Battle of Raate-Road

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Battle of Raate-Road
Part of Winter War

Casualties of the destroyed Soviet 44th division on the Raate-Road
Date January 1, 1940 to 7 January 1940
Location Eastern Finland
Result Decisive Finnish victory
Combatants
Finland Soviet Union
Commanders
Hjalmar Siilasvuo Kombrig Vinogradov
Strength
6,000 25,000
Casualties
100-250 killed 17,500 killed, wounded and missing
1200 captured
Winter War
Tolvajärvi – Suomussalmi – Taipale – Summa – Raate-Road – Kuhmo – Honkaniemi – Kollaa – Salla – Petsamo

The battle of Raate-Road was fought between Soviet Union and Finland in January, 1940 as a part of the battle of Suomussalmi.

On December 7 Soviet 163th division had conquered Suomussalmi, and the Ukrainian 44th division was coming to help it. In the following battle colonel Hjalmar Siilasvuo's 9th division destroyed the Soviet 44th (Ukrainian) Rifle Division on the Raate-Road compeletely.

The battle proved the effiency of the motti tactics that Finnish troops used. Many of the Soviet casualties were also due to the freezing weather during the battle.

At the start of the battle of Raate-Road, Siilasvuo's 9th division had already destroyed the Russian 163th division. After that, the division got orders to destroy the 44th Rifle Division which was located in Haukila, 12 kilometers from Suomussalmi. The battle was ordered to begin on January 5, 8:30 AM.

The Finnish 9th division was split in four squadrons which were named after their commanders. The battles focused to Haukila, where most of the Soviet troops were located and where squadron Mandelin and Mäkiniemi attacked. Squadron Mäkiniemi had started moving towards Haukila few days before the official attack.

On January 6 the despairing Soviet troops began to erupt towards north. They had already tried to escape to east but squadron Kari had prevented this. In the far east squadron Fagernäs couldn't keep the bridge in Finnish control.

On January 7 squadron Fagernäs captured the bridge back and in forenoon all Soviet resistance had ended.

Finland captured 43 assault tanks, 71 field and anti-air guns, 29 anti-tank cannons, armored cars, armored tractors, 260 trucks, 1,170 horses, infantry weapons, ammunition and medical equipment as war booty from the Soviets.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../b/a/t/Battle_of_Raate-Road_36be.html"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.