.

[313] And he talks to them separately because he doesn't want them ganging up on him.

[314] And he accuses them both of letting the army high command be overrun with defeatism and its stiff -necked attitude, keeping it from obeying the Fuhrer.

[315] So Braulich offers his resignation as a good officer should.

[316] Hitler refuses that, and he says, just do your duty.

[317] And it's safe to say that...

[318] On November 23, 1939, was the day that Hitler completely had victory over the army.

[319] They were now cowed, and he would only listen to himself in matters military and political.

[320] The threat from the generals in stopping Hitler from invading the West was over.

[321] He had included them in his speech when he said all his enemies would fall.

[322] poland's nightmare had only begun on september first nineteen thirty nine hitler had warned his generals as early as august twenty second that things would happen in poland that would not be to their taste it would be best for them not to think on it and focus on their military duties And for now, I will be very general and vague when it comes to the atrocities.

[323] Later on, when I cover the Holocaust in detail, I'll change the rating to explicit or something so you'll know what to expect and not listen to the podcast while you're having lunch or something.

[324] The army wanted nothing to do with any of this, but they had to go along with it to some degree or they would have ended up with an SS man in each unit, kind of like a Russian commissar, to make sure that they all obeyed the Fuhrer.

[325] So while it's true that most of the atrocities were carried out by the SS and the Gestapo, the German army in general does get a lot of blame.

[326] So now that Poland is occupied, the first step was to gather the people in what's loosely called cities, so they could be watched easier.

[327] They were all forced from their homes and gathered together, and the Germans who were fleeing the Baltic countries that now belongs to the Russians, as far as the secret protocol goes, they move into their homes with the people who are pushed out and sent to different locations.

[328] Hitler forced them to leave the Baltic areas because he knew what Stalin would do once he attacked Russia.

[329] The next step was to take the potential leaders of any Polish resistance, the intelligentsia, the clergy, the nobility, along with the Polish Jews, and wipe them out.

[330] They would literally be killed in groups by the most efficient, cheapest means possible.

[331] You know, war does cost money.

[332] But many of the SS brutes would enjoy themselves before they killed their victims.

[333] Now, all General Holder could do was to ask for the SS to wait until the army leaders had left Poland.

[334] For now, there were too many eyes on Poland, but some of the atrocities had already started.

[335] For now, it was mostly gathering and relocating the Poles.

[336] And the man named Governor General of the area that was going to be called General Government of Poland was Hans Frank.

[337] He was an intellectual Nazi gangster.

[338] He was a lawyer, and he joined the party in 1927.

[339] He was successful, loved life, devoted to the arts and music.

[340] Only later, after the war, he was found to be one of the most efficient, bloodthirsty killers the Nazis ever had.

[341] Leaving nothing to chance, even this evil enterprise was organized.

[342] Hitler had Himmler and Heydrich in charge of killing the Jews.

[343] Hans Frank was to squeeze as much labor out of the Poles before they died and to focus on the second step, killing the intelligentsia.

[344] The plan was called the Extraordinary Pacification Action, or AB Plan.

[345] It took him a while to get going.

[346] and to get everything organized, but when everyone's attention is in the West because of the war, Hans Frank will devote himself to his task.

[347] So within the first year, 1 .2 million Poles and 300 ,000 Jews have been pushed to the territory of the general government east of the Vistula River.

[348] Clearly, these incredible numbers needed organization.

[349] On February 21, 1940, Richard...

[350] Glücks, the head of the concentration camp inspectorate, found a suitable site for a new quarantine camp.

[351] It was to be located at a marshy town called Auschwitz.

[352] There were some buildings and some factories, and it had to be built up, but it was ready and opened on June 14th.

[353] Now, this wasn't an ordinary camp.

[354] It wasn't a concentration camp.

[355] It was an extermination camp.

[356] And to make it more gruesome, someone, probably Krupp, who's in charge of the armaments family, came up with the idea of If you're going to kill them, you might as well work them to death and get something out of it.

[357] So IG Farben, the German chemical trust, would build a plant and use the cheap free labor for their synthetic coal oil and rubber.

[358] And especially cruel SS men were handpicked to run this place.

[359] So during all this, there's friction building up between Mussolini and Hitler.

[360] First of all, the German people are not leaving the Italian South Tyrol area like Hitler had promised, and Germany wasn't delivering on its promised material of a million tons of coal a month.

[361] Italy's trade with Britain and France was growing, and that was mostly due to Ciano, who still hated Germany.

[362] So Mussolini sat down and he tried to write a letter to Hitler expressing his thanks that Hitler had survived the bomb blast, but he couldn't quite get the tone right.

[363] He was happy, but not too happy.

[364] And Mussolini was grumpy about Hitler's success in Poland.

[365] As far as Poland was concerned, it was like Hitler walked up to the plate and on the first pitch swung and hit it out of the park.

[366] Well, Mussolini had struggled in Ethiopia and he had to cheat and use poison gas.

