On 5 January 1940, The Finns began an offensive on the Raate Road, near Suomussalmi and ended up destroying or capturing the Russian 44th Division. The 44th had been halted at a roadblock southeast of Suomussalmi around the present day intersection of roads 912 and 843. The Russians hunkered down along the road between Suomussalmi and Raate in what the Finns called motti formations, a logging term doubling in meaning that the 44th's sub units could be broken into smaller chunks and cut up individually like so many logs. The Finns operated in small units all along the road and and spent days conducting close range grenade attacks and terrifying the Russian officers with highly selective sniper fire. The Russians were out of their mind with cold, hunger and fear. A single sniper round fired by a Finn marksman would unleash totally undisciplined "mad minutes" from the Russians, normally killing nothing, but trees. Soon, ammunition ran short and re-supply from the air turned the starving troops into in-fighting hords. After 2 days of this nightmare, the 44th dissolved in death, capture or flight. It was the high water mark for the Finns and showed the Russians that taking the grossly outnumbered, but skilled Finns would not be a cake walk. Check out the book recommendation below, Frozen Hell by William R. Trotter, which has an entire chapter dedicated to this battle.

Books from Amazon.co.uk

Motorcycle Ride

If you find yourself in Finland, try following the road from Kemi to Suomussalmi for a daylong ride. I rode the E75 from Kemi to Oulu and on to Helsinki last year and I can highly recommend the area. If finishing around Kemi look for campgrounds on the Gulf of Bothnia. Its a beautiful place to wake up (in the summer anyway).

Maps