Motti

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For other uses, see Motti (disambiguation).

Motti is a Finnish military slang for an encircled enemy unit, the same tactic is usually called "pocket" in English military terminology. This tactic of envelopment was used extensively by the Finnish forces in the Winter War and the Continuation War to good effect. Basically, motti is a double envelopment manoeuver, using the ability of light troops to travel over rough ground to encircle an enemy restricted to open terrain or roads. Heavily outnumbered, but mobile forces could easily immobilize an enemy twenty times larger than itself.

The idea was to cut the enemy columns or units into smaller groups and then encircle them with light and mobile forces, such as ski-troops during winter. This was especially effective against some of the mechanized units of the Soviet Army, as they were effectively restricted to the roads. The Finnish troops on the other hand could move quickly through the forests and strike weak points. The smaller pockets of enemies could then be dealt with individually by concentrating forces against them.

If the encircled enemy unit was too strong, or if attacking it would have entailed an unacceptably high cost, e.g. because of a lack of heavy equipment, the motti was usually left to "cook" until it ran out of food, fuel, supplies and ammunition and was weakened enough to be eliminated. Some of the larger mottis held out until the end of the war, because they were resupplied by air.

The word motti (originally borrowed from Swedish mått, "measure") means one cubic meter of firewood. When collecting firewood, the logs were cut and stacked in 1 m³ cubical stacks, which were left scattered in the woods to be picked up later.

The largest motti battles in the Winter War occurred at the Battle of Suomussalmi. Three Finnish regiments enveloped and destroyed two Soviet divisions and a tank brigade trapped on a road.