The Winter War: Amazon.ca: Eloise Engle: Books

Product Description

This is a paperback edition of Engle and Paananen's authoritative account of the Winter War.

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First Sentence
Were you to travel from the Arctic Ocean to the city of Leningrad, along the Russo-Finnish border in the year 1939, you would have had a complex journey. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
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Average Customer Review

3.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Winter War, Feb 18 2007

By

Dan K (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Winter War (Paperback)

Title: The Winter War -The Soviet attack on Finland 1939-1940

Authour: Eloise Engle & Lauri Paananen

Publisher: Stackpole Books

ISBN: 0-8117-2433-6

Stars: 5 (out of 5)

Having nothing in my personal library on this conflict I picked it up when I saw it. Not disappointed.

The book is broken into 17 chapters and covers the political beginings of why the Soviet Union wanted to attack, right on up to the end where Finland signed for Peace.

I had heard how the Finnish soldier managed to hold off large Soviet attacks of both soldiers and tanks and this book describes how it was possible. There are unit designations for both sides that include losses when available. Even though the Soviet armed forces had a material advantage of Artillery, Tanks, Aircraft and Soldiers they suffered huge losses due to bad planning, extremely poor logistics, and the high moral of the Finnish defenders, which was not expected. The moral was so high, that when the Peace was signed, most soldiers still considered that they won the war.

There are a few 1st person accounts which definately add to the book and the descriptions of how the Soviets surrvived in their mottis and were ultimately destroyed in them, makes for some informative reading.

There are only a couple of maps and there are some good photos with only a few of them being seen in other publications.

There is an Appendix at the end where it shows which countries helped Finland out w/military aid and volunteers

Definately a book worth reading if you are wanting to learn or inform yourself on the Finnish side of the Winter War.

This is a general description of the War and as stated, it is my first book on just the Finnish Winter War so I found it very interesting.

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3.0 out of 5 stars A little known war that could have drastically changed WWII, Jun 25 2004

By

Craig MACKINNON (Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Winter War (Paperback)

There are a number of books available on the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union, which was fought for a few months from Dec '39 to March '40. Even so, the war is little known in the west, coming as it did just after the Nazi/Soviet partition of Poland, during the Sitzkrieg, and just before the Nazi invasions of Norway and Denmark. Little Finland held off a Soviet onslaught for several months before superior numbers and equipment finally wore the Finnish defenders out. Meanwhile, the world debated whether to aid the Finns, occupied as they were with Nazi aggressions.

The book is written anecdotally, giving a flavour of the nature of the fighting in the war, rather than a strategic overview of causes and a tactical description of the campaign. This is a wise move as the Winter War was tactically simple - there were no fancy maneuvers, it was basically soldier-to-soldier fighting in the dark and cold, where the elements were at least as dangerous as the enemy. That's not to say that statistics and battles are not described, but they are not the important or interesting part of the book.

The authors are Finnish and the story is told almost exclusively from the Finnish point of view. Originally written in 1973, they would not have had access to Soviet records. They do give a feel for the Soviet soldier's lot, however, based on interviews with POW's. I am satisfied that, with the information available at the time, the facts are accurate - the Finns DID wipe out entire divisions (with the help of the cold and snow), the Soviets DID curl up into defensive positions and lose the initiative, and the guerrilla tactics used by the Finns (much like those used in current-day Iraq and in Vietnam) rubbed the invaders' nerves raw and sapped morale. Most interesting, however, is the analysis of the political situation from the Finnish point-of-view: would acceptance of foreign aid, for example, actually extend the war and/or hamper negotiations during the peace talks?

Unfortunately, the story is incomplete. At 200 pages, there's ample room to include the Continuation War (after Finland formally allied itself with Nazi Germany and tried to reclaim their lost territory). Also, the writing style is almost juvenile, compared to the smooth and precise prose of Keegan, Churchill, etc. English is probably not the first language of at least one of the authors. Therefore, the book is interesting and useful, as far as it goes, but it is too short and not written well enough to be called a classic.

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4.0 out of 5 stars A summary of the War between the Soviet Union and Finland., Oct 9 2003

By

Kevin M Quigg (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Winter War (Paperback)

This is a nice summary book of the war between the Soviet Union and Finland. This book was written back in 1973, and the one on sale here is a reprint. Trotter's book, A Frozen Hell is probably a better book because it gives an analysis of the war, where this book are reflections of the war from the Finish viewpoint. However this book has merit, simply because it has recorded some of the sufferings on the Finish side, in the war with a super powver.
For those people wanting a balanced point of view, go with Trotter's book. For those who only need a brief history of this event, this is an adequate and very readable book, complete with pictures. As one of the previous reviewers has pointed out, one of the authors is a Finn, and this is his first book, so the wording might be a little stilted. However, I don't think it detracts from the story of a war where the Soviets may have suffered over a million casualities, while inflicting only 50,000 casualities on the Finnish population. The Soviets bit off more than they could chew when they decided to invade Finland.

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Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Read
This is by far the most commonly seen book on the Winter War and the book seems to have had great commercial success. Read more

Published on Mar 9 2003 by Brent L. Snodgrass

3.0 out of 5 stars Trotter's "A Frozen Hell" is much better
I'm not sure but this book feels like it was translated directly from Finnish to English. Some of the grammar and sentences are a bit odd, and not all the terminology is explained... Read more

Published on Jan 30 2003 by Ensio N Mikkola