Photos WW2 Finnish armed forces

[Иван Феоктистов]

Downed American-made Soviet fighter P-39 "Airacobra". Wrecked 1 km south of Kannelyarvi station. 05/05/1944

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

Sort of "clumsy" looking enemy aircraft, forced to land on the Finnish side. Caption tells its a Polikarpov I-153, called ”Tsaikka”. Simpele, Kerimäki 1941.06.25 (SA-kuva)

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As far as I know, during the Finnish war, the Finns promised every Soviet pilot who would fly to them on a serviceable plane $ 10,000 and a ticket to any country. Were there cases of voluntary surrender of pilots along with the planes? And if they did, did they pay them money?

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

This set of pics shows a knocked-out T-34-76, a close-range AT squad and a 75 PstK/97-38 "Mulatti" ("Mulato") AT gun with her crew from around 800 meters from the Ihantala church on June 30 1944.

The close-up pic of the wreck shows (from right to left) Sgt. Heino Nikulassi (6./JR 12), Sgt. Kaarlo "Kalle" Niemelä (8./JR 12) and Trooper Eino Heikkilä. Numbers 6 and 8 indicate their Companies.

T-34 was demolished by German Unteroffizier Willy Obeldobel from the Assault Gun Brigade 303, who's StuG fired twice. Some Finn finalized the damages by a Panzerfaust. The pic is sometimes seen with a caption stating that the AT gun crew managed to hit the tank, but that wasn't the case. Obeldobel was awarded with the Finnish Medal of Liberty 1 Class.

The incident was a bit odd, two T-34s approached the Finnish defense line, guns pointing backwards, confusing the infantry and the AT squads so they didn't open fire. The other reversed before crossing the line but this one continued rolling. When the tank commander spotted being behind the lines he decided to roll back, but the defenders were alert. Obeldobel's first shell immobilized the tank and while the gunner re-loaded, the tank commander, Guard Lt. Zhirnov, bailed out trying to reach the own lines. He was KIA by the infantry.
Sgt. Nikulassi fell on July 1.

SA-kuva pics # 155334, 155326, 155339 and 155431

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Is this the same tank "450" of the 30th Guards Tank Brigade? Recently, a pedestal was installed at the place of his death using public money.

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

Finnish Lt. Tasa inspects his troops while they’re passing by after some fierce fight on the western shore of the Viipuri Bay on July 4 1944.

Little did they know that after some weeks of fighting the Soviet units had been weakened enough to be withdrawn from the front by Stavka, that meaning the abortion of the enemy offensive there.

SA-kuva

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Y-yes. All armies are similar. I think a similar picture was on the same Karelian roads in the summer of 1941.

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

This pic shows some Finnish gunners from the Heavy Artillery Battalion 24 softening the Soviet lines in the Rajakontu area from the Manssila village on July 23 1941, the enemy lines being some 400 meters away.

SA-kuva

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Is this a three-inch cannon from Tsarist Russia?

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

Captain Kalaja and his Hurricane at Hollola airfield, where the Finns had a Hurricane - team (Lentolaivue 10). And of course also built a sauna (last pic) by a lake, close to the airfield. Hollola 1941.06.29 (SA-kuva)

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Did they receive these planes from Great Britain, or did they seize them from the Soviet Air Force?

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

A Finnish flamethrower team moves up a hill. Savitaipale 1941.06.28 (SA-kuva)

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How beautiful the nature of Karelia is!

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

Marshal Mannerheim and his train. On the first pic also generals Nenonen, Heinrichs and Talvela. The officer in the background is Alpo Marttinen, who after the war made a military career in the US Army. Punkasalmi 1941.06.26 (SA-kuva)

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A soldier in an armored train, photo two, a cap without a visor?

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

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In the first photo, the soldiers threw bread on the ground?

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

Damage and destruction in Finnish cities after Soviet air raids.

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In the pre-war Soviet Union, the issues of anti-chemical protection of the population were very acute. The command believed that a new war could be chemical. Air-raid shelters with filter ventilation were actively created, and many gas masks were manufactured for the population. And what about the Finns? Weren't they afraid of gas attacks?

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

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The man on the right - who? Is this a policeman, a fire brigade soldier, or am I guessing? If there is any manual on the activities of the Finnish population protection during the war years, please share it very interestingly!

