Rather than use good equipment with superior tactics, Stalin threw thousands of troops at the Finns – who promptly killed as many as they could. Most importantly, the Finns were ready to fight in waist-deep snow and freezing temperatures while the Russians, surprisingly, were not. So, despite being outnumbered and facing down thousands of tanks with their paltry 32, the Finns went to work. All the other dictators were invading smaller neighbors, so why not him? Well, the “why not” is the Finnish Army who really, really hated the Red Army. Finland in The Winter War (1939)Ĭomrade Stalin was feeling pretty good about his chances of occupying Finland at the end of 1939. The hate was so strong, Finns would prop up frozen Soviet soldiers in weird positions. There have been a lot of amazing upsets in military history, but these losses were especially humiliating because they came at the hands of an ideological or geopolitical rival or just turned the bigger country’s military into a joke. It was American philosopher and “Gambler” Kenny Rogers who said, “you got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.” The second essential is knowing what to do when encountering an inferior force. It was Chinese philosopher and general Sun Tzu who said the first essential to victory is knowing when to fight and when not to fight. Everything that comes after that point is unnecessary and runs the risk of incurring a devastating, strategic loss. It was Prussian philosopher and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz in On War who said, “the culminating point of victory” is when an army has achieved its maximum possible gains relative to its political aims and the resources available. synonyms:Īrrogance, conceit, haughtiness, hauteur, pride, self-importance, egotism, pomposity, superciliousness, superiority

Most embarrassing moments in history