70 years ago: Nov. 30, 1939 - Winter War

[Crossroads]

And so, after only 105 days of fierce fighting, on March 13 1940, the Winter War came to its end.

The history continued to unfold as we know it today:

The Allied Expedition Force never arrived to Scandinavia.

Finns calculated that some 35 000 men of the promised 50 000 man expedition force would remain in Norway and Sweden to halt Germany from receiving the Swedish ore they desperately needed for their war efforts.

The 15 000 men available to Finland was deemed to be not enough to be of real help and to continue the war. Afterall, the Finnish reserves were all committed and men and supplies were diminishing in an alarming rate.

As a result, Stalin did not find himself at war against West.

Germany realised the strategic importance of the ore available in northern Scandinavia and went on with plans to invade Denmark and Norway.

Additionally, Red Army having lost the awesome reputation as the mightiest army in the world, Hitler's plan for Barbarossa gained new confidence.

The anti-bolshevik Italy slowly again build their relationship with Germany, at a rock bottom after the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact. Italy would not choose their side as Allied this time around.

Finally, the path for Finland, from 1940 surrounded between Nazi-Germany and Soviet Union, was to choose what was seen as the less of evils at the time.

They would join the Axis forces in Barbarossa as surely the Bolshevik regime would fall under Hitler's push east, after which Germany would surely be again defeated by the Allied, just like twenty years earlier in the Great War? Finally, peaceful times ahead for Northern Europe?

Your thoughts?