[367] And when he took Albania, the people there really didn't resist.

[368] So it wasn't as impressive as what Hitler did in Poland.

[369] Now, Mussolini had Shanna warn the low countries of pending war.

[370] But, of course, Germany had intercepted and deciphered their messages, so Hitler knows what he's dealing with, but he's still trying to keep Mussolini happy.

[371] But the main point of friction between them was Germany supporting Russia as it attacked Finland, and we'll go into the details of that at the end of this podcast.

[372] Hitler didn't like that Finland was attacked by Russia either, but it was, again, the price he paid for neutral Russia so he could have Poland.

[373] The war in general and Hitler's public support of it...

[374] was very unpopular in Germany, but he's a dictator, he can do what he wants.

[375] So the Germans who had fled the Baltic area when Hitler ordered them to had been living there for generations and it really upset a lot of the German people.

[376] And Hitler had promised himself that Russia, and Stalin in particular, would pay for this latest insult.

[377] But for Mussolini it was still worse.

[378] He had to suffer through the anti -German marches going on throughout Italy.

[379] What was he supposed to do, arrest everyone?

[380] So on January 3, 1940, he had written his, you know, I'm glad you're still alive letter.

[381] And he writes another letter January 3.

[382] And this is his most frank letter to Hitler.

[383] It will also be his last frank letter to Hitler.

[384] Because once war starts in the West and Hitler starts winning and it looks like he can't lose, Mussolini will forget all the past stuff and join him enthusiastically.

[385] Because that's who Mussolini is.

[386] And in the letter he says, the British, and the French.

[387] The U .S. would not allow the democracies to go down.

[388] It was still possible to have peace.

[389] All you have to do is set up a puppet government in Poland.

[390] It can be fake, it can be insincere, but at least give them something.

[391] Of course, unless what you really want is war, then you should just tell me so I'll know what I'm dealing with.

[392] And Mussolini pointed out that Russia was doing very well.

[393] under the Russo -German agreements, and of course he was very jealous.

[394] And the Italian -German relations were crumbling because the Russo -German relations were rising.

[395] But what Mussolini didn't know was that Stalin was doing his own appeasing of Hitler.

[396] Russia was making it possible for Germany to get badly raw materials for its war effort.

[397] They were coming through the Pacific all the way across Russia to Europe.

[398] by rail, and Russia was even paying for the freight charges.

[399] And German ships and U -boats were allowed to refit at Tereberka, which is an isolated Russian port.

[400] So Stalin's being pretty rough with Hitler, but he's also giving him some things to keep him happy as well.

[401] But Mussolini doesn't know any of this.

[402] So Russia is sending Germany grain and oil on a massive scale.

[403] but Germany is giving them machine tools to manufacture munitions.

[404] Of course, this will come back to haunt them later.

[405] As always, the Russians, because they're such tough negotiators, seem to be getting more than they give.

[406] In fact, Stalin himself takes part in some of the negotiations and again demonstrates to the Germans of his ability to know every little detail while still keeping an eye on the big picture.

[407] And the Germans constantly try to get stuff by him, but it doesn't work.

[408] Now the oil and the foodstuff Germany is getting from Russia is consumed very quickly.

[409] So Germany was paying for these items with battlecruisers, heavy naval guns, and the latest German warplanes, including the Messerschmitt fighters 109 and 110, as well as the Junkers 88 dive bombers that Germany had used in Poland to great effect.

[410] But even though all of this was financially crippling for Germany, it was still not as valuable as giving Hitler a one -front war, which was so important to him, so he could destroy the West.

[411] That was priceless.

[412] Hitler's revenge on Russia would have to wait.

[413] So Germany's war with the West is a very strange one that winter.

[414] There's no land battles.

[415] There's only naval engagements, and the planes are only dropping leaflets.

[416] There were some British casualties, but that was coming from the blackouts in London and other cities.

[417] They were painting out all the reflective signs on the roads, and so there were tons of car accidents and hundreds and possibly thousands of people were being killed.

[418] and the people who were in charge of the blackouts, who were going around making everybody turn off their lights, were hated pretty much as much as Hitler was.

[419] And at first, London, when the war was declared, London had closed down all the movies and the shows, and they saw that nothing was happening, and they slowly started to reopen them.

[420] And the men didn't rush to be enlisted in the army like they had in World War I. They waited to be called up.

[421] It was all very organized, all very calm, all very English.

[422] Of course, I meant to say British.

[423] So again, the conflict between Germany and Great Britain was limited to naval action.

[424] The Graf Spee in the South Atlantic had sunk nine British cargo vessels in three months.

[425] And two weeks before the first Christmas of the war, German newspapers proclaimed that the Graf Spee had engaged three British cruisers off the coast of Uruguay and put them out of action.

[426] But then strangely, the newspapers in Germany said that on December 21st, the Graf Spee had scuttled herself and that Captain Longsdorf had gone down with his ship.

