Battle of Salla (1939)

Battle of Salla
Part of Winter War
A Finnish soldier on guard near Kemijärvi, 11 February 1940.
Date 30 November 1939 – 13 March 1940 Location Salla, Finnish Lapland Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
Finland Swedish volunteers	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Kurt Martti Wallenius Ernst Linder	?
Units involved
North Finland Group Lapland Group Detachment Roininen Stridsgruppen SFK	9th Army 122nd Rifle Division 88th Rifle Division
Strength
c. 3,500 From 10 February 1940 9,400 Scandinavian volunteers	Two infantry divisions
Casualties and losses
Finnish: 650 dead or missing 450 wounded Volunteers: 33 dead 50 wounded 130 frostbitten	4,000

 Finland

The Battle of Salla was fought between Finnish and Soviet troops near Salla in northern Finland during the Winter War. The Soviets had orders to advance through Salla to Kemijärvi and Sodankylä, and from there to Rovaniemi in just two weeks. From there they were to advance to Tornio and cut Finland in two. The Finnish troops managed to stop the Soviet advance just east of Kemijärvi. During the last days of February 1940 the Finnish troops were replaced with the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish volunteers of the Stridsgruppen SFK.

By 1938 the Soviet Union had decided to conquer Finland. Relying in part on the information provided by Finnish communists, detailed intelligence on Finnish infrastructure had been prepared by the summer of 1939 in a 200-page book that was distributed to the invasion force. The Soviet 9th Army was tasked with invading Finland between Kuhmo and Salla and cutting the country in half by advancing to the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. As part of the 9th Army's offensive, the 122nd Rifle Division, having arrived from Poland on 8 November 1939, was supposed to capture Salla and Kemijärvi and advance to Rovaniemi within two weeks, from where it would continue to Tornio near the Finnish border with Sweden. The Soviets were only expecting light resistance and the troops were ordered not to cross the Swedish frontier.

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Wikipedia