@Schroeder: Yup, a lot of criticism has been leveled against Finnish military leadership over the years for not seeing the signs of an immediate offensive.
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Originally Posted by Sailor Steve
I've always found it fascinating that people (and nations) do what seem to be bad things for good reasons, and vice versa. I once was part of a discussion in which one person was arguing how bad he thought the Finns were for siding with the Germans during the war. I asked him what other choice he thought they had. The Soviets were threatening to overrun their country, and since the Soviets were the "good" guys because they were helping fight the "bad" guys (and the Nazis were indeed bad), the mere act of accepting help from the Germans meant that the Finns were taking the "bad" side.
I think taking that help from the Germans was the best thing Finland could have done at the time.
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I've had the 'pleasure' to discuss with similar minded people over the years. I think the main reason for thinking like that is the unfortunate lack of written material available in really any other languages than Finnish and Swedish and what there is often glosses over much of the political side of the war, so they might not understand the reasoning of Finnish leadership to side with Germany.
I agree that Finland's best bet and really the only reasonable bet was to side with Germany after the Winter War, the pressure from the Soviet Union during the interim peace and lastly, having watched what happened to the Baltic states in 1940.
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And thanks again for keeping this thread going. 
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