Swedish intervention in the Winter War
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The Swedish Intervention in the Winter War was a short-lived but successful attempt by the Swedish Volunteer Corps, along with other Nordic volunteers, to prevent a Soviet invasion of Finland during the Winter War. The volunteers only engaged in a few skirmishes on ground and in the air, the only major battles they participated in being the battles of Salla and Honkaniemi. The term "volunteers" have often been used to describe the Nordic military support for Finland in the Winter War, although involvement by the government of Sweden has been debated over time. Nevertheless, the Swedish military sent enormous amounts of aid to Finland, including:
- Approximately 2,000,000,000 SEK (US$ ~312,658,890) of financial aid - twice the size of the Finnish defense budget at the time
- 50,013,300 rounds of small arms ammunition
- 135,402 rifles
- 450 light machine guns
- 347 machine guns
- 301,846 artillery shells
- 144 field guns
- 92 anti-armor guns
- 100 anti-aircraft guns
- 300 sea mines
- 500 depth charges
- 83 motorcycles
- 83 cars
- 350 trucks
- 13 tractors
- 17 fighter aircraft
- 5 light bombers
- 1 transport aircraft
- 3 reconnaissance aircraft
Swedish Intervention in the Winter War | |||||||||
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Part of Winter War and World War II | |||||||||
Swedish soldiers inspecting a disabled enemy tank | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Sweden Finland Denmark Norway Minor support from: France Hungary Italy United Kingdom |
Soviet Union Terijoki Government | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Ernst Linder Carl Gustaf Mannerheim Kurt Martti Wallenius Voldemar Oinonen |
Joseph Stalin Kirill Meretskov Kliment Voroshilov Semyon Timoshenko[5] | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
10,397 men:
8,402 |
20,000-30,000 men 58 tanks 29 aircraft in combat | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
523: Specific casualties
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891: 640 killed 203 wounded 48 missing 9 tanks 4 fighters shot down 2 fighters damaged 6 bombers shot down 2 bombers damaged 7 more aircraft shot down 8 more aircraft damaged |