Salla — Lagus against the 9th Army

The Soviet 9th Army under General Mikhail Chuikov attacks central Finnish Lapland on 30 November 1939, in a zone reputed to be impassable: virgin forests, frozen marshes, night temperatures of -40°C. It fields 3 divisions — the 44th, 54th and 163rd — about 47,000 men with 60 tanks in support, with the mission of crossing Finland to Sweden, at Tornio on the Gulf of Bothnia, to cut the country in 2 and take Helsinki in a north-south pincer.

Opposing it stands the Finnish Salla Brigade — 3,000 poorly equipped men, no heavy artillery and no armour, under Colonel Roine Lagus, 41, a former cavalry instructor. What remain are the advantages of terrain and of cold. Lagus applies the motti doctrine adapted to great distances: 100-man ski groups, ambushes on a 200 km front, planned withdrawals to positions prepared in advance and supplied from forest caches.

On 17 December 1939, after 2 weeks of fighting withdrawal, the Soviet 9th Army is halted at Märkäjärvi, 80 km inside Finnish territory.

Lagus must decide what to do next.