What If-Finland had been prepared for the Winter War?

[CanKiwi2]

Another question. Circa late 1930's, was there a Finnish Rifle suitable for younger teenagers to learn to shoot with. A .22 or something like that in more or less common use?

[Panssari Salama]

Absolutely, for an example Suomen Leijona was a very advanced 22 of the time. http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suomen_Leijona

[CanKiwi2]

Absolutely, for an example Suomen Leijona was a very advanced 22 of the time. http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suomen_Leijona

Many thanks - you will see this appearing shortly!

[John Hilly]

Also Valmet Orava, "Squarrel", could be used in ATL.
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valmet_Orava

With best,
J-P

[CanKiwi2]

Also Valmet Orava, "Squarrel", could be used in ATL.
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valmet_Orava

With best,
J-P

Wasn't that more post-war though? Nice gun mind I was looking for something available from around 1931-32 on.

[Seppo Koivisto]

Skohan Tikka was a sport shooting rifle, production started in 1930 (you know the manufacturer)

http://www.ace-gun.com/product_details.php?p=1962

Tampereen asepaja Tarkka (Pikkutarkka) was a hunting rifle made in late 30's. My father and uncle earned money by squirrel hunting for furs as boys before and after WW2.

http://www.lahdeniemi.fi/Sivut/kayt-piek.htm

[CanKiwi2]

Hey, thx for those too.

[JTV]

Well, Suomen Leijona and Skohan Tikka were among top of the line .22 LR caliber target shooting rifles of their time, but IMO they would have been too expensive for this sort of purpose. Size-wise they are also intended for adults, so while I love the quality in them, my experience suggests that they are likely too large and heavy for the purpose. What is known development of these rifles may have been likely inspired by target shooting rifle earlier introduced by Estonian manufacturer Arsenal. BTW: According recent book by Timo Hyytinen Suomen Leijona was originally designed by none other than Aimo Lahti.

Orava m/49 on the other hand was post-war rifle, whose main benefit was being extremely simple and cheap while being accurate enough for squarrel-hunting. The trigger system used in this is not exactly designed for target shooting. This rifle has a desing feature of rifle, which probably did not hurt its popularity either. The rifle stock is attached to receiver & barrel combination with just one hand screw. This allowed the rifle to be quickly disassembled two parts, which could be easily carried in backpack if needed and re-assembled just as easily.

The historically accurate option would be Nalle M/37, which was apparently de-facto standard issue Civil Guard rifle for training Civil Guard boys in late 1930's. When it comes to this rifle, the manufacturer is actually not known for sure, the rifle is apparently German-made since it has German proof markings, but they lack any markings which would indicate the manufacturer.

Anyway, any of the Finnish manufacturers could have built a rifle for this purpose. My educated guess is that Civil Guard may have decided to order Nalle M/37 from Germany simply because it was a suitable design available in large numbers at reasonable price. Basically what one needs is just simple and rugged bolt-action rifle with adjustable iron sights (which preferably have sight picture resembling the one used in latest military rifles) built in suitable size. Preferably the rear sight would have tangent with settings for various shooting distances. The rifle may well be a single-shot without magazine of any sort, but having 5-shot removable magazine might be handy. Option of being equipped with rifle sling that would be the smaller size version of rifle sling m/30 used by Civil Guard could also be useful, since it would allow to learn using rifle sling for support already early on.

Jarkko

[CanKiwi2]

Thx Jarkko, included that now....

[CanKiwi2]

And first, a note on sources: As Jarkko may recognize, a considerable part of this post is (at times rather loosely) based on his writeup on Mobilisation on the Mosin-Nagant site. I have taken and twisted this for my alternative timeline, so if you want the real story, go and read Jarkko’s excellent article (http://www.mosinnagant.net/finland/thec ... inland.asp) . I’ve also added in a considerable amount of fictional stuff, so enjoy……

Mobilisation Planning in the 1920’s

The ongoing expansion of the Finnish Army from 1918 to 1939 was a constant race to equip and train an ever increasing number of available troops. In the 1920’s, as we will see, the pool of young men liable for conscription was almost triple the number that finances and available equipment permitted to be trained. It would appear on the balance of evidence that many men were rejected as unsuitable for military service for minor reasons (when the real reason was that there was no financial budget to cover the cost of training the entire pool of men available). Through the same period, it seems from the available records that even with these constraints on the number of men who received military training, there was not enough equipment to actually equip all the troops who could be mobilized.

At one and the same time as the numbers of conscripts being called up for military service was being financially constrained, Army planners were creating overly-optimistic Mobilisation Plans based on the force level they estimated would be necessary to successfully fight a defensive war against the Soviet Union. The first (and very ambitious) mobilization plan made immediately the after Civil War ended in 1918 laid out a force of 9 Divisions (with a total of 27 Infantry Regiments). At this time Finland had less than half of the trained troops or weaponry needed for an Army of this size – in point of fact it would appear that at this time an Army of 3 Divisions was what trained men and available equipment would have permitted.

In 1921 the goal of mobilization was re-set to 6 Divisions and 1 Jaeger Brigade, but the same Finnish military planners were still forced to the conclusion that 10 Divisions would be needed if the capability to successfully fight a defensive war was to be achieved. Over the 1920’s, the pool of trained men in the Reserves grew year by year. Unfortunately, this meant that even as more equipment was being acquired, the equipment situation for Finnish soldiers didn't improve much overall as there were more and more soldiers for whom equipment would need to be issued upon mobilization. By 1927 the Finnish military had managed to acquire sufficient weapons and equipment for 7 Divisions, but the Defense Review of that year already recommended a future wartime Army of 13 Divisions.

Through this same period, the permanent Officers and NCO’s of the Finnish Army were a small pool of men, part of whose responsibility included the training of a large number of Conscripts each year. These conscripts, after completing their training, moved into the Reserves. There was at this time no ongoing training or service requirement for men in the Reserves. This was simply a pool of men who had completed military training and who could be mobilized in the event of a war. Those men who wished to take part in ongoing military training joined the Suojeluskuntas, the Civil Guard, although through this period the Suojeluskuntas played no part in the Cadre Mobilisation System that was used at this time.

The Finnish Army’s Cadre Mobilization System: 1918-1934

The Finnish Army used the Cadre Mobilization System from April of 1918 to April of 1934. Just as in the post-1934 mobilization system, the entire country was divided into military districts. Upon mobilization, a certain number of units would be formed in each of these districts. In this system (based on the German mobilization system) each of the wartime Army Regiments had an active peacetime Battalion sized unit made up of conscripts undergoing their military service period as cadre, around which the wartime Regiment, when mobilized, would be formed by filling up the ranks with Reservists.

The main problem with the cadre mobilization system was that it was centralized (units were to be formed up at only a small number of physical locations) and its ability to rapidly and effectively mobilize an ever-growing Army was questionable. Large numbers of troops and vehicles gathering at a small number of points for mobilization made good targets for an enemy air force - and also provided an opportunity for successful sabotage efforts against the few large depots in which the equipment was stored. The effects of destroying even a small number of such depots could have had devastating impact on any actual mobilization as there was no equipment or weapons to spare.

Within the cadre mobilization system, the Suojeluskuntas had a two-fold role to play. Suojeluskuntas of the border-areas were to fight against the enemy as part of Suojajoukot (“Protective troops”, responsible for fighting delaying actions along the border) in their own areas, while the role of Suojeluskuntas organization as a whole was to form up additional reserve units. If there been war during the period of this mobilization system, there would have been pure Sk (Suojeluskuntas)-units fighting. As the Sk members were generally the only men (other than those undergoing conscript training) who carried out regular military training, this would also have had the effect of concentrating the only pool of men with ongoing military training and experience into their own units.

The Mobilization Plan for 1928 included the following pure Sk-units from Sk Districts:
7 Sk Regiments
29 Sk Battalions
2 Sk Artillery Battalions
1 Sk Light Detachment

The Suojajoukot (“Protective troops”) were Finnish units responsible for defending the border areas against the initial attack of the enemy. Their mission was to delay (or even stop) the enemy advance immediately on the start of war in order to buy time for the full-scale mobilization to take place. Over the period of the cadre mobilization system (1918 - 1933), if a war had broken out the Suojeluskuntas in the border areas would have indeed formed their own units, which would have been part of these covering troops. When the Suojelusuntas units were first organized in 1918, certain areas called "Rajamaa” (borderlands) were left outside the areas included in the Sk district mobilization system. The Sk units in these Rajamaa were assigned to Suojajoukot units, where they would have fought either on their own or together with Army units also assigned to the Suojajoukot.

Initially, there were only a small number of Sk units in the Suojajoukot, but this had changed considerably by the late 1920s. Starting in 1921, the number of Sk units assigned for Suojajoukot units increased, with Suojeluskuntas units from Viipuri, Sortavala and Joensuu Sk-districts assigned to them. After this, the part played by the Sk continued to grow. The part of the Sk-Units in the Suojajoukot became increasingly vital and by 1926, the number of Sk districts whose Suojeluskuntas were included in Suojajoukot had doubled. A further five Sk-districts were assigned to organize their own coastal defense units during any war.
However, in 1934, the Finnish Army’s mobilization system would change.

The Finnish Army’s Area Mobilization System: 1934 to the Winter War

With the Defence Review of 1931, a wholesale series of major changes and initiatives began, the end result of which would be a radical transformation of the entire Finnish military over the decade of the 1930’s. One of these changes was a revamping of the Mobilisation System used. The Area Mobilization System replaced the Cadre Mobilisation System as of the 1st of May, 1934. The new system had started out as a suggestion in a Puolustusrevisio (Defense Revision), which (then) Jaeger-Major Leonard Grandell had made a decade earlier, in the early 1920’s.

The focus of the new Area Mobilization Plan was decentralization: Mobilised soldiers would be formed up as Company or Artillery Battery-sized units in hundreds of locations spread across the country and locally based, meaning these small units could mobilise extremely rapidly. Equipment which the formed units needed was stored in smaller mobilization depots (often local Suojeluskuntas buildings, churches, the houses of local Sk Officers and NCO’s and the like), which were also the reserve unit's place of mobilization.

