A Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-1940

What makes historical books such as these work, are the vignettes and character sketches not only of individuals but groups of people. The Finnish courage and sense of humor, the sad pitiful state of Soviet soldiers, the Soviet's inhumanity and indifference to its own people, the waffling and Realpolitik of Western nations, the indepedence of Mannerheim, all come through in Trotter's writing. The stories of Soviet soldiers trapped in barbed wire calling out to Stalin, the night-time hunter-seeker raids by pairs of Finns, the foolish tactics of the Soviets who would push their tanks far ahead of the troops and allow the Finns to ignore the tanks and slaughter the unprotected troops, the snow un-drinkable because of artillery contamination...

I guess I was a little disappointed that the "ski attacks" weren't as prevalent as I had believed. One of the most visual scenes in WWII combat is the image of camoflauged Finns sweeping through trees w/ submachine guns blowing away Soviets, but the book tells of other Finnish tactics that were more successful (and realistic), such as the nighttime raid that forced the Soviets to get into a firefight w/ themselves. An excellent book on guerilla warfare in the snow and ice.

William Trotter's A Frozen Hell does a great job of detailing the events leading up to, and the battles during, the Russo-Finnish Winter War of '39-'40.

Trotter spent a lot of time in Finland doing detailed research for this book and it shows. His writing style is very concise and detailed without being drab. Battle accounts are well written with detailed maps to aid the reader in getting their bearings on locations described therein.

It deals mostly from the Finnish perspective, but this is done in a very balanced and unbiased way, detailing mistakes made by both sides in the conflict, and giving us a well rounded view.

A great book that I heartily recommend to anyone interested in learning about this interesting and engaging conflict that has been given very little coverage by Western Historians.

As time moves on, fewer and fewer people have any knowledge of a "little war" that took place in the shadows of the outbreak of WWII in Europe. Those who were old enough to remember the Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-40 generally remember it as the struggle of a David vs a Goliath. For awhile David was winning and the empathy and sympathy of the world was starting to pull behind it. Ultimately, however, Goliath prevailed and the attention of the world was quickly directed elsewhere. What really happened in that brief war? Fortunately, William Trotter has put together a well-researched and well-written account of that conflict. There are times in this book that the victories of the underdog Finns can get you really worked up. Unfortunately, history cannot be changed and we know throughout the book that the Finns will eventually lose. Once the dam was burst, the war was quickly ended. The relationship between Finland and Russia has been a stormy one. Many of those who cheered for the Finns in the Winter War were akwardly forced to change their stance when the Finns joined with Nazi Germany in the invasion of Russia a couple of years later. That is, however, a different story. Trotter gives us the Finns as heros in a lost cause. It is a worthwhile story to read.

A very solid book. As a Finn I actually find this book quite critical of some of the Finnish political and military moves. And criticism is certainly warranted. Some reviewers have found this book to lack the Russian perspective. That may be true but one must also remember that until very recently there has not been any possibility for Russians to write openly about their Winter War experiences. So, whatever their shortcomings might be, the Finnish materials have thus far been far more reliable...written by free people in a country that, partially due to heroics in the Winter War, remained democratic. I also strongly doubt that Finland could have avoided a full scale war with Soviet Union or occupation. After all, the three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) made the concessions Stalin required of them, but they were still overrun by Soviets, and then by Germans and then yet again by Soviets. Hardly an ideal result. I give this book 4 stars and withhold the fifth one based on the lack of better maps. Still, this is easily the best book in English about the Winter War.

The book was fascinating and I actually believed most of what was written except... the book is very slanted. It's another one of those "barbarians get their comeuppance" books.

Trotter says that the Red Army was of "unknown size" to its own commanders. While reading that, the mind sees no red flags and keeps going, absorbing the subtle message that the Russians were buffoons. Now, the Red Army was a proffessional army. Until Stalin killed off the officers, it was an excellent army. The idea that the Soviets didn't know the size of their own army is absolutely ludicrous.

I understand that the author was not able to get at some of the more, ah, classified Soviet documents. However, when the figures in the official archives of the USSR say 48745 dead and 159000 wounded, it's true. Armies don't just half their casualty figures because it makes them look good. If the author's figures are correct (500000 total), that means the Red Army, after the war, assumed that it had 300000 extra troops, whent they were actually dead in Finland? That's just stupid.

The numbers given by Finnish historians are bound to be exagerrated because small countries have small histories, and killing ten Russians for every one of your own people sounds impressive.