PPD-34s captured by Finnish Army

[Bair]

Dear all,

does anyone have Arma Fennica book and is there any information about WHERE (i. e. which direction - Kuhmo, Suomussalmi, and so on) PPDs were captured by the Finns? I am asking because there are a couple of reenactors that have PPDs from that period and I was wondering in which part of the documentary it would be correct to use them

with best regards

Bair

[Juha Hujanen]

Hi Bair

In Markku Palogangas Sotilaskäsiaseet Suomessa 1918-1988 vol I is a document of units weapons from 25.4.40.According to it IV Corps had 39 Russian machine-pistols of 7,62mm in their use.

So it would be logical that they were captured from Soviet units that they were facing.

Hope this helps

Cheers/Juha

ps. nice work with that Winter War document

[Juha Tompuri]

Here pic(s) from the area Juha H mentioned. More precisely, East Lemetti.
From: http://www.sodatkuvina.cjb.net/images/T ... at004.html
and "Talvisota Kronikka" by Atena Kustannus Oy.

Regards, Juha T

[Juha Hujanen]

A bit more

According to Kunniamme Päivät( the book of the official annoucements of Finnish HQ).

In 12.12.39:

In East front,especially in Tolvajärvi,there has been heavy fights with severe Russian losses.3 Battalions of they had been defeated.The booty includes:27 mg's,25 light mg's,13 machine pistols...


That's a bit earlyIMHO.The most sources agrees that Soviets rushed the available PPD's to front in later December- or in January.
Naturally that announcement is made during the war and it could be inaccurate.But then again if Finnish troops encountered Russian machine pistols,they should be able to identifield them.Their own counterparts were much alike to them

Cheers/Juha