Molotov Eggs & Motti Tactics (long!)

[Bruce Levak]

Mickeybrah is Swedish for "mycket bra" or very well.

-----Original Message-----
From: Bapopik at AOL.COM [mailto:Bapopik at AOL.COM]
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2002 1:29 AM
Subject: Molotov Eggs & Motti Tactics (long!)

   Elaine Ashton deserves all the credit for finding MY FINNISH DIARY
(1940).  Our posts unfortunately intersected just now.
   NOTE TO JESSE:  Have the Chicago Tribune shoot me for the opening of
the film THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN.  It would be a nice twist.  If
the Chicago Tribune or Oprah refuses to kill me, try Jerry Springer.

--------------------------------------------------------
DESPATCHES FROM FINLAND
by Edward Ward
January-April 1940
London: John Lane The Bodley Head
1940

Pg. 22 (January 10th, 1940):
   It was snowing slightly most of the time, so there were no Russian
aeroplanes about, and the driver assured us that (Pg. 23--ed.) we would
have nothing to fear from "Molotoff's eggs," as they are called here.

Pg. 94:
   ...the Finnish soldiers used their _pukas_--the razor-sharp hunting
knives which all Finns carry--with the result that Russian dead are
piled up in enormous frozen heaps in front of the Finnish lines.

Pg. 103 (February 22, 1940):
   And these tactics have been so successful that they have resulted in
the type of fighting which the Finns are now engaged upon here.  They
call it _motti_ fighting.
   _Motti_ is a Finnish word of apparently quite indeterminate meaning
which, in this sense, implies large or small groups of Russian troops
who have been cut off from their main body and from their supplies.  One
_motti_ may include a divisional headquarters; another may be chiefly
artillery, which dig themselves in, fortify themselves as best they can,
and remain where they are in a state of siege.  I think the only
comparison one can make is with the _laager_ tactics which the Boers
used in the South African War.  Only imagine it on a larger scale with
tanks instead of covered waggons.


ACES WILD
by Robert A. Winston
Holiday House, NY
1941

Pg. 76:
   For an answer I jotted down the following message:
"_Need fifty ex-service test-pilots for new Brewsters and Hurricanes.
Competition unescorted, ducksoup.  Swell people, chow, babes.  Details
at Finnish Consulate.  Jaygee pay and expenses.  No strings, don't
miss_."
   Berger read it with a puzzled expression.  "I do not understand this
strange language," he said.
   "It's American slang," I told him.  "My friends back home will get
the idea very quickly.  It means that we have openings for trained
military pilots to fight for Finland with excellent equipment against
mediocre opposition, at the pay of a navy junior lieutenant, and that
their traveling expenses will be paid.  Also that they will be among
hospitable people, with excellent food and attractive girls.  Then it
says that complete information will be given to them at your consulates,
and that there are no complications attached to your offer, followed by
a personal recommendation that I consider this an unusual opportunity."
("Swell people, chow, babes."  I'm cancelling Hawaii right now!--ed.)

Pg. 115:
   These slow, clumsy ships, which the Swedes derisively called
"_Krakor_" (crows) were cluttered up with the usual assortment of
English accessories for slowing down their airplanes....  (...)
   "We have very glad time in my home.  Very good _sauna_.  Then we go
to Helsinki.  Bootiful girls!"
(OH, STOP!!--ed.)

Pg. 146:
   "Okay," I said.  "We'll talk mickeybrah," and when Karhunen and I
lapsed into our pidgin, Captain Losey, who had spent a lot of time with
the Finns at their squadron, had no trouble in getting the general drift
of our conversation.

Pg. 225:
   These were the famous German "scream bombs," which had a whistling
device attached to the fins in order to terrify the defending gunners
and spoil their aim--an object which they accomplished very effectively.


THE WINTER WAR:
RUSSIA AGAINST FINLAND
by Richard W. Condon
Ballantine Books, NY
1972

Pg. 46, col. 2:
   Finnish ingenuity, however, soon asserted itself and brought forth a
simpler, but more effective anti-tank weapon, the "Molotov cocktail."
Simplicity itself, the device consisted of a bottle filled with
potassium chloride, kerosene, with novlen and an ampoule of sulphuric
acid attached to the mouth of the bottle to detonate it.  The means of
delivery was a daredevil on skis, who slipped alongside a Soviet tank
and threw the cocktail into the turret.

Pg. 92, col. 1:
   _Motti_ tactics entailed a threefold process: reconnaissance and
blocking, followed by attack and isolation and then by annihilation.
Stage one had been completed while the fighting raged at Suomussalmi.

(A "General Motti" action of February 1940 is on the web.  There are
many hits for "motti" or "logging" tactics.  "Motti" is defined as "log
piles" or "encirclements."  A Google hit for Kollsberg's Folklore Farm
in Finland: "Why not try 'motti' with pork, a local dish?"  STAR WARS:
EPISODE IV (1977)--STAR WARS to you and me--has an "Admiral Motti."
George Lucas, the director/writer, also did PATTEN.  "Motti" is still
not in the OED??--ed.)