Chapter 279: Chapter 357 The Winter War (16)
How cold is it in winter in Finland?
Some people have humorously interpreted the weather in Finland like this:
15°C - Spaniards wear coats and gloves, Finns sunbathe outdoors;
10°C - French turn on the heating, Finns plant flowers in the garden;
5°C - Italians can't start their cars, Finns drive convertible cars on the streets;
-5°C - Californians freeze, Finns barbecue outdoors;
-10°C - Brits turn on the heating, Finns start wearing long sleeves;
-50°C - Polar bears evacuate from the Arctic, Finnish troops postpone winter survival training in the field, waiting for the real winter to come;
-183°C - Microorganisms in food die, Finns complain that the hands of old farmers are too cold;
-273°C - Atoms stop moving, Finns finally say, "My God, it's really cold outside."
In a Soviet military camp, soldiers huddled in the hastily dug trenches shivered.
A private kept rubbing his hands, complaining softly, "This damn weather is so cold. If I had known I would be summoned to such a cursed place, I would never have enlisted." In his mind, he couldn't help cursing the officer in charge of distribution as an idiot.
His companion beside him was also trembling from the cold. "Exactly, why make us southerners come to the north to fight?" If it were summer, it might be bearable, but now it's winter, which is quite deadly.
Due to the fear of having troops from the Leningrad Military District, which had some indescribable relationship with Finland or shared a certain culture, too close to the Finnish part of the front, Stalin did not send troops from the Leningrad Military District. Instead, he mobilized troops from the southern regions of the Soviet Union to participate in the war.
Finland is located at a high latitude, with its northern part within the Arctic Circle. Therefore, the winter is exceptionally cold, and the winter of 1939 is one of the coldest winters in Finnish history. Daytime temperatures have dropped to more than twenty degrees below zero. These soldiers from the relatively warm regions of Southern Russia, Ukraine, and Central Asia are simply unable to adapt to such cold snowy conditions; they are freezing!
"Hey, Baorshak, you guys go get some firewood!" At this moment, a second lieutenant officer walked over and shouted at the two. "We don't have enough firewood!"
"Damn, these bastards know how to boss people around. Why don't you go yourself?!" Muttering under his breath, Baorshak reluctantly stood up. "Let's go, moving around is better than freezing here." Then, he looked at the second lieutenant and asked, "Sir! Where should we go to get firewood?"
"Are you idiots?!" The second lieutenant officer, with a face of mild anger, pointed to a nearby forest about a few hundred meters away. "See that? Go..." Before he could finish his sentence, there was a light sound, and the second lieutenant officer felt like he had been hit by something. His body swayed backward a few steps. Bewildered, he lowered his head to look at his chest, then raised his head to gaze at the forest ahead, slowly falling to the ground.
"What happened to him?" The surrounding Soviet soldiers gathered around. They suddenly saw the chest of the fallen second lieutenant officer stained red with blood, his eyes wide open but lifeless, already dead.
"This!" He was shot?!
Before the people could react, several snowdrifts about 200 meters away suddenly moved, and several Finnish soldiers wearing snow suits jumped up. They poured bullets into the group of Soviet soldiers who were surrounding the area, instantly knocking them to the ground.
During World War II, most submachine guns had practical ranges of 50-150 meters, but one submachine gun had an effective range exceeding 200 meters, even performing very accurately at a range of three hundred meters.
This submachine gun was the famous Finnish Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun.
The term "Suomi" is derived from the Finnish word for "Finland." Daring to use the name of their country to name their own-designed submachine gun shows the designer Lahti's confidence in his design. In actual combat, the "Suomi" submachine gun did not disappoint. In the Winter War, the "Suomi" submachine gun dealt a heavy blow to the Soviet army and even influenced the development of Soviet submachine guns.
The Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun does not have any special features in its design, using a conventional recoil-operated system and a traditional submachine gun layout.
What truly impresses people about it is its exquisite craftsmanship and incredible precision. The Suomi submachine gun uses materials that border on luxury, with everything from the gun's frame to the bolt and even a single screw crafted from solid metal. The selected material is high-quality chrome-nickel steel from Sweden, and the machining is exceptionally fine, reaching the manufacturing standards of sniper rifles.
The superb craftsmanship and excellent materials make the Suomi submachine gun extremely reliable under any conditions, but it also limits its production quantity. Only about a thousand were equipped during the Winter War.
Therefore, in 1944, Finland reverse-engineered the Soviet PPS submachine gun, changing the caliber to 9mm Parabellum pistol ammunition. Despite a slight decrease in accuracy, they obtained a much lighter and easier-to-produce M44 submachine gun. About 10,000 were produced in just 1945.
The M44 9mm submachine gun has a simple structure, easy processing, and is suitable for mass production. The gun operates on a free-bolt principle, firing in full auto only. It uses the 36-round magazine and 71-round drum from the Finnish Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun (later replaced by the Gustav 36-round magazine in the mid-1950s).
The 50,000 submachine guns that Wilhelm supported Finland with were this type of M44 9mm submachine gun.
However, due to the unique nature of these German snipers, they were equipped with the best Suomi submachine guns. Moreover, the models and Finnish high command did not restrict their actions; they operated almost independently of the main forces. They split into numerous small squads, attacking the relatively small Soviet targets everywhere.
The remaining Soviet soldiers were just about to resist when bullets from another direction began hitting them, quickly slaughtering the not-so-large Soviet camp.
"What's going on? Why did they start shooting early?!" This was a field kitchen, and according to their previous observations, the supply convoy wouldn't arrive for another hour. Why did they suddenly start shooting?
Among the people rushing over from the woods, a young soldier scratched his head apologetically. "Sorry, that guy was pointing at us and giving signals. I thought we were exposed, so I started shooting."
"You fool! Be more careful next time!" After scolding him, the squad commander took out a map. "The nearby Soviet troops will surely come over. Hakkining, we'll take a detour to deal with the supply convoy." Regardless of how well-trained they were, they were still in a foreign land, unfamiliar with the terrain. Fortunately, there were many experienced hunters in the Finnish army, with one or two Finns assigned to each small squad to assist them in combat.
A group of ten people left the area on sleds, leaving behind a scene of carnage and a row of dead soldiers for the arriving Soviet soldiers to witness.
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