Was Schandewitz really a Corporal, alikersantti? Or is this another misunderstanding in Finnish-English military language... One source said that he was korpraali, lance-corporal/private 1st class???In February 1940 at Summa front (at Munasuo) Soviets attacked with 9 tanks against Finnish lines. Finns succeeded to destroy 8 tanks, but one of these tanks managed to survive into Finnish back. Corporal Einar Schadewitz (from JP3) saw situation and grabbed a shatchel charge and climb top of that tank. He started to knock tank´s hatch and he yelled in Finnish, Savo dialect: "Avvoo iivana, tiällä kuolema kolokuttaa" ("Open up, Ivan, this is death knocking"). Most likely the crew member of tank thought it was some of their own troops yelling and opened the hatch (noises of the battlefield made the situation confusing). Immediatelly when this happened, Einar dropped charge into tank and jumped off tank. Huge explosion was heard and last tank was destroyed.
What type was the tank he destroyed?
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A typo corrected
/Juha