Time Astra

Schematic plan · Russo-Finish War (1939-1940)

Battle of Suomussalmi

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A schematic plan, generated from the statistics of the CAA Database of Battles: the armies' size and width, the hours of fighting, the plan of attack and the outcome are as recorded; the ground and the positions are not.
Rolling, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsArmourGuns010 km20 kmN

Finland (Fin 9th Inf Div, 9,000 men under Col Siilasvuo) attacked USSR (Sov 163rd Ukranian Div & 44th Motorized Div, 29,954 men under Gen Selentsov) in Finland. The CAA Database of Battles records 672 hours of fighting on a front of 32 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against hasty defense, and that Finland won. Losses: Finland 2,670 (30%), USSR 19,600 (65%).

This plan is generated from those figures. It shows the shape of the battle the database describes: the size and width of the armies, the plan of attack and the outcome. It does not show where the units actually stood.

The armies

Finland

Col Siilasvuo

UnitArmMen
Finland left wingInfantry2,131
Finland centreInfantry2,842
Finland right wingInfantry2,131
Finland reserveInfantry1,776
Finland artillery (8 guns)Artillery120
Col SiilasvuoCommander—
In this plan9,000

USSR

Gen Selentsov

UnitArmMen
USSR left wingInfantry6,777
USSR centreInfantry9,036
USSR right wingInfantry6,777
USSR reserveInfantry5,648
USSR artillery (96 guns)Artillery1,440
USSR armour (55 tanks)Armour275
Gen SelentsovCommander—
In this plan29,953

What the sources report

FinlandUSSR
Strength, this plan9,00029,954
Losses, this plan2,67019,600

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 261, “Suomussalmi”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
672 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Heavy precipitation, Cold, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
32 km (attacker), 32 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Finlandattacker9,0002,67008Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Penetration
USSRdefender29,95419,600096Defensive/offensive plan; Annihilated

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · training +1 · logistics +1 · intelligence +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +2 · combat effectiveness +1

CDB90 (US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, 1990), tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold; data under ODC-BY 1.0.

Notes

On this reconstruction

Generated automatically from the statistics in CDB90. Frontages, depths, distances, the order of events and the terrain are schematic: they follow the recorded strengths, front widths, hours of fighting, tactical plan and outcome, not maps or accounts of the battle. The sources give no hours; the timing is conjectural.

Sources

Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.