At the outbreak of the Winter War, Finland’s tank forces were all but nonexistent. To be precise, on paper they had around thirty-two obsolete Renault FT tanks, some Vickers-Carden-Lloyd Mk. IVs and Model 33s, which were equipped with machine guns, and 26 Vickers Armstrongs 6-ton tanks.
The Finns even had to rearm the British Vickers 6-tons with a Finnish made (licensed production in Finland) 37 mm Bofors AT-guns. Only 13 of these tanks managed to get to the front in time to participate in the battles. Vickers 6-ton tanks were also licenced to the USSR becoming T-26 Soviet tanks, and were the basis for the Polish 7TP tanks.
On 26 February 1940, the Finns employed their Vickers 6-ton tanks for the first – and only – time against Soviet armour. Out of thirteen Finnish Vickers 6-ton tanks available only six were in fighting condition and able to participate in the first assault on the Soviet lines – to make matters worse, one of the tanks was forced to stop, unable to cross a wide trench. The remaining five continued onwards a few hundred meters but ran into dozens of Soviet tanks in the village of Honkaniemi. The Finnish tanks managed to knock out three Soviet tanks but were soon themselves knocked-out.
This story clearly shows that tank battles were clearly not the Finnish army’s forte. If we look at the number of tanks both sides had in the Winter War the difference is unbelievably stark:
- Finland - 32 tanks
- Soviet Union - 6 541 tanks
It is truly a miracle (and a bit of rough terrain, ill suited for tank battles) that the Finnish troops managed to hold out against such odds. Only the heroic struggle of the Finnish Infantry troops made it possible.
In the game
In the Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty we will have other tanks under the Finnish flag, mostly captured Soviet tanks and some German-supplied Pz IV ones.
Stay tuned for more updates on the Finnish units in the upcoming Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty and wishlist our free app Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty Prologue 1939 to be the first one to try out the mighty Vickers tanks.
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