In this Area Mobilization Plan, the roles of the Suojeluskuntas and Lotta Svärd organisations changed radically. Rather than the Sk-organisation contributing units, both the Sk and Lotta Svärd organization were allocated the responsibility for managing and coordinating mobilization activities. Perhaps even more importantly, the Sk-organisation now became the cadre around which Army Units would be formed up from all reservists when mobilized. The Lotta Svärd organization was allocated the “administration” of the mobilization plan and formed separate “Mobilization Units” at Sk District HQ’s and at the local level of the Sk-organisation, taking this work over fron the previous "Regional Organization" (Aluejärjestö). These Lotta Svärd Mobilization Units were responsible for maintaining registries of all Reservists, all Sk and all Lotta Svärd members in their areas, as well as ensuring copies of the membership card registry were sent to the Headquarters of Military Districts. There was considerable work involved in setting up these registries, and particularly in identifying and recording all non-Sk reservists.

This activity formed the starting point for the Area Mobilization System and actually began in March 1932, well before the changes were officially announced. At the same time, Sk-members now officially became the cadre around which Army Units would be formed from all reservists on mobilization. Suojeluskuntas of the border areas would no longer form their own units for battle and there would no longer be pure Suojeluskunta units within the Mobilized Army. The Sk now had to reorganize internally as part of this shakeup. Instead of forming their own units, the Sk-men now became the Cadre for the entire Army on mobilization – the skeleton around which all other reservists would form. As such, it was very much an expectation that all men selected for Officer and NCO training during their period of Conscript Service would join the Suojeluskuntas, if they had not already done so. The Sk Officers, NCOs and men had to be well trained and now the role of the Sk-organization had to expand in order to allow them to be able to train the entire range of soldiers needed for the various fighting (and non-fighting) arms of the Army (note that the Air Force and Navy will be addressed separately).

Suojeluskuntas Training was now centered on training Sk-Cadres (Army Reservists who were also Sk-members) and resources had to be re-focused for this training. To achieve this, the Suojeluskuntas had to totally re-plan their training system to address the training needs of every Arm in the Army. Thus far the large majority of countryside Suojeluskuntas had trained only as infantry. Now they also started to train unit-types such as artillery, signal corps, air defense, engineers, cavalry, etc., and Sk-cadres for these types of units needed to be found from within the Sk-areas. The previously small-sized training units within the Sk-organisation for these types of units also had to be enlarged.

Concurrent with all of this activity, the entire Army-Reserve needed to be reorganized around the new personnel structure, with units assigned to Military Districts, and Sk-cadres assigned to these units. At one and the same time, following the rapprochement between the Sk-organisation and the Social Democrats, the largest political party of the left, Sk-membership was growing fast. Also needing to be factored in was the fact that young women were now permitted to volunteer for Conscript service (and many were doing so) and then, as members of the Lotta Svärd organization, could volunteer for positions in the Reserve Army on mobilization. Thus, significant numbers of women began to be assigned roles in Reserve Units, and as Lotta Svärd-cadre, participated in training for many roles within the Reserve Army.

Also of note is that these changes, taken together with the rapprochment with the SDP and the rapidly increasing membership of the Sk, effectively ended the role of the Suojeluskuntas as a separate and political armed force. Suojeluskuntas members now formed the cadre for all war-time units, there would no longer be separate Sk-units within the mobilised Army. The objective of the Sk-organisation was no longer to provide separate fighting units, but rather to act as a voluntary training organisation for Reservists. The Sk was now very much a non-partisan component of the defence forces backed and supported by almost the entire spectrum of the Finnish population.

With this ongoing and rapid growth, a new regional organization for the Sjuojeluskuntas and Lotta Svärd organizations was ordered on 28 May 1938 and the orders for the forming of new Civil Guard Districts (Suojeluskuntapiiri, skp.) and their temporary Chiefs were given by the Finnish Supreme HQ on 4 July 1938. Organizational changes in Civil Guard (Home Troops) and Land Forces (formerly Field Army) were done gradually and became official in February 1939. Now, a a total of 34 Civil Guard Districts were under the command of 16 new Military Provinces (Sotilaslääni, sl.). Each of them had two or three Civil Guard Districts except for the Helsinki Military Province which had only a single large district. Between local civil guards and Civil Guard Districts were - as mentioned earlier - Civil Guard Regions (Suojeluskunta-alue, ska.).

In the case of mobilization, each Military Province would form either one or two war-time Division HQ’s (Divisioonan esikunta, DE) while the 34 Civil Guard Districts would form a total of some 60+ war-time Regiment HQs (Rykmentin esikunta, E/JR), Infantry Regiments (Jalkaväkirykmentti, JR) and numbers of Field Artillery Battalions (Patteristo, Psto). The Helsinki Civil Guard District would exceptionally form a number of each the above-mentioned units. Additionally, Divisions such as the Parajaegers, the Marines and the Armoured Divisions sourced their personnel from units spread around the country and not restricted to a specific District or Region. Independent Brigades and Battalions fell largely within the District structure (although again with a considerable number of exceptions) while the Navy and Air Force had their own systems.

These were significant and large-scale changes, so large-scale that many new units were formed and large numbers of previously infantry-Suojeluskuntas now found themselves transformed into cadre for artillery, air defense, engineer, signal corps units and so on. Only Suojeluskuntas units from the largest cities (which already had trained their members for a variety of fighting arms) remained basically the same through this change – although even these were impacted by the increasing numbers of Lotta’s in the ranks. Given the increasing numbers being trained through the 1930’s, additional units being created to cater for the increased manpower, and the growing numbers joining the Suojeluskuntas and Lotta Svärd organizations and actively training, opportunities for promotion for the reservist-cadres came fast. Those who were able, and who were able and willing to train (and many were – most employers actively supported participation in the Sk-organisation and indeed, most encouraged such membership) and who qualified, soon found themselves in positions of responsibility.

The Suojeluskuntas, as we have seen in an earlier post, set up numbers of Training Schools and encouraged their members to complete the necessary courses and qualifications. At the same time, local-Sk training was increased. The Army encouraged marksmanship in particular – and Sk-men were the first to be issued uniforms, equipment and weapons to be kept at home. Regular shooting with assigned weapons was actively encouraged, with ammunition provided from the Army’s growing training budget. Marksmanship and range shooting became something of a national hobby over the 1930’s, and Finnish shooters competed actively internationally, winning many competitions. As rifle production steadily increased, the issuing of weapons and equipment grew apace. By the late 1930’s, almost all men who had completed even the abbreviated military training had been issued basic uniform items, weapons and some personal equipment, as had many Lotta Svärd members who had volunteered for service in Army Reserve units.

By 1939, the issuing of weapons had begun to be extended downwards into the ranks of the school-age military cadets, with older boys and girls being issued their own rifles or pistols. On Cadet Training Days (once day a week for an afternoon), it would be quite typical to see children of 12 and up heading off to school with the standard Cadet-issueissue Nalle M/37 Rifles, although some of the older Cadets were issued the rather more expensive Suomen Leijona, Skohan Tikka or, later in the 1930’s, the Tampereen asepaja Tarkka (Pikkutarkka) .22 Rifles (or older teenagers with their Mosin-Nagants) slung across their backs. The military had bought large numbers of the Nalle M/37 from the manufacturer at a substantially cheaper price than other, more expensive rifles, and being small and light, they made ideal training weapons for the younger Cadets.

For the older Cadets, able to handle a full-sized Rifle but not yet deal with the Mosin-Nagant, the Suomen Leijona (Finnish Lion) in particular was an ideal training rifle, if on the expensive side (both the Suomen Leijona and Skohan Tikka were among top of the line .22 LR caliber target shooting rifles of their time but size-wise, they had been designed for adults. Designed by Aimo Lahti and first produced in 1930 (and manufactured through to 1979 ) it was produced through the 1930’s and issued in small numbers to older Finnish Military Cadets. By 1939, every Cadet, boy or girl, from the age of 12 up had been issued with their own Rifle, primarily the Nalle M/37 but, as mentioned, also including Suomen Leijona, Skohan Tikka or Pikkutarkka rifles, which were returned only when they were issued with a Mosin-Nagant or reached the age-limit for the Cadets.

As well as target shooting, Cadets were encouraged to use their cadet issue-rifles for small game shooting and were issued small amounts of ammunition for this purpose, on the theory that shooting small game encouraged good marksmanship. Using Nalle M/37 or, rather more rarely, Suomen Leijona, Skohan Tikka or Pikkutarkka rifles, an entire generation of Finnish teenagers through the 1930’s were taught to shoot accurately and well – a skill that was used to the full over the course of the Winter War.
The prevalence by 1938-1939 of the new-style “pop-up” combat shooting ranges added another element of competitiveness to shooting, and also appealed to a younger generation of shooters who were more interested in the adrenaline-inducing excitement of these ranges. All reservists, not just active-Sk and Lotta members, were encouraged to come and shoot – non-Sk members were welcomed and on Saturdays and Sundays, the crack of rifles echoed throughout the country. And not only rifles – machineguns, mortars and increasingly, the new anti-tank guns were included in shooting weekends. Short 5 to 10-minute film clips played before movies or during intermission (in the countryside, often played at local church halls or Suojeluskuntas halls) promoted joining the Sk or Lotta Svärd organizations and extolled the virtues of participating in training for the defence of the country.

As an example, one such short clip entitled “Suojajoukot – Protecting the Borders” - starts off with a family working on a farm near a small village. The scenery is idyllic, forest in the background, a blue lake nearby, a typical Karelian farmhouse. Father, mother, three teenage children and a couple of youngsters are in the fields working. The village warning siren sounds. The family run to the farmhouse. Inside the doorway is seen a rack of uniforms, equipment, army rucksacks, rifles and pistols. The father, mother, teenage son and older daughter hastily don their army uniforms, buckled on their equipment, pick up their rifles and ammunition and run towards the village Suojeluskuntas Hall, where men and women are gathering and being organized. Soon, a column of men and women is jogging down a country road, moving into prepared positions. Two anti-tanks guns are seen being camoflauged, a Mortar Squad is being set up, a Lotta Signals Team is seen operating the Radio, communicating with a Headquarters Unit of some sort.

