Cocktails, anyone? How the Molotov cocktail came to be
STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE
More than 80 years ago, in November 1939 while the rest of the world’s attention was arrested by the escalating war with Adolf Hitler, Soviet Red Army troops invaded Finland. Yes, Finland.
Back in Moscow, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin wanted to trade territories with Finnish President Kyösti Kallio, claiming the security of Leningrad, 32 kilometres from the countries’ border, was at stake.
By the spring of 1945, the Allies had driven German troops into a defensive pocket near Wesel, on the Rhine’s west bank. But there was hard and bitter fighting yet to come before the Allies’ final thrust over the Rhine.
In early March, the Canadians were assigned to take Xanten, established by the Romans in about 15 B.C. and the place from which the German 256th Infantry Division launched its 1940 invasion of the Netherlands.
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Royal Canadian Legion, US Branch #25 