Why did the German army despise the Soviet army before the Soviet-German War?

The reason is very simple. Because of the Soviet-Finnish War, the Soviet army suffered a disastrous defeat.

Everyone knows that Finland is a small country.

Before the Soviet-Finnish War broke out, the country's total population was only more than 3 million, of which there were only more than 20,000 standing army troops.

The Soviet Union has a population of more than 180 million and a standing army of more than 2 million.

Equal to the number of Soviet troops and almost equal to the total population of Finland. This kind of battle is too disparity.

At the same time, the Soviet Union was the fourth industrial power at the time, while Finland did not have any decent heavy industry and relied on imports for a large number of weapons.

The information says: For example, pistols have 5 specifications of bullets, and rifles are mainly 190,000 Mosin-Nagant rifles left over from the Russian arsenal (the Soviet army also uses this weapon, so the ammunition are interoperable) and Japanese-made Type 38 rifles, and the artillery is mainly the 1902 Russian-made 76mm field gun. The weapon the Finnish army lacks most is anti-tank guns. Its standard weapon, the Bofors 37mm anti-tank gun, had less than 100 in the early days of the Winter War.

In terms of armor strength, the Finnish army is also unable to compare with the Soviet army. It only has the Vickers six-ton ??tank designed by the British during the interwar period (including one test vehicle, and Japan purchased 33 tanks, but Many were unarmed at the beginning of the war) and 20 Renault FT-17 tanks left over from World War I (the Finnish army has realized that this tank cannot keep up with the times, so even though the Vickers six-ton ??tank is the only weapon left It could fight but refused to attack. In 1940, the Finnish army buried it in the ground and used it as a fixed bunker).

The Finnish Air Force can only import from abroad due to the lack of domestically produced aircraft. The aircraft types are also quite diverse, including the Netherlands (D.XXI fighter), Italy (G.50 fighter), and the United Kingdom (Gladiator). Fighters and Blenheim bombers)

Therefore, the Soviet generals before the war announced that they would occupy all of Finland in a week at most.

At the time, it seemed that the Soviets were not bragging.

However, the Soviet-Finnish War shocked the world.

Facing the weak Finland, the Soviets dispatched nearly one million troops, including 460,000 people, more than 3,350 artillery pieces, about 3,000 tanks and about 1,300 aircraft in one attack direction alone. They fought hard. It took more than 100 days to barely win.

This victory is not the occupation of all of Finland as previously announced by the Soviet army, but only a partial victory.

Within one week of publicity, occupying the entire territory of Finland turned into a big joke.

In March 1940, the two sides signed the Moscow Peace Agreement, and Finland ceded 11% of its territory and 30% of its assets to the Soviet Union, ending the war.

For this victory, the Soviet army suffered huge losses.

The Soviet Union itself announced:

25,904 people were killed or missing

43,557 wounded

1,000 people were captured

Total casualties: 70,000

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the data were:

Soviet troops suffered 71,214 casualties, 39,369 missing, and 16,292 hospitalized due to injuries and illness. , 188,671 people were injured, 17,867 people suffered frostbite, and 58,370 people were sick, totaling 391,783 people, and 5,600 people were captured by the Finnish army.

In other words, the Soviet army suffered losses as high as 400,000.

About 1,600 tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed and captured by the Finnish army, including 21 armored vehicles, 42 amphibious tanks, 34 T-26 tanks, 2 T-28 tanks, 6 flame jet tanks, 62 Kesimore armored artillery tractors, 12 fighter jets, 10 bombers, 138 artillery pieces of various types, 100 anti-tank guns, 78 mortars, 3,877 light machine guns, 910 Heavy machine guns and 4,482 pistols were seized by the Finnish army.

In actual combat, the Soviet army showed far lower quality than the Finnish army.

Hitler contemptuously said that the Soviet army was a "bunch of pigs" who didn't understand tactics.

If Finland, a small country with a population of 3 million, can annihilate 400,000 Soviet troops, will it still be difficult for Germany to defeat Finland?

As a result, Hitler strengthened his ambition to invade the Soviet Union.