Flemish/Belgian volunteers

Discussions on the Winter War and Continuation War, the wars between Finland and the USSR.
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rednavtkcots
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Joined: 27 Jul 2016, 12:21
Location: België

Flemish/Belgian volunteers

#1

Post by rednavtkcots » 27 Jul 2016, 12:48

Dear all,

I'm a Belgian student of history, hoping to write my masters thesis about the Belgian (Flemish and Walloon) volunteers of the Winter War. It is thought that many of them later joined the Flemish legion, Wiking or Langemarck division in the east during WWII. As far as I know, no scientific publication has yet touched this subject profoundly. Through this forum, I hope to gather more information about them or at least to find out where to start looking for it.

Could anyone help me please? Many thanks!

Mangrove
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Joined: 25 Dec 2004, 02:33

Re: Flemish/Belgian volunteers

#2

Post by Mangrove » 27 Jul 2016, 17:46

rednavtkcots wrote:Through this forum, I hope to gather more information about them or at least to find out where to start looking for it.
Folder T-6572/5 in the Finnish National Archive contains visa applications (with photographs) for Belgian volunteers in French. The same folder also contains a list of persons from Belgium that were awarded with the Commemorative Medal of the Winter War.


rednavtkcots
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Joined: 27 Jul 2016, 12:21
Location: België

Re: Flemish/Belgian volunteers

#3

Post by rednavtkcots » 20 Aug 2016, 17:46

Thank you very much Mangrove for this quite useful information! If you have more tips/help, I would be more than happy to know. Especially the language barrier seems to prove a lot of difficulty. :)

Seppo Jyrkinen
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Re: Flemish/Belgian volunteers

#4

Post by Seppo Jyrkinen » 21 Aug 2016, 08:51

When Continuous War broke out, there were still 18 Winter War volunteers from several countries in Finland. At least part of them didn't want to go back to their home countries which were occupied by Germany.

Three Belgian citizen were put in prison at Autumn 1941 and two of them admitted to be on the side of Soviet Union. The third one, Georges Bush, had a lot of troubles with the law. He had told to police that the reason for stealing had been that he wanted to get banished out of Finland (free ticket to home?). In June 1942 he really was banished the country.

A language barrier here too: Hannu Rautkallio Hannu, "Ne 8 ja Suomen omatunto".
A word irony is baked into the word history.

wellecbe
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Joined: 28 Aug 2017, 06:08
Location: Oostende Belgium

Re: Flemish/Belgian volunteers

#5

Post by wellecbe » 28 Aug 2017, 13:49

The book "The Last Knight Of Flanders" written by 'Remy Schrijnen' gives a lot of insight on the matter.
http://www.schifferbooks.com/the-last-k ... 5-641.html

Seppo Koivisto
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Re: Flemish/Belgian volunteers

#6

Post by Seppo Koivisto » 28 Apr 2021, 22:57

Feeniks magazine 3/2020 mentions lieutenant Gustave Milo, son of a Belgian general. He took part as observer in one Blenheim bombing mission over the Bay of Viipuri in March 1940. He was awarded the Cross of Liberty 2nd class for this one mission, where the pilot captain Oskari Haaki had to do the aiming and release of bombs.

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