55 - How Sausages Helped Win A Battle

It’s well into the northern european winter season at the end of 1939. Five hundred thousand Russian Soviet Soldiers are making a collective push northwards, swarming the countryside as they go. They are armed to the hilt with tanks, explosives, machine guns, grenades and a staggeringly overwhelming number of troops.

But there is one thing that they didn’t count on, one thing that threatened to derail their entire military offensive altogether. And that one thing, was the humble sausage.

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Thank you to my brand-new supporters:

• Josh Lovetere
• Zachary Hedden

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Sources for this episode's research:

• https://www.history.com/news/the-bizarre-sausage-war-that-inspired-hitler
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Varolampi_Pond
• https://www.finlandatwar.com/the-sausage-war-an-army-marches-on-its-stomach/
• https://sofrep.com/news/sausage-war-when-hunger-got-the-best-of-the-soviets/
• https://short-history.com/sausage-war-733d71767317
• https://pennytyrrellmcqueen.wixsite.com/togetherapart/single-post/2016/10/26/sausage-war

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fantastic-history-of-food--3591729/support.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
It's well into the northern European winterseason. At the end of nineteen thirty
nine, five hundred thousand Russian Sovietsoldiers are making a collective push northwards,
swarming the Finnish countryside as they go. They are armed to the hilt with
tanks, explosives, machine guns,grenades, and a staggeringly overwhelming number of

(00:23):
troops. But there's one thing theydidn't count on, one thing that threatened
to derail their entire military offensive altogether. That one thing was the humble sausage.
These are the bizarre but true storiesfrom history that in some way involved

(00:47):
food. I'm Nick Charlie Key,and this is the fantastic history of food.
I wanted to say, yet againa huge thank you to all of
my supporters on Patreon. You helpme out immensely in getting this show made,

(01:11):
and today I wanted to send aspecial shout out to two people who
have started supporting me since the lastepisode. The first is Josh Lovertire and
the second is Zachary Headen. Joshand Zachary, thank you so much.
I really do appreciate your support.If you would like to support the show
in the same way as these twoamazing people have. It costs just two

(01:33):
dollars a month and when you signup you'll have your name mentioned in an
episode, just like you've heard today. And as always, this is absolutely
pressure free. More than anything,I just love that you're listening to the
show getting some enjoyment out of thepodcast, and that is the reason why
I keep doing what I'm doing.Now back to the episode. It was

(02:05):
the first year of World War Two, but the Soviet Army wasn't heading towards
conflict with the military might of theNazis. No. In fact, they
were rushing headlong towards a target theybelieved they could crush with ease, their
tiny neighbor on the Baltic Sea Finland. The Finnish Army, with nowhere near
the might or means of their Sovietcounterparts, is not an army that has

(02:27):
ever been willing to go down quietly. It was an overwhelming set of circumstances
for them, being outnumbered, outgunned, and worst of all, completely
taken by surprise, but they gatheredto fight. Nonetheless, not Joseph Stalin
was using the distraction caused by AdolfHitler's Third Reich in Europe to try and
sneakily assert control around his region,attempting to storm the surrounding countries to claim

(02:52):
them as his own. You see, Finland had in fact once been Russian
territory that they had spent many yearsfighting against Russian rule and refusing to assimilate
into the Russian culture. And whileRussia was struggling with the chaos that was
their transition to a socialist society,in nineteen seventeen, Finland took the gap
to secede. Stalin had always resentedFinland for this act of treachery, viewing

(03:16):
it as an unforgivable diminishment of theGreat Russian Empire, and now he was
determined to tip the scales back intothe soviets favour. In some behind closed
doors meetings, the Soviet Union inNazi Germany had secretly agreed to leave each
other alone and promised not to interferewith one another's ambitions to occupy and assimilate

(03:37):
their neighbours. It was an importanttruce to have, as both sides were
capable of formidable firepower, but nothaving to worry about the other one allowed
them each to turn their attentions totheir respective ambitions while not every truce or
treaty that was signed ended up beinghonored, however, as just seven years
prior to this, Russia and Finlandhad themselves signed a non AGGRESSI packed.

