There are pages in the history of the Second World War that are not often published by modern media. We are talking about such military formations as ski battalions.
The history of the use of skis in military affairs has a very long past: one has only to take an interest in the folk epic on this topic. For example, in the ancient Norwegian saga about the campaign of the founder of modern Norway - Nora, it is said that he came to the decisive battle with the Laplanders on skis and defeated his enemies. The first chronicle evidence of the use of skis in hostilities appeared in 1199. In this document, the chronicler-historian Saxo tells about the Finnish war, where they used skis to move quickly. And in the spring of 1200, the Swedish king Sverker ordered his military commander, who commanded a detachment of skiers, to conduct reconnaissance on skis.
In Russia at that time, a military army was also formed from soldiers who knew how to ski. It is known from the Nikon Chronicle that during the battle between the troops of the Russian prince Vasily and Khan Mustafa from the Golden Horde in 1444, the ski detachments of the Russians under the leadership of the voivods Fyodor Golyatev and Vasily Obolensky unexpectedly surrounded the Tatar cavalry and destroyed.
In 1499, the Russian prince Ivan III sent a ski army, led by prince Semyon Kurbsky, to free the Yugorsk land from the Tatars. In those days, the Ugra land was called the part of Siberia located between the Ob River and the Polar Ural. Almost all military detachments of the Russians, who went through the Ural Mountains, to Siberia in order to free the lands from the rule of the Tatar-Mongols, had skis in their equipment. Siberian Cossacks not only possessed the skills of long crossings on skis, but also managed to effectively use them to fight the hordes of Khan Kuchum (XVI century). In winter, the detachments of the great ataman Ermak Timofeevich, equipped with skis, won a number of significant victories in the fight against the Tatar cavalry.
But not only in Siberia, military units used skis for quick and imperceptible penetration into the enemy's location, ski detachments of soldiers operated on the western borders of Russia. So, in 1534, the successful actions of the ski rati led to the victory in the campaign of the Russians to Lithuania.
In the European northern countries already in the Middle Ages there were military units of skiers. Chronicles say that at that time skis were used for reconnaissance, and there were also whole ski squads. It is a known fact that in 1550 the Norwegian minister issued an order according to which ski squads were formed "from the best and fastest men who can be found and who would like to voluntarily and willingly go into the service."
In Russia, the improvement of the methods of formation and training of ski military units also continued. Already in 1608-1610, the five thousandth ski detachment of the Russians, commanded by M. Skopin-Shuisky, opposed the Polish cavalry during the liberation of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. This is how N. M. wrote about this event. Karamzin: “Prince Ivan Kurakin with the Russians skied from the monastery to Dmitrov and saw Sapega under his walls. A bloody affair began, in which the Russians deserved loud praise with their brilliant courage."
During the Swedish-Russian war of 1610, a ski detachment of 4 thousand people fought on the side of the Swedes, commanded by Colonel de la Hardy. But it should be noted that both the Swedes and the Danes and the Norwegians formed their ski units on a temporary basis, they did not have permanent ski units in the armed forces.
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The history of the times of the Time of Troubles is interesting, when the ski squads of the Shisha in winter inflicted unexpected blows on the Polish-Lithuanian military units.
It should be noted that the participants in the partisan movement on the territory of the Russian kingdom against the Polish-Lithuanian conquerors were called shisha. The partisans were predominantly peasant. Shisha units were formed in the northern and central regions of the state. The most numerous detachments were on the Smolensk road and in the places where the detachments of Hetman Jan Chodkevich stayed for the winter.
In the records of the historian Illovaisky, it is written that the shishi took refuge in the wilds and forests, from there they hunted down the enemy, and then unexpectedly attacked, took the looted property from them. Shishi could completely exterminate the entire enemy unit. Winter was the most favorable time for the partisans. In winter, the Polish cavalry could not move quickly due to deep snows, and the Shishi skillfully used skis and quickly moved on them, both in the event of an attack and in retreat.
During the Napoleonic Wars (1807-1814), skiing Danish-Novrezhsk troops were used against Sweden.
