"Mind Over Matter: Finnish Anti-tank Weapons and Tactics" Topic

"With only limited weapons and little initial training the Finns destroyed incredible numbers of Red Army tanks during the Winter War. They recovered quickly from their initial shock at the mass numbers of tanks used by the Soviets and adapted their tactics and weapons to deal with the Red tanks, fighting them to a standstill in the first half of the war.

In 1932 the Finns became aware of the growing tank arm of the Soviet Red Army and began investigating anti-tank weapons. Anti-tank mines were introduced and antitank guns and rifles were investigated. It wasn't unit 1939 that a temporary Anti-tank instruction book was issued, despite the fact that the 37mm Bofors anti-tank (37 PstK/36) gun had been chosen as the primary anti-tank weapon in 1936.

Even as late as early 1939 men actually spent four times as much time training for gas attacks as they did training in anti-tank tactics. A proper anti-tank training centre was created in October 1939 and set about training men to form platoons to man the new 37 PstK/36 guns. Due to shortages live ammunition firing was limited to only the key crew members of each platoon. By 30 November 1939, the training centre had supplied the Karelian Isthmus Army (II and III Corps) with 15 anti-tank gun platoons. The IV Corps, in the Ladoga-Karelia region, received four anti-tank gun platoons. By the end of the war the training centre had supplied the Finnish Army with 94 anti-tank platoons and trained over 200 men as replacements. However, with the vast amount of tanks the Soviets sent into Finland, the limited number of anti-tank gun alone were not enough, and other methods had to be developed to deal with the armoured threat. A small number of foreign anti-tank rifles did become available to the Finns during the Winter War, but their own 20mm Lahti was not in full production and only two saw action before 1941…."

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