30 000 FDF photographs to be digitized

[Mangrove]

Unfortunately, the SA kuvagalleria website does not seem to be ready yet.

They are experiencing problems with the large amount of users trying to access the site. I have managed to access the site a few times during the last two hours. Please try again later. Do also notice that to search for photographs, one must use Finnish search words!

[Bill Murray]

Thanks Martti:

Given the time difference, I will wait until this evening my time when it should have less users trying to access the site.

I have been waiting a long time for these archives to come online so a few more hours isn't so bad .

I do hope they get at least the Swedish language version up pretty soon. I worked for Volvo and SAAB for over 20 years and lived in Sweden for two years so "Jag Kan Svenska Ganska Bra" but I am lost with the Finnish language.

Thanks also for following up on this news these last years. I am not only interested in Finnish history during the war years but also the use of US vehicles in Finland 1935-1945 both in civilian and military roles. Visiting other Finnish "photo sites" I have gotten a few hundred photos for my document file on those subjects but most were devoted to the "day to day" type of photos.

Bill

[adam7]

They had 100 000 simultaneous users on the site, so the site crashed. Now it is up again, but slow.

Guess they didn't expect quite the interest.

Search instructions in Swedish:

SÖKANVISNINGAR

Observera följande allmänna anvisningar gällande bildtexterna.

Största delen av fotografierna är försedda med en tillhörande text. Fotografisökningarna baserar sig på TK-fotografernas beskrivningar och i tjänsten ingår de i den form de hade i de ursprungliga bildtexterna. Texterna har inte redigerats och språkdräkten har inte granskats.

Eftersom texterna är originaltexter är språket och begreppen i dem krigstida finska.

I texterna förekommer förkortningar, t.ex. hv = hyökkäysvaunu, sv. stridsvagn, krh=kranaatinheitin, sv. granatkastare, kk=konekivääri, sv. maskingevär. Motparten benämns ofta som "ryssä", vilket är en nedlåtande form av ordet "ryss". Begrepp som har tillkommit senare i historieskrivningen, såsom "asemasota" ="ställningskrig" eller "hyökkäysvaihe"="anfallsskede" går inte att använda som sökord.

Under fortsättningskriget instruerades fotograferna att skriva bildtexterna så att fotografens namn, motivet och platsen framgick. Man uppnådde inte alltid önskad noggrannhet och då kunde det hända att fotograferingstidpunkten har angivits exempelvis i formen 12.3. 15.3.1944 eller att fotograferingsplatsen har angivits mindre exakt, t.ex. i närheten av Rukajärvi. Under vinterkriget författades inga bildtexter och sålunda saknar fotografierna från den tiden förutom uppgifter om motivet, även uppgifter om tid och plats och ofta fattas även fotografens namn.

Ifall bildbeskrivning saknas, kommer sökningar enligt tidsperiod och datum att grunda sig på löpande negativnummer. På grund av det här kan tidspersiod- och datumsökningar inte betraktas som helt tillförlitliga.
TEXTSÖKNING

Bildsökningar kan endast göras på finska. En liten del av bilderna har textats till svenska då fotografens modersmål har varit svenska.

Bildsökningen sker genom textsökning, som gäller alla textfält. Man anger bildmotivet, platsen eller fotografens namn i sökfältet och trycker på Sök-knappen. Sökningen kan avbrytas med tecknet *, t.ex. Ilma*. Då söker tjänsten alla ord som börjar med bokstäverna före stjärnan. Vi rekommenderar att du använder tecknet, eftersom kasusformerna i det finska språket annars kan försvåra sökningen.
NOGGRANNARE SÖKNING

Om du vill göra noggrannare bildsökningar, kan du använda Booles operatorfunktioner AND, OR eller NOT.

Funktionen AND används då man önskar hitta bilder där alla använda sökord ingår.

T.ex. Tornio AND saksal*.

Tjänsten söker fram alla bilder som föreställer tyskar i Torneå.

