Volunteers in Winter and Continuation Wars

[Hanski]

Hi,

Unfortunately I could not see it from the video, but my best guess for your question 1.) is that the medal given was the Memorial Medal of the Winter War for foreigners.

Please use the following phrase as a search term for Google, so you will see some items advertised in militaria trade:

Talvisodan muistomitali ulkomaalaisille

The most common is the black one (iron), but it also exists in bronze.

Cheers,
Hanski

[Dr Eisvogel]

Hi,

Unfortunately I could not see it from the video, but my best guess for your question 1.) is that the medal given was the Memorial Medal of the Winter War for foreigners.

Please use the following phrase as a search term for Google, so you will see some items advertised in militaria trade:

Talvisodan muistomitali ulkomaalaisille

The most common is the black one (iron), but it also exists in bronze.

Cheers,
Hanski

Dear Mr. Hanski,

thank you very much for the explanations provided as well as for the search term for Google.

Best regards!

[Juha Tompuri]

Thanks Doc, very interesing.

Additional complication is the fact that during the Winter War Croatia wasn't independent, so he might have had either Yugoslav, Italian, Hungarian or any other citizenship or simply be stateless.

Can't help you much at the moment, but here something to begin with:

Hungarians volunteers

Only Hungarians sent volunteers as an organized unit according to the initial Finnish requirements. The unit consisted of 346 officers and men with one month of training in Hungary. These men reached Finland in March 2nd and were stationed to Lapua for further training in Detachment Sisu. Their commander was Captain Imre Keméri-Nagy, a right-wing activist with experience from the fighting that ensued when Hungary occupied parts of Slovakia in 1938.
Apart from this battalion there were about twenty Hungarians who had volunteered on individual basis. Most of these men were sent to Detachment Sisu and some of these later joined the Hungarian company when the company arrived in Lapua.
After the war the Hungarians were sent for a while to the Lappeenranta garrison and finally returned home in May 1940.


According to official Finnish figures there were following numbers of volunteers by nationality on March 13th.

Austria 2

Belgium 51

Czechoslovakia 1

Estonia 56

France 2

Germany 18

Italy 7

Latvia 4

Lithuania 2

Luxembourg 3

Netherlands 17

Poland 6

Portugal 1

Switzerland 6

United Kingdom 13

Yugoslavia 1

Without nationality 15

http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=6299

Regards, Juha

[Dr Eisvogel]

Only Hungarians sent volunteers as an organized unit according to the initial Finnish requirements. The unit consisted of 346 officers and men with one month of training in Hungary.
Apart from this battalion there were about twenty Hungarians who had volunteered on individual basis.

Italy 7

Yugoslavia 1

Without nationality 15

http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=6299

Regards, Juha

Dear Mr. Tompuri,

thank you very much for pointing out to that interesting article. I believe the data from it will be a major help for me in further search.

Best regards!

[Jagala]

Some of the volunteers are mentioned by name in the war diary of "Osasto Sisu", including the one listed as Yugoslavian:
http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=1608449

My ability to decipher handwriting fails me this time, but I don't think the first letter is either P or B.

[Mangrove]

My ability to decipher handwriting fails me this time, but I don't think the first letter is either P or B.

Rizeusco or Rizeurco?

[Dr Eisvogel]

Some of the volunteers are mentioned by name in the war diary of "Osasto Sisu", including the one listed as Yugoslavian:
http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=1608449

My ability to decipher handwriting fails me this time, but I don't think the first letter is either P or B.

Dear Mr. Jagala,

Extraordinary source!

Much obliged. Best regards!


Dear Mr. Martti Kujansuu,

I see that we are dealing with a text written in Swedish. Trying to decide, which letters would these be, I saw that the names of two countries - Spanien and Luxemburg, which provide letters -n and -u are written in the first two lines.

My suggestion would be Rizensco??? Now, as far as I know Russian and Ukrainian the name should be Rizhenko and my theory is that the gentleman in question might be a White Russian émigré, who volunteered to fight against the Bolshevism.
Yugoslavia was full of them and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia established the diplomatic relations with the USSR only in 1940. Until that time there was even the White Russian embassy in Belgrade and they had an extremely developed social life with many organizations.

The reason why I don't think the gentleman in question is a Croat, Slovene or Serb is because any surname ending with -co. It would be an extremly rare surname ending. It might be -co or -ko, but then he would be probaly a Croat or Slovene.

I have to say that I searched in Slovenian and Croatian search engines various combinations, but I couldn't come up with anything.

You have to understand that any volunteer fighting against the USSR would be taboo topic in the communist Yugoslavia in the period 1945-1990 and possible documents might have been destroyed.

I plan to search for the lieutenant with whom I appeared on this topic in the newspapers from the period 1942-44, but it will take me months to even start.

Anyway, we can conclude that the volunteer whom I am looking for wasn't a Yugoslav citizen, because his surname starts with Ba-/Pa-.

So, I have either the stateless or Italians or Hungarians to go through.

Kind regards to all the gentlemen who have helped me so far!

[CanKiwi2]

Good Day Brent!
With reference to your volunteer question. I interviewed one of these veterans several months ago. His name is Godfrey Millington Hogg. An extroardinary man. I will be writing a biography on him for the KevOs4 website when I have a chance to run it through with Godfrey first to check for errors. Godfreys name shows up in Justin Brooke's book the " The volunteers" . He was training to be an airgunner in the Finnish airforce when the Winter War ended. He like many other volunteers from England were moved to Sweden . Here he was able to get a diplomatic flight out in 1942 to England . The previous flight was shot down by the Germans for some reason. He wound up as a tank commander through Italy and northern Europe Holland and into Germany. A remarkable person of great character. Regards Tero T

Hi Tero

Did you ever get your biography Godfrey Millington Hogg done for the KevOs4 website? I was trying to piece a few bits together from the web.

Cheers.......Nigel

[CanKiwi2]

Capt. Donald Kenyon Willis of Leavenworth, Crawford County, Indiana in a Spitfire at a USAAF Fighter Station in England. Don Willis is now in his fourth Air Force, having been through the Finnish, Norwegian and British services. April 1943.

Born August 7, 1911 in Marion, Indiana / † in April 1977 in Florida.

Puhtaasti uteliaisuudesta, osaako joku kertoa hänen Suomen ajastaan enemmän?

400.jpg

pwillisdk0.jpg

pwillisdk1.jpg

Willis with the Eage Squadron, RAF

[Mangrove]

Don Willis is now in his fourth Air Force, having been through the Finnish, Norwegian and British services. April 1943.

http://www.oocities.org/finnmilpge/fmp_ ... 39_40.html

Six volunteer foreign pilots were given training at ISK between February and March 1940. In elementary training were Danish Cpl (Res.) Petter Pettersen and American Cpl.(Res.) Donald Willis. Their training was stopped after the Winter War and they never finished pilot training in Finland.

[Hanski]

Swedish and Norwegian volunteers remembered on the Finnish Independence Day.

[Juha Tompuri]

Diego Manzocchi has received a new, corrected tombstone:

https://www.ilmailumuseoyhdistys.fi/uutiset.html?114175

The older one:

https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic ... hi#p240883

[Juha Tompuri]

Diego, fallen 80 yrs ago today.


http://www.cronacaossona.com/2014/10/21 ... finlandia/