Meanwhile, some of the younger teenage girls in the village, dressed in their Army cadet uniforms, are busy loading young children onto farm trucks which grandparents then drive away, we assume towards safety. Other teenage boys are preparing the village for defense, dragging logs into blocking positions, sandbagging positions, running barbed wire. A team of teenage Lottas man a small anti-aircraft gun – a Lahti 20mm AA cannon. The enemy is seen advancing down a country road, shooting starts, the village-unit is seen in action, shooting fast and accurately at attacking soldiers as artillery shells explode around them. The mortars and anti-tank guns are firing. The Suojajoukot withdraw slowly, falling back into obviously pre-prepared positions until they reach the village, which is also defended. As they fight on, truckloads of Finnish-Army infantry are seen racing down the country roads towards them, artillery is being man-handled into position and begins firing, Ilmavoimat aircraft roar low overhead, bombs falling and guns blazing at the un-named enemy.

The message is simple and clearly communicated. Every Finnish citizen, man, woman, boy, girl, needs to be prepared, organized and trained to do their part if Finland is attacked. The message was repeated again and again in many variations – and many Finns responded. Membership of the Sk and Lotta Svärd organisations soared. Many reservists, while not joining the Sk, participated in shooting weekends and annual reserve unit exercises which were becoming increasingly common through the latter years of the decade. The introduction of the school-based Cadet Training System for 12-17 year olds, with its compulsory participation for all school-children, was also coordinated through the Lotta Svärd organization, with Cadet Training carried out by Sk and Lotta intructors.

The Cadet training was popular with the students, geared to teaching practical military skills and with much outdoor activity. Major components of this training were shooting, marksmanship and care of weapons (and Cadets were introduced and increasingly also trained on larger weapons such as machineguns, mortars and anti-tank guns), small unit tactics and individual military skills at a basic level. Skills relevant to age-appropriate roles the Cadets would play on mobilization were also taught – assisting refugees, air-observation, operating telephone exchanges, carrying messages, manning canteens, assisting at hospitals and in caring for wounded soldiers, looking after and protecting and feeding groups of younger children, assisting grandparents and the like.

Military discipline, responsibility and initiative were emphasized in cadet training – and later, in the Winter War, the fruits of this training would be seen on a number of occasions, not the least of which was a group of 13 and 14 year old Girl-cadets taking over an AA-Gun whose Lotta crew had been killed or wounded by a Soviet bomb and more or less by sheer good luck shooting down a low-flying Soviet bomber over Viipuri. There were many such examples of Cadet initiative and courage over the course of the Winter War – one foreign reporter made note of a 14 year old boy and girl manning an Air Observation Tower in Lapland. “These two children, armed with nothing but a single shot rifle each, a pair of binoculars and a telephone, stood watch throughout the icy winter days on a platform on the top of a one-hundred foot tall wooden tower from which there was no escape should a Soviet fighter aircraft strafe them. They knew the risk and stoically accepted it. “Someone must keep watch” they told me. “And if we are here, that is one more soldier that can fight at the front.” I saw many other children like these two as I moved up to the frontlines, all of them playing their part, all of them filling an adult’s position. It was evident to me that Finland was an entire people at war, a nation in arms.”

Cadets too were included in the Mobilisation Plans, which were gradually extended to include the entire population of the country. The Lotta Svärd Mobilization Units tracked who were Reservists, who were in required occupations, who were essential workers and exempt from mobilization, who in border areas needed to be evacuated and where to and worked with Military District HQ’s to ensure that on mobilization, the entire population was placed where they were most needed. After the completion of mobilization, the Lotta Svärd Mobilization Units would then assume responsibility for assignment of the entire population to war-work as needed (which might be as simple as being told to stay on the farm and work it….)

Home front assignments included a wide range of military tasks as well as working in war-industry positions. Tasks such as:
1) Guard duty, manning rear-area warehouses and depots
2) Maintaining security and public order, civil defence, air raid wardens,
3) Air surveillance and air defense (included manning AA Guns and Searchlight units, looking for downed aircraft and their crews).
4) Assisting & organizing road and water transport (railways were excluded)
5) Evacuation and housing of civilians, and assignment of evacuees to war-work
6) Propaganda.
7) Taking care of war-invalids, burial of those killed in combat, war orphans and relatives of those killed in combat.
8) Assisting in putting out forest fires.
9) Hunting down enemy saboteurs and spies.
10) Training new soldiers up as replacements and creating new military units
11) Training home front troops to a level where they could be used as frontline troops
12) Organizing and allotting the entire civilian workforce based on military priorities.

A task that was added during the Winter War was the guarding, supplying, and organizing work for prisoners of war. The Finnish Army had never expected to take the sheer volume of POW’s that they did, and no provision had been made for anything other than small numbers of prisoners. The capture of the entire area north of the Three-Isthmus line early in the war left many thousands of prisoners in Finnish hands, with no infrastructure in place for detaining and feeding these. There were also the horrific Soviet Death Camps on the Kola, with their many thousands of prisoners, to deal with. Once the extent of the situation became apparent, the Lotta Svärd Mobilization Units were assigned the task of finding sufficient personnel to fill out the Table of Organisation for a hastily-created POW-Camp and Death-Camp-Relief organizations.

Returing to the Area Mobilization Plan, each Military District was assigned responsibility for raising One Infantry Regiment, One Field Artillery Battalion and varying numbers of other units. As the size of the Reserve Force increased, most Military Districts saw the numbers of units they were responsible for growing. With the introduction of new types of units such as the Parajaegers and the Rocket Artillery Battalions, this variety would only grow. In Border districts, "Suojajoukot" (protective/covering troops) were also included, but as part of the Reserves and no longer as separate Sk units.

In the event of an actual mobilization, the Lotta Svärd Mobilization Units (in close operation with Military District HQs) would carry out the actual work of distributing mobilization orders to all the Reservists in their areas. As the Reserves were reorganized through the late 1930’s, these units were also responsible for communicating to Reservists which Reserve Unit they belonged to and where they should report on mobilization. And as the Finnish Army began regular refresher training for all Reservists, not just SK-members, theirs was the task of ensuring all Reservists participated. And again, as the Finnish Army began issuing personal equipment and individual weapons and ammunition loads, first to Sk-members and over time, to all Reservists, these Mobilization Units were also assigned the task of recording these issues. These units also assumed responsibility for delivering call-up notices for Conscript Service and, later in the 1930’s, for managing the assignment of soldiers to both “Active” (while undergoing military service) and “Reserve” units. It was a heavy workload for part-time volunteers, but many hands made light work, as the old saying goes.

Once the Area Mobilisation System was firmly in place, a number of small scale mobilisation exercises were carried out under what were called YH-orders (YH = Ylimääräiset harjoitukset = Extra Rehearsals). Initially these were at District Level, and early exercises in 1936 and 1937 were used to identify and iron out flaws in the mobilization plans. A full scale mobilization exercise was carried out in 1938, at the time of the Munich Crisis, and if stories are to be believed, despite the widespread nature of the call-up, no foreign embassies or military attaches were aware that the exercise had even taken place (it was in fact of short duration, but was also very successful). This exercise was carried through to local points of assembly only, with no large-scale movement of units, which may also have helped keep the extent of the exercise invisible.

Over the same period through 1937 and 1938, a small number of large-scale summer and winter exercises were ordered to familiarize Divisional and Corps officers with the practical challenges of large-unit movement and coordination, something the Finnish Army was short of. Experience was indeed gained and the lessons learned were communicated throughout the reservist office and NCO-cadre via a series of briefings which spared no-one in their straightforwardness and to-the-point assessments. Small-unit training was also stepped up through this period, as was familiarization and training on the new weapons, such as the Lahti-Salaranta 7.62mm SLR Rifle, the Sampo machinegun, the Tampella 81mm and 120mm mortars and the Bofors 37mm Anti-Tank Gun. Artillery units also saw increased training as the new Tampella 105 and the Skoda 76’s were rolled out. Training ammunition allotments were increased throughout the Army, and untrained men from the earlier age classes saw themselves being called up for abbreviated periods of Basic Training and the issuing of individual equipment.

As tensions grew over the Summer of 1939, the Finnish military would again initiate the mobilization plans, but this time as no exercise. Other measures were also taken. The Conscript Class of 1940 was called up simultaneously with that of 1939, meaning some 50,000 young men and approximately 30,000 young women were undergoing mass training – a major exercise in it’s own right and one that would have been impossible a mere ten years earlier. Reserve units, and key cadre-personnel were progressively mobilized over the Spring and Summer of 1939 for additional or refresher training. Entire units were mobilized on a regular basis for periods of refresher training and on the 9th of October 1939, Military Headquarters took the step of ordering a gradual mobilisation of the entire military under the guise of additional refresher training. This time, units were assembled, equipment was issued in full and the entire Army was slowly moved into assigned positions close to the borders.

The rest, as we know, is history. The Sk-organization was ready as it could be and no mistakes were made. At the same time, the entire population was moved to a war-footing, evacuation of old people and children from the large cities, large towns and border areas into the countryside began. War industries of course were already working 24/7 and had been for quite some time, so for the workers in these industries, there was as yet no discernible change. Mobilization for the Winter War was as successful as the earlier exercises had been. If stories are to be believed, some foreign embassies didn't notice this Finnish mobilization for some time either – and in fact, only when Helsinki was half-emptied of people did questions begin to be asked. YH-orders (Ylimääräiset harjoitukset / Extra Rehearsals) were again the method used. The mobilization itself took place over a period of 10 days and mobilized the largest Finnish Army in history. Outside of Finland, nobody had an idea just how large and how effective this Army was.

Soviet intelligence reports assessed its size as rather less than one half the actual size, while its fighting capabilities – and its determination to fight - were under-estimated by an order of magnitude. This was, to put it mildly, a major mistake, and one that the Soviet Union would not discover until it had suffered personnel and equipment losses that were significant even for the Soviet Union – and even in the final weeks of the war, the full disparity in fighting capabilities would not be apparant. Mind you, the Soviets were not along in this under-estimation of the Finnish military. Foreign observers within Finland would, to the end of WW2, have no real comprehension as to just how the Finnish military achieved the successes that they did. Soviet incompetence was generally over-estimated, a mistake the Germans would make largely as a result of incorrect observations and conclusions drawn from the Winter War (although their own experiences in their ignominious defeat by the Finnish Navy in the Battle of Bornholm in Spring 1940 should perhaps have led them to a more accurate assessment).

