021 - Swedes not Sweden to Finland's Rescue - WW2 - January 19 1940 

Hej vänner! Just like the Finns are getting help from the Swedes this week, we could need some help of our own. As Indy mentions at the end of this episode, we are almost entirely financed by our viewers and fans on Patreon. Do you want to do your part? Make your way to ttps://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory or timeghost.tv to help us make this documentary. Do you want to contribute in other ways? Check out our Forum at community.timeghost.tv. We have several community-driven research projects running (such as the PictureHunt and Out of the Foxholes), and more are coming soon! The very well colorised thumbnail depicts First Sergeant John Horseholm and Åke Ek of the Swedish Volunteer Battalion in 1944. Find out their story here (CONTAINS SPOILERS): www.flickr.com/photos/jenoscolor/28483225283/. Colorised by Jared Enos www.flickr.com/people/jenoscolor/. Last but not least, please check out our Instagram page (@World_War_Two_Realtime) for realtime day to day news from 1940. The posts are parallel to the show. We try to cover topics that get overshadowed by the larger events or cover some details of those more in-depth. You can find that here: instagram.com/world_war_two_realtime/ Cheers, Joram *PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU COMMENT:* *RULES OF CONDUCT* STAY CIVIL AND POLITE we will delete any comments with personal insults, or attacks. AVOID PARTISAN POLITICS AS FAR AS YOU CAN we reserve the right to cut off vitriolic debates. HATE SPEECH IN ANY DIRECTION will lead to a ban. RACISM, XENOPHOBIA, OR SLAMMING OF MINORITIES will lead to an immediate ban. PARTISAN REVISIONISM, ESPECIALLY HOLOCAUST AND HOLODOMOR DENIAL will lead to an immediate ban. Thanks for reading. Now go comment!

The map animation is absolutely fantatstic

Nice video. My great grandfather was a Swedish volunteer which fought in Finland.

Great to see Swede volunteers coming to help Finland. Belgium is so adorable in thinking anyone is going to care that their neutral this time around.

Restarting this series and listening to this episode in 2022; how interesting is it that Russias propaganda against Finland is mirrored now with its invasion of Ukraine…

Great work, you should make the episodes longer :)

Winter Wars: The Finns Strikes Back ... With Volunteers

Loved the statement at the end. Hope is, I would maintain, a stronger word than love.

Indy could you make a review of the Finnish war movie "Tuntematon sotilas" aka "The Unknown soldier"(1955 version or 2017 version, latter might be easyer to find) in some extra special episode?

Orvar Nilsson is one of those Swedish heroes who came to help Finland, but Sweden did little.

There was only 1 experimental tank KV in the Red Army during the Winter War. The serial production started in April 1940.

Norway proved that sometimes real estate can be too good

love the details and the enthusiastic ‘reporting’ as if it’s BBC or Fox News 1940

This guy was named Edward Ironside.

Is there a reason why the other Baltic countries are already marked in Soviet Red even though they are still independent countries at that time?

As a Finn, I honor those brave Swedish, Estonian and other volunteers who came to help us, even though their governments wouldn't. That's true bravery as it's finest!

The last of the swedish volunteers, Bengt Essén, passed away just recently at the age of 100. A moment of silence for him in the comments below.

Up north in Sweden, a lot of people with goods by mistake skied over to Finland... woops... and some medicine also by mistake ended up in Finland. I been told by relatives that people suddenly had problem knowing where Swedish/ Finnish border where at that the time..

I dunno propaganda could have been so helpful. Toilet breaks! Genius!

Swedish volunteers were brave and fought valiantly for Finland and I am forever humbled by their courage to fight for us. Sweden accepting to take our children during wartime makes me cry everytime I think about it. Thank you Sweden.

"Finland is the real aggressor! ...'cause that makes sense..." Lmao

Heja svenska folket! Had to check that with Google translate. Seven years of compulsory Swedish courses well spent.

Come on RU-vid give this channel some love and monetize their videos! The world needs people like Indy to educate us about the history of WW2! Keep up the good work sir! I'll see you next time!

