Winter War: The Finnish 9th Division stops and completely destroys the overwhelming Soviet forces on the Raate-Suomussalmi road

The Battle of Raate Road was fought during the Winter Warbetween the Soviet Union andFinland in January 1940, as a part of the Battle of Suomussalmi.

On December 7, 1939, the Soviet 163rd Division capturedSuomussalmi, but found itself trapped deep inside Finnish territory, and the Soviet 44th Rifle (Ukrainian) Division was sent to aid the 163rd.

Over the next week, Colonel Hjalmar Siilasvuo's outnumbered 9th Division stopped and decisively defeated the Soviet forces on the Raate-Suomussalmi road.

Finnish motti tactics proved to be very effective in this battle.

At the start of the battle of Raate road, Siilasvuo's 9th Division had already destroyed the Russian 163rd Division. After that, it received orders to destroy the Soviet 44th Division, which was stopped on the road near Haukila, 12 kilometers from Suomussalmi. The Finnish 9th Division was split in four squadrons, each named after their commanders.

The decisive battle was ordered to begin on January 5, 1940, 08:30.

The battles focused on Haukila, where most of the Soviet troops were located and where squadrons "Mandelin" and "Mäkiniemi" attacked. Squadron "Mäkiniemi" had started moving towards Haukila a few days before the official attack. At the same time, the fresh 3rd NKVD Border Guard Regiment was just arriving to assist the Soviet 44th Division.

By the following morning, the Finnish troops held strong blocking positions reinforced with mines at several points in the midst of the Soviet column.

During January 6, heavy fighting occurred all along the Raate road as the Finns continued to break up the enemy forces into smaller pieces. The Soviets attempted to overrun Finnish roadblocks with armor, losing numerous tanks in frontal attacks, but were unsuccessful.

Finally, at 21:30, Vinogradov belatedly ordered his division to retreat back to the Soviet border.

On January 7, squadron "Fagernäs" recaptured the bridge and before noon all Soviet resistance was suppressed. The mopping-up went on for two days, during which the Finns rounded up hundreds of starving, frozen Ukrainians.

Other remnants of the 44th Division managed to escape the blockade and reach the border in several small groups

For many years, Finnish historians estimated the Soviet losses to be around 17,000 men. The estimation was based on the interrogation of the prisoners of war captured in early January. Officers of the Soviet 27th Infantry Regiment had given their casualties at 70 percent and the Finns assumed that the strength of the 44th Division was over 20,000 men.

 Western historians conformed their figures to Finnish estimations. The Soviets challenged the number of casualties published in the Western world immediately in January and claimed to have lost no more than 900 men, mostly from frostbite, while inflicting an estimated 2,000 Finn fatalities