War Diary for Thursday, November 30, 1939:
Finland
WINTER WAR: RUSSIAN INVASION OF FINLAND. 26 divisions attack on four fronts at Karelian Isthmus, North of lake Ladoga, in the ‘Waist’, and at Petsamo (Arctic), supported by 900 aircraft and Baltic and Northern Fleets.
Helsinki and Viipuri bombed, mass evacuation of civilians.
Field Marshal Mannerheim (aged 72) appointed ‘Defender of Finland’ and C-in-C.
Total Soviet Forces against Finland:
600,000 men, 32 divisions, 1,200 tanks
696 planes divided between the armies and 300 more in Estonia
2 battleships, 1 cruiser, 9 destroyers, 16 small warships, 11 submarines deployed by the Baltic and Arctic Fleets
Total Finnish Forces at the beginning of the Winter War:
400,000 men, 9 divisions
145 planes
2 coast defense ships, 5 submarines
Home Fronts
Germany: Unemployed now total of 120,000.
Sea War
Merchant shipping losses in November 1939: 49 Allied ships with 173,563 tons in the Atlantic, 1 Allied ship with 706 tons elsewhere.
1 U-boat sunk in the Atlantic, Arctic or Baltic.