Foreign volunteers in the Winter War, Yes! As many people already know, Christopher Lee was a volunteer Keep it up ww2 team!

There is no way Belgian neutrality will be violated again, right?

Hello from Finland and keep up the great work. Indy's pronunciation of our language seems to be getting a lot better as the months advance.

Go Finland you’re are our guy You won’t win but you’ll sure try

Fun fact: The people in Helsinki darkened most of the city and lit up the fields outside the town were most of the russian bombs landed 😁😂

Another fantastic episode, it's just a shame that this will all have blown over by Christmas and you'll have to start covering another war.

Fun fact: the russians bombed thei r own embassy in Helsinki

My grandfather was one of the volonteers. He lied about his age to join the army and traveled from Skåne far south all the way up to Finland. He never talked about what happened up there much.

Actually Finland was the only country at war with all sides during WWII: -Soviets during Winter war and Continuation War. -Allies during 1941-1944 ( Great Britain declared war at Finland after the beginning of Continuation War -Germany during Lappland war 1944

Thank you so much Indy and team. I hereby would like to nominate Indy as the best dressed RU-vidr of 2019

The Soviets also bombed the workers' quarter in Helsinki. Didn't endear themselves to the Finnish workers.

About the Hungarian support of Finnland: Count Pál Teleki’s government sent armaments and war equipment valued at 1 million Hungarian pengős by British and Italian ships during the Winter War (with knowledge and accord of Regent Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya). It contained 36 anti-aircraft guns with 10,250 cartridges, 16 mortars with 32,240 shells, 300 rifles with 520,000 cartridges, 30 armor-piercing rifles with 3,300 cartridges (taken from the Polish army), 300,000 hand grenades, 3,654 landmines, 93,680 helmets, 223 military transceivers, and 26,000 bandoleers. During the Winter War, around 25,000 Hungarian men applied to fight in Finland.

A Jamaican guy? Now it's a party!

Fellow nordic brothers coming to the rescue! May they prevail together against the communist scum! 🇸🇪 🇫🇮 notice how I do not say “Scandinavian”, a lot of people mistake the finns as Scandinavians.

Finland was smart to not give up that territory to Russia. Yes, Russia got what it wanted after this bloody war but if they just handed over that land they fought over the USSR would have just snatched up the entire country. Basically what happened to Czechoslovakia and the Sudetenland and Germany would have happened to them.

You're the best! Love waking up every saturday morning for a cup of coffee and watching. The detail and work you put into this is amazing keep it up.

0:56 looks like germany is throwing a brick through belgium's window to hit france

"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

We swedes had much to offer but much to risk. Also we had just manage to get the population sober as many were drunks before ww2 and took years for us to fix so we didn't want to go back. Second of all we swedes trained 10000 cops and made them soldiers. They were from norway. We sent as much as we could to Finland and did as much as we could without risking the population. I think we ain't the ones to blame. We just didn't want to go back to the hell we came from

3:25 In that picture, fourth man from the left is Christopher Lee as a teenager. He was one of the British volunteers

It would be great to have a special episode some time on what was actually going on in the "Phony War" and the reasons behind it.

My grandfather was a volunteer in the winter war/continuation war. He was injured by an artillery shell in 1944 and had to walk around with just one functioning lung for the rest of his life - but plot twist - at the hospital he met my grandmother who was his nurse.

The Nordic countries always look out for one another. 🇩🇰🇸🇪🇳🇴🇫🇮🇮🇸

”Finlands sak är vår!” Är så vackert att jag kan gråta.

That was interesting, given that my Grandfather was eventually a Lieutenant General in the Finnish Pioneering Engineer forces penetrating force lines, blowing up bridges as well as laying down mine fields and clearing them out.

Is that a painting of Conrad von Hötzendorf in the top left corner? Legend

Does...this not seem very similar to what's happening with Ukraine right now? Like, almost word for word what Putin is doing?

Beautiful closing Indy. 👍

i love this series so much.