[427] What the German people didn't know was that the damage that the Graf Spee had taken when he had fought the three British cruisers.

[428] They had gone into the Uruguayan Point.

[429] port for 72 hours as law dictated, but then they were told to leave.

[430] And the British had bluffed through agents in the port and in the city that there were large battleships waiting to destroy the Grausch B when it came out.

[431] So it comes out of the port, gets permission from Berlin, the men offload, and it blows itself up.

[432] And of course, this is a much needed victory for the British people.

[433] So Churchill had two of the three ships that had engaged the Grausch B come home for a parade.

[434] who are here executed takes its place in our naval annals and i may add that in a dark cold winter it warmed the cockles of the british heart So on December 12th, Hitler again postponed the attack on the West.

[435] The earliest it could possibly happen, he said, was January 1st, 1940.

[436] And again, this was not a question.

[437] It was only a matter of when.

[438] So once again, the plotters have to make plans, but none of it comes to fruition.

[439] The plan this time...

[440] was to have several divisions when they were traveling from west to east stop near Berlin.

[441] Then Witzleben would come to Berlin, disband the SS hierarchy, and General Beck would go to Zozin and take command from Braulich, who wasn't up to the task, and Hitler would be taken into custody.

[442] The war would continue with a more Christian morality, but they would be open to peace.

[443] But once again, for whatever reason, These great men of organizational skills and daring that most armed forces in the world would kill for were unable to bring it all together.

[444] But they did seem to catch a break when Hitler again delayed the attack for the West.

[445] On January 10, 1940, the date for the attack was set for January 17 at 8 .16 a .m. And this second event that stopped Hitler's hand from invading the West would delay the war much longer.

[446] Again, he blamed the weather, but we now know that it was due to human error.

[447] On January 10th, a plane carrying the attack plans, including detailed maps against France and the Low Countries, got lost in the clouds over Belgium and was forced to land.

[448] A Major Helmut Ringberger, a Luftwaffe staff officer, got out and started a fire to destroy the documents in his leather briefcase.

[449] But some Belgian soldiers nearby stopped him before he could burn everything.

[450] So he runs to the German embassy in Brussels, and he reports what happened, but claimed all the documents had been destroyed.

[451] But on January 17th, the Belgian foreign minister, Paul -Henri Spack, told the German ambassador about the plane, the pilot, and the surviving war plans.

[452] He then mentioned that the British and the French were given copies.

[453] He finished by saying that the Belgian and Dutch armies were mobilizing.

[454] Of course, the Germans could not know if the documents were totally destroyed or not, but Hitler, just to be safe, ordered General Halder to stop all troop movements getting ready for the attack.

[455] So between this and the weather, the attack against the West was postponed until spring.

[456] But in its place, a plan evolved to attack and occupy two other countries to the north.

[457] The Thony War, or Sitzkrieg, at least for Germany, was coming to an end.

[458] Military Movements of the Russo -Finish War Now, technically speaking, this podcast ends the middle of January 1940, but I wanted to go ahead and cover the Russo -Finish War, which goes from November 30, 1939, to March 13, 1940, just to kind of get it out of the way, because the events that lead to Hitler invading Norway because of dealing with Churchill start earlier, so I just want to get the world away so I can focus on that for the next episode.

[459] So the Russo -Finnish War, or it's called the Winter War, began with the Soviet offensive on November 30, 1939, and it's going to go until March 13, 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty.

[460] Now, the Soviet forces had about three times as many forces as the Finns.

[461] They had about 30 times as many aircraft and 100 times as many tanks as the Finnish had.

[462] However, the Red Army, or the Soviet Army, was crippled by the great purge that Stalin had started in 1937 and it went into 1938.

[463] And he had more than 30 ,000 of the officers executed or imprisoned.

[464] And so by the time you get to the war in November of 1939, a lot of these senior officers are inexperienced.

[465] And you take this and you combine it with the Finnish morale, which was very high because they were defending their homeland.

[466] And it caused the war to go on a lot longer than what Stalin had predicted or had hoped for.

[467] And there was a lot more Soviet casualties.

[468] And there's other consequences as well, and we'll get to that near the end.

[469] So the Soviet losses on the front were very heavy, and also their international reputation suffered as well.

[470] And of course the Soviets did not accomplish their objective, which was to totally take over Finland.

[471] They fought the war, and then they had to settle for a peace treaty.

[472] And of course we'll get to the details at the end of that.

[473] Now, to cover some of the backstory, in 1932, the Soviet Union had signed a non -aggression pact with Finland, and that was reaffirmed for a 10 -year period in 1934.

[474] However, the relations between the two countries was always tense.

[475] It was always strained.

[476] And in 1934, the Soviet Union officially joined the League of Nations.

[477] In 1937 and 1938, when Stalin was getting absolute power through the great purges that he had going on, he was basically eliminating everyone who was in his way, either literally or just in his imagination.