However, these assessments were what they were, and the Finns in general did nothing to correct the mistaken observations of the foreigners. Indeed, they did their best to conceal many of their capabilities, something that was in general very successfully done. The only foreigners with a perhaps accurate picture of the Finnish military’s size and capabilities were the officers of the foreign volunteer units fighting alongside the Finns – but these were generally either of junior rank or not from the only two Allied forces that counted for much – the British and the Americans. The only exceptions were the senior Polish Officers in Finland – and as a result, in 1943 the Poles would gamble on backing the Finns to the hilt, with results that we now all know.

But returning to the main point, just how large this Finnish Army was, and how the manpower level for the Finnish military was achieved out of the small population, is a subject that will be covered in the next Post.

(Going to edit and add some photos in tomorrow)

[Seppo Koivisto]

I checked a price list for "miniature" rifles from 1937-38:
Skohan Tikka, 1700 - 2200 Smk (Finnmarks)
Suomen Leijona, 2900 Smk
Arsenal (Estonian), 3400 Smk
Geco-Sport m/28 (German), 700 Smk
Nalle m/37, 525 Smk
J.G.A. (German), 260 - 450 Smk
Winchester, 325 - 600 Smk
B.S.A., 1400 Smk
Tarkka I, 500 Smk
Tarkka II, 300 Smk

[CanKiwi2]

OK, change of plan. Going to finish off a few posts on the Ukkosvyöry, then return to aircraft engines and Ilmavoimat aircraft before hitting mobilisation and manpower again. Time presses with the new job and I have far more written up on the Ukkosvyöry and on aircraft engines than I do on mobilisation and manpower planning. So in the interests of keeping things moving......

The next post will be "Ukkosvyöry: Tuulispäänä Leningradiin”(“Avalanche of Thunder: Whirlwind Ride to Leningrad”) - Part II

[CanKiwi2]

“Ukkosvyöry: Tuulispäänä Leningradiin”(“Avalanche of Thunder: Whirlwind Ride to Leningrad”

(Resumed from where we leftoff some months ago…..)

“And so,” Hakkarainen was starting to wind down. “As you can see, if we look back to a thousand years, pretty much all of Russia from the Urals to the Baltic, and from the northern Ukraine to the Arctic, is our traditional homeland from which the Russians drove us out over the last thousand years.” He grinned. “And if we go back ten thousand years, then all of northern Europe and Scandinavia can be added to that.”
Vanhala jumped to his feet and did a remarkably good impression of the German leader, Adolf Hitler, down to the fake German accent and the Hitler salute. “So, ve Finns, ve are ze rightful inhabitants and rulers of all of Northern Europe! Zis is vell known, ve must haf our lebensraum, ve must drive out ze Slavic und Svedish und Germanic interlopers! Ve must reclaim our ancestral heritage! To the Urals and to the Rhine Soldiers of Finland! Heil Hakkarainen!”
Half the men were rolling on the ground laughing, the rest were grinning, even Hakkarainen. Lahtinen was actually giggling and trying to speak at one and the same time. “So … so … a lot of the Russians are really Finns. Did anyone tell them that? We’re going to tell Stalin that and tell them we’re taking Russia back and they all have to relearn Finnish and become good Finns then?”

It was Hakkarainen’s turn to laugh. “You do the maths. Three and a half million Finns. Gods knows how many millions in the USSR. I somehow don’t think so. But at the very least, maybe we can help our kinfolk in Ingria and in Eastern Karelia. Now if there were thirty million of us, it’d be a different story.”
“Maybe we can help Estonia too.” That was Lammio chipping in, more seriously. Hakkarainen hadn’t even noticed him listening. The Russians had launched their attack on Estonia at the same time as they launched their offensive on the Isthmus and along the length of the Syvari. From the news, what they caught of it up at the front, things hadn’t been going that well for the Estonians, but with the size of the Russian offensive against Finland, there was precious little the Finns could do to help. Hakkarainen didn’t want to argue that one. Like most of them, he’d like to see Finland helping the Estonians. Especially as there were Estonian volunteers fighting with the Finns from the start of the War. But he didn’t see how Finland could help much, not with what they faced here and now.

“Well, that was indeed interesting Kapteeni.”
A strange voice from behind the group caught them all by surprise. Hakkarainen looked back. His eyes widened. He levitated himself to his feet in a remarkable defiance of gravity and snapped to attention, saluted, instantly forgetting the rule that you don’t salute in the field.
“Sir!”
The rest of the men looked around to see who had interrupted, those that weren’t already standing jumped to their feet and snapped to attention as well.
“At ease Kapteeni, at ease men, relax.”
Kenraali Aksel Airo had flown into Tihvinä for an in-person assessment of the situation. His two companions were well known to the men, if not in person, at least by reputation. Everstiluutnantti Paavo Susitaival, commander of Osasto Susi (Wolf Force) and Kenraalimajuri Paavo Talvela, CO of the Parajaegerdivisoona, stood slightly behind Airo, flanking him on either side. An approving smile played across Sustaival’s face. Talvela merely looked inscrutable.
“Good to see an officer taking the time to explain these things,” Airo continued. He looked around the group of men. “And unusual to see one who can keep you men interested in this sort of subject. Now far be it from me to keep your men standing here while they’ve got beer to drink. Kapteeni, perhaps you’d care to stroll down the road and back with us while we stretch our legs.”

Aksel Airo

aksel_airo.jpg (35.96 KiB) Viewed 1796 times

Kenraali Aksel Fredrik Airo (1898, Turku – 1985) was the main strategic planner of the Finnish Army during the Talvisota (Winter War) and the Kostosota (War of Revenge). He was the virtual second-in-command of the Finnish Army under Marshal C.G.E. Mannerheim. As a young man he had become a supporter of Finnish independence while at some time his father had changed the original Swedish family name of Johansson to Airo (literally "oar").

During the Civil War in Finland (1918), Airo served in the artillery on the White side, taking part in battles near Viipuri. By the end of the Civil War he was a lieutenant. Afterwards completed officer training at the Lappeenranta Artillery School and was then sponsored to attend the French military academy, the École Militaire at St.-Cyr in 1920. In 1921 he was accepted into the École Supérieure de Guerre, the French Officer Training Academy, from which he graduated as a Captain in 1923, at the age of 27. Mannerheim then invited him to join Finland's Defense Council as a secretary. Airo rose swiftly in rank but did face some professional challenges as he was neither a Germany-trained Jaeger officer, nor one of the officers trained in the Tsar's army during Russian rule. Still, by 1930 he had become a Colonel.

ATL (Alternate timeline): With the rapid growth of the Finnish Army through the 1930’s, Airo remained under the eye of Marshal Mannerheim, his swift rise continuing as a protégé of the Marshal. He was responsible for drafting the new mobilization plans in the early 1930’s. He was appointed Quartermaster-General in 1934 and promoted to Kenraalimajuri at the same time, becoming deeply involved in the ongoing reorganization and re-equipment of the Army as well as the continued evolution of the strategic war plans and development of tactical doctrine. An “out-of-the-box” thinker deeply familiar with the works of Sun-Tzu and other more recent military theorists, Airo himself was a central participant in the development within the Finnish Army of the concept of Ukkossota – the “Thunder War” – a fast-paced war of speedy attacks and outflanking movements using the new tactics and weapons being developed, together with destruction of the enemy “brain” and the use of overwhelming artillery and close air support. Airo was also instrumental in supporting many of the rather more radical technical innovations that would assist in some startling military victories in the Winter War. In 1938, he was promoted to Kenraaliluutnantti and made responsible for Operational Planning. On the outbreak of the Talvisota, Airo continued in this role, where he worked closely with the Marshal and other senior officers at the Mikkeli Headquarters.

After the overwhelming successes of the early Finnish offensive operations that established Finnish forces on the “Three Isthmus Line” and secured the occupation of Soviet Karelia, Murmansk and the Kola, Mannerheim promoted Airo to the rank of full Kenraali and made him a Knight of the Mannerheim Cross with the Order of the Cross of Liberty. Following the late-summer Soviet offensive on the Syvari, Airo was responsible for planning the counter-offensive which resulted in the annihilation of the Red Army on the Syvari front and for the Finnish strike into Leningrad – the so-called Ukkosvyöry. In the Kostosota, the “War of Revenge” of 1944-45, Airo would fill the same role as Operational Planner, a role in which he would work closely with the Army’s Commander-in-Chief, Kenraali Erik Heinrichs and with Kenraaliluutnantti Karl Lennart Oesch, the Finnish Army’s field commander. He would retire from the Army in 1950 and would later become a Member of Parliament for the National Coalition Party. In 1982 President Mauno Koivisto awarded Airo membership of the Finnish Order of the White Rose. He died in 1985 at his home farm.

OTL (Original Time Line): at the beginning of the Winter War, Mannerheim appointed Airo Quartermaster-General. He was promoted to Major General, and two years later to Lieutenant General. On November 18, 1944, Marshal Mannerheim made him a Knight of the Mannerheim Cross with the Order of the Cross of Liberty. Airo was based at the Mikkeli headquarters during the war and rarely went to the field. He was responsible for operational planning and the presentation of operations, or, as he allegedly said, "The Marshal leads the war, but I lead the battles". They had many differences in opinion but still managed to work well together. After the Continuation War, the now Communist-dominated Valpo (the Finnish State Police) arrested him for his alleged involvement in the so-called Weapons Cache Case. He was imprisoned from 1945 to 1948 without being sentenced, until President Juho Kusti Paasikivi released him. He said little about the affair afterwards and earned the moniker "the silent general". The President relieved him of his duties with special permission to wear a military uniform. In his later life Airo was a member of the parliament for the National Coalition Party and a presidential elector. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he never wrote memoirs about his war experiences. In 1982 President Mauno Koivisto awarded Airo with the membership of the Finnish Order of the White Rose. He died in 1985 at his home farm.

When a Kenraali says jump, the only question a junior officer asks is “How High.” Hakkarainen was certainly no exception. With a quick nod to Lammio to take over, he found himself strolling along the street with Kenraali Aksel Airo, Mannerheim’s right-hand man, the man who was in charge of operational planning for the entire Suomen Armeija, Everstiluutnantti Paavo Susitaival and Kenraalimajuri Paavo Talvela. Heady company indeed for a young and recently promoted Kapteeni. For the next fifteen minutes, Hakkarainen found himself in as in-depth a four-way discussion on Finno-Ugrian origins, archaeology, theories of Finno-Ugrian racial origins and proto-Finnic linguistical theory as he had had since his University days prior to the War and in the heady meetings in bars with his university friends of the AKS. For the last few minutes, such was the intensity of the debate, he momentarily forgot who he was talking with to the extent that he interrupted both Airo and Susitaival more than once.

