Customer Reviews

A Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-1940

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Unfortunately, the Russo-Finnish war is usually given short shrift in most histories of WWII. This, in spite of the fact that it resulted in hundreds of thousands of casulties, in spite of the fact the Finns performed some of the most brilliant feats of arms in modern history, and, in spite of the fact that the Western Allies sacrficed the Finns on the alter of political "necessity".

The courageous, remarkable defense of their homeland by the Finns in the face of insurmountable odds is no less inspiring or intriguing for its ultimate futility. With an even hand, Trotter guides the reader through the ferocious Finnish winter, and takes us into the minds of both Russian and Finnish soldiers as they fight in some of the most appalling battlefield conditions ever.

In conclusion, my sysmpathy for the Finns is obvious, as is Trotter's, but don't doubt that this is a serious work of history. Trotter deals judiciously with all parties to the conflict based on fact; popular mythology plays no role in this work.

I have read both William R. Trotter's "A Frozen Hell" and Engle & Paananen's "The Winter War: The Soviet Attack on Finland 1939-1940". In addition to these books I am in the process of reading 2 books by Max Jakobson, one of which is specifically on the Winter War, as well as a number of academic journal articles on Finland between 1937-1945.

Trotter has done a great job of recounting the Winter War from both the Finnish and Russian political and military perspecives, using available documents. I am an American-Finn who is very proud of my Finnish heritage, yet I was not insulted by Trotter's treatment of the Russian perspective at all - it was very enlightning. I prefer to understand ALL the "why?"s surrounding an event as momentous as the Winter War. It is nice to have some idea what the Russian reasoning and motives were, even if I don't agree with them. Life is rarely black and white as we would like it to be.

The short biography of Marshall Mannerheim in the beginning was especially useful. Understanding the man sheds light on his actions and opinions. It also explains a bit of the history of Russian-Finnish relations as well.

Improvements: More maps would be very helpful. Also, as a Finnish speaking American I can appreciate Trotter's attempt to make understanding easier for non-finnish speakers, however the occasional reference to places in Finn-glish was a slight annoyance. An example would be "... east of Lake Kuokjärvi" where the word "Lake" is redundant because the name of the place says it is a lake. This is a very picky detail and does not detract from the content.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed reading "A Frozen Hell". The more balanced and objective view taken by Trotter does not take away from the heroics and Sisu of the Finns. I also appreciated inclusion of a more detailed explanation on the surrounding political climate/situations.

This was a fun read. I didn't know much about this conflict apart from Souomussalmi, and precious little about that either. Trotter does an excellent job portraying the Finns struggle against overwhelming odds, and is careful not to over-romanticize characters such as Mannerheim.

Only a few nitpicks keep this from being a five-star recommendation. It would have been nice if there were more maps--I found myself often looking to the maps for where Trotter was talking about, only to find the places weren't on the maps at all. A map of Finland after the war (and during the Continuation War) would have also been helpful. Also, I felt the Soviet perspective often was neglected in favor of the Finnish one--more accounts of the decisions made by Red Army officers and politicians would have been helpful in understanding some of the battles better. Moreover, I felt that more first-hand accounts would also have helped.

Otherwise, however, this is a fantastic book, and I recommend it to anyone interested in one of the more fascinating campaigns of early-WW2.

This is one of the few books that I've read straight thru (OK, OK, at least in one day...).

As a militaria buff I found this book interesting and absorbing. The above reviews are on the money, however, in that the absence of maps and/or more detailed maps relating to the text is an aggravation as is the somewhat dry delivery. Nevertheless, I found the information contained in this book fascinating and informative. It really filled in gaps in my knowledge of military and political events prior to or immediately preceeding WWII. One interesting factoid that caught my attention: Hitler's decision to attack the USSR in '41 may have been partly predicated on his observation of the terrible performance of Soviet troops and commanders in the Russo-Finnish War.

I now have a great appreciation and admiration for the Finns thanks to this book.

This history book is probably the most breathtaking I've ever had the pleasure to read.

Being from Scandinavia myself, I was pleased to see how unbiased this book is. Mr Trotter has great sympathy for the Finnish struggle and the hopeless odds against them, but also shows us the tragical fate of the ordinary Soviet soldier: Cold, exposed, sent out to die for Stalin, which almost 300,000 of them eventually did.

Other readers have already explained the thrilling contents of this book and its eye for detail, so I would like to underline here Mr Trotter's impressive ability to tell even such a dramatic story with a brilliant touch of irony. Just take a look at these two examples:

1. "At 9:20 a.m., November 30, 1939, the first Russian planes appeared over Helsinki.... () .. On their way out, the planes took time to strafe a complex of working-class housing units and to drop their last few high-explosive bombs on the inner city, some of which severely damaged the front of the Soviet Legation building"

2. "To head the new puppet regime, Stalin dragged out O. W. Kuusinen and set him up as "president". Kuusinen was the most influential of all the old-guard Reds who had fled Finland in 1918...().. Broadcasts were soon made in the name of this new government, telling the captive proletariat of "plutocratic Finland" about all the wonderful reforms that would be promulgated after the Red Army had finished liberating them. (Kuusinen) promised the workers an eight-hour day. The workers were not impressed. The eight-hour day had been legislated in Finland twenty five years earlier... Kuusinen had certainly kept up with things".