[478] He also had the power to change the foreign policy of the Soviet Union regarding Finland.

[479] So now that Stalin is firmly in charge of everything, he starts a policy of regaining old territory that was lost to the Soviet Union at the end of World War I for them and when they started their Russian Civil War.

[480] Stalin had realized that the large areas around their city gave them a certain amount of security, and they wanted their newly christened city of Leningrad to enjoy that kind of security, so he wanted to expand the borders to keep Russian territory as far away from Germany as he possibly could.

[481] So in April 1938, an agent representing Stalin, Boris Yartsev, contacts the Finnish foreign minister and the prime minister.

[482] And he lets them know that the Soviet Union does not trust the new Germany and that war between the two is certainly possible.

[483] But the Red Army wasn't going to wait around, but rather wanted to advance to meet the enemy.

[484] Of course, the immediate Finnish response to this is declaring their neutrality, and they don't want to be involved on either side.

[485] They want nothing to do with it.

[486] So Yardsev suggests to the Finland representatives for them to cede or to lease some land or some islands off of the Gulf of Finland to the Soviet Union to maybe use as military bases, naval bases, air force bases, that kind of thing, so they can be ready to fight Germany if Germany ever tries anything.

[487] Of course, Finland refuses this.

[488] So the negotiations continue on through 1938 without results, which is obvious because Finland has no desire to cede anything or to lease anything to the Soviet Union.

[489] They don't trust them or Germany.

[490] But in August of 1939, when the Molotov -Ribbentrop pact is signed, The Baltic countries, as well as Finland, don't realize that they fall within the Soviet sphere of influence.

[491] So the Baltic states are later forced to accept treaties allowing the Soviets to establish military bases and to station troops on their soil.

[492] So the governments of Estonia accept the ultimatum, and they sign in September of 1939.

[493] And then the government of Latvia and Lithuania follow in October.

[494] But unlike the Baltic stakes, Finland, they just said no and they started a gradual mobilization.

[495] They were going to get ready.

[496] So it's late November 1939, and Stalin is now ready.

[497] He's got the Baltic countries lined up, and now he's ready to focus on Finland.

[498] So there's a border incident reported near a village near the Finnish -Russo border, and a Soviet border guard post has been shelled by an unknown party, resulting in several Soviet deaths.

[499] Now later on there's going to be research conducted by the Finnish and Russian historians.

[500] And they're going to conclude that the shelling came from the Russian side, from the Soviet side.

[501] But, of course, this was going to give the Soviet Union the short -term cause that it needed for the war with Finland, much like when the Germans pretend to attack their own radio station on the Polish border.

[502] So Foreign Minister Molotov for the Soviet Union claims that it was a Finnish artillery attack, and he demanded that Finland apologize for the incident and to move their forces back about 25 kilometers away from the border.

[503] Finland denied responsibility for the attack, rejected the demands, and called for a joint Finnish -Soviet commission to examine the incident, which will happen but not soon enough.

[504] The Soviet Union then claimed that the Finnish response was hostile and renounced the non -aggression pact on November 1st.

[505] 28th.

[506] So on November 30th, two days later, the Soviet forces invade Finland with 21 divisions, totaling some 450 ,000 men, and they bomb Helsinki, the capital, on the first day of the war.

[507] And of course, the attack is without a formal declaration of war from the Soviet Union.

[508] So for the Finnish, there was a General Mannerheim who had tried to take control of Finland years before, and he was appointed Commander -in -Chief of the Finnish Defense Forces.

[509] So the League of Nations, tired of being pushed around by Germany and by Italy years before, decide to take action and they expel the Soviet Union from the League of Nations on December 14, 1939.

[510] And they exhort their members to aid Finland in any way possible.

[511] Now at the beginning of the war, total victory is expected over Finland within a few weeks, just like what Germany did to Poland.

[512] But of course the Russian army is going to find out that the...

[513] The flat, calm plains of Poland are nothing like the forest of Finland.

[514] So as the war gets underway, Solland's about to find out what his purges have cost him.

[515] Just to give you an idea, three of the five marshals in the entire army were killed.

[516] 220 out of the 264 division level commanders or higher were killed.

[517] And 36 ,000, almost 37 ,000 officers of all ranks were killed as well.

[518] And, of course, all of those are replaced by men who are less competent but more politically loyal.

[519] So the Soviet generals had been impressed, just like everyone else, with the German blitzkrieg tactics in Poland.

[520] However, the blitzkrieg was tailored for Central Europe.

[521] You know, you have your nice, flat plains.

[522] You've got either that or you've got your well -organized roads and cities.

[523] You've got your easily recognizable supply lines and communication centers.

[524] All of that, which doesn't work in Finland at all.

[525] For one thing, the Finnish army centers are deeper inside their own country.

[526] There's no paved roads for the Russians to go on.

[527] They don't even have dirt roads.

[528] And most of the terrain is trackless.

