March 13th, 1940 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: Sir Michael O'Dwyer, the former governor of the Punjab, is assassinated by an Indian Nationalist.Corvette USS Impulse (ex-HMS Begonia) laid down.
FINLAND: The Peace Treaty ending the Winter War is signed at Moscow at 1.00 am (Finnish time). The hostilities are to end at 11 am (Finnish time).
Despite the coming of peace, the war rages on in the early hours of the morning. Fighting is the most fierce at Viipuri, where the Red Army has reached the eastern suburbs, and at the western shore of the Bay of Viipuri. The ferocity of fighting is intensified by the belief common among the defenders that the post-war border shall be drawn where the front line runs at the end of the war. The Finns defend every inch in the belief that the shape and size of the post-war Finland depends on them. By the coming of dawn the men receive the word that war will end at 11 am, and even the Red Army shows signs of taking the last hours easy. But as the last half an hour begins, the Red Army artillery suddenly begins to fire a tremendous barrage at the Finnish positions. It goes on until the last minute of the war. Then it all ends. The 105 days of the Winter War are over. Finnish Army still stands, battered but intact. Nowhere in Karelia has the Red Army been able to reach the new border.
Maj. Lasse Varko's detachment has fought in the bitter battles on the western shore of the Bay of Viipuri. In his message to his troops telling of the coming of peace, Maj. Varko instructs that "by 11 am as many Russians as possible has to be killed without incurring any own losses." In his daily order to his troops after the end of the war, commander of the IInd Corps Lt. Gen. Harald Öhquist adds the uncompromising words: "One can never in any situation trust in our arch-enemy."
The war leaves behind an immense legacy of bitterness. Molotov's statement that the Soviet Union sees no reasons why its relations with Finland could not be good, rings hollow in Finnish ears. It is feared, and with a good reason, that Stalin only waits an opportunity to start a new war to take the rest of Finland. Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner, in a radioed speech to stunned nation, says: "In last reckoning our only fault was that we were too small a people." The peace is already known in Finland as the interim peace (välirauha), everybody expects another war to follow, in the form of another Soviet invasion.
For the home front the severity of the Peace Treaty is a bolt out of blue. The strict censorship has kept it unaware of how desperate the situation actually was, and people was confidently waiting for the Allied help. Now a peace has been made, an unexpectedly harsh peace. Everywhere in the country flags are flying half-mast, often accompanied by black ribbons of mourning. The mood ranges from disbelief to anger. The Finnish popular opinion has always cherished the idea of Finland as the bulwark of the West against the Soviet communism. But Finland had to fight alone. Sweden and Norway denied the access to the Allied troops. Was the situation really so desperate as to warrant accepting so unbelievably harsh treaty? The coming of spring could have made the terrain easier to defend, and the Allied help would have arrived sooner or later... Thus began the historical debate that has continued to our days, intensified by the politicians who originally disagreed with the making of the peace. But the fact is, as shown IMO beyond dispute by historian Lasse Laaksonen in his recent book 'Todellisuus ja harhat' ('Reality and Illusions'; from which I have drawn much of my material for these postings), that the Finnish Army was only days from collapse. Sooner or later the Red Army would had managed to effect the decisive breakthrough, and there's no telling how and if the Finnish front could have been reconstituted afterwards.
But there's no doubt that the war has entered in the Finnish national consciousness. It's the 'One Hundred and Five Days of Glory', when the nation unanimously fought against the Soviet invasion and saved the nation from the horrors of communism. The Legend of Winter War has born.
Regarding the last day of battle, March 13, Colonel of the Guards Viktor M. Iskrov writes:
"All of a sudden there was a phone call, Senior Lieutenant Vnukov, our battery commander, called me. He said: "Viktor, are you still fighting the war there? Are you planning to shoot?" " Yes!" - was my answer. I was in a very high spirit: the Mannerheim Line had been broken, I could see Vyborg burning. I can very well remember that. On our left we could see both fire and smoke coming out of the city. " So, the war is over,"b he told me. I answered: "No way! Let's go for Vaasa! We have just broken such a strong line, now we just have to go and capture Vaasa and other places!" Battalion commander Sokolov did not know anything about the end of hostilities either. Senior Lieutenant Vnukov told me over the phone: " You want to fight the war there, Viktor, but I am here at the firing positions, and I will not permit a single mine to be fired. The war is over, they signed an armistice yesterday." More...
The armistice went into effect at noon. In this way, the Finnish troops around Vyborg were surrounded, severely bombed, lost their main supply line, and abandoned half of the city completely. However, they occupied the island castle and the western bank of the river on the city's edge right up to the armistice. (Hal Smith)
* a modern day map of Viipuri city center; Patterinmäki (Batarejnaja
Gora) is on the eastern edge of the map:
http://www.viipurikeskus.fi/kartta.html* a rough map of Viipuri as it was in 1939; Patterinmäki is on the
right center of the map:
http://www.luovutettukarjala.fi/pitajat/viipuri/viipurikart%201939.htm* a Finnish map of Viipuri and its eastern environs dating from
1939; city is on the left edge of the map, and Patterinmäki is the
unbuilt region between city center and southern suburbs:
http://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/images/527.jpg(248)
NEWFOUNDLAND: An agreement is
reached for the Canadian Army to provide coastal guns to protect Bell Island off
the northeastern coast of Newfoundland.
CANADA: Submarine FS Side Ferruch
departed Halifax escort for Convoy HX-27.
PUERTO RICO: The USN’s Fleet Landing Exercise
(FLEX) No. 6, which began on 11 January, concludes at Culebra. The Fleet Marine
Force makes progress in developing techniques for rubber boat landings, getting
heavy combat materiel ashore, and improving ship-to-shore supply.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-44 is hit by a mine, in minefield No. 7, laid by the destroyers HMS EXPRESS, HMS ESK, HMS ICARUS and HMS IMPULSIVE. The boat is lost with all 47 hands. (Alex Gordon)