The Sausage WarOn the 30th of November, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland in hopes of conquerin

The Sausage WarOn the 30th of November, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland in hopes of conquering territory that had once been a part of the Russian Empire before World War II.  The Soviets expected a quick and easy victory, as they greatly outnumbered the Finish Army in manpower, aircraft, and tanks.  Unexpectedly the Finns put up a stalwart defense, heavily fortifying key strategic positions and conducting bloody surprise attacks in dense snow covered forests.The Red Army was completely unprepared for war with Finland.  Occurring right after Stalin purged the military’s officer corps of those he believed were traitors or challenged his authority.  As a result the Red Army was left with incompetent and inexperienced leaders.  Thus the resulting Red Army tactics were nothing more than simple mass frontal assault in which tens of thousands of Soviet troops were mowed down by Finnish machine guns.  Worse yet due to poor logistical planning the Soviets experienced shortages of ammunition, winter clothing, and most importantly food.  Food shortages grew so desperate that Soviet soldiers ate the bark off of trees, and even resorted to cannibalism.  The plight of the Soviet infantryman during the Winter War was certainly a dire one.On December 10th, 1939 the Soviets came up with a plan to break the Finnish lines and end the war once and for all.  The plan was to attack at the village Tolvajarvi.  Tolvajarvi was one of the lightest defended sectors of the Finnish defenses, with much of those stationed there non-combatants such as cooks and medical personnel.  After sneaking up on the Finnish lines, the Soviets attacked and were able to easily break through the Finnish defenses.   After the assault Soviet troops rallied to press the attack deep into Finnish territory.  However, the starving Soviet soldiers were stopped by one thing, the savory smell of sausages.  Tolvajarvi was host to a large kitchen to feed the Finnish Army.  When overrun by the Soviets, the smell of cooking sausages halted the Red Army as Soviet soldiers dropped their weapons and began to feast voraciously.  The pause in the attack was enough to allow the Finns to regroup with reinforcements and counterattack, successfully driving away the Soviets.  The Winter War was a terrible blunder for the Soviet Union.  While the Finns were forced to concede territory, the cost of the new real estate was high  Almost 130,000 Soviet troops were killed and hundreds of thousands more were wounded, suffered disease, starvation, and frostbite.  In the meantime, even though they lost 11% of their territory, Finland was able to protect her sovereignty throughout World War II, one of the few countries in between the Soviet Union and Germany to do so.  And to think, they may owe it all to sausages. -- source link

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