Interview with Russian Witner War veterans

[Juha Tompuri]

Hi!

The myth of Finnish snipers at trees (russian term "kukushka" = cuckoo) has AFAIK pre Winter War origins. The Soviet troops were instructed about this Finnish habbit( ) at their pre-invasion rehersals. So when the Soviet troops got under fire, that they couldn´t detect where it came from, it "must" have come from kukushkas.
Also Finnish artillery- and aerial observation posts (platforms built at trees) Soviet troops found, may have mislead them.

Mars,
I think it´s very hard to prove (is it needed?) that any Finns didn´t shoot Russians from the trees.

Regards, Juha

P.S. Sure you did notice another myth of early Winter War at Mr Iskrovs memories: the rubber covered bunkers.

[Sami_K]

Hi!

The myth of Finnish snipers at trees (russian term "kukushka" = cuckoo) has AFAIK pre Winter War origins. The Soviet troops were instructed about this Finnish habbit( ) at their pre-invasion rehersals. So when the Soviet troops got under fire, that they couldn´t detect where it came from, it "must" have come from kukushkas.

P.S. Sure you did notice another myth of early Winter War at Mr Iskrovs memories: the rubber covered bunkers.

This exactly is part of the problem when interviewing veterans now, over 60 years after the events. By this time personal experience has been (more or less) been influenced by what the veteran has read/experienced AFTER the war.

In addition, myths are hard to die after you've lived half a century believing in them. As a comparison, I remember reading an interview of a Finnish veteran who said that they were bombed (during the Winter War) by German planes assisting the Red Army! (sic)

Cheers,
Sami

[Hanski]

One variation of the "Kukushka"-myth is that these treetop-snipers were female (although the Finnish Army never trained or used female soldiers for combat in WWII).

Maybe that was to make it sound even more exotic!

[Juha Tompuri]

Hi Hanski!

http://www.iremember.ru/artillerymen/lu ... kinov2.htm ,thanks Bair for the corrections.
( http://us.imdb.com/Title?0308476 )

Regards, Juha

[Hanski]

Hi Juha,

Thank you for the link, and indeed thanks to Bair for his comment.


"Cuckoos" - snipers in the trees - were bothering us a lot. During retreats, the Finns would put them in the trees with a submachine gun and a large quantity of ammo.

That's an interesting one. Certainly a submachine gun would not be the weapon of a sniper!

They changed their position during the night, moving on to the next "square". Finns took the boots away from some snipers before putting them in the trees, so they wouldn't run away, and replaced their boots with a blanket.

It would be most interesting to see the author (or anyone in doubt) demonstrate this: how to climb up in a tree with a SMG and lots of ammo, to sit there in -30...-40 C temperature, without boots, then change positions during the night...

What can you say? Human imagination has no limits when it runs wild. I admit Finns may sometimes come up with crazy ideas, but they are not THAT crazy!

Hanski