[529] It's nothing but forests and swamps.

[530] So waging Blitzkrieg in Finland was going to be a very difficult proposition for the Russians.

[531] And, of course, the Russians could have overcome some of this by having well -coordinated tactical communication with each other, and they didn't have that, and they certainly didn't have local initiative on the ground.

[532] So this is going to be a very difficult proposition for the Russians.

[533] to be a very tough time for them.

[534] Now, there'll be maps of Finland on the podcast and on the website.

[535] But if you picture Finland, it's up there, you know, between Norway and Russia.

[536] And it's kind of like California, as in it's long as opposed to a box, you know, or something like that.

[537] And so to the west of Finland, you have Sweden, which the Russian forces are going to try very hard not to enter.

[538] They didn't want any trouble with them.

[539] And, of course, to the south is the Gulf of Finland.

[540] And to the east is pretty much Russia.

[541] The two touch along the entire...

[542] border.

[543] Now, the most important geographical feature of the Finnish -Russo border is Lake Lagoda, and it's on the eastern side on the lower half of the border.

[544] Now, the lake is so large, this is pretty much going to dictate where the fighting takes place.

[545] Most of it's going to be south of the lake, where you're going to have the main defensive line of the Finnish forces, and then you're going to have some other fighting, not as much, north of the lake.

[546] So the Soviet plan is to send nine divisions south of the lake right into the Finnish defensive line, the Mannerheim line, push past it, and then turn south -southwest and head towards Helsinki, the capital, and that's how they were going to finish the war.

[547] So the Russians have nine divisions heading there, and they have a lot of tanks.

[548] Now opposing them was the army of the Isthmus for the Finns, and they had only six divisions and practically no tanks at all.

[549] Again, for the Russians, they had six divisions and some tanks north of the lake, and they were being opposed by two divisions from the Fenn.

[550] Now, their job was to swing around the lake, head south, and get behind the Mannerheim line to help the nine divisions coming straight at them south of the lake.

[551] And also for the Russians, they had the 9th Army, north of these forces, that were comprised of three divisions, and another division was on its way, and their job was to cut right across Finland and cut it in half.

[552] And up in the very north was the Russian 14th Army, which had three divisions, and they were based in Murmansk, and their job was to capture the Finnish Arctic port of Petsamo.

[553] And opposing the Russians was the North Finland Group, which is pretty much a collection of civic guards, border guards, and drafted reservists.

[554] So the Finnish defensive strategy, much like the Russian offensive strategy, was dictated by geography.

[555] They shared a very long border with each other, and there's just no good way to defend against something like that.

[556] And if you have the numbers, and the Soviet Union clearly does, that's pretty much all they have, you're going to win this war or at the very least be able to cause a lot of damage.

[557] So every prediction that the Finnish general staff made about where the Russians would attack or with how many men they would attack, the Russians always had a lot more men than...

[558] what they expected, and the Finns just didn't know how to deal with that.

[559] But an even greater problem for the Finns was the lack of material.

[560] Foreign shipments of anti -tank weapons and aircraft were arriving in very small quantities from other countries.

[561] And of course, the worst thing was the ammunition situation for the Finns.

[562] Their stockpiles of cartridges, shells, and fuels were so small that they predicted it would only last somewhere between 19 and 60 days.

[563] And of course, this ammunition shortage meant that the Finns could not offer any kind of counterbalance.

[564] battery or saturation fire.

[565] In fact, what they'd have to do is wait for the Russians to get very close and then shoot at them and not miss. Now, the main Finnish defensive line, which became known as the Mannerheim Line, because of the general who was leading it, was located on the Karelian Isthmus, which, of course, was where the Russians needed to get through in order to get to Helsinki, the capital.

[566] So when the war starts out, the Russians attack with about 250 ,000 men, and they're facing about 130 ,000 Finns.

[567] Now, the Finns had put out a covering force in front of the Mannerheim Line, about 21 ,000 men strong, and their job was to delay...

[568] the advancing Russians and to see what kind of trouble or damage they could cause before the Russians reached the main defensive line.

[569] So as the combat begins, for the Finnish, the most frustrating things are the Soviet tanks.

[570] Not only do the Finns not have their own tanks, but they don't have anti -tank weapons, and they certainly don't have any anti -tank tactics, but they adapt quickly.

[571] Fortunately for them, the Soviet armor tactic was pretty much just a frontal charge, which, you know, without being guarded by riflemen, this could be exploited.

[572] So the Finns learned to let the tanks get very close to them, and, you know, a tank is a very powerful thing, but it only has so many...

[573] holes to see out of, and if there's no riflemen guarding it, you can eventually sneak up on a tank.

[574] And what they would do is they would get close, and they would jam log or crowbars into the bogey wheels of the tank so it would be immobile.

[575] So you're in a tank, but you're not going anywhere.

[576] It's cold.

[577] You have to keep the engine running to stay warm.