Funktionen OR används då man vill söka efter fotografier, där något av de sökord som man använt förekommer:

Till exempel tank*OR panssariest*

Tjänsten söker fram de bilder som föreställer pansarvagnar (fi.tankki) eller pansarhinder eller båda två.

Funktionen NOT används då man vill utesluta någon särskild del ur en grupp.

Till exempel vapaaehtoi*NOT ruotsalai*

Tjänsten söker fram bilder på soldater som tjänstgjort som frivilliga och utesluter svenska frivilliga.
RULLGARDINSMENYER

Du kan bläddra fram bilder från vinter-, fortsättnings och Lapplandskriget som helheter för sig. Alternativt kan du avgränsa textsökningen till den tidsperiod du önskar.

And in English:

HOW TO CONDUCT A SEARCH

Some general remarks about the annotations on the photographs.

Most photographs have an annotation. The searches are based on the original wartime annotations found on the photographs. The texts have not been edited, nor have they been proofread.

Because the texts have been left in their original form, their language and terms are wartime Finnish. The texts contain military abbreviations (for e.g. hv = hyökkäysvaunu = assault tank, krh = kranaatinheitin = mortar, kk = konekivääri = machine gun, jsp = joukkosidontapaikka = aid station), and the opponent is bluntly referred to as "Russki". You cannot search for images using terms and concepts, such as 'asemasota' ('trench warfare') or 'hyökkäysvaihe' ('offensive phase'), as there were coined after the wars.

During the Continuation War photographers were instructed to write annotations that told the name of the photographer, the subject or event being photographed, and the place the photo was taken. Nevertheless, annotations were not always this precise. A photographer may have written down the time the picture was taken as "12-15 March 1944", or the location may be approximate, such as "in the direction of Rukajärvi". Photographs taken during the Winter War were not systematically annotated and some of them have no topic, time or location. The photographer also often remains unknown.

When you conduct a search using a time period (for e.g. Winter War ) or date, the search may come up with images that are dated according to the serial number of the original photograph s negative. This is the default option when a photograph has no annotation. This means that a search based on time period or date is not entirely reliable as to when the picture was actually taken.
WORD SEARCH

You can only conduct a search using Finnish words.

When you type in the word(s), the search will compute all search fields. You can leave the search term in as broad a form as possible by using the asterisk *, as for instance ilma* (=air*). The search engine will then search for all entries that begin with the letters i l m a. We recommend using the *, as this will give you a more comprehensive list of hits (this has to do with the structure of the Finnish language).
AN ADVANCED SEARCH

To make an advanced search, use the Boolean operators AND, OR or NOT.

Use AND when you want pictures that fulfil all your search criteria.

For example: Tornio AND saksal*

The service will then look for photographs that show Germans in Tornio.

Use OR when you want pictures that fulfil at least one of your search criteria.

For example: tank* OR panssariest*

The search will then show photographs that either have tanks or Dragon's teeth or both. (NB. The Finnish word for tank is tankki , therefore tank* is an abbrev. of the Finnish word and not English.)

Use NOT when you want something particular to be left out of the search.

For example: vapaaehtoi* NOT ruotsala*

The search will show photographs of foreign volunteers but exclude any pictures showing Swedish volunteers.
PULL-DOWN MENU

You can browse through photographs from the Winter War, Continuation War and Lapland War in their entirety as separate categories. You can also limit your search to a particular time period of your choice.

Using the pull-down menu, you can, for instance, choose "talvisota" and write in the word search box "Viipuri". The search will then come up with pictures taken in Viipuri during the Winter War.

[John Hilly]

Found this e.a. vehicle using search SA auto*
It seem I was too busy not waitng for larger photo loading...

Auto SA 40733 .jpg (1.88 KiB) Viewed 3352 times

Source: SA-kuva
The site is still rather slow, but they are motifications on it.

With best,
J-P

[Hanski]

This collection of wartime photos is actually quite unique worldwide. The archive has not only 30 000, but a total of 170 000 digitized photos from the WInter War, Continuation War, and Lapland War eras. They existed as negatives before this project.

