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Carl Gustav Emir Mannerheim 4 August 1944 – 4 March 1946) was one of the met interesting monarch’s in late 20th century Europe. He was a Finnish military leader who rose to Lieutenant General in the army of Tsar Nicholas II. When the Russian Revolution concluded, he led a force of “Whites” against the Bolshevik “Reds” and maintained his borders in the turbulent years of the birth of Communism. He was Commander in Chief of the Finnish Armed Forces, the Marshal of Finland, and certainly, a great tactical general who essentially kicked the Russian army out of Finland. In the Winter War, Gustav and his 300,000 men and 32 tanks and a hundred aircraft defeated the Russian 750,000 man army with 5,000 tanks and 3000 aircraft.
This was the war that Hitler watched and made the quip about Russia: “Once we kick the door in the whole rotten thing will come crashing down.” Hitler respected Mannerheim and delivered blandishments about him to other, Mannerheim despised Hitler. On the occasion of mannerheim’s 75th birthday, Hitler flew to Helsinki to wine and dine him. There was a discussion about the upcoming invasion of Russia. That said, here is transcript of the conversation………..
Hitler: “It is evident…evident. They have the most monstrous armament that is humanly conceivable (‘menschendenkbar’)…so…if anybody had told me that one state…(footsteps)…if anybody had told me that one state can line up with 35.000 tanks (Hitler uses the word ‘tank’), I had said ‘you have gone mad’…
Unidentified: “Thirty-five…”
Hitler: “35.000 Panzer (now he uses the word ‘Panzer’)…we have more than, we have at the time more than 34 Pan…thousand Panzer destroyed. If somebody had told me this to…had said: you…if one general of mine had declared, that a state here had 35.000 tanks, I had said, Mister (‘Mein Herr’), you are seeing everything double… or tenfold, this is crazy, you are seeing ghosts…I had not thought this possible…If somebody had told me that…I have told this just before, we have found industrial plants…one of this in (unintelligible: Kalanuskaja?) for example, that was under construction two years ago…and we had no idea…and today there is a tank production facility that…that…in the first shift a bit over 30.000 and in full development should have employed more than 60.000 workers…one single tank production facility…we have occupied it…a gargantuan facility…lots of workers who nevertheless live like animals and such…”