[578] You're going to run out of gas, and you're just sitting there, and there's nothing you can do, and you can be darn sure that when you stick your head out of the tank, you're going to get shot up by some fins.

[579] So they were able to do that.

[580] Another tech that they came up with was the Molotov cocktail, and of course that was named after the foreign minister Molotov, which pretty much everyone knows what that is.

[581] It's a bottle with flammable liquid in it, some kind of cloth or fuse sticking out of the top.

[582] You light it and you throw it, and they were able to sneak up on the tanks and throw it inside the holes, and they would literally burn the inside of the tanks with the men inside.

[583] So keep in mind that the war started on November 30th, and by December the 6th, one week into it, the covering force in front of the Mannerheim line has to pull back.

[584] So at the Battle of Taipail...

[585] which is about to commence when they attack the main line, the Soviets start off with a 40 -hour artillery barrage.

[586] They just bomb everything they think they can possibly see or get a hold of.

[587] And after the barrage, the Soviet infantry attacks.

[588] And again, because they have inexperienced leaders, they haven't learned anything, they just rush helllong out of the defensive lines in whatever open fields that there are.

[589] And it's much like World War I, and they just mow down by the Finnish guns.

[590] So from December 6th to December 12th, the Red Army just continues.

[591] one wave after the other towards the Finnish defensive position, and they're just wiped out.

[592] So finally the army stops.

[593] They gather some more artillery, get some more tanks, and they also bring in the 10th Russian Rifle Division to help.

[594] So they launch another attack on December 14th.

[595] But again, this is pushed back.

[596] And just to give you an idea how bloody it was, and of course they haven't learned anything, they're just throwing more men into the situation.

[597] After about an hour's worth of fighting, there's 1 ,000 dead Russians laying in the field.

[598] with about 27 tanks destroyed or burned from the inside out just sitting there on the frozen ice.

[599] So far south of the lake, the cover force has been pushed back to the main defensive line.

[600] The Russians are attacking the main defensive line, but so far they haven't broken through.

[601] Now north of the lake, there are no roads.

[602] It's literally just nothing but forest and wilderness, but the Russians extend a railroad going right up to the border, so they're able to get a lot of troops and supplies to that front.

[603] And on December 12th, the Soviet 139th Rifle Division launches its attack, and it's pretty much cut to pieces by a very mobile, hard and swift -hitting Finnish force that's much smaller.

[604] And this turns out to be the first Finnish victory of the war.

[605] So you have the forces south of the lake holding.

[606] You have the forces north of the lake holding.

[607] And above that, the Finnish didn't think there would be much fighting going on because there weren't any roads.

[608] But the Soviets sent eight full divisions in, which were heavily supported by armor and artillery.

[609] And their job was to attack the town of Sumus -Salmi and basically cut Finland in half, which would have pretty much been the end because Finland would have had to have fought on...

[610] two -front war, and they could barely handle just keeping the Soviets out of their capital, you know, getting through the Mannerheim line.

[611] But the reason they were able to do so well against this vastly superior army north of the lake was the Soviets didn't have enough skis, they didn't have enough equipment, and so they were confined to what few roads there were, whereas the Finnish army had on white.

[612] They were wearing layered clothes, so they were protected against the cold, and they had skis, and they could just literally swing around, attack the large, long Russian columns, leave, come back and attack and just harass them.

[613] And so there's another victory for the Finns.

[614] Now, unfortunately for everyone involved, this winter was an exceptionally cold winter.

[615] In fact, in some places it was 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

[616] And while it's true that only the professional Finnish soldiers had their service uniforms, the other Finnish men who were reservists, you know, they lived there, they knew what to wear, and they had it with them already, so they didn't suffer as much as the Russian soldiers did.

[617] So even though the Russians have a lot more men, they have tanks, they have planes, they have artillery, and they have the railroads to take their troops and supplies almost right up to the front, they're still losing this war.

[618] So in the south, the Finns are forced by geography to fight a conventional war with their defensive line.

[619] But north of the lake, all the way up to the port, they're pretty much using guerrilla tactics, very small forces, hit and run, and they're just harassing the Russians and causing a lot of casualties.

[620] But it's important to remember that when we talk about the Mannerheim line, we're not talking about something like the Maginot line.

[621] It was not very sophisticated.

[622] There weren't underground tunnels.

[623] There wasn't great communication of transportation systems.

[624] It was pretty much just reinforced cement blocks with big guns in them about every mile along the isthmus, and there were about 221 of them.

[625] According to the Finns, what really made the difference was something called sisu, which was the Finnish idiom for guts.

[626] So the Russians are smashing themselves against the defensive line south of Lake Lagoda.

[627] And they're trying to get to a town behind the defensive line called Vipuri.

[628] And I'm probably saying that wrong.

[629] But they figured if they could smash through the line, get that city, take it, and they can use that as a base to then move on to Helsinki and end the war.

[630] So they attacked earlier at the Battle of...

[631] Taipel, and that didn't work.

