Situation maps of the Winter War & Continuation War

Discussions on the Winter War and Continuation War, the wars between Finland and the USSR.
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InteractiveHistory
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Situation maps of the Winter War & Continuation War

#1

Post by InteractiveHistory » 27 May 2022, 21:58

Hello, this is my first post here :) Please inform me if I am breaking some rule with this post, as I am new here.

I am searching for situation maps, specifically of the Winter War, but if readily available also for the Continuation War. There have been topics about maps on this forum earlier, but they seem a bit outdated, as most of the links on those topics no longer work.

I have personally found some Russian and German situation maps of the Continuation war on pamyat-naroda.ru and in the German military archives, but as the Germans were not involved in the Winter War, they do not have any maps from that conflict. And the Russian website only covers the period of the Continuation War. I have also found the maps on talvisota.fi and winterwar.com. Perhaps there are Russian maps covering the Winter War and Finnish maps covering both wars elsewhere?

Ideally the maps would show division positions on all frontlines with day by day resolution, but I would be grateful for any response that may lead to any kind of situation maps from these conflicts.

Thank you.

Mangrove
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Re: Situation maps of the Winter War & Continuation War

#2

Post by Mangrove » 28 May 2022, 17:21

InteractiveHistory wrote:
27 May 2022, 21:58
There have been topics about maps on this forum earlier, but they seem a bit outdated, as most of the links on those topics no longer work.
Many of the Continuation War maps on the "MAPS" thread seem to still work.
InteractiveHistory wrote:
27 May 2022, 21:58
Ideally the maps would show division positions on all frontlines with day by day resolution, but I would be grateful for any response that may lead to any kind of situation maps from these conflicts.
In general, Finnish headquarters did not produce situation maps on a day-by-day basis. Also, there are relatively few situation maps drawn over topography maps from either Winter or Continuation War. Most maps were drawn onto a tracing paper with would have been placed over a known topography map(s). Depending of the war, most units produced situation maps around every month or twice a month at most. However, it is possible to drawn your own maps using the information available on the daily reports.

Here is an example of tracing paper style map from the Winter War. IV Armeijakunta's positions in October and November 1939


Seppo Koivisto
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Re: Situation maps of the Winter War & Continuation War

#3

Post by Seppo Koivisto » 28 May 2022, 19:57

This presentation by Ari Raunio has some maps from his books.
https://www.sshs.fi/binary/file/-/id/15/fid/71/

InteractiveHistory
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Re: Situation maps of the Winter War & Continuation War

#4

Post by InteractiveHistory » 29 May 2022, 22:47

Many of the Continuation War maps on the "MAPS" thread seem to still work.
Aah, you are right! I loverlooked them because the initial links to the digi.narc.fi website did not work anymore, but now I realize that a lot of the links acutally do work. Thanks for pointing this out!
However, it is possible to drawn your own maps using the information available on the daily reports.
That sounds like an interesting project, but I assume it would require me to read Finnish (or Russian)? The daily reports you are referring to would be the war diaries found at military archives, like https://astia.narc.fi/uusiastia/viewer/ ... 2360060650, right? Since I master neither Finnish nor Russian, this would be quite hard... But maybe there is some other resource (in English) out there that could be used, e.g. War of the White Death by Bair Irincheev?

InteractiveHistory
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Re: Situation maps of the Winter War & Continuation War

#5

Post by InteractiveHistory » 29 May 2022, 22:58

Seppo Koivisto wrote:
28 May 2022, 19:57
This presentation by Ari Raunio has some maps from his books.
https://www.sshs.fi/binary/file/-/id/15/fid/71/
Thank you! Do you know of any other books that have information on detailed division positions?

Mangrove
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Re: Situation maps of the Winter War & Continuation War

#6

Post by Mangrove » 30 May 2022, 10:35

InteractiveHistory wrote:
29 May 2022, 22:47
Aah, you are right! I loverlooked them because the initial links to the digi.narc.fi website did not work anymore, but now I realize that a lot of the links acutally do work. Thanks for pointing this out!
Depending of the time the link was posted, some of them work and some don't. Also, some of the working links redirect to wrong items on the new database. I have posted some additional resources below which do contain a few situational maps.

Päämaja. SPK 20878. Attachments 1941. See e.g. page 228.
Päämaja. SPK 20879. Attachments 1942.
Päämaja. SPK 20880. Attachments 1941-1943. See e.g. page 422.
Päämaja. SPK 20881. Attachments 1943-1944. See e.g. page 264.
Päämaja. SPK 20882. Attachments 1944. See e.g. page 606.
InteractiveHistory wrote:
29 May 2022, 22:47
That sounds like an interesting project, but I assume it would require me to read Finnish (or Russian)? The daily reports you are referring to would be the war diaries found at military archives, like https://astia.narc.fi/uusiastia/viewer/ ... 2360060650, right?
The tactical situation can be either found from war diaries kept hour-by-hour or from daily situation reports sent twice or thrice a day to the Division/Army Corps/Army.

Seppo Koivisto
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Re: Situation maps of the Winter War & Continuation War

#7

Post by Seppo Koivisto » 30 May 2022, 12:21

InteractiveHistory wrote:
29 May 2022, 22:58
Thank you! Do you know of any other books that have information on detailed division positions?
I think Raunio & Kilin "Battles of Winter War" is at least the most visual in this respect, but it is all in Finnish.
https://www.booky.fi/tuote/ari_raunio/t ... 9515934154

InteractiveHistory
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Re: Situation maps of the Winter War & Continuation War

#8

Post by InteractiveHistory » 02 Jun 2022, 00:20

Thanks for the information, I'll try and do some situation maps for the Winter War. I think I'll post something here and try to get some feedback :)

ML
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Re: Situation maps of the Winter War & Continuation War

#9

Post by ML » 03 Jun 2022, 21:17

I think Raunio & Kilin "Battles of Winter War" is at least the most visual in this respect, but it is all in Finnish.
https://www.booky.fi/tuote/ari_raunio/t ... 9515934154
Russian version of this book is/was also available... but more useful book for person knowing Swedish would be De militära operationerna : de finska krigen 1939-45 by Ari Raunio (http://libris.kb.se/bib/11295530)

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