The Finnish Army
in the Winter War
In Part I
Before the war
The birth of the Army
The Army of Independent Finland was formally born during the War
of Independence, when the year 1878 Conscription Act was carried again
into effect on February 18th 1918. This act enabled that virtually
all healthy young males could be called up for armed service. In 1932
a new Conscription Act was carried into effect, that prescribed that
the basic conscription service would be 350 days, and 440 days for
the officers and NCO's, after which they would be included into the
reserve. In addition to the conscription, all reservists could be
called for refresher training.
The peace time field army of Finland consisted of 3 divisions (each
having 3 regiments, 1 or 2 Jaeger battalions, 1 or 2 artillery regiments,
and support units) and a Cavalry Brigade, which could be compared
to a division in strength.
Between 1918 and 1939, some 509 000 men, born between 1894 and 1918,
were conscripted. From these, almost 200 000 took part in refresher
training during the 1930s (see the section below) .
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Between 1932 and 1934, the mobilization system was changed from the
Cadre mobilization to a Regional mobilization. Now the task of raising
the Field Army was passed from the units of the standing army to the
military districts. This was done for various reasons, among them
was the constant fear of a sudden invasion by the Soviet Union, and
while the regional mobilization was faster in mustering troops, it
also allowed the standing army to delay the enemy while the Field
Army was being mobilized.
The large reorganization and planning had the effect that no refresher
training's were held between '32 and '34. The new system required
that all reservists of the military district would be trained in the
same place. The objective was that every district could train it's
reservists inside it's district, but the plans were abandoned as the
Defense Forces simply didn't have the funds to redeem enough land
for that purpose. So the solution was that several large refreshing
training centers were built, to which the troops were transported.
The men in a unit were usually from the same locality, resulting in
good team-spirit. Morale was usually quite high, and the men quite
After the start the system proved adequate enough, and in the refresher
training between 1935 and 1939, some 22 regiment HQ's and 87 battalions
of infantry, and 9 artillery regiment HQ's, 26 artillery battalions
and 4 separate batteries were trained. That enabled the raising of
9 infantry divisions, while still leaving a trained reserve (the units
were nearly always over-strength during the refresher training) .
In plain figures, some 180 000 men went through the refresher training.
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The Civic Guard
A very important part of the National defense was the Civic Guard
(Suojeluskunnat in Finnish). The patriotic Civic Guard was born just
before the War of Independence. The organization was run by volunteers,
and the position and duties of the organization was prescribed in
a law that was passed in 1927, further specified by a statute in May
The Civic Guard was a part of the Defense Forces, and it's mission
was to defend the country and uphold the legitimate social system.
The Commander of the Civic Guard was subordinate to the President
of the Republic, just like the Commander of the Armed Forces. Many
career officers of the Army were working also in the General Staff
of the Civic Guard or in the district HQ's or as site commanders.
In 1939, the unusually democratic organization (every member had
the right to take part in the organization's inner issues) had 22
Civic Guard districts, which consisted of 279 Civic Guard sites. In
the end of 1938, the organization had 111 493 regular members.
| While the youth section of the
Civic Guard had it's roots in the early phases of the organization,
and it was formally organized in 1928. The goal wasn't to "train"
militaristic boys, as one might think, instead the aim was to
raise decent citizens that would understand the duty of a citizen
to his country, when they left the organization in the age of
17. All over-militaristic close order drill and weapon training
was left out. In 1938, the youth organization had over 28 500
young members ( at it's peak, during the Continuation War, the
number was over 70 000) .
The members of the organization were regarded, for a good reason,
better trained as the rest of the reservists. The Civic Guard was
very important as an institution, in keeping up the military skills
of it's members, especially in case of the officers, during the prewar
years, when the Army had it's shoe string budget. The Guard had it's
annual refresher training's, in which the members took part even in
The organization had acquired large amounts of weapons in the prewar
years, and it's arms stores proved invaluable when the mobilization
of the Field Army began. Also, during the mobilization, the Civic
Guard was extremely important in carrying out the mobilization.
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The material situation was not as good as the psychological
situation. As Finland had been a poor agricultural country, with many
political wings, the Armed Forces hadn't received enough funds compared
to their task.
spending in the prewar years
| In 1925, the Ministry of Defense made the first
real acquisition plan (to improve the material situation of
the Defense Forces) , requiring FIM 5 125 million. The plan
One year later, the Defense auditing office ("Puolustusrevisioni"
in Finnish) proposed a smaller plan of FIM 2 642 million. Although
this so-called first "stopgap plan" ("hätäohjelma"
in Finnish) wasn't approved either, the Defense Ministry and
the General HQ made progress in their cooperation of drawing
up detailed acquisition plans.
Only in the mid 1930s, the second "stopgap plan"
of FIM 1 682 million, to be spent in the next 5 years, was
proposed, although the real need was FIM 4 100 million. The
plan was accepted by the parliament, but the time span was
increased to 8 years.
For material acquisition (to replace old & buy new)
, the Defense Forces received:
- Between 1919-1930, a total of FIM 858 million.
(Allocation: Army 50 %, Navy 30 %, Air Forces 20 %)
- Between 1931-1934, the total sum was FIM 441 million.
After that, the situation improved a bit, being a total
of FIM 1 085 million between 1935 and 1938.
(Allocation: Army 52 %, Navy 20 %, Air Forces 28 %).
By 1938, the attitudes of the political decision makers
had changed, and the plan of FIM 2 710 million was approved
with minor changes (of that, FIM 460 million in 1938, FIM
400 million annually in 1939-1943 and 250 million in 1944)
. In early 1939, Mannerheim proposed an additional FIM 500
million for the year 1939, but the Government proposed an
addition of only FIM 350 million to the Parliament, which
was approved. In June 1939, the Parliament approved one more
additional proposition of FIM 100 million, to be used to fortify
the Aaland islands.
It's quite amazing that still in mid 1939, the government
was reluctant to use all means available to increase defensive
While the acquisition office of the Army had in 1939 more
funds than ever before, but it was already too late to have
a telling impact, as the plan was still in it's early phases
when the war started. The domestic production had a slow start
and the foreign purchases were mostly on it's way.
While using the "Money
value conversion factor", found in website of the Scandinavian
Nordea Bank (in Finnish)
The "Year 2000" figure represents roughly the contemporary
purchasing power of the money figure on the left column.
(i.e. The same amount of items you could get with FIM 100
in the year 1924, costed in the year 2000 some FIM 152 (or
in Year 2000 money value
858 000 000 spent on material acquisitions between
||I'm using an average value
for