[632] And so now they're trying a different part of the Mannerheim line.

[633] And so they attack near an area called Summa.

[634] Now, the defense is going pretty well, but there's a mistake in communication between some of the forces, and about 20 Soviet tanks slip through the defenses, and they get behind the line on December 19th.

[635] But the Finnish forces can't leave the line to go pursue the tanks because they're still trying to stop the Soviet offensive.

[636] So finally, they're able to find enough to get the Soviets to stop, and then they deploy some of their troops to go after the tanks.

[637] Now, while this is going on, the tanks have been looking around for something to destroy, looking for communication.

[638] centers or supply depots, but this isn't France.

[639] They don't have well -marked territories.

[640] They don't have a lot of industrialization here.

[641] It's just forest trees, swamps, and frozen lakes.

[642] But eventually, the Finns are able to go find all 20 of the tanks and destroy them with the Molotov cocktails.

[643] So again, they're all destroyed by December 22nd, and it's another Finnish victory.

[644] But here's where the Finnish troops make their first mistake.

[645] So they survived another advance on the Mannerheim line, but then they decide to launch an offensive.

[646] And again, they don't have the tanks, they don't have the artillery.

[647] So when they're able to surround some Soviet division, some Soviet troops, it's called a Monty when you have your enemy surrounded.

[648] They try to attack with just their men and their rifles, and it's not enough when they lose way too many men for what they need.

[649] The Soviets lose a lot of men, but the Finns lose a lot of men as well.

[650] and of course the Soviets can afford it because Stalin didn't care.

[651] He would just send in more troops.

[652] He had no problem with losing men.

[653] He just wanted to see results.

[654] So again, to the north, the Soviets, with their vastly numerical advantage, with their tanks and their planes and their artillery, and they're fighting in a very conventional way, there's just force, and they're looking for someone to fight.

[655] They can't find anyone.

[656] But every time they try to move west to cut Finland in half, they are attacked with guerrilla tactics and guerrilla style, and they just get mowed to pieces, and they eventually have to stop and retreat.

[657] And it gets to the point where sometimes they just abandon their weapons, their food, their horses.

[658] forces, and they just take off.

[659] So the guerrilla tactics are exhausting the Finnish soldiers, because remember, they're skiing all over the place, attacking, retreating, attacking again.

[660] So it's working, but they're becoming exhausted.

[661] And even their success is starting to slow them down, because they're going to have to stop and rest sometime soon.

[662] And the Soviets are starting to learn a thing or two.

[663] What they do is when they get some men who become surrounded in Amante, they don't try to fight their way out or they don't panic.

[664] What they do is they just radio in and they know that help is going to be on the way.

[665] So that's...

[666] a very passive way, but they're able to tie down more of the Finnish troops, and that starts to work because they get resupplied, they get airlifts, they get stuff sent to them, and then the reinforcements come up and are able to attack the Finnish soldiers trying to surround the trapped Soviet troops.

[667] Now, the war in the north was over pretty much quickly.

[668] The Russians advance from Murmansk.

[669] They take over the port, Petsamo, and they take it over pretty easily because the Finnish abandoned it, but they stay in the area using guerrilla tactics and harass the Russians as much as possible.

[670] So the fighting is pretty much taking place in the center of Finland, but mostly to the south, where they have the Mannerheim Line.

[671] So as can be expected, Stalin is not happy with any of this.

[672] Besides the success in the north by taking the port, He's very upset by everything that's going on.

[673] So finally he's tired of everything.

[674] He's tired of the propaganda having to lie to explain away the Soviet losses.

[675] And he puts Chief of Staff Boris Shapochnikov in charge.

[676] And he tells him just to get it done.

[677] Do whatever you have to.

[678] So Chief of Staff Shapochnikov is going to bring some much -needed common sense back to the Soviet military.

[679] He's going to make sure everyone has skis, everyone has winter clothing, everyone has food.

[680] There's going to be better communication.

[681] There's not going to be egos, and they're going to do what they need to to get the job done.

[682] No more courageous frontal assaults on the Mannerheim line, and they're going to change their tactics.

[683] They're going to simplify things by just having two armies, the 7th Army and the 13th Army.

[684] He's going to have the 7th Army focus on a 10 -mile stretch of the Mannheim Line, and they're going to focus everything on that.

[685] And they bring in more men.

[686] They bring in more tanks.

[687] They bring in more planes.

[688] They bring in more artillery, and they're going to focus.

[689] They're going to keep it simple and get it done because no one wants to be the next person to die because Stalin is upset.

[690] So now they've got about 600 ,000 men in this war.

[691] So Shapochnikov spends the second half of January getting everything ready.

[692] He brings in all the supplies, and he spends that time having the Mannerheim line bombed from the bombers coming from Moscow.

[693] So he's ready to launch his new offensive on February 1, 1940.

[694] And just to give you an idea of the scale of what he's going to do, they send about 300 ,000 shells into the finish line in the first 24 hours of the attack.