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

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The photo shows the destroyed GAZ gas generator vehicle. Most likely a Soviet trophy. It seems to me that for Finland a wood-fired car is just an ideal solution!) In the USSR, such people drove through remote places in Siberia until the mid-60s

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

79 years ago, on Dec 5 1941, the Finns were capturing the Karhumäki city. Pic shows the only heavy tanks which were operational in the freezing temperatures of -35 - -40 degrees Celsius. Lt. Mikkola was just ordered to clean the western districts. At the time the Heavy Tank Company was equipped with four T-28s and one T-34.
The T-26 in the back belonged to the 1st Company of the Tank Battalion.
Little did they know that the Great Britain will declare war on Finland a day later.
SA-kuva

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Wait! And how many T-28s did the Finns have in general? I thought there was only one, and even he did not take part in the battles. In the literature that I read, there was only this information. Do you have another photo of several T-28s standing side by side?

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

Continuation War, Finland.
One cigarette per soldier, the newspaper also shared. Pääsiäisvaara 1941.07.13 (SA-kuva)

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Sometimes I wonder what a mess Finns had with steel helmets. On the other hand, I am amazed at the economic pragmatism of this people, they managed to sort all the trophies - from tanks (collecting one from several) to helmets and pouches. By the way, the silhouette of the Czech helmet, it seems to me, is a bit similar to the Soviet one. Couldn't that have caused friendly fire?

 

[PEMM]

Wait! And how many T-28s did the Finns have in general? I thought there was only one, and even he did not take part in the battles. In the literature that I read, there was only this information. Do you have another photo of several T-28s standing side by side?

Armored museum states that two were captured in Winter War and five were captured in Continuation War.


"Our heavy tanks in Karhumäki, 1941.12.06"

There aren't really pictures of tank formations.

 

[BravoZulu]

Wait! And how many T-28s did the Finns have in general? I thought there was only one, and even he did not take part in the battles. In the literature that I read, there was only this information. Do you have another photo of several T-28s standing side by side?

Finland has 2 T-28 captured during the Winter War and by February 1942 had 1 T-34 and 6 T-28. In the following months the size of Heavy Tank Company expanded with additional captured tanks being introduced to Finnish use - two KV-1 and two additional T-34 tanks. When in its largest, Heavy Tank Company had three T-34 tanks, two KV-1 tanks, seven T-28 tanks and one T-50 - however it must be noted that due to maintenance requirements all of these tanks were not really operational simultaneously at any given time.

More info here:
https://www.jaegerplatoon.net/TANKS6.htm

 

[BravoZulu]

Finnish soldier walks away without injury after shrapnel pierced his helmet in August 1941.

 

[guest0001]

The Soviets counterattacked in the Tsokkila area in the mid-July 1941. Finnish Lance Corporal Johannes Hartikainen belonged to the Gun Company of the Infantry Regiment 60.
Enemy was supported by tanks but Hartikainen had a gun, French-origin 25 mm 25 PstK/34 "Marianne". The story doesn't tell which tanks he knocked out, only the amount and the time: five tanks in some 25 minutes. Short description:
"Hartikainen's gun was positioned on a small hillock, some 20 meters from the road, when around ten tanks approached. Pretty soon the two first ones were demolished but the three following managed to penetrate. Ignoring them he just kept on firing, knocking out three next ones. The close-range AT squads used their satchel charges destroying two tanks behind the lines and the crew of the last one decided to retreat. This time, though, Hartikainen fired and hit from about 75 meters range. Rest of the tankers, having lost their fighting spirit, started to retreat but still, one tank was knocked out."
1st pic shows him after being awarded on May 26 1942.
SA-kuva photos # 89847, 27889 and 32609

 

[guest0001]

During the WWII the Soviets sent several spies to Finland. Many of them parachuted, that causing the Finnish nickname "desantti" meaning all spies although the word means a person landing from an any vehicle like e.g. tanks. Some stories went as described:
In Feb 1940 a couple of Finnish gunners had a vacation so they visited a local store saying that "our phony guns at the Pukkio Fortress are continuously raided, poor Soviets are dumb as hell". Two random customers drank their beers and vanished - and after that the enemy concentrated bombings to the real battery.
In Jan 1944 (or the late 1943) one of them was arrested from the Lauttasaari district, Helsinki, having a radio. He agreed to co-operate and was nicknamed as "Petteri". The Finns forced him to send messages about the results of the Helsinki terror bombings, claiming e.g. that the downtown is totally demolished. So when one of the Soviet members of the Control Commission visited the city in September having some decorations on his jacket he ripped them off saying "darn you've been busy to re-build the buildings". Only some 10 % of the bombs hit the city during the three raids, you see.
The pics show the ratios and armament of some spies and a Finnish female who managed to caught one of the spies when he was giving chocolate to her kids at the Parila farm, Kiikala village, Sääksmäki municipality, in June 1941. The date is said to be the 20th, when the peace was still on. She seemed to have two girls. The guy in the last pic is baccalaureate Sergei Ivanovits Nikitri from the Leningrad city.
SA-kuva