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Kantti -> RE: New House Rule Finish Border (6/10/2016 7:26:42 AM)
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Hi, a new face here (well have been reading forums like 2 years and playing the game a bit, but my first post), just giving my couple of cents as a professional Finnish historian and wargame enthusiastic.
First, the no-attack -line was a political reality that Finnish had to cope with in reality. There were naturally elements in Finnish High Command that wished to press further and bombard/attack Leningrad and forward from river Svir (Syväri in Finnish), but it was recognized that razing Leningrad (together with Germans) would be something totally unforgivable. Finnish had fought scores of wars (most of them as part of Sweden before 1809) with Russians and recognized that they'd have to cope sooner or later with some form of Russia even after Russo-German war would have ended. It was also recognized that Finnish Army could not stand casualties related to urban warfare or continuing the attacks further east. In the eastern Karelia attack was driven considerably further than on Karelian Isthmus. There driving force was existence of Finnish-related population (at least to some extent in daydreams of Finnish leaders) and reaching natural lines of defence (of which only Svir is visible on WiTE map). Even then Finnish army morale suffered after crossing old state border and there were multiple defections as people weren't prepared for offensive war (instead of just getting back what was lost in Winter War).
What comes to Soviets screening Finnish forces, there was some understanding among Soviet command that Finnish were quite reluctant to push forward. Troops facing Finns were often second-rate of were sent to those lines to refit from some more active theater of Northern operations. This is well reflected in the fact that some really obsolete equipment was still in ToE of some of the formations facing Finns even during the 1944 grand offensive. Some Soviet armored brigades were even equipped with T-26s at the time.
In my opinion demanding a division per hex is too far-fetched against Finns. Historically, even when the Soviets prepared for major assault against Finns in June 1944 to knock them out of the war, there were only 10 divisions and 4 infantry and 2 naval brigades on Svir. So on quieter time perhaps third of that amount would be adequate. But as Soviets cannot break down divisions, use of brigades and AT-brigades to fill gaps between couple of divisions is not so far fetched from reality.
tl&dr: On Isthmus there would be like 2-3 infantry divisons and 2 fortified zones guarding Finns. On Svir something similar should be enough.
Just my 2 cents.
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