Column of destroyed and captured Soviet vehicles, mostly T-26 tanks, Raate-Suomussalmi Road, Finland, 17 January 1940

Winter War trophies

A Finnish machine gun crew reloads the Maxim M/32-33 machine gun;  Karelian campaign, August 7, 1941. 

Loading the machine gun

Finnish crew with a Panzerschreck anti-tank grenade launcher ready forthe oncoming Soviet tank; Continuation War, 1942.

Loading the anti-tank weapon

A Finnish soldier removes the scope with a knife (in his left hand) from a captured Soviet Mosin sniper rifle in the Suomussalmi area; Winter War, December 19, 1939.

Captured sniper rifle

Finnish infantry unit before crossing a water barrier in Soviet Karelia; July 16, 1941.

Prepare for river crossing

Finnish soldiers take cover in a trench during a battle on the Svir (Syväri) River. The soldier in the foreground is armed with a Suomi KP / 31 submachine gun. Further back, a machine gunner with a captured Soviet light machine gun DP-27; Continuation War, April 16, 1942.

Battle of the Svir river area

A Finnish soldier walks past a column of disabled Soviet trucks  during the 1939-1940 Soviet-Finnish war.

 

Disabled Soviet column

A Finnish soldier with a Maxim M / 32-33 machine gun near the village of Rugozero, Karelian Isthmus.  In his right hand is a Finnish Sako M39 Mosin-Nagant 5-shot bolt-action rifle;  April 8, 1943.

Finnish forward outpost

A Finnish soldier collecting trophies, poses next to a Soviet GAZ-AAA off-road truck equipped with a 1931 7.62mm quad anti-aircraft machine gun mount (M-4). Presumably, the truck with an anti-aircraft gun was from one of the regiments of the 44th Infantry Division, defeated by the Finns on the Raate-Suomussalmi road; Finland, December 1939-January 1940.

Situation in the Winter War

A Finnish soldier armed with a captured Soviet sniper rifle; Continuation War, 1941 - 1944.

Soviet prisoners of war and Finnish soldiers on the road near the village of Hammaslahti, northern Karelia. Most of the prisoners are armed (permitted to keep their weapons, without ammunition?); September 15, 1941.

Finnish soldiers with POWs

Finnish soldiers on skis gather at the Soviet LaGG-3 fighter plane. It was hit by Finnish anti-aircraft artillery fire over Nurmoila, Karelia. During landing, the plane sustained significant damage, so they did not repair it, but dismantled it for spare parts for the other three LaGG-3 fighters in the Finnish Air Force. March 6, 1942. 
  The (Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov) LaGG-3 was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. It was a refinement of the earlier LaGG-1 and was one of the most modern aircraft available to the Soviet Air Force at the time of Germany's invasion in 1941
 

Downed Soviet fighter plane

Finnish ski soldiers near an abandoned Soviet light amphibious tank T-37A; December 30, 1939.

Ski troops inspect Soviet tank

Finnish pilots from the No. 32 squadron (Lentolaivue-32) line up in front of a British-made Hurricane fighter (tail number HC-456) at the Lappeenranta airfield in south-east Finland; Continuation War, August 1941.

Pilots with a Hurricane aircraft

Finnish machine gun crew lighting cigarettes after repulsing enemy attack. Lempaala, Karelian Isthmus, 22 November 1941.

Cigarettes

Red Army soldiers, taken prisoner by the Finns, at the wall of a village house; Karelia, between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga, 1943.

Russian POWs

On 25 April 1945, after it was determined that the final German formations in Finnish territory were withdrawing, a 60-strong battle patrol led by Captain Valkonen was assigned to reconnoitre if Finnish Lapland was free from Wehrmacht forces. The detachment was assembled from 1st Company, Battle Group Loimu, Infantry Regiment 1, and departed on its mission at 1:00 pm the same day from southern Kilpisjärvi. The ski patrol advanced north-west towards Norway for around 8 km (5.0 mi) until it was split in two near the Saana fell. The smaller group would approach the Norwegian border along the road while the bulk of the patrol would continue with Captain Valkonen towards the three-country cairn farther off. They reached the cairn by 1:15 am on 26 April after skiing approximately 10 km (6.2 mi) more. Pioneer Antti Poikola attached a small flag of Finland to the cairn and the patrol reported back by radio that no Germans had been sighted on Finnish soil. Valkonen and his team shot three gun salutes at the cairn before leaving; the shots rang out across the fells and startled a Swedish border guard unit nearby.
Around noon of 26 April, Major Martti Santavuori, commander of the battalion, and a mixed Finnish–Swedish patrol arrived at the tripoint. A German Gebirgsjäger unit approached them from Norway, and, with knowledge that they would not engage the Swedes, Major Santavuori signaled the German leader to meet up at the border. An Austrian Feldwebel soon skied closer and they discussed the war, both past and future. Major Santavuori and the Feldwebel saluted, shook hands and bid each other "as good a future as fate has to offer" before parting ways.

First flag at the three-country cairn

Two soldiers with a "Maxim" M / 32-33 machine gun cover the attack of the 14th Finnish infantry division in the Repola region (Karelian Isthmus); July 1941.

Maxim machine gun in action

Finnish soldiers sitting in their trench, highly modified by artillery bombardment. Winter, 1939-1940

Winter War

British-made bomber Bristol Blenheim of the 42nd Bomber Squadron of the Finnish Air Force (Pommituslentolaivue 42) after returning from a sortie.  In the cockpit, pilot Sergeant Valto Laurila, next to the plane, navigator-gunner Sergeant Sulo Rikkinen; December 23, 1941.

Safe return to home base

Street fighting in Medvezhyegorsk, Karelia-Russia, north-east from St. Petersburg. The town was occupied by Finland for three years, from 6 December 1941-23 June, 1944.



Finnish soldiers in street fight

A Finnish flamethrower supports the attack of his unit in the area of ​​the village of Niinisalo; Continuation War, January 7, 1942.

Flamethrower supporting attack

A column of the Uusimaa Dragoon Regiment of the Finnish army on the march in the Ilomantsi area, near the Finnish-Rusian border; July 8, 1941.

Finnish mounted infantrymen

Finnish soldiers walk past a damaged Soviet T-70 tank on the road in the Ilomantsi area, near the Finnish-Soviet border; Toward the end of the Continuation War, August 9, 1944.


In the woods of the Karelian Front

Finnish officers practice shooting the Parabellum P.08 pistol in the area of Ladoga Karelia. The Officer in the foreground center has the rank of junior lieutenant; January 1940.

Finnish Forces

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