Torment at Tormua

Finnish Group Wolf was directed to attack those remnants of the 163rd Ukrainian Division that had managed to escape from the Soumussalmi pocket. The Soviets were dug in at Juntusanta, 5 kilometers south of Tormua. All three battalions of Wolf would participate; only its headquarters, with some support …

1940-01-11

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Finnish Group Wolf was directed to attack those remnants of the 163rd Ukrainian Division that had managed to escape from the Soumussalmi pocket. The Soviets were dug in at Juntusanta, 5 kilometers south of Tormua. All three battalions of Wolf would participate; only its headquarters, with some support units, would remain at Tormua, near Lake Kiantajärvi. But the Soviets were also planning an offensive. A Ukrainian ski battalion, supported by three T-26 tanks, tried to seize Tormua, a position which threatened the Soviet right flank. The advancing formations of both sides passed each other unnoticed in the dense forest. The fighting at Juntusranta had already begun, but at the Finnish HQ in Tormua, just as Colonel Paavo Susitaival was about to drink his morning coffee, it was all too quiet. Only a few Finnish units – the supply platoons with their horses, a sissi squad, and engineer squad of the 22nd Motorized Engineer Company, some messengers, medics, and the field hospital staff – were at Tormua when the Soviets attacked. Task Force Jyrava, with its two captured anti-tank guns, defended the Tormua-Juntusranta road.

Tormua, Finland

The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union (USSR) and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. Despite superior military strength, especially in tanks and aircraft, the Soviet Union suffered severe losses and initially made little headway. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the organisation.

Russian

Finnish

Scenario Type = Standard