(04:00):
Stalin didn't take long to renege onhis promises, though, and soon afterwards
began publicly demanding that Finland give theland back to Russia. Not long after,
September nineteen thirty nine rolled around,and Hitler would order his troops into
Poland in an invasion that would bethe catalyst for World War II. The
eyes of the world swiveled towards NorthernEurope and the Nazi war machine, and

(04:23):
this diversion provided Stalin with the perfectopportunity. Just two months after Hitler's invasion
of Poland, Stalin ordered his Sovietforces to bomb Helsinki, the southern capital
of Finland and by far its mostpopulous city. Countries across the globe were
outraged, but as was the planall along, they had bigger fish to

(04:44):
fry. At this current moment,there also seemed to be no hope for
the poor Finnish forces, as theywere outnumbered three to one by the oncoming
Soviet war machine. Analysts predicted thisconflict would be over in a matter of
weeks. What they didn't count onhigh, however, was the effect of
Stalin's purge of the Red Army.In the two years leading up to this,
the outwardly projected image of the Sovietforces was one of awesome and terrifying

(05:09):
power, but internally they were crumblingas their leadership structures had been decimated.
Between nineteen thirty seven and nineteen thirtynine, the Great Purge had taken its
toll. Thirty thousand high ranking officershad been either discharged, arrested, or
killed as a way for Stalin toconsolidate his power, replacing them all with

(05:30):
people loyal to him. And whilethis was considered a good decision internally to
not have the military oppose his leadership, the very real effects on the ground
meant that the army was now filledwith inexperienced officers who deferred a lot of
their military decision making to government bureaucratswho had little to know military experience of
their own. As I'm sure youcan all imagine, this had a disastrous

(05:53):
effect on not only troop morale,but on any sort of tactical cohesion on
the battlefield, and this back forroyally in the Soviet's faces. Many of
the units that were sent to Finlandto fight had come from Russia's warmer regions
and had never received any sort ofwinter combat training. Compounding this issue was
the frankly ludicrous decision to then alsoration these soldiers food allocations, meaning they

(06:17):
were trying to fight a winter warwith troops who were tactically unprepared, woefully
under resource with weapons, and whowere constantly cold, tired, and hungry.
In contrast, however, the Finnishtroops who had been forged in this
icy climate made sure they stayed warmlydressed and well fed. Nevertheless, the

(06:38):
Red Army pushed on despite their rumblingstomachs. The Finnish military command had been
sending out small raiding parties on crosscountry skis at night to surround encamped Soviet
positions, open fire upon them briefly, and then ski away into the night.
They hoped that by doing this theSoviets would never be able to fully
settle down and would constantly live infear of another raid. One night,

(07:01):
this particular tactic worked even better thanFinnish command could have imagined. On this
night, the raiding ski patrol firedupon one of the Soviet positions before retreating
and then attacking another nearby Soviet camp. In their confusion, the two Soviet
camps both ran towards each other's gunfire and began attacking each other in the
dark, thinking they were fighting aFinnish raiding force. After this embarrassing blunder,

(07:26):
and fearful of more raids, theybegan doubling the guard duties, meaning
their soldiers quickly became exhausted with littlemeans of replenishing their lost energy. Coupled
with this, their rapid advance intothe Finnished countryside meant that their supply lines
had been stretched to the limits,with only black bread and frozen dried meat
to sustain them. So on thenight of the tenth of December, the

(07:48):
seven hundred and eighteenth Rifle Regiment,one of the groups of soldiers affected by
these raids, managed to swing aroundbehind the Finnish army and crept up slowly
on a very lightly defended Fanish supplystation at Varilampe Pond. The Soviets should
have annihilated them in a matter ofhours, but despite the element of surprise
and even their superior numbers, therewas one thing they had encountered on that

(08:11):
would derail their entire operation. Thefinished artillery and supply troops, not expecting
to be ambushed at this very moment, had hunkered down inside their thick canvas
tents and were making themselves comfortable,well as comfortable as camping in snow could
ever rarely be. They had afew roaring fires going that served the dual
purpose of not only keeping them warm, but also as a means to cook

(08:33):
their hearty winter meals on and atthis very moment, the Soviet soldiers were
planning their attack just outside of thefinished night watchmen's view, while the soldiers
inside the tents were in the middleof cooking up a delicious sausage stew.
The giant pots were thick with vegetables, meat, and fatty offcuts, and
the smells that emanated were almost cartoonishupon the wind. Now it's worth explaining

(08:58):
at this point the relationship that Finlandhad as with good sausages. They are
a self described sausage nation, andon average, each finn eats almost three
kilograms of sausage each year. InFinland, they have their very own national
sausage named makera. It is similarto a German bok verst and most commonly

(09:18):
consists of finely ground pork, amongstother traditional ingredients. In Finland, it's
not uncommon to find entire aisles inthe supermarkets dedicated to variations of this delicious
national sausage, especially in the summertime, when outdoor grilling means an even
larger variety. Their popularity undeniably stemsfrom a sense of cultural importance, but
practically they are also a popular choicedue to their relative cheapness, long shelf

