Military Myth?

[Sgt Barker]

Found this on another history site, (on edit - actually looked it up again, and it's from a book review - off edit) a native Finn talking about the Winter War. I'd not heard this view - the line as far as I've heard/read was much more than a single trench and few bunkers. Anyone well read on the topic, with some insight into how accurate this idea is?

The myth of the Mannerheim Line is a fabrication by Soviet propaganda, after the disaster. The Finnish main defense line had about 15 concrete bunkers, the nearest about 3 km from each other, and a number of timber/stone bunkers on a line of 150 km. The "line" was a one trench line without depth. The Soviet intelligence had very good maps of the defenses, including bunkers. Intelligence did not overlook these, but military commanders did.

In Mannerheim's words later, "the real Mannerheim line was the men manning the line". But, the Soviets needed a reason for the failure. This fabrication of the Mannerheim Line is still maintained in Russian documentary sources and in living myth.

[Ricky B]

See here: http://www.mannerheim-line.com/

No idea about the "strength" of it all, but it is more in some spots than just every 3 km, even if that includes timber/stone structures which can be just as strong and better camo'd than concrete!

Rick

[Vartuoosi]

http://www.winterwar.com/M-Line.htm
From the article:
"And if counting concrete bunkers which had machine guns or cannons (thus excluding passive concrete shelters), a total of 48 bunkers, there was one such bunker for each 3 km of front, i.e. roughly 0,35 armed bunkers / km.

(Compare the above figure with the average number of concrete fortifications / km in the following lines;
- some 10 in the Maginot Line, in the weaker part at the Belgian border
- Westwall had at least 15)"

"The sheer volume of work and too small resources resulted in a line that practically lacked depth. Only in the Summa sector on the "Gateway of Karelia" was the back line (2 km from the front-line) of the main defense line with adequate field fortifications. In most places, tactical depth was achieved by locating some front-line unit shelters 200 -300 meters back from the front."

This is from Wikipedia:
"During the war both Finnish and Soviet propaganda considerably exaggerated the extent of the line's fortifications: the former to improve national morale, and the latter to explain their troops' slow progress against Finnish defenses. Consequently, the myth of the "heavily fortified" Mannerheim Line entered official Soviet war history and also some Western sources. However in reality, the vast majority of the Mannerheim Line was comprised merely of trenches and other field fortifications. Bunkers along the line were mostly small and thinly spread out, and the Line had hardly any artillery."

[Copper]

Interesting topic guys.

[Sgt Barker]

Thanks for the links. Fascinating. Nothing like boots on the ground to see what's really so.

Even with that, though, if sounds like what happens to a lot of history. The facts are open to interpretation. Fortifications "for each kilometer of front" is, as any PzC player knows, as useless a fact as one can get. If the VP hexes are all behind only a few km, and that's where all the forts are, then the average matters not.

The wiki entry about both sides exagerating the line for their own purpose rings true IMO. Interesting. Must look up the old SPI Winter War and errata those hexes!