🇫🇮 First shot of the #WinterWar. #OTD 5:30am on the morning of 30 November 1939, Finnish Border Guard Kallionpää returned from a night-time patrol to his station at Pielisjärvi, Karelia. He had just started sipping a cup of coffee when a report was received that a column of
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Soviet soldiers had been seen crossing the border. Kallionpää and fellow Border Guard Moiseinen were ordered to carry out reconnaissance to determine if it was a Soviet incursion. They had gone only a 1km when they sighted Soviet troops advancing in close formation. #Talvisota
Kallionpää returned to base with the news. At 6:30, Kallionpää made out a figure following the tracks he’d left in the snow, pausing to aim a rifle here and there in the still-dark forest. When the figure was within 30 metres, Kallionpää could see the greatcoat and cap that
identified the invader as a Soviet soldier. He took cover behind a tree, watching, and decided that if the soldier’s aim were to find him, he’d have to fire first. Now only 8 metres away, the soldier turned and raised his weapon directly at Kallionpää.
Kallionpää pulled the trigger. The soldier dropped his rifle, falling forward into the snow without a sound. This was the first casualty of the Winter War. 20 minutes later, the Soviet Union unleashed attacks by 21 divisions, totalling 450,000 men along Finland’s eastern border.
The main Soviet attack began at 6:50am on 30 November with an artillery barrage on the Karelian Isthmus, followed by an all-out attack by land, sea and air. Soon after, it began bombing the capital. Soviet planes dropped 600 bombs on Helsinki, killing 91 Finns.
Soviet planners assumed an easy victory in time for Josef Stalin's 60th birthday. Soviet Command was confident that their "superior" technology would give them a swift victory, within weeks. This plan failed.
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