Admittedly, I, being a non-native English speaker, for obvious reasons will perceive written English in another way than would a native speaker. But I certainly like Mr Trotter's style.

Thanks to the author for a magnificent account of this dramatic piece of Scandinavian history.

What makes historical books such as these work, are the vignettes and character sketches not only of individuals but groups of people. The Finnish courage and sense of humor, the sad pitiful state of Soviet soldiers, the Soviet's inhumanity and indifference to its own people, the waffling and Realpolitik of Western nations, the indepedence of Mannerheim, all come through in Trotter's writing. The stories of Soviet soldiers trapped in barbed wire calling out to Stalin, the night-time hunter-seeker raids by pairs of Finns, the foolish tactics of the Soviets who would push their tanks far ahead of the troops and allow the Finns to ignore the tanks and slaughter the unprotected troops, the snow un-drinkable because of artillery contamination...

I guess I was a little disappointed that the "ski attacks" weren't as prevalent as I had believed. One of the most visual scenes in WWII combat is the image of camoflauged Finns sweeping through trees w/ submachine guns blowing away Soviets, but the book tells of other Finnish tactics that were more successful (and realistic), such as the nighttime raid that forced the Soviets to get into a firefight w/ themselves. An excellent book on guerilla warfare in the snow and ice.

As a Finn this is a very close subject to me and especially because my father fought in this war. I've read a lot of books about it, but this was the best of them all - and written by an American! If you are interested in the Finnish history, military strategy or strategy in general, this book is a must for you. I hate wars and after reading these descriptions of the battles I hate wars even more. But this book gives you hope, that with guts and cunning even miracles can happen in desperate situations.

Trotter has a very easy-to-follow style of writing which he uses to great effect as he introduces the reader to the background to The Winter War. The background set, he also examines the mindset of the key people who were later to play a pivotal role in an epic David-and-Goliath struggle.

Trotter uses a witty, often dry, tone on occasion which, to my mind, adds a much more familiar tone to the book, ensuring that it does not end up as a plain, single-dimensional report. Rather it shows just how the people involved were real, imperfect and yet played their own part.

I've read my copy over a dozen times and it will always remain at the top of my favourites list.

Although I was raised in the 70s by uncles full of admiration of what the Finns did to the Russians for three months it is still a profound dissapointment that few people know, and even fewer people care about this profound struggle of 3 Million Finns -- a free people -- against the tyranny of Stalinst Russia.

For a nation this small to have the stomach to thumb their noses at the Russians and then to systematically cut their attacks to ribbons -- inflicting colonial war casualties on the Russians -- it truly one of the David against Goliath matches in history.

But there is more to the traditional interpretation notion of the "plucky Finns" and the "incompetent Russians:" Finns eventually did succumb to the inevitable onslaught of the Russians. There were cases of the Finns actually breaking from the front, and Russians actually adapting tactics to overcome the Finnish ability to use their understanding of their own geography to dominate the Russians. That is perhaps not so hard to believe. What is harder to believe is miracles such as the battle of Soussalmi -- where Finnish ski troops cut to pieces 30,000 Russians for the total of 1,700 Finnish dead.

The book is an overview only and does cover the various stages of the war -- the initial and failed Russian Offensive of December, the holding pattern of January and the final onslaugth that brought the end for Finland. But the book does not pretend to be a total overview of the fighting on the front -- on that point there still needs to be a definitive English edition of this war such as what Norman Davis' "Rising 44" did for the Warsaw Insurrection.

There is also not enough background on the political developments surrounding the war and the geopolitical drivers of policy (the actions of the Western allies are a bit bewildering to those uninitiated in a good understanding of the history of these times).

There is also a good chapter on Mannerheim. This man, so long assciated with both the fighting spirit of Finland is often equated totally as the heart of Finn resistance. His personality was in fact authoritarian, problematic and a direct result of the Tsarist officer corps he was raised within and whose spirit he imbided.

A good read and well worth your time.

A Frozen Hell is a fascinating overview of the little-known Russo-Finnish War of 1939-40. Expected to make short work of the small Finnish military and occupy the country within a few short weeks at most, the massive Russian military machine was stopped in its tracks, and suffered extremely high casulties before finally forcing a peace on the Finns a hundred days later. But Finland maintained its independence, the only country bordering and fighting against the Soviet Union to avoid becoming a satellite state. Trotter covers it all: the basis for the crisis that led to the conflict, the political maneuvering, the battle plans and action, the guerillas on skis. The only complaint I had with it was that he did not go into enough details about the Continuation War which occured a few years later. Nevertheless, a highly recommended work. Read it and find out how the world came to know the meaning of the Finnish word, sisu.