In 1893, the Russian General Staff issued a circular obliging the troops to engage in ski training: "Special attention should be paid to exercises in the use of skis, extending this practice not only to hunters, but, if possible, to other lower ranks of the unit", but the desired result is not was received - only in the Petersburg military district among the jaeger regiments was the work carried out successfully. History has preserved information about the legendary passage of the Izmailovsky regiment hunters, who skied 1000 km in 20 days.
During the Russo-Japanese War, attempts were made to use ski formations for the purpose of inflicting combat strikes and in the sanitary service.
By the beginning of the First World War, all the countries of Western Europe had ski units in their armed forces. As a rule, these were rangers and mountain rifle units. They were used in battles in the Alps, Carpathians, Vosges.
In 1918, a program of general military education (Vseobuch) was being implemented in Russia, and military ski training was a compulsory discipline in it. The entire population from 16 to 40 years old was required to participate in the program. In 1919, Russia had 75 ski companies, which contributed to the victory of the Bolsheviks on the fronts of the Civil War. In the pre-war period, skiing became an important means of training Red Army fighters and ski training was included in the curriculum of all military training units preparing junior and senior officers. There were team competitions ("Race of Patrols") - a race at a distance of 30 km with shooting, cross-country skiing and championships in skiing among the Red Army units.
Year 1939. Soviet-Finnish war. In Finland, ski training was completed by all military personnel. The Finnish ski sabotage squads included servicemen who were good at not only skis, but also small arms. Armed with Lahti light machine guns and Suomi submachine guns, Finnish ski squads made sudden raids behind Red Army lines and successfully retreated using their knowledge of the terrain. In the battle of Suomissalmi, the 45,000-strong Red Army unit was defeated by three regiments of Finnish skiers (11,000 people). Finnish saboteurs-skiers sowed panic in the rear of the Soviet troops and delivered strikes, leading to heavy losses. Only by the beginning of 1940, 77 ski battalions appeared in the Soviet army. And then already the Soviet ski units became famous for daring raids on the rear of the enemy,disrupting communications and destroying headquarters. So a detachment under the command of A. Lodeinikov made a raid to the rear to a depth of 80 km and destroyed the officer base. In the same 1940, in the Arctic, a special-purpose ski detachment completed a combat mission at a distance of 150 km from the front line, blocked an important transport route, occupying a dominant height, and held it for 4 days.
The efforts of the Soviet military, who invested so much enthusiasm and effort in introducing skiing to the masses, could not but affect the results of hostilities in the winter of 1941-1942. It was the massive "ski literacy" that made it possible to bring about a turning point in the Great Patriotic War. Ski battalions literally swept away the numb and demoralized enemies from Moscow. Near Moscow, 30 special divisions of skiers were involved, which included the best athletes of the country. The Red Army was able to apply the experience gained during the Finnish war. It is about excellent maneuverability in winter conditions, good equipment and sufficient supply. So, with a lack of armored equipment to break through the enemy's front line, ski units were used, which quickly and unexpectedly bypassed the flanks of the Nazi troops. Near Leningrad, partisans from among the students-skiers who had previously studied at sports educational institutions fought. Using their skills in military-applied sports, they inflicted enormous damage on the fascist conquerors. The Germans called their troops "ski death". During the first year of the war, student partisans killed more than 3 thousand German soldiers and officers, blew up more than 80 bridges, derailed a thousand wagons with military cargo and enemy manpower, 24 enemy airfields suffered from their attack.blown up more than 80 bridges, derailed a thousand wagons with military cargo and enemy manpower, 24 enemy airfields suffered from their attack.blown up more than 80 bridges, derailed a thousand wagons with military cargo and enemy manpower, 24 enemy airfields suffered from their attack.
A special group of skiers from the NKVD (OmsbON) was operating behind enemy lines. She took part in the defense of the capital. Since March 1942, this group was renamed the "Walkers" reconnaissance and sabotage detachment, which successfully waged a guerrilla war against the Nazis in Zhitomir, Oryol, Gomel, Brest, Chernigov regions and in Poland.
Despite the fact that since the Second World War, significant changes have affected weapons, weapons, methods of warfare, and now ski training is included in the training program for personnel of the Russian army. Since significant areas of Russia are covered with snow for most of the year, such preparation is clearly not superfluous.