Anyone else think it's weird how similar the Winter War is to the Ukrainian War today

That guy on the left with the eye patch in the thumnail was my great great uncle. It feels very strange to see him on yt just randomly. He survived a granade blast that's why he has the eye patch.

there was 12 000+ swedish soldiers in Finland! Det fanns 12 000+ svenska frivilliga i Finland! Tack Sverige! thank you Sweden! Johan i/in Finland!

Hey, I'm from Viipuri (Vyborg)! There are still huge stones left from the Mannerheim Line. Fascinating stuff.

my fathers grandfather Hjalmar (1900 - 1985) fought as a volunteer in the winterwar, he survived the war and lived a long and happy life, unfortunately not all were as lucky as him. RIP all who died.

Perkele

There's only a few countries I would enroll for volountary help/service for, Finland is one of them. I would be there in a heartbeat. Kind regards, Fellow Nordic

My grandpas dad was a swedish volunteers in the winter war. He even got shot in the left which made him deaf in the ear. My grandpa got some news paper that his dad had while he was in Finland and my grandpa got the medals that his dad got.

Indy - Hey wanna smoke some weed tonight? Person on Phone - Who else will be there? Indy - 0:02

Thanks for Swedish people for taking tens of thousands of war childrens. These days Sweden has own problems `cause of wrong immigration policy. If things get too bad, you`re welcome to Finland. As you perhaps know, we have lot of cities that are Swedish spoken. And 80% speaks english. A house in small town 250m2 with 7 rooms and need of renovation is like 17.000 euros. You will belong to our social security, so basic living (500-1000€/month per person) is clear. Welcome, vilkommen, willkommen!

wait what Jamaican guy?! I need to know!

We still have buildings with bombing damage here in Turku, chunks of granite with shrapnel holes in them.

The unremitting courage of the Finns in the face of two monsters rallied freedom lovers. It made those who loved their bravery not want them to face it alone. Sisu!

My favourite side story regarding voluntary help to Finns during this stage of WWII was that of the Nobel laureate Niels Bohr. He actually gave up his gold medal to raise money for Finland. Read about the whole story here: www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/10/03/140815154/dissolve-my-nobel-prize-fast-a-true-story

Finns did an amazing job!

Many politicians in Sweden at the time abdicated from their offices out of shame.

The Winter War is a fascinating prelude to the major actions of WW2

I just got a better impression of Rickard Sandler. Also, my grandparents were from Finland, and left Finland in 1956. Thus, my grandpa fought at the front in Karelia.

4:00 Hitler and Stalin were Allies at that time and Finland part of the Soviet "zone of interest" as defined in the Molotov-Ribbentrop-pact. He just gave Stalin free rein in Finland.

Ok, who also liked before watching? Love this channel!

There will forever be men, who are defiant to the end.Way to go Finland.

Oof, those KV heavy tanks were true juggernauts in those days. 43 tons (that's "metric tons" to you folks across the pond) of tank may not sound like much to modern ears (modern Western-doctrine MBTs are typically 60-70 tons), but at the time it was enough armor to make the tank absolutely impervious to pretty much everything from the front and a tough nut to crack even from the sides. I'd like to see this addressed in an "Out of the Foxholes" episode, but I'm guessing Finnish doctrine for dealing with them was to blow up the tracks with mines or AT guns to immobilize the KV, and then once its supporting infantry has been dealt with the Finns would send in stealthy infantry from the sides with grenades, bombs or incendiary "cocktails" to deal with the stuck tank up close.

Sounds like whats going on in ukraine

The fight against communism unites the nations of the world, How ironic yet beautiful

Amazing animations and as always, great narration by Indy. Love you guys

Hey guys! love the show, but couldn't help but notice a big mistake. ONLY KV-U0 (the first prototype KV tank) actually saw action in Finland during the winter war. It is incorrect to say that 'dozens' were fielded for the assault on the Mannheim line. There was 20 KV pre-production tanks manufactured before production began in July 1940. I am a published military historian who specializes in Soviet armour, and am quite happy to help out in this regard! My first book is called 'Fallen Giants: The Combat Debut of the T-35A Tank', and my second book to be released this year is 'The T-34 Continuum'.

