The Finnish Army
in Winter War

Part II

In  Part I

• Before the war
      The birth of the Army
      The new mobilization system
      The Civic Guard
• The material situation
      The defensive spending in pre-war years
      Worst shortages
• The threat of war
      Diagram of the Finnish High Command, Dec 1939
• The mobilization
      The smaller units
      A table of the allocation of troops on Nov 25th 1939

In Part II

• The Order of Battle of the Finnish Field Army, on Nov 30th 1939
      Abbreviations
      The Isthmus Army
      The IV Corps and P-SR
      C-in-C's reserves
• The replacement troops
  Changes during the war
  A rough table of delivered replacements
     

The Order of Battle of the Finnish Army on Nov 30th 1939

( The image has hotspots! )

Abbreviations

(Note that these tables are a summary of different tables and maps, found mostly in "Talvisodan Historia 1", so there is a chance that they are not 100 % correct)

(to see the Isthmus Army deployment on Nov 30th 1939, click the image below)

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The replacement troops

The most important task of the Home Front troops, was to transport replacements to the Field Army. At the start of the mobilization, 3 replacement divisions (1.Koti-T-D - 3.Koti-T-D) were formed from the excess reservists, conscripted men and a small number of officers and NCO's. Each replacement division (all replacement units had a "Koti-T" in front of their abbreviation, like "1.Koti-T-D" for "1st Home Front replacement division") consisted of

• 3  T-JR (replacement infantry regiment)
• 1  kevyt-T-P (light replacement battalion)
• 1  T-KTR (replacement artillery regiment)
• 1  T-PionP (replacement Pioneer battalion)
• 1  Viesti-T-P (replacement signals battalion)
• 1  Huolto-T-P (replacement supply battalion)

In addition to these, the 1.Koti-T-D had also

• 1  panssari-T-K (replacement tank company)
• 1  mittaus-T-Ptri (replacement survey battery)

and the 3.Koti-T-D had

• 1  raskas-T-Ptri (heavy replacement battery)
• 1  kaasusuojelu-T-P (replacement gas protection battalion)
• 1  R-T-R (replacement cavalry regiment)

Also, in late October, the AT-gun training centre started the training of AT-gun platoons in Hämeenlinna.

The Field replacement brigade, (hereafter KT-Pr.) was formed under the command of the General HQ, to replace larger losses, transporting whole companies and battalions to the Army.

The main purpose was to train men for replacement purposes for the frontline units. During the early phases of the mobilization, from late October onwards, manpower shortages were handled by the replacement divisions. The replacements were to be transported to the divisional replacement battalion, from which they were to be allocated further as ordered by the division commander.

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Changes during the war

As the Army had a chronic shortage of units, the battalions of the KT-Pr. had to be used to in the frontline. This led to changes in the replacement system. On Dec 1st, an order was issued to reform the replacement divisions into brigades, increasing the unit number. Also JR 40 was formed and attached to 9.D to replace the JR 26, which had been attached to 8.D.

This change wasn't of long duration, as on Dec 9th, a new order was issued, that the Home Front troops should switch back into divisional organization. The only visible result of the "re-forming" was that the JR 40 was formed, and the 2.Koti-T-D was left without the 3rd regiment (the result of forming the JR 40).
    The reason for this was the appalling situation on the front. It was more efficient to use the troops in the frontline as units, than to replace slowly the losses. On Dec 19th, the 1.Koti-T-D became the 21.D (JR 61 - JR 63), the 2.Koti-T-D became the 22.D (JR 64 - JR 65), and the 3.Koti-T-D became the 23.D (JR 67 - JR 69).

As the replacement divisions were now taken into the Field Army, the task of feeding replacement was given to hastily erected training centres, which started the work from Dec 18th onwards.

Throughout the war, came new orders to raise new units, and while the requests for replacements were given in December-January through official channels, from February onwards (after the Red Army started it's major offensive) the losses mounted so fast, that requests were made simply by a phone call.

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A rough estimate of delivered replacements, from the Home Front to the Field Army
(no exact figures are available)

(Table source: "Talvisodan Historia 4", WSOY 1991, p.166)

Late in the war, the shortage of manpower was alarming. Marshal Mannerheim called this an even greater shortage than the shortage of equipment. To give the negotiators in Moscow, as great non-direct support (by reinforcing the Army at the front) as possible, Mannerheim ordered the "last human resources"(meaning troops with even some training), 14 battalions in training centres with poor equipment and little training, behind the frontline in detachments consisting of 3-4 battalions, which started to arrive to the main theatre on March 5th.

Go Back to Part I

The following pages provide more data:

• The situation of the Communications equipment in Winter War
• The general organization of supply
• The number of Infantry Weapons available for the Finnish Army in Winter War
• The Finnish Artillery
      The number of artillery pieces in the Finnish army
      The Finnish Artillery units in Winter War
      Finnish artillery pieces
• The Finnish anti-tank weapons
• Small arms used in Winter War
• The Finnish tanks (under construction!)