The National Defence Academy is publishing the collection to honor the National Veterans' Day 2013, with the theme "From the front line to home front 1939 - 1945".

The collection contains photos of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force as well as the home front, from wartime in rural and urban areas. There are pictures of Lottas and leisure time DIY projects. Also the cruelty of war is apparent from the photos. The photos have been taken mainly by the photographers of Information Companies ("TK"), belonging to the organization that was created during the Interim Peace in 1940 - 1941. The photo material of the Winter War was taken by frontline soldiers with their own cameras, although all published material was classified as "TK-photos".

The TK-photographers produced propaganda material in wartime and made official war documents. During the Continuation War, the number of the TK Companies varied between 8 and 12, and there were about 150 photographers actively serving in the front line. They recorded historically valuable heritage for later generations.

Have a look! http://sa-kuva.fi/


The reason why April 27 is the Finnish Veterans' Day: the last foreign (= German) soldiers had been driven off Finnish territory on that date, bringing to an end the Lapland War in 1945. The Finnish flag was taken on top of the tripoint national border mark between Finland, Sweden, and Norway at Kilpisjärvi, Lapland.

[Mangrove]

Some quite interesting photographs can be found between SA-numbers 113342 and . They are illustrating various parts from various armored vehicles, probably meant to be photographed for a part manual of some sort. Here's a list of them (search "Varkaus"):

T-20: SA 113452 - 113495, SA 141588 - 141606, SA 141617 - 141630, 143971 - 144018 = 129 photographs.
T-26: SA 140290 - 140310 = 20 photographs.
T-28: SA 141563 - 141587, SA 141607 - 141616, SA 141631 - 142983, SA 142991 - 143106, SA 144339 - SA 144345 = 209 photographs
T-34: SA 113342 - 113451 = 109 photographs.

L-62: SA 142984 - 142990 = 6 photographs.

[Mangrove]

Does anyone have a clue of the nature of the trip made by one Raimo Ranta and his colleagues in the summer of 1943? Altogether 92 SA-kuva photographs (n:o 132875 - 132966) are simply marked as "kuvia Saksaan tehdystä opintomatkasta" (Photographs taken during a study visit to Germany). However, it is quite clear that the trip was not made to Germany alone, as the photographs also show various Slavic or Ingrian log buildings.

[sisudk]

Hello Mangrove

Have the above mentioned Pictures of Finnish armor been digitalized? If so are you able to search using the sa-numbers on the site?

Best regards

Johnny

[Juha Tompuri]

Hi Johnny,

You will find there ( http://sa-kuva.fi/neo ) some photos by using for instance the following search words (with the asterisk attached):

tankki*
hyökkäysvaunu*
panssari*

Regards, Juha

[sisudk]

Hello Again

Yes the above mentioned Photos has been digitalized and you are able to search using the SA-# ... sorry for posting my question before having checked myself.

Thank you Juha (helpful as ever) with the search Words ... any further suggestions for searching Photos of the T-28?

Best regards

Johnny

[Juha Tompuri]

any further suggestions for searching Photos of the T-28?

Sorry, but can't figure out that.

Some general additional info.
tank* gives more hits than tankki*
Also ps* and hv* are useful search words.

Regards, Juha

[sisudk]

Hello Juha

... i meant search Words for finding Photos relating to T-28's in Finnish use.

Best regards

Johnny

[John Hilly]

Hello Juha
... i meant search Words for finding Photos relating to T-28's in Finnish use. Best regards
Johnny

Try "Postijuna". That was the nickname Finns used for T-28.

With best,
J-P

[Juha Tompuri]

Hi Johnny,

... i meant search Words for finding Photos relating to T-28's in Finnish use.

Ah, sorry.
What I ment is]that I did understand what you were after, but just was't able to help you with the T-28 case.

Try "Postijuna". That was the nickname Finns used for T-28.

Won't work.

Regards, Juha

[Juha Tompuri]

As Magrove earlier posted varkaus (Tank repair depot location) gives some hits and also "t and 28" (without the quotation marks) some.

Regards, Juha