Evening star., 1940-03-17
Finnish War Works
Big Improvements
In Russian Army
Reds Emerge With vostIy
Better MiIitory Machine
Than When They Invaded

0ette1 W!iltuTy WoCnlue
Than When They Invaded
BY JAMES ALDRDGE.
Stockholm, March Is (N.AN.A0.-
The RUSSO o-Finnish war has revealed
more secrets of the Red Army than
the world. hungry for knowledge Of
1t, had learned In the 20 years Of
its existence.
Untried except for small-time
stun In the Far East, the Red Army
had As its first real testing ground
the hardest region 1t could have
picked in Europe and for its first
capable opponent among the best
individual fighters In the world.
Out Of this terrific testing pit,
the Red Army has emerged totally
different from the Red Army that
entered it. And in three months of
fighting 1t has revealed secrets
which hitherto were unknown.
Typical of any Red Army division
was the famous 44th Division, which
was destroyed between Suomussalmi
and the Russian border in January.
And what this revealed goes for the
whole Red Army.
What did this engagement reveal?
Stretched along the road for 5
miles, each detail Of this column
gave away something. It was the
most super -mechanized column OF
any army known to the Films.
Equipped with the worlds largest
number of units Of lorries, tanks,
cars and guns per man, all depend
ent on fuel and other supplies, the
column developed into something
cumbersome from the moment 1t
got too far beyond its base.
Red Army Over-Equipped.
The first secret revealed was that,
for the Finnish type of fighting, the
Red Army was over-equipped. But
all of the Red Army's fighting will
not be in Finland, so what was this
equipment like? The best judges
of this are the Finnish soldiers and
experts themselves. who got excited
every time any Russian equipment
fell into their hands. Most of it
was equipment such as they never
had seen before and never dreamed
they would possess.
Time and time again the Finnish
commanders would tell me joking
ly, but really seriously, that the
best equipment they had was that
captured from the Russians. New
weapons, like anti-tank rifles and
machine pistols. were similar to our
own super-rapid firing automatic
rifles and machine guns. The new
type of revolver did not jam and
was better than automatic pistols.
All of it revealed secret No. q
that the Russian equipment was
good, most Of 1t was Russian made,
and it showed that they had in
ventiveness for new weapons.
And yet, with all this excellent
equipment and mechanization, Rus
sian divisions were destroyed time
and again. Why? The answer is in
secret No. 3-tactics and strategy.
Militarists say that an army learns
only as it goes along and that death
is the best teacher of tactics. This
goes for the Red Army, which had
learned about warfare in theory
and had practiced 1t on q wide
open terrain. The moment that it
got into a close-wooded country
its open-war tactics failed. and 1t did
not know except by experience what
tactics ought to be used.
To allow long, mechanical d.
vision to get tied up on the roads
and destroyed from one end to the
other was not the fault Of the COM
manders so much as the fact that
any army entering Finland could get
in only over the roads. The fault
in tactics, therefore, lay in the
fact that in entering Finland by
the roads. as the 44th Division did,
there was little attempt to con-
struct reliable defense positions
as the Russians went along, so they
had no protection when the Firms
pounced on them. This indicates
failure to use army engineers and
technicians, who could see at
glance and get to work immedi-
ately on consolidating their posi-
tions and also make better use of
the terrain in fighting.
Strategy Of Entry Good.
These are small part of the
Soviet tactics. The actual strategy
OF entry was good. The five land
stabs made by the Russians, from
Petsamo to the Karelian Isthmus,
were said by Finnish commanders
to be the best entry points into Fin
land. And the actual strategy of
the drive which caused the battle
OF Soumussalmi was theoretically
and in practice quite correct, show
Ing that the Red Army had engi-
neers who were capable enough, for
they built whole new road from
the Russian border to Lake Kianta,
q distance Of 20 miles, in less than
. month.
But having got so far, the 44th
Division failed when it came to the
actual battle. The technique of
getting men on to Soumussalmi was
all right, but when they were met
by about an equal number of Firms,
these Russian soldiers could not
Tight their way out. This was due
to the type Of men and to their
training.
The men of the 44th Division, like
the whole Red Army then entering
Finland, were of the third line of
troops. They were mostly peasants
and workers who had done compul-
sorry military service many years ago
and had suddenly been called up to
invade Finland without any pre-
liminary training. What training
they had was as mass army. They
A~a l~ - H.