(09:43):
life, and the fact that theycan be added to so many different dishes.
Sausage, casseroles, soups and pustasare all common dishes in households around
the world, and even more soin Finland. So it's no surprise then
that this national love of sausage wouldextend even to the military. Its ubiquitous
availability and the ability to add itto a large stew full of potatoes,

(10:05):
onions and carrots made it a mealthat was not just cost effective and protein
rich, but also incredibly simple toproduce. Now with that vivid image in
your minds, you can now imaginethe glee with which these finished soldiers stirred
their pots, knowing that shortly theywould be consuming their very favorite meal.
All of a sudden, a battlecry sounded from the darkness as the Soviet

(10:26):
soldiers rushed to attack the finished camp. The Finns, realizing what was happening,
grabbed their overcoats and weapons and scatteredinto the surrounding fields and forests while
fighting off some pursuing Soviet troops.Then all of a sudden, everything went
quiet. They realized the Soviets wereno longer chasing them and they had been
allowed to escape. This made nosense to them, as their camp was

(10:50):
not a fortified position that itself wouldhave been the target of the attack until
soon they realized what was happening.One of the finished troops managed to sneak
close enough back to the camp tofind out why the attack had suddenly stopped,
and what he saw before him wasalmost incomprehensible. The Soviet soldiers,
who had been on an enforced nonstop march for the last five days,

(11:11):
had stopped midway through their attack assoon as the smells from the simmering sausage
stew had hit their nostrils. Forso long they had been underfed to the
point of near starvation that when theirbrains registered the quantities of hot, delicious
food in front of them in thatmoment, nothing else mattered. They dropped

(11:31):
their weapons and grabbed whatever they couldand started scooping up the hot, delicious
stew, gorging themselves after weeks ofinedible slop. Some soldiers didn't even bother
to look for plates or balls andsimply used their helmets to scoop up their
portions. Tragically for them, itwould end up being their very last meal.
During this sudden and extended pause infighting, the Finnish troops had managed

(11:54):
to regroup under the command of theFinnish officer Major Pejari. He had listed
soldiers from the nearby sixteenth Infantry Regiment, along with the field cooks and medics,
and surrounded what had up until veryrecently been their own camp. Major
Pejari silently signaled for them all tofix their bayonets to the ends of their
rifles, as he knew this upcomingskirmish would involve a large amount of close

(12:18):
quart of fighting inside many of thetents. With another loud battle cry,
the tables had been spectacularly turned asthe Finns now rushed the Soviets in their
very own surprise attack. Historian WilliamTrotter describes what happened next simply as a
blood bath. It was one ofthe very few times that proper bayonet fighting

(12:39):
was recorded in the Winter Wars,and the resulting skirmish was brutal and without
mercy. Soldiers on both sides lockedthemselves in gruesome hand to hand combat,
but the weakened Soviet troops, nowtoo full to move properly, never stood
a chance. Their entire battalion wasrouted with ease, and only a handful
of Russian soldiers made it out alive. This battle served as a stark reminder

(13:03):
of just how disorganized the Soviet armywas, but even so, their seemingly
never ending numbers would wear down theiropposition eventually in a war of Puiatrician Despite
this Finnish victory at Varra lampsy Pond, it took the Soviets just one hundred
and five days to completely overwhelm theopposition into surrendering. Finland ceded their territory
back to the Soviet Union. Butthis particular offensive had some potentially history changing

(13:28):
consequences. Adolf Hitler had been payingclose attention to the Russian invasion of Finland
and had been more than adequately briefedon their lack of leadership and general military
ineptitude. It was this simple factthat ultimately persuaded him to split his forces
from simply steam rolling his way throughEurope to declaring his own war against Russia,
meaning that they had to now fighton two fronts, ultimately decimating his

(13:52):
forces in the process. It wasnot long, however, before his own
troops learned the harsh realities of fightingin a winter war unprepared and underresourced.
There are countless stories from countless warsof food and drink playing a pivotal role
in the outcomes of certain battles,and I'm sure we'll touch on those in

(14:13):
future episodes, but for now,I think it's worth being somewhat grateful that
as you settle in this evening toeat whatever delicious meal you've prepared, you
don't have to worry about a hordeof angry, finished soldiers brandishing sharpened bayonets
rushing at you from out of thedarkness. This show is made entirely by

(14:50):
me, Nick Charlie Key, withour theme music having been made by the
enigma that is the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder. If you'd like to support the show,
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(15:11):
keep producing this show, and inreturn, you'll get your name forever etched
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for your name in an upcoming episode. So until next time, bon appetite.