“Well Kapteeni,” Airo stopped as they returned to the Sika’s. “It’s been a pleasure and that little talk of yours was one I shall long remember.” He looked at his two companions and smiled. “One that I am certain we shall all remember gentlemen.” Susitaival grinned. Talvela merely nodded without expression. Airo looked back at Hakkarainen. “So young man, I would assume your Komppania is moving back up to the front to rejoin the 21st, correct?”
“Yes Sir,” Hakkarainen was all business again. “My orders were to rejoin as fast as I can.”
“There’s your answer Susi, send your men up to the front with this young man’s Komppania, you can stay and brief him, then join us back at HQ.” Airo looked back to Hakkarainen. “Good luck young man. And now, Duty Calls. My thanks for an interesting conversation”
He turned and walked off. Talvela nodded, seemingly approvingly, at Hakkarainen, before following in Airo’s wake. Everstiluutnantti Susitaival stayed, with Hakkarainen looking at him somewhat nervously.


Image sourced from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... l_1935.jpg
Paavo Oskar Edvard Siven (from 1927: Susitaival - like many patriotically minded Finns with Swedish names he took a Finnish surname) photo taken in 1935: (Feb 9, 1896 – Dec 27, 1993) was born in Helsinki on 9 February 1896. His childhood coincided with the years of oppression under the Russian Tsar, but the family enjoyed a position of financial security; his father, Dr. V.O. Siven, owned the renowned Kammio Hospital for Nervous Disorders. The father was an ardent proponent of Finnish independence and one of the leading figures of the activist organizations opposing the Tsar, the Voima-liitto and the Jäger movement (his father had also been actively involved in weapons smuggling for the independence movement). From him Paavo inherited his russophobia and his belief in direct action. His unbreakable self¬ confidence, on the other hand, he got from his mother Siiri, who was devoted to her children and had unshakable confidence in their abilities. She herself had grown up in a home that had cherished the Fennoman (Finnish nationalist) ideals of Snellman, and she became one of the first women to pass the matriculation examination in Finland. In the minds of her children she indelibly branded the principle: "You must live an ideal: otherwise life is not worth living." And this principle guided the lives of her sons, Paavo and his younger brother Bobi.

When Susitaival passed his matriculation examination in the spring of 1915, World War was being waged in Europe, while in Finland the underground Jäger movement was actively working for independence. To this end it sent almost 2000 young volunteers to Germany for military training. Susitaival worked as a recruiting officer and a courier and organized the maintenance of supply lines (Paavo couldn’t join then as his father sternly forbade his son leaving for Germany). His studies in chemistry at the Polytechnic were gradually forgotten. It was during this period that he rapidly acquired a reputation within the Finnish nationalist movement for his work smuggling volunteers from Finland to Germany to enlist in the 27th Imperial Jaeger Battalion. It was also at this time that he first adopted the surname “Susitaival” in order to throw of the tsarist Secret Police, the Okhrana.

When the revolution broke out in Russia in 1917, the news reached Paavo while he was in the village of Hyrynsalmi. He and a couple of other nationalist activists formed a committee, arrested the head of the constabulary and searched the houses of suspected Russian informants. He penned a declaration declaring the committee the highest authority in the area and the people of Hyrynsalmi celebrated the news by waving the Russian tricolor with the red cut off. The independence activists stepped up their activities, and together with E.E. Kaila (1888-1935), Susitaival set up an enterprise called Uusi Metsätoimisto, under the cover of which they directed the activities of the Civil Guards all over Finland. The aim of the Civil Guards was to drive the Russian soldiers out of the country when the right moment came. It was necessary to get both the socialist and non-socialist elements of the people involved.

Arguably, after his father, it was the modest and seemingly indefatigable Kaila who provided the most influential role model for the formation of the young Susitaival's Weltanschauung. Activism was the creed by which they lived their lives: a remorseless and unrelenting struggle to bring about Finland's independence. The years 1915-18 which the young Susitaival spent in the Jäger movement and during which he grew to manhood were extremely formative. The Jäger movement had been a high risk undertaking. The achievement of independence moulded the views of those who were involved in it on how the course of history could be changed. A small group of determined activists had shown how a minority could make history when the right moment in world politics presented itself. After that nothing was impossible if only one had the strength of will, the clarity of mind and the determination to pursue one's goal ruthlessly. The dual character of the war - independence versus civil - did not constitute a watershed in Susitaival's thinking as it did in the minds of many of his contemporaries.

In January 1918 the battle for Finnish independence began. In the aftermath of the Bolshevik October Revolution, tensions in Finnish society led to a bloody civil war. The Civil Guards were the troops of the constitutionally elected government (the Whites), while on the other side the socialist rebels (the Reds) formed the Red Guards. Susitaival entered the war as the Regional Commander of the North Karelian Civil Guards and made a reputation for himself on the Karelian front as a gallant company commander. He recruited his troops from Karelian volunteers and fought in the final battle of the Civil War when the Reds were driven out of Viipuri. He was promoted directly to the rank of Captain without any formal military training (During the Finnish Civil War, he realized that he – or rather, one of his pseudonyms – had already been appointed a Captain in the Finnish Army, while he under his real name was listed as a draft-dodger). Direct promotion to officer rank was not uncommon in those days, but it was much rarer, if not indeed without parallel, for someone to be given the rank of regular Captain. Probably, the promotion was the result of an error. When the war was over, however, it encouraged Susitaival to try and obtain for himself the best possible military training and he completed Cadet School with excellent grades.

In spring 1921 Susitaival took up the efforts of his brother Bobi to rouse the people of Easter Karelia into rebelling against the Soviet Russia. Bobi had been the District Chief of Police of the East Karelian municipality of Repola, which had been united with Finland in 1918. He shot himself in protest against the Tartu Peace Agreement of 1920 between Finland and Soviet Russia, which like the other activists he considered a shameful surrender because it left so many Eastern Karelians outside the borders of Finland. Susitaival was embittered by what had happened. He went to Germany and there, with the help of Gen. Rüdiger von der Golz (who had commanded the German troops in Finland at the time of the Civil War) he organized for himself and twelve other Finnish officers private High Command courses, initially held in secret because of their sensitive implications for foreign politics.

Susitaival sought a military training in which war experience was given priority. The leader of these Berlin courses (the first was held in the years 1921 -1922 and 1925, and the second over 1923- 1925) was Maj. Wilhelm Bruckner. This German officer was then invited to Finland, where he taught tactics at the Staff College of the Civil Guards from 1925 to 1935. In this way, the German influence on the military training of the Finnish of officer corps became more widespread. The influence of Bruckner's teaching showed itself in the mobile operations of the Finnish forces during the Winter War (1939-1 940) - for example, in the tactics of K.M. Wallenius in Lapland, Susitaival himself at Suomussalmi and A.O. Pajari at Tolvajärvi. During one of his study trips to Germany, he read Erich Ludendorff's anti-Masonic writings and in Finland he became a vocal enemy of the Freemasons and was attacked by masonic elements. This only further convinced him that he was in the right, and he successfully proposed that the union of officers fired Masonic members. The head of the armed forces, fellow Jäger activist and Jäger Major Hugo Österman forbade officers and staff from joining the Freemasons.

In the late 1920’s, after the course, Susitaival transferred to the Suojeluskuntas (Civil Guards) and continued his military career there as a military inspector of Suojeluskuntas officers, also serving as a teacher at the Suojeluskuntas officers school where he was the only teacher who taught in Swedish. In 1926, the Swedish-speaking Army Cadets on a course he was running would not take communion with the Finnish-speaking cadets. "I became angry with a passion!" he later said. He went home and legally changed his name to Susitaival (“Wolf’s Path”). He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1929. For an officer who had not been one of the Jägers, his promotions came at a pace faster than normal.

However, his military career was interrupted once again in early 1932, when he became involved in politics. He plunged into the Lapua Movement in the early 1930’s and became involved in the Mäntsälä Revolt. This abortive uprising was directed against the govemment of the country by a group which had assumed command of the anti-communist Lapua Movement (Lapuan liike). As a result of his involvement in it, Susitaival was dismissed from the Suojeluskuntas and sent to prison. After his release, Susitaival began to organize a new organization to continue the work of the banned Lapua Movement. This was the People's Patriotic Movement (Isänmaallinen kansanliike or IKL), and Susitaival worked for the IKL through the 1930's. He organized it on the model of the German National Socialist Party. Ideologically, however, the IKL was closer to the Italian Fascists. Through the IKL, Susitaival wanted to build a strong, independent Finland, free of class and party-political conflicts. He was one of the movement's major ideologists, as well as establishing the entire organizational structure for the IKL and in these he played a key role within the movement.

Instead of a parliamentary democracy, he envisaged a corporatist professionally-based state with a strong president and government, a modification of the Italian Fascist system. In his view, the movement should not be on the right or of the left: the IKL’s task was to boldly promote the interests of the nation as a whole. However, the IKL received but modest support in the general and Susitaival's efforts to persuade the movement to adopt his own more radical ideology in failed in the face of opposition from its more conservative leaders. An accomplished writer and columnist, he used the nickname "Huccareissua". Susitaival was sometimes hard put to make ends meet to support his family of five children, but what was lacking in material plenty was made up for in his ideological enthusiasm. In the Academic Karelia Society (Akateeminen Kar¬jala-Seura), whose agenda for a Greater Finland (in both the spiritual and the geographical sense) was influential among the university students, and which cherished the memory of his brother Bobi Siven, and especially among the youth members of the IKL, whose youth wing he led, Susitaival was a living legend. He was known as a lively writer and a forthright speaker: indeed, he was imprisoned for one speech for maligning the government and during the 1930’s was imprisoned four times for political reasons. He never tired of warning the Finnish people of an imminent invasion of the Soviet Union.

In 1936, Susitaival was one of the key IKL-men involved in the movement to raise and send Finnish volunteers to Spain, the volunteer-Brigade that became known as Pohjan-Pohjat, with Eversti Hans Kalm as the titular commander and liaison with the Spanish while Everstiluutnantti Paavo Susitaival served as the military commander. Susitaival would serve in Spain as the military commander of Pohjan-Pohjat from 1936 to early 1939.


