Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

After solving the 163rd Division, the Finnish army immediately turned its spearhead and pounced on the Soviet 44th Dimo ​​Infantry Division.

At this time, the Soviet 44th Division had occupied the Escola area near another road about two kilometers south of the Latei Highway. This road is connected to the Ratai Highway and extends to the southeast, leading to the national border. In order to prevent the Soviet army from using this road, the Finnish army sent troops to cut off the road and completely surrounded the Soviet 44th Division.

At the beginning, the morale of the Soviet 44th Division was high. They resisted desperately in the circular defensive position they built. The infantry and artillery fought together to repel multiple attacks by the Finnish army.

Later, the Finnish army just surrounded them and bombarded them with artillery day and night. The 44th Division, which was unable to receive supplies, soon experienced a food crisis. The Finnish army also sent patrols to specifically attack the Soviet field kitchens, destroying nuclear weapons and capturing all 55 of its field kitchens. The Soviet army's combat effectiveness is getting weaker and weaker, and its morale is getting lower and lower.

The Soviet army attempted to open a road to the east in order to withdraw to the vicinity of Likojuf; with the support of tanks, it successfully drove away an infantry company of the Finnish army. It was forced to leave the Pras River, but then the Finnish army launched a counterattack and defeated the enemy there. The Finnish army then continued to attack westward and captured Likojuf, where they captured a large number of prisoners and five tanks.

The Soviet army in the rear attempted to rescue the 44th Motorized Rifle Division. An infantry unit, supported by artillery deployed behind the border, launched an attack on the Finnish infantry in Latte. After repelling the Soviet rescue effort, the Finnish army sent a reconnaissance patrol two kilometers deep into the Soviet territory to conduct reconnaissance, and only encountered some scattered Soviet soldiers. There were several small battles near Lake Koko and Tenila, but the Soviet officers and soldiers knew that they had suffered a decisive defeat.

Chuikov learned that the 44th Division was short of food and urgently airdropped a large amount of bread, biscuits and other food. However, due to the intensive anti-aircraft fire of the Finnish Army, the Soviet aircraft did not dare to fly low, and most of the food fell on the Finnish Army's positions.

The Soviet army had no food for two days. The officers and soldiers were so hungry that they were dizzy and their limbs were limp. Some officers and soldiers prepared to slaughter war horses to satisfy hunger, but the division commander Vinogradov strictly prohibited it. The chief of staff suggested concentrating firepower to break out, but the division commander said that retreat could not be carried out without orders from superiors.

It was not until the 5th day that the army was completely in dire straits, and the division commander received personal instructions from Chuikov: "Slaughter all the horses and retreat quickly." But the officers and soldiers were dying and had no strength to even pull the trigger. They watched helplessly as the Finnish army The bayonets came one after another.

“On a road that was about four miles long,” American journalist Virginia Cowles wrote after visiting the battlefield, “Soviet soldiers and horses could be seen everywhere on the highway and in the forest. corpses; as well as destroyed tanks, field kitchen utensils, trucks, artillery carriages, maps, books and clothing. These corpses were frozen as hard as fossilized wood, and their skin turned reddish brown. Some corpses were piled together , like small garbage mountains, with only thick white snow covering them; some are leaning against trees, showing strange shapes. All the corpses are frozen, connected to the frozen earth. . I saw one of the corpses covering his stomach with his hands; and the other corpse looked like he was trying to unbutton his coat."

In this battle, the Finns achieved amazing results: a total of 43 tanks, 70 field guns, 278 trucks, cars and tractors, nearly 300 machine guns, 6,000 rifles, 1,170 live horses and very precious captured Modern communication equipment. The death toll of the Soviet army cannot be calculated at all, because after the snow fell, many people fell or froze to death and were buried in the snowdrifts. According to Finnish conservative estimates, the Soviet losses exceeded 10,000 people. The commander of the 44th Division, Vinogradov, fled back home in a tank and was sentenced to death. The total number of dead, injured, and missing people in Finland was approximately 2,700, of which only 12% were caused by frostbite.

When he heard the news that the two divisions had been wiped out, Stalin crushed the big pipe in his hand, his face so gloomy that he seemed to want to eat people.

At first, I thought that taking over Finland would be a piece of cake, and I even promised the British that it could be done in as little as three days or as little as two weeks.

But what's the result? !

Finland's Mannoheim defense line has not been able to break through so far, and now two integrated divisions have actually been wiped out.

This is simply a slap in the face of the Soviet Union!

Everyone in the conference room did not dare to express their anger. It was not until Stalin's secretary brought a new pipe and Stalin relit the pipe that Beria spoke cautiously. "Comrade Stalin, after careful analysis, we have concluded that Finland absolutely does not have such capabilities. Their ability to launch a guerrilla war is already their limit. Today's Finns definitely have helpers behind them to support them."

Starling nodded sullenly, indicating for him to continue.

"Take the Finnish fighter jets. Initially they were supported by Spain, but later under the coordination of the United Kingdom (of course the United Kingdom had no shame in saying that it had to pay 270 tons of gold to get Spain to withdraw), Spain withdrew its volunteers. And then Sweden also We began to support Finland, but we found that before the war broke out, Sweden had less than 30 BF109 fighter jets. Now there are more than 40 in Finland alone, and Sweden has not produced a large number of fighter jets recently, which is very suspicious. ."

Where did the fighter jets with the Swedish logo come from?

Throughout Europe, although many countries are producing BF109 fighter jets, these countries are either occupied by Germany or are allies of Germany.

"The most important thing is that the incendiary bombs that destroyed our 'super tanks' are also unique to Germany." The "super tank" he was talking about was the Soviet-made Maus tank. The poor guy is still parked on the Mannoheim Line of Defense. More than 800 meters away, it was impossible to move.

There are various signs that it must be the Germans who are causing trouble.

Molotov spoke. "Could it be that the Germans found out about our agreement with Britain?"

Starling shook his head. "Probably not. If they knew that we would deal with them next after taking Finland, they wouldn't be so sneaky and cause trouble." They would blatantly send troops to Finland for support.

"We are going to make the Germans pay the price!" Someone yelled indignantly. Beria looked at the general who shouted like a fool, and secretly wondered how did this guy climb to the position of general? Now that they haven't even taken over Finland, what can they do to make the Germans pay the price? If this word reaches the Germans, they will not laugh out loud.