[695] So this goes on for about 10 days.

[696] They're bombing from planes.

[697] They're giving them an artillery barrage.

[698] And also they're sending in troops.

[699] They're sending in little forays to make the Finnish fight back and to use up all their shells.

[700] So the Finnish are pretty much exhausted.

[701] They're dying very quickly.

[702] They just can't take it anymore.

[703] And so he keeps this going for about 10 days.

[704] And so finally on February 11th, with the Soviets having about 460 ,000 men in the area and over 3 ,000 pieces of artillery.

[705] They attack and they move forward against the defensive line.

[706] The only thing that the Finns had at this point was pretty much eight divisions, totaling about 150 ,000 men and their rifles and Molotov cocktails.

[707] There's no tanks, there's no planes, and there's no artillery.

[708] So now the Soviets are attacking, but again, they're doing it in a very organized fashion.

[709] They focus on a very few numbers of the concrete boxes, and one by one they just take them out with bombs from planes and from the artillery and from tanks.

[710] They just one by one knock them out.

[711] And by February 15th, the Mannerheim line organizes a general retreat to another defensive line, which of course is not nearly as strong, behind the first one.

[712] Now during all of this, the Finns had tried to reopen negotiations with Moscow, but Moscow didn't want to negotiate.

[713] It wanted to take everything, so they...

[714] went and talked to him.

[715] So by mid -February, it's clear to General Mannerheim that his Finnish forces are approaching exhaustion.

[716] But on the Soviet side, casualties are very high.

[717] This is costing them a lot of money, and they're also politically and militarily embarrassed by what's going on.

[718] Also, there's a chance that the French or British might intervene because this war is taking a lot longer than what it should have.

[719] And also, Stalin can see that spring will be coming soon, and of course, our tanks will all get bogged down once the ice starts to melt.

[720] So the Finnish foreign minister, Tanner, arrives in Stockholm on February the 12th, and he wants to start negotiating with the Soviets, but through the Swedes.

[721] Now, during all this, both Germany and Sweden were keen to see an end to the Winter War.

[722] The Germans feared losing their iron ore from northern Sweden, which is what will set up the next episode.

[723] And the Swedes were told that Germany would attack immediately if they allowed the Allies' rite of passage to go through to help the Finns, but also they were worried about their iron ore. So on February 25th, the Soviet peace terms were given to the Finns, and by...

[724] The 29th of February, the Finnish government accepted the terms in general and they were now willing to enter into negotiations.

[725] By March 5th, the Red Army had advanced several miles behind the Mannerheim Line and into the suburbs of Vipuri, the town that they were after.

[726] The Finns proposed an armistice day, but the Soviets who were finally winning didn't want to.

[727] They declined and kept fighting.

[728] As the Soviet military position strengthened, so did their negotiations and they kept asking for more.

[729] So finally the Finns figured out that they better hurry up and agree to some kind of peace before they did end up losing their entire country.

[730] So the Finnish government realizes their men are exhausted, they're dying in very large numbers, their weapons and their shells are literally running out, and they know that the Franco -British military expedition, which has been talked about, will not come in time because Norway and Sweden have not given them rites of passage.

[731] So they have little choice but to accept the Soviet terms.

[732] The formal peace treaty was signed in Moscow on March the 12th, and a ceasefire took place the next day at noon Leningrad time and at 11 Helsinki time.

[733] Moscow Peace Treaty did not get Russia everything he wanted, but it did get them 11 % of the Finnish territory and 30 % of their economic assets.

[734] The entire Karelian Isthmus, where most of the finding had taken place, went to Russia, as well as some territory north of Lake Lagoda.

[735] Of course, Russia wanted this to have more breathing space away from the Germans.

[736] But Stalin loses something too.

[737] The Soviet army has been exposed to be weak and leaderless, which will cause Hitler later to say, all you have to do is kick in the door and the entire structure will come crumbling down.

[738] The next episode will start with what the British and the French were doing during the Russo -Finish War, and Churchill, who is seen by many as a military adventurer, devises a plan to attack Hitler's Achilles heel.

[739] Germany's much -needed iron ore coming from northern Sweden.

[740] As plans are made, the Western powers also consider using this invasion force to help the desperate Fins against the Soviet Union.

[741] Hitler now has to turn away from the West and focus on Norway and his iron ore, and the race is on to see who can get there first, the Nazis or the Western powers.

[742] But for Hitler, his plan also has to take into consideration the country in between himself and Norway, Denmark.

[743] Welcome to True Spies, the podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.

[744] Suddenly out of the dark it's appeared in love.

[745] You'll meet the people who live life undercover.

[746] What do they know?

[747] What are their skills?

[748] And what would you do in their position?

[749] Vengeance felt good.

[750] Seeing these people pay for what they'd done felt righteous.

[751] True Spies from Spyscape Studios, wherever you get your podcasts.