Image sourced from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/f ... ilässä.jpg
Everstiluutnantti (Lieutenant Colonel) Paavo Susitaival with some of his volunteers from Pohjan Pojat in Spain, 1937. Susitaival would command a Brigade of Finnish Volunteers on the Nationalist side during the Spanish Civil War. After returned from Spain in early 1939, he travelled around Finland speaking on the Spanish Civil War, the threat of Communism and supporting the need for greater spending on defense. As the international situation grew more tense, Susitaival was elected to Parliament as an IKL MP in 1939. In Parliament, he rapidly made a name for himself expressing sharp opinions and for giving a speech from the leftwing or the rightwing perspective with equal ease and skill. "The IKL is not left-wing or right-wing - it represents the people of Finland." The only bill that he introduced concerned a pet hobbyhorse of his - opposition to Freemasonry. He was suspicious of what he assumed to be the international leadership of the masons and of the clandestine nature of the organization.

In addition to this, in October 1939 he informed the Finnish government of the secret codicil to the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement assigning Finland to the Soviet sphere of influence, which he had learned about from his Nazi friend F.W. Borgmann. His parliamentary career was short - as an MP, he was exempted from active service but when the Winter War threatened, he chose to volunteer for the fight. He found some personal consolation for the gravity of the situation afforded by the unification of the Finnish people in the face of war with the Soviet Union – a war which he saw as finally closing the chasm created by the war of 1918 .

When the Winter War broke out. Susitaival was initially put in command of Group Susi, which at its largest comprised the 65th Infantry Regiment and a couple of separate battalions. With these forces he took part in defeating the 163rd Division of the Red Army in the sparsely populated forest tracts of Suomussalmi. In so doing, the Finns thwarted the Soviet attempt to split the country into two at its narrowest point. Group Susi took large amounts of war booty while suffering relatively small losses. This success once again opened up the way to a commission in the regular army, which was of great importance to an activist tired of politics. Finland needed every able officer, and Susitaival was a soldier by vocation. After the early victory at Suomussalmi, Susitaival was heavily involved in setting up (and then commanding) Osasto Susi, an obscure Finnish special forces unit created shortly after the war began at his instigation (while not a favorite of Mannerheim’s, Susitaival had numerous influential connections within the military and also politically).

Osasto Susi was made up of fluent Russian-speakers who carried out special assault missions behind Russian lines, infiltrating in Russian uniforms and speaking Russian in order to penetrate deep within Soviet territory. They would often be used to seize critical objectives such as bridges by surprise during Finnish offensive actions. Foreign journalists interviewed Susitaival a number of times over the course of the Winter War as they had heard of the Member of Parliament who was on the frontlines fighting as a defender of the country. When questioned as to which political party he represented in Parliament, Susitaival replied without batting an eye "I am a Fascist!" This information was generally not published in foreign newspapers. Despite his leadership skills and charisma (his men called him Isä susi – “Papa Wolf”), his abrasive, demanding character and a personal feud with Marshal Mannerheim (among a number of other prominent officers), was the cause of him never advancing beyond the rank of Everstiluutnantti.

Following the end of the Winter War, Susitaival volunteered to remain on active service. Osasto Susi would, under his command and operating under the aegis of both the Secret Police and Supreme Headquarters, establish connections with Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish resistance groups in parallel to links established by Osastu Karhu. Osasto Susi would expand considerably between 1941 and 1943 to include Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish Battalions trained in sabotage, guerilla warfare and direct-action assault missions and would operate within both Russian and German-occupied areas of Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania until their respective Governments re-established firm control after their liberation by the Finnish Army and its allies. Under his command, Oasato Susi would establish a reputation as fearsome as that of Osasto Nyrkki and Osasto Karhu, these three special forces units complementing each other’s strengths and weaknesses in many ways.

As a military commander, Susitaival displayed his abilities in conventional warfare in both Spain and at Suomussalmi. Nevertheless, it was in the special-operations missions of Osasto Susi in the Talvisota, the Kostosota and the years in between that he showed his true strengths and abilities as a military commander. He excelled in independent “behind-the-lines” actions where flair and initiative were needed. He was a superb trainer of men for these units and missions and as a commander, was greatly admired and respected by the men who served under him, although he was rather to independent minded for those who commanded him. His qualities and strengths as an officer were largely the result of his experiences in the War of Independence, his work in the Civil Guards and the years he had spent fighting in Spain, where much had been learnt which would make its way into the textbooks, training courses and manuals of the Finnish Army. The Talvisota would hone his skills to a fine edge and in the Kostosota, the true lethality of the tool Paavo Susitaival had forged would be displayed in combat with both the Germans and with the Red Army in Poland.

Susitaival was disappointed with the peace that was signed with the Soviet Union in 1940. From his point of view the treaty constituted a defeat. Instead of the Greater Finland he had desired, stretching from the Gulf of Finland to the White Sea and encompassing all of White Karelia, Finland made only small territorial gains and even made some concessions. Nevertheless, he welcomed the arrival of the many thousands of Karelians and Ingrians expelled from the Soviet Union, viewing them as having reached safety within Finland. He did however view the outcome of the Kostosota with some satisfaction, regarding the preservation of Estonia’s independence as a great achievement, while the Baltic States and Poland were also saved from Communism. He played no role however in the negotiations and decisions that affected the outcome of the war, preferring a more direct role in the fighting on the ground. When the Kostosota ended, Osasto Susi faded into obscurity, as did so many other “private armies” of WW2.

After WW2 ended, although society had changed, Susitaival continued to follow his own line and pursue his life's calling by other means. He retired from the Army, withdrew from public life and lived as an author in Lappeenranta, where a street is named after him. In addition to the numerous histories of the firms he was commissioned to write, he produced research articles on military history, journalistic articles, his memoirs and, a couple of years before his death, some poetry. On the other hand, he would not have been the man he was if at the end of the Continuation War, he had not hidden away a cache of arms in case of a Soviet occupation of the country. In the 1950's, Susitaival went around the country for a couple of years interviewing people and collecting materials for the State Archives on radical right-wing activities in the period between the two world wars. This work has been of immense value to historians. Over the years, Susitaival also became known as an opponent of President Urho Kekkonen and as an eminence grise in defence circles, although after the war he no longer actually took part in politics.

In later life, his physical condition worsened but he never lost his mental acumen. In spite of being a heavy smoker (reputedly consuming at least one bag of pipe tobacco per day from the age of 14 to his death) and an avid coffee-drinker, he died at the age of 96. In his will, he requested that he should be buried with his officer's sword, in order that future archaeologists would know that his grave was that of a soldier. He summed up his life thus: "Three wars, two rebellions, four prison stints. Unfortunately, once in parliament as well." He lived long enough to see both Imperial Russia and USSR fall, and in his old age could conclude that he was right. To reporters who interviewed him in his later years he would mischievously claim to be the same fascist that he had always been. The ideals he had absorbed in his youth were so deeply rooted in his conscience that the new age was incapable of eradicating them. The activism that had formed his character during the years he was involved in the Jäger movement remained the principle that guided his whole life.

It was above all as a soldier in three wars that Lt. Col Paavo Susitaival played a part in Finnish history. However, during his long life he was much more than just a soldier: he was both a politician and a writer. His life story is not the story of a great man in the traditional sense, because Susitaival never rose to the highest echelons of public life in Finland - nor, indeed, did he endeavor to do so. Nevertheless, he played an important part in Finnish history, one for which he should be remembered. Paavo Susitaival died in Lappeenranta on 27 December 1993 at the age of ninety-seven years.

Susitaival looked thoughtfully at Hakkarainen, then seemed to decide on something. “My problem, Kapteeni,” he stated, “is that I have a Komppania of my men I need to move up to the front outside of Volkhov.” He paused.
“Yes Sir?” Hakkarainen waited for more information.
Susitaival grinned. “They’re in Red Army uniforms, on Red Army Trucks and with Red Army weapons and I don’t want them shot before they get to the front. They’re on a special mission, Lagus knows what it’s all about and by the time you get there, your Majuri Sarastie will know all about it too. Your mission, young man, is to get my men up to the front without anyone taking a few shots at them. And no one but you is to talk to them, their mission’s secret. And I mean that. Understand?”
Hakkarainen did. “Yes sir, that’s no problem at all sir. Escort your men up to the front, guard them on the way, no fraternisation, only I talk to them. Understood Sir.”

Susitaival nodded. “Good. I’ll have them escorted to join you here.” He looked at his military-issue Suunto wristwatch. “They’ll be here by seventeen hundred hours, I’ll have your orders cut to move out on the Volkhov Road at dawn tomorrow morning. You’ll have a Priority Movement Pass, I need my men outside Volkhov by end of day two days from now, come Hell or High water. Understood?”
“Yes Sir!”
“Good. And don’t fail me Kapteeni, the timing is important. My men know what their mission is but we need them to get up to the front safe and sound.”
“Understood Sir.” Hakkarainen wondered what their mission was. Probably best he didn’t know. Susitaival grinned again, disconcertingly. “Just so, Kapteeni. Best you don’t know.” He chuckled. “Away to see to your men young men, we’ll meet again, I have no doubt.”
Hakkarainen snapped off a salute. Susitaival’s was rather more of a wave of his hand than a salute. Without ado, he strode off in the direction that Kenraali Airo and Kenraalimajuri Talvela had taken.

Hakkarainen tuned, hurrying to re-join the men of his Komppania. And finish his beer. His euphoria lasted all of thirty seconds. Linna had finished his Karjala for him. “We thought it best Sir,” he said apologetically, “thought that alcohol on top of talking to the Holy Trinity back there might be a bit much. Did it for your own good, Sir.”
Hakkarainen had to laugh. “Kiitos Linna, your concern is appreciated.”
With a nod to Korsumaki. “Give everyone another half hour’s break, then get the men to seeing to the Sika’s. Service everything that’s serviceable, make sure everyone has full fuel and ammo loads and as much extra as we can scrounge and fit in. Orders Group for the Joukkue Officers and NCO’s at fifteen hundred hours. Make sure the Field Kitchen sets up dinner for two companies, us and one other, food to be ready for eighteen hundred hours, and let them know we’ll need breakfast at three hundred hours tomorrow morning, we’ll be moving out at first light.” He looked around at the listening men. “That’s general information you can pass on, I’ll be giving the Officers and NCO’s a detailed briefing at the Orders group and they’ll pass on what you need to know.”

