Foreign volunteers in the Continuation War?

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Komi
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Foreign volunteers in the Continuation War?

#1

Post by Komi » 12 Mar 2021, 19:55

There's a fair bit of info out there about foreigners who volunteered for Finland during the Winter War, but were there any during the Continuation War?

And no, I don't consider the German troops sent to fight in this war as "foreign volunteers", because they were already part of their own national army and were sent there by their own government.

Seppo Koivisto
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Re: Foreign volunteers in the Continuation War?

#2

Post by Seppo Koivisto » 12 Mar 2021, 21:18

According to the Finnish Wikipedia article there were about 7000 foreign volunteers in the Continuation War. 3273 Estonians, 1694 Swedes, 777 Ingrians, 204 Danes and about 1000 Russians. About 1000 Norwegians served mainly in the German SS-Division.
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatkosodan_vapaaehtoiset


Komi
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Re: Foreign volunteers in the Continuation War?

#3

Post by Komi » 12 Mar 2021, 22:03

Seppo Koivisto wrote:
12 Mar 2021, 21:18
According to the Finnish Wikipedia article there were about 7000 foreign volunteers in the Continuation War. 3273 Estonians, 1694 Swedes, 777 Ingrians, 204 Danes and about 1000 Russians. About 1000 Norwegians served mainly in the German SS-Division.
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatkosodan_vapaaehtoiset
So were those Estonians, Swedes, Russians, etc all part of the Finnish armed forces? Did they serve in their own units, or mixed in among Finns?

Seppo Koivisto
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Re: Foreign volunteers in the Continuation War?

#4

Post by Seppo Koivisto » 12 Mar 2021, 22:55

Estonians formed the Infantry Regiment 200, but served also in the Finnish navy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_I ... giment_200

Estonian volunteers of coastal defense ship Väinämöinen 1944 (SA-kuva 159013)
Image

Swedes served in the Swedish Volunteer Battalion, which was demobilized by the end of 1941. Remaining Swedes served in Swedish Volunteer Company. Danes also served in their own company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_V ... _Battalion

Finnic Russians served in Kindred battalions (Heimopataljoona).
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatkosodan_heimosoturit

American Finnish volunteer 2Lt on left 1941 (SA-kuva 54382)
Image

Sid Guttridge
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Re: Foreign volunteers in the Continuation War?

#5

Post by Sid Guttridge » 13 Mar 2021, 09:47

Hi Seppo,

The Estonians had a seafaring tradition and had played a disproportional role in manning the old Czarist navy, so I guess the presence of Estonian volunteers in the Finnish Navy wouldn't be too surprising.

In 1940 Estonia had some 160 merchant ships totalling 185,000 tons, many of which were overseas and ended up serving the Allies. About 1,000 Estonian merchant sailors were reportedly registered with Britain's merchant navy in WWII.

Cheers,

Sid.

Garfunkel
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Re: Foreign volunteers in the Continuation War?

#6

Post by Garfunkel » 09 Aug 2021, 07:35

The big difference between WW and CW is that in the Continuation War, Finland was seen as an ally of Germany and the war had engulfed more countries, so it was more difficult to volunteer for Finland, both politically as well as logistically - nobody from North-America or the Commonwealth would volunteer for Finland and volunteers from other countries would find it extremely difficult to travel to Finland. Thus, the numbers for CW foreign volunteers are smaller than for WW, despite the latter conflict lasting vastly longer time. Initially the Finnish Army was also reluctant to employ foreign volunteers though this attitude changed as the war went on.

As Seppo said, Estonians mostly served in the Finnish Navy and by end of 1942, early 1943, there were enough of them in the Army that a 2-battalion regiment was formed: JR200. They initially had Finnish officers but sufficient Estonians were given officer training so that at least the junior officer slots would eventually be handled by Estonians. The regiment fought during summer of 1944 and was transferred to Estonia to continue the fight there as Finland sought armistice with the Soviet Union.

Swedish volunteer battalion consisted mostly of men who had already served in the SFK during the WW. The battalion was part of the blockade force around the Soviet naval base at Hanko. The battalion commander was very keen on proving his and his men's mettle in combat but his repeated requests for offensive action were rejected. He even travelled to the Finnish Command to have a meeting with Field Marshall Mannerheim to plead his case but for nought. This sapped the morale of the Swedes who had expected a short, sharp action in taking back Hanko together with the Finns but instead they had to endure a cold autumn of boring trench warfare while suffering losses to snipers and artillery. After the Soviets evacuated Hanko, the Swedes were among the first troops to enter the town. Most of them returned home soon after but some wanted to stay in Finland and a company was formed that fought in Karelia but it suffered the usual problem of volunteer units over a long deployment - not enough replacements! Some Danes were part of this force too.

There were a small number of Norwegian doctors and nurses that served in Finnish hospitals in northern Finland.

Ingrians, Karelians, Livonians and other Finnic-related groups served in several units. They can be divided into three groups:
1. Men who had fought on the White side in 1918 and/or during the Kinship wars. They had been living in Finland through the 1920s and 1930s, spoke the language fluently. Some of them worked as translators and interrogators but most of them were formed into their own unit that fought both in the Winter War (Sissipataljoona 3) and Continuation War (Prikaati K), in which the Brigade was disbanded and the men were formed into two separate battalions, Erillinen Pataljoona 7 and Erillinen Pataljoona 8.
2. Men who worked as Hiwis for the Wehrmact and were transferred from Heeresgruppe Nord to Finland in 1943, this group was also augmented by Finnic men that a Finnish commission found when combing through German POW camps. In return, Finland handed over Russian and Ukrainian POWs on a 1-for-1 basis. These men were not forced to join the Finnish Army and many of them went to work on farms and sawmills but enough volunteered so that Erillinen pataljoona 6 was formed out of them.
3. Men who had been captured by Finns. Despite it being against Hague and Geneva conventions, Finns started in 1943 to recruit volunteers from their own POW camps as sufficient numbers of Ingrians, Karelians etc had been found. They were formed into Heimopataljoona 3.

All of the battalions performed well enough in combat, though especially Heimopataljoona 3 was mostly used for building field fortifications though it did see combat on multiple occasion.

There was no Foreign Legion or anything like that in Finland and the importance of foreign volunteers was fairly low, which is thy there's not that much information about them.

Seppo Koivisto
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Re: Foreign volunteers in the Continuation War?

#7

Post by Seppo Koivisto » 31 Aug 2021, 21:04


Mika68*
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Re: Foreign volunteers in the Continuation War?

#8

Post by Mika68* » 06 Sep 2021, 07:19

What happened to Estonian JR 200 after it returned to Estonia?

Tommy R
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Re: Foreign volunteers in the Continuation War?

#9

Post by Tommy R » 09 Sep 2021, 01:14

"On 20 August, III. Battalion of the 46th SS Volunteer Grenadier Regiment was formed from I. Battalion of the Finnish 200th Infantry Regiment, which had recently returned to Estonia."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Waff ... _Estonian)

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