Fantastic Archive of Finnish Rifle Photos

[Cosmoline]

The Finns have opened a huge new archive of photos from the wars of the WW2 era:

http://sa-kuva.fi/neo?tem=webneoeng

There are many of Finn Mosins and various other arms in action, as well as captured Soviet arms. It's a treasure trove.

Here are bicycle/ski troops carrying what appear to be a mass of captured 91/30s, for example:



I've actually ridden by bike in the snow with a Mosin, and I don't relish the idea of a whole mass o' Mosins on my back esp. with the pointy parts still on. The photos suggest these folks stayed on their bikes until the snow got too deep, which makes them early pioneers in winter cycling among other things.

And check out that sniper variant on the wall.



There are also many horrible scenes which were I believe previously censored, but that is the face of terrible war. And of course I'm keeping this on topic.

Wow, THIS is an interesting one. It appears to be a photo of the controversial Russian 7.62x54r PZ ranging incendiary round, cut away to show the explosive inner shell. Soviet use of these rounds, which were ostensibly for range finding, was an alleged war crime. IIRC Simoh Hayha was hit with one of these in the face:



It's gone on to be one of the Winter War's better known facets, and there's a scene in "Talvisota" where a soldier complains about the explosions, to be told he can go across no man's land and complain if he wants.

 

[AethelstanAegen]

Thanks for the link to the neat archive. Way cool stuff.

 

[Fred Fuller]

There's a lot of white stuff in those pictures - makes my thin blooded southern self cringe just to look at them.

For a good many years I wore an MIA bracelet with MAJ Larry Thorne's name on it. Before he joined USASF and went missing in Southeast Asia, he was an officer in the Finnish army.

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/larry-thorne.htm

http://www.themilitaryview.com/?q=node/201

In the mid-1990s while I was still working at Ft. Bragg, I met a gentleman named Holger Pitkaanen. He had been Thorne's second in command during the Winter War. I gave him my MIA bracelet...

 

[Cosmoline]

Thanks for that account Fred! Those were some amazing fellows.

 

[Fred Fuller]

"Tough" doesn't even begin to describe them.

 

[caribou]

Larri Tarni , Americanized as Larry Thorn was the first SF killed in the Viet Nam Conflict.
About two years ago, I belive they recoverd his remains and the remains of the pilot of the helicopter he was killed in.

He was know for carrying a Springfeild 1903 and was deadly accurate with it. I don't jknow if he took it into combat, but he was well know to be very good shot.

Thanx for the photo link, every picture IS a thousand words