“Yes Sir,” Korsumaki nodded. Looked around. “You men, you’ve got another half hour before we get to work. Make the most of it.” He looked at Hakkarainen. “I’ll let the Officers and NCO’s know, see to the Field Kitchen and be back Sir.”
Hakkarainen nodded, then strode towards his Sika. Time to look at the maps, what there were of them for this area. Behind him, he could hear the men talking quietly, finishing their beer, those that still had some left. Cigarette smoke wafted through the air on the light summer breeze, birds were singing off in the trees somewhere. It almost felt like a pre-war exercise. Almost. The summery mood stayed with Hakkarainen as he pulled out the single rather battered map he had of the area from his mapcase and, seating himself on the grass and leaning back against the wheel of the Sika, studied it. There wasn’t a whole lot to study, there was a single road from Tihvinä to Volkhov. And judging from experience with Russian roads so far, it was probably pretty rough. On the good side, no rain meant no mud. On the bad side, it meant a shitload of dust. Especially with the traffic heading that way. He closed his eyes.

A hand was shaking his shoulder. “Sir…..wakeup Sir.” It was Lehto’s voice, rough and somehow almost apologetic. “Got your Orders Group in ten minutes Sir, we got a Coffee for you.” He had too, strong and black, steaming hot, hot enough that Hakkarainen winced as it burnt his lips. “Kiitos Lehto,” he said, awake now. “I needed that.”
Lehto chuckled. “Thought you would. I better get back and check the guns, Vanhala needs a bit of supervision.”
Hakkarainen nodded, mind back on the Osasto Susi men. The O-Group went quickly, he briefed officers and NCO’s on their movement orders, the unit that would be accompanying them down the road to Volkov. Nobody queried the non-fraternisation order. They all knew better. When the Osastu Susi komppania did turn up, they parked their trucks next to the Sika’s, ate and just as promptly wrapped themselves up in their blankets and went to sleep. As did Hakkarainen’s men. Food and sleep, something any soldier valued highly. Grab them when you could.

Hakkarainen’s Komppania were on the road towards Volkhov at dawn. Once again, they were part of an interminable line of vehicles. It seemed as if the entire Armeijan was on the move. A sense of urgency was in the air, everyone knew the Russians had been caught with their pants down, the news of Timoshenko’s death in an Osasto Nyrkki attack had spread like wildfire, it was obvious to everyone that the Russians were in complete disarray and there was a feeling that victory was near. If only the Russians could be thrashed hard enough to make them see sense. The tension, the urgency, was almost palpable. No obstacle was insurmountable. A truck broke down. Men leapt from their vehicles and ran to push it out of the way, then ran back to their trucks. The foot-sloggers, those infantry unfortunate enough to have to move on their own feet (and despite the trucks built in Finland and more supplied from Canada, there were still all too many of those), moved as fast as they could. Vehicle drivers pressed on to the point of exhaustion and were then replaced. Every vehicle was loaded, most well beyond their theoretical capacity. Every tank, every armoured car, carried soldiers on the back, the trucks carrying soldiers had the men packed in like sardines. No-one protested, almost no-one complained.

Every working Soviet vehicle that had been captured and could move, trucks, buses, cars, had been pressed into service and such were the numbers that had been captured that many Finnish infantry units were now de-facto “mechanized,” at least as long as they could obtain fuel. To Hakkarainen’s relief, the Osasto Susi trucks and men didn’t stand out. Half the vehicles around them were ex-Soviet, some military, some civilian. The Finnish soldiers in then wore a mish-mash of equipment, many of them were wearing Red Army helmets, some carried Red Army weapons. Nobody even looked twice at the Osasto Susi trucks carefully grouped between Hakkarainen’s Sika’s. In point of fact, it was the Sika’s, bristling as they were with cannon and machineguns, that got the most attention.

They drove all that day, crawling through the cloud of dust that hung over the road. Hakkarainen waved his priority movement order, getting them across bridges ahead of the queued vehicles, getting them refuelled immediately at the bowser trucks lined up alongside the road. Movement continued throughout the summer night under the light of the moon, vehicles crawling down the road. Logistics units were working miracles to move up fuel and ammunition. Overhead, Air Transport units flew non-stop, air-dropping vital supplies to the leading units, evacuating casualties, no doubt dropping Sissi units behind the Soviet lines. Orders crackled out over the radios and the landlines. Around Tihvinä, units moved outwards in every direction, forcing the pace, the men themselves striving to anticipate orders. The overpowering strength of the earlier Red Army attacks along the entire front had been a shock and a surprise. Now was payback time, the mood was one of grimly aggressive confidence.

Hakkarainen’s Komppania caught up with the pataljoona on the evening of the second day, after two days of hard driving towards Volkhov. For the last three hours, they had been overtaking columns of the 21st tanks and infantry, they’d known they were close to reaching the pataljoona. They found them just a few miles from the outskirts of Volkhov where it seemed, unbelievably, that the rapid advance had not been spotted. The Russians had no idea they were there. Once more at the forefront of the 21st, the pataljoona had laagered-up outside an abandoned village as night fell, guards alert for any Russian night attack as the log vehicles moved up and the pataljoona refuelled. Majuri Sarastie welcomed them back with open arms.

“What took you so long, Hakkarainen?” he snapped as he looked over his shoulder from the map and the reconnaissance photos he was studying.
After a moment’s hesitation, Hakkarainen managed to get out a noncommittal response. “Ahhh, got caught up in the traffic sir.” Which of course was true.
“Well, good timing anyhow, we need your Komppania in the morning, happy to see you made it in time to join in the fun, come over here man, stop standing there gawping like a dummy.” He waved to his orderly. “Get the Kapteeni a coffee and we’ll walk through the plan for the morning. Autio and Helminen will be here in five minutes.” He looked at the “Russian” officer who had followed Hakkarainen over.
“You’re the Osasto Susi chappie then?”
The “Russian” nodded. “Da tovarishch.”

Majuri Sarastie looked sharply at him, then nodded. “Just so. Well, my orders are clear “tovarishch”, you move out ahead of us at oh four hundred hours, we follow ten minutes behind and when we get your message on the radio or by signal flares, we move in as fast as we can.”
The “Russian” grinned. “Like a bat out of hell if you don’t mind Majuri,” he said. “We’re going to grab the bridge in one piece but the Russkies won’t take long to react, we’re going to need you there as fast as you can make it to us.”
Sarastie nodded. “Well, when Autio and Helminen and the FAO and FAC’s are here, we’ll brief everyone in detail and get all the details sorted out, make sure we’re all on the right radio frequencies and then everyone can get a meal and catch forty winks.” He looked at Hakkarainen. “You want to duck out and get your men working on their vehicles?”
Hakkarainen shook his head. “Already done Sir, first thing I told them to do when we pulled in. They’re doing our comrade’s trucks as well.”
The “Russian” inclined his head.

It took almost an hour to run through the details, after which Hakkarainen had to hold his own Orders Group and make sure nothing got screwed up. Radio frequencies were critical, as were all the other details. Artillery support, close air support, objectives, alternate objectives, tactical drills and their codes, all the many details that went into preparing for an offensive mission on a fixed objective. And then it was down to the serious work. By an hour before dawn, Hakkarainen and his men were ready. The men had snatched a few hours sleep, Hakkarainen had even managed a few hours himself. The Sikas had been serviced, fuel topped up, guns cleaned, they were loaded with as much ammunition as they could fit inside wherever there was room. The Lottas brought a hot breakfast and coffee over to their Sikas and wished them luck. As always, even at 3am in the morning, Rahtainen had managed to find the prettiest Lotta to flirt with. How he could tell she was the prettiest in the darkness before dawn, Hakkarainen had no idea, but he had no doubt that she was. The truckloads of Osasto Susi troopers in their Russian uniforms and Russian trucks were grouped in the middle of the Komppania. None of Hakkarainen’s men envied them their job. They all had that look in their eyes and on their faces that said they’d seen the devil….. and shot him up. Everybody had heard the whispers about Osasto Susi, this was the first time that anyone in Hakkarainen’s Komppania had seen them. Apart from their Russian uniforms, they didn’t look that much different. Until you saw their eyes and the hard expressions on their faces.

Whatever. Everybody was busy with their own preparations, after a curious look or two they’d given the Oasasto Susi men a wide berth, all except Rokka, who this morning seemed to feel a certain kinship with them. He wandered over in the darkness, Suomi slung over his shoulder, holding half a dozen cartons of captured Russian cigarettes he’d talked the Lottas into handing him. Ignoring the non-fraternisation order, he’d chatted with them, a few laconic words as he passed the cigarette’s up, one carton to each truck, then wandered back.
“What’d they say to you?” Naturally, Rahtainen was the first to ask. Hakkarainen listened.
“Nothing much,” Rokka said. “Just asked if we were good, wanted to make sure we’d be there.”
“So?”
“Told them we’d be there as soon as it starts to turn to shit. Just dig your toes in and hold on, I told them, our Komppania, we won’t let you down.”
The others nodded seriously. Hakkarainen as well. “Those men, that takes real balls to do what they do,” Rokka added before walking of back to his Sika and his men.

Excerpt from “Kalmaralli: Puna-Armeijan tuhoaminen syvärin rintamalla, Elokuu 1940” (“Death-dance: The Destruction of the Red Army on the Syvari Front, August 1940”) by xxxxxxxxxx, Gummerus, 1985.

“…..On the evening of August 8th, leading elements of the 21st Pansaaridivisoona were within striking distance of Volkhov. The breakout that had resulted in the capture of Tihvinä and the punching of a huge hole in the Red Army’s defences had not yet been reported and the rapid advance of the Finnish forces from an unexpected direction had as yet gone unnoticed by the Soviet Command. The death of Timoshenko and the destruction of his Headquarters had been a major disaster for the Red Army, whose focus was on the repeated hammerblows being inflicted on the Red Army on the front to the northeast along the line of the Leningrad-Murmansk railway artery and whose aerial reconnaissance capabilities were largely non-existent. In addition, the threat to Leningrad that had been very visibly building on the Isthmus Front also held the attention of the Soviet Command.

Early on the morning of August 9th, as the 21st Pansaaridivisoona moved up towards the town of Volkhov on the Tihvinä road, commanders with binoculars to their eyes, diesel engines rumbling steadily as they moved forward in the pre-dawn darkness, they were suddenly ordered to halt a mere three miles from the town. A strange sight caught the attention of the foremost units. A column of eight Soviet trucks overtook the leading units of the 21st, the trucks filled with soldiers in Soviet uniforms and carrying Soviet equipment. This was an Osasto Susi unit tasked with driving into the town, capturing the bridges intact and preventing the Russians from blowing them up, then holding on until leading units of the 21st relieved them.

The Russians within Volkhov remained completely unsuspecting. When the trucks reached the first checkpoint on the outskirts of Volkhov, the Osasto Susi drivers were asked by the guards, “Any news of the Finns?” They received a cheery answer. “We’ve come from Tikhvin, no sign of them at all.” The trucks moved into town, passing no traffic but noting a large Soviet military presence. When the road and rail bridges across the Volkhov came into sight, the trucks accelerated hard and sped across. The first two reached the far side, the next was challenged by a Russian sentry, the Osasto Susi men opened up immediately with their silencer-equipped machineguns on every Russian in sight. A muffled firefight broke out which ended within minutes with the Osasto Susi men in possession of the approaches to the bridges at either end. No sign of any preparation for demolition was found and this was immediately reported by radio.

The moment that flashes of gunfire were seen in the town, the 21st sprang into movement. The Sikas, Kettus, Panzers and Half-Tracks raced forward supported by a wave of CAS aircraft and by four of the Tyrmääjä gunship gyrocopters. The Russian troops in the vicinity of the bridge were taken completely by surprise and quickly killed or driven backwards in disarray. Spearhead units of the 21st barreled into Volkhov firing at every Russian uniform in sight. The first element of the 21st to cross the bridge over the Volkhov was a Jaeger pataljoona commanded by Majuri Sarastie. This pataljoona reinforced the Osasto Susi bridgehead and held of a numerically strong but disorganised and unsupported counterattack by Russian infantry. Immediately after the counterattack had been beaten of, a strong attack on the Russians on the west of the Volkhov was developed by the Jaeger pataljoona of Majuri Usko Lautsalo. His Sikas caught the Russians massing for a further attack and slaughtered them in the streets, while further units of the 21st moved across the bridges, rapidly capturing key points within Volkhov, moving west to reach and hold the western outskirts of the town. Supporting infantry and panzer units moved in rapidly and proceeded to clear the town house by house before any organised resistance could be established. Red Army casualties were significant.

Even as the assault on Volkhov was underway, elements of the Parajaegerdivisoona were being dropped on critical objectives on the highway between Volkhov and the Neva. Leaving an Infantry Division behind them to consolidate and establish defences around Volkhov, remaining units of the 21st poured across the bridges and joined those units already moving down the highway towards Leningrad before the day had ended.

The 22nd Pansaaridivisoona was already swinging back east and spreading out along the line of the Murmansk railway and the highway to take the Red Army in the rear while further units moved down the east bank of the Volkhov towards Lake Laatoka to complete the encirclement. This was the type of fight that the Finnish Army excelled in. Ukkosota! Thunder War! The sudden attack from an unexpected direction, finding the weak point, striking first and fast with overwhelming violence and force, amputating the enemy command, constantly throwing the enemy of balance, always one step ahead of the enemy. Kenraali Heinrichs was quietly jubilant, as were his subordinate commanders. With the bridges across the Volkhov captured, a key Red Army supply and communications point was in Finnish hands, the Russian forces to the north east were now on the verge of being completely encircled. The road to Leningrad was wide open……”

To the outside observer, writing from a historical perspective and working from after-action reports and accounts, it now seems so organised and clearcut. To those involved in the fighting, it was anything but…..

“Kohtaamistaistelu” (Encounter Battle), an excerpt from “Ukkosvyöry: Tuulispäänä Leningradiin” (“Avalanche of Thunder: Whirlwind Ride to Leningrad” – an account of the part played Rynnäkkökomppania Hakkarainen in the attack on Leningrad, August 1940

Hakkarainen checked his watch. Almost time. “Mount up, ten minutes and we’re rolling, last chance for a piss.” He walked around the Sikas, a quick word to each of the crews, a gesture at the Osasto Susi men. “Those guys, they’re relying on us to be there for them, so when the shit starts, there’ll be no pissing around. When we go in, we go in hard. We’ve got lots of ammo. Use it.”
The acknowledgements were quick, a nod, a quiet “Got it Sir,” nothing more, but Hakkarainen returned to his Sika satisfied. Lammio, Koskela and Kariluoto were checking their joukkues, doing their jobs, making sure there were no last minute hiccups, engines were beginning to rumble into life, cigarettes were being stubbed out, the butts carefully saved, guns checked one last time, body armour adjusted, helmets strapped tighter, guns checked and rechecked. All the last minute things that men going into battle do to reassure themselves that they’re ready. Hakkarainen walked over to his Sika, took a long piss against the back wheel and then climbed up and in. Five minutes.

The “Russians” moved out right on time, their trucks easing on to the road and moving out, the men silent, holding their weapons with a casual confidence. Standing in his Sika, Hakkarainen looked across at the Osasto Susi officer as he passed. They both nodded. Words were not necessary, even if they could have been heard over the engines. After the Osasto Susi men had moved out, he would move his Komppania out slowly, giving the Osasto Susi men time to pass through any Checkpoints and reach the bridge before the hammer fell. Hakkarainen waited until the last of the Osasto Susi trucks was on the road, moving away.
“Move Out,” he called, gesturing with his arm at one and the same time. It was light enough now to see, Koskela had been waiting for the signal. His joukkue rumbled out, Hakkarainen’s Sika followed, then Lammio’s joukkue. Kariluota’s men brought up the rear. After them came Helminen’s Komppania, followed by Autio with Pataljoona HQ at the rear. Majuri Sarastie was up with Helminen this time round.

Dawn was not quite breaking and the road wasn’t bad for a change. They kept the speed down. Not a good idea to hit a Russian checkpoint before the Osasto Susi boys got to the bridge. They rumbled on slowly. Five minutes, ten minutes, the outskirts of Volkhov growing closer with every minute that passed.
“Hope they haven’t got lost,” Linna muttered. Hakkarainen said nothing, although the thought had also occurred to him. Overhead, there was a faint hum of aircraft engines that grew closer, audible over the engines.
“Ours,” Lehto said on the radio net with a finality that brooked no argument.
“Shooting started in town,” Koskela said. “Moving now.” His voice was urgent.
They saw a red flare rising into the sky, then a green. One of the signals that had been agreed on. Koskela’s joukkue was already picking up speed. It was light enough to drive at a good clip and Koskela wasn’t holding anything back now. They were all accelerating, trying to keep the column tight, pounding along, hammering the Sika’s down the road in a long column, leaving behind them a plume of diesel and dust.

“Seventy kilometers per hour,” Maatta yelled into the intercom, “on a good road this bitch can go!”
“Keep it quiet,” Hakkarainen snapped, “combat talk only.”
Everyone was alert, keyed up, nerves on edge, eyes scanning ahead, peering into the fields, the drivers keeping the Sika’s closed up tight, slamming them down the road. The Osasto Susi Sig came up on the pataljoona radio net. “Bridges captured,” he reported, sounding as if he was breathing hard. “Lots of Russians in town. We’ve captured both bridges, no demo charges spotted. We’re sorting out a few Russians so get your asses here fast.”
“On our way,” Hakkarainen responded. “Be there shortly, make sure the coffee’s hot.”
“Funny man.” The Osasto Susi Sig was chuckling now as he spoke. “Paska. Got a couple of bad casualties already. Make sure you got an ambulance with you.”
Majuri Sarastie came up on the pataljoona net. “Roger that. Ambulance unit is with Pataljoona HQ. They have their orders to get to you first.”

Overhead, the aircraft engines grew louder, louder even than the diesel engines. It was dawn now and far above them they could see wave after wave of aircraft towing Gyrogliders and gliders and above them, waves of transport aircraft. High above them all, fighter escorts winged their way across the sky.
“It’s the parajaeger boys going in up the road,” Lahtinen said on the Komppania net, “mad bastards.”
“Better them than us,” Salo said.
Rokka chuckled grimly from his Sika. “Those boys are probably saying the exact same thing about us,” he said.

Hakkarainen and the other Komppania CO’s had been briefed about the parajaegers. “They’re dropping on the highway between Volkhov and the Neva,” Sarastie had said. “Some of the special boys took a few of the important bridges in a surprise attack last night and the parajaegers are dropping in to support them. They expect to be under heavy attack by later today. We need to get through Volkhov as fast as we can and push through to relieve them. Tell your boys we need to fight our way through as fast as we can, relieve the Susi-boys and as soon as we know they’re OK, push ahead. We’re going straight down the road in Volkhov, Hakkarainen goes first to relieve the Susi-boys at the bridge. Helminen, you pass straight through and Autio goes after. I’ll be right on your tail with all the HQ and Log units. There’s some foot-sloggers right behind me, they’ll take over at the bridge and then you follow me right away Hakkarainen, leave any cleaning up to the foot-sloggers.”

“Assuming we make it through Volkhov, we go straight down the highway. Helminen, you in the lead, Autio second, then HQ and Log, Hakkarainen brings up the rear. If we hit any resistance on the other side of Volkhov, Helminen pins them in place, Hakkarainen goes left, Autio goes right. Outflank if we can, hit them hard with everything we have. The 2nd pataljoona will be right on our ass and there’s a panzer pataljoona right up theirs. Artillery and CAS is on tap, make sure your FAO’s have all the correct radio frequencies. We have a FAC up front controlling CAS for us. I’d rather we use a hammer to crack any nuts we run into than take casualties.” He grinned. “Nobody ever lost a battle by using too much firepower.”

To be continued.......

[CanKiwi2]

Expanded my bio of Paavo Susitaival in the above post considerably.

[John Hilly]

Thanks Nigel. Back in business!
Ukkosota means Old Man War. Ukkossota Thunder War.
Isn't Finnish easy, ha?

With best,
J-P