Every War is a Winter

A few thoughts on the Winter War, November 1939 to April 1940

When the Soviet Union invaded Finland, battles raged in Finnish forests all winter. Finns resorted to methods such as cooking sausages to attract starved Soviet troops, with snipers lying in wait, such as Simo Häyhä, who lay in the snow for hours, at –45°C.

Finnish troops included frontline synagogues.

Finnish Jewish nurse Dina Poljakoff was subsequently awarded the German Iron Cross, which she immediately turned down.

The tragedy lay in the Finnish victory: it showed Nazi Germany the Soviets were vulnerable.

Today, a woman in a queue told me we needed a war to treat queue jumpers a lesson. People are idiots.