What about the Danish volunteers? I believe we sent the second most volunteers in the Continuation and Winterwar.

Sweden, not swedes, sent huge amounts of ammunition, anti tank guns and artillery guns to the finnish army. Sweden did this in the middle of a situation when the entire world was desperate to rearm for the coming world war. Swedish military was itself in dire need of weapons of all kinds but nevertheles decided to donate huge amounts of materiel ti Finland, for example 1/3 of Swedens heavy artillery including ammo. Furthermore - any airforce officers that wanted to go to Finland was allowed to bring ”their” fighter aircraft plus support equipment and personell. All this in the midst of a swedish crisis of how to rearm and build up the Swedish army and the swedish airforce. So... not a very accurate headline.

Keep up the great work Indy, Spartacus & crew! I look forward to every episode :-)

I can't believe this channel has been demonetised by RU-vid! This is one of the most important periods of recent human history and the people taking the time to educate us about it deserve to be compensated for their efforts. I can't understand why something as valueless as Jake Paul's channel is able to make money when this one isn't. Get your act together RU-vid.

Sweden was not "neutral" in the winter war, we where "Non belligerent" the same state that the US was in before they joined the war on the British side. It means that you pick a side but you don't actively participate in the fighting.

Here in Michigan, there is a significant Finnish presence, especially in the Upper Peninsula. There is even a county that has a majority of people with Finnish ancestry. I’d be interested in finding out if any Michiganders joined in the fight.

The expected "aid" from the West never arrived during the Winter War. UK and especially US left Finland so alone that in the end it lead to Finnish alliance with the Nazis.

Holy shit is that indy neidell from the great war. Didn't know you had a ww2 channel as well.

I just noticed Hotzendorf on the wall. Nice touch.

Coincidentally, ASL just released an action pack that features scenarios with the Swedes in WW2, called Action Pack #15: Swedish Volunteers.

thanks for all veterans of finland and for all swedish honorous volunteers to help on our way to defend against the most sinister and evilness nation and faction of history of human beings, USSR+socialism

Finnish are not finished.

Soviets: PROPAGANDA TIME! COME ON FINNS JOIN US COMRADES... Finns: Ok guys I'm gonna go take a shit while they give the speech.

Spoilers: Hitler doesn't like Stalin

In the picture at 3:22 the tall dude in the background is believed to be Christopher Lee.

Grandpa has PTSD. He can can only toilet while listening to Kuusinen speeches. (From the 5:55 mark)

I read somewhere that Sweden sold Finland a large shipment of war material for a penny (or equivalent), as they couldn't donate it without breaking neutrality. not sure if its true.

We Swedes will always aid our Finnish brothers and Sisters. We were united in the same kingdom for over 600 years. We have the same flesh and blood.

Entire country of Finland, with more land than Great Britain (geographical location), had less people than city of Leningrad pre-war. So think about that, Leningrad alone had more people than Finland. Then there were other big cities like Moscow, and territories like Ukraine. So many areas of Soviet Union were larger than Finland all by themselves. City of Leningrad alone could have defended itself against Finland. So those Soviet claims of fighting war to defend themselves were extremely ludicrous. Ofc British or others could have invaded Finland like they invaded Norway, that is legit possibility if they plan a war against Soviets. But i am not aware of such claims being ever made in public, so any public claims Soviets made were are one of the most laughable in history of human species.

We did not help Norway, Denmark or Finland in WW2. I am glad some Swedes themselves did though. InThe Spanish Civil war from 1936 and to help Danes, Norweigans and Finns.

How is any army surprised by an attack? They all seem to begin in Ernest. Find a good map. Locate Ernest and fortify the g** d*** place! I don't understand how this keeps happening!

Actually the Dutch Army started their mobilisation at the 28th of August 1939 with a pre mobilisation at the 25th. The Belgian Army started their mobilisation at the 26th.