And, [b]Tuukka[/b], if my Finnish history is correct, there were never more than [b]160,000[/b] Finns who were available for the defense at any time in that war!
Those guys' balls may have been made of titanium, but they were hung in kevlar bags!
From Virtual Finland website:
In the winter dawn of 30 November four Soviet Armies with 23 divisions - some 460,000 men with over 2,000 tanks - began advancing across the length of Finland's 1,200 km long eastern border. Their objective was to occupy the entire territory of Finland by the end of the year, installing Moscow's puppet 'Terijoki Government' in Helsinki, and establishing a new 'Democratic Republic of Finland'. Their troops were issued with detailed written warnings not to cross into Sweden once they had reached Finland's western border, and the 7. Army included a military band for the victory parade in Helsinki.
On December 3, 1939, three days after the Red Army’s unprovoked attack on Finland, the newly appointed foreign minister, Väinö Tanner, spoke to American radio listeners in a live broadcast from Helsinki.
Few at the time expected the tiny Finnish nation of 3.6 million to survive. But despite the odds Finland reacted with desperate determination. On the one hand the country was determined to fight, and the full field army of some [b]160,000[/b] men had been mobilized and sent eastwards into position along the front during the fall. [b]On the other hand Finland also was grimly prepared for the worst, and began sending her national treasure - her children - to safety in Sweden, to cover the possibility of a Soviet victory and Stalin's national extermination programmes. Leaving at night from blacked out harbours along Finland's western coast, in the gaps between wailing sirens warning of Soviet bombers, none of the thousands of departing children or their parents remaining behind knew whether they would see each other again.[/b]
Four months later, after the hardest fighting seen in Europe since the first World War and massive Soviet reinforcements, Finland's lines remained unbroken, while the Red Army had lost up to 400,000 soldiers in casualties. [b]Finland's soldiers were now down to their last bullets, [u]but Stalin did not know that[/u], and he was running out of time[/b]. With the spring thaws approaching, his forces risked becoming bogged down in the extensive wetland forests along the front, while politically every week lost increased his humiliation and vulnerability vis a vis a vengeful Japan in the Far East, an ambitious Hitler in the west, and a Britain and France that were considering intervention on Finland's side.
Not bad, eh?
I'd sure like to think that in my Hun family's extensive travels they picked up some Finnish blood in their veins.
It would be noble blood, indeed.
Eric The(Nordic)Hun[>]:)]