The Winter War, invasion of the Baltics and tension in Europe (Dec. 1939 to Mar. 1940)
After the invasion of Poland, France and Britain guaranteed the independence of Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg to protect against any further German attacks. Hitler knew however that to continue with his plans of conquering Eastern Europe, the western powers would have to be dealt with, especially France, who "disgraced" Germany after WW1 and the Treaty of Versailles. Germany needed to build up its army and give time to plan for the inevitable invasion of France and the Benelux, so Hitler did not declare war instantly. 65 year old new prime-minister Winston Churchill was strongly against German expansionism and his moving speeches and propaganda helped the British people to feel the same way as him. Churchill's propaganda program was very successful, causing nationwide hatred against the Germans. An interesting fact is that some accusations that Churchill made against the Germans that were completely conjured up turned out to be true. In France Lebrun's campaign was not as successful, with most citizens feeling uneasy towards Lebrun's enthusiasm towards war. This led to Lebrun's approval rating heading downwards, reaching 23% by March 1940.
On December 1st, 1939 Germany and the USSR jointly invaded Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This immediately led the British populace, which Churchill had made strongly against Germany's aggressiveness, support war with Germany. However Churchill knew that if he declared war on Germany, he would have to declare war on the USSR as well since they both obviously agreed to the invasion and citizens would question why the UK is neutral towards the USSR and against Germany. As the UK would obviously not survive a war with Germany and the USSR, Winston Churchill had to play the war down and try to focus on the hate towards
Germany than the Baltic War. The USSR and Germany used their previous tactics of steamrolling through the country and blitzkrieg respectively and it worked just as last time. By the 5th of December Estonia surrendered and the USSR fully occupied it, the next day Lithuania surrendered but was split west/east between the Germans and the Soviets. Latvia kept fighting but was eventually forced to surrender by the 11th, with Germany controlling Courland, Rie (then known as Riga) and the surrounding areas whereas the USSR took the rest. The occupied territories were practically immediately annexed.
On the 3rd of January 1940 the USSR sent an ultimatum to Finland requesting borderlands, ports and access of military bases. As the demands were seen as unreasonable to Finland they rejected it and were declared war on. The Soviet army first made a few gains in areas near Lake Ladoga and northern Finland, but it turned into a stalemate by the 15th, with Russian troops unable to continue fighting with a lack of resources, food and ammunition and the Finnish unable to puncture the massive Soviet army. However in mid-February the Finnish started to push back as the Soviet army was tired and had little to no ammunition or resources. To take vast swathes of land in north Finland, Finland had to sacrifice the defence of Southern Finland. The USSR made large gains in Southern Finland, reaching Joensuu by the 8th of March. However the Finnish army, which had been trained in the cold landscape of Lapland, was very successful and was able to capture one quarter of Murmansk Oblast. By the 8th of March the Soviets had no choice but to make a peace treaty as any further fighting would end up worse for them. The Finns were able to gain the entirety of Murmansk Oblast, however they lost massive portions of Southern Finland, taken by the USSR to protect cities such as Leningrad and to gain more access to the sea in the Baltic area. Even though the Soviets were the clear winner in the treaty and Finalnd got mainly useless land, the Finns still had full sovereignty and kept control of their military bases, leaving no Soviet influence. The Finnish people became massively upset after the war, losing much of its territory and causing migration from the new Soviet territory to Finland. This led Finland to be more friendly to Germany, with the Nazis later drawing up plans for Finland occupation of parts of North-West Russia. Fighting with the Soviets pushed the Finns into the German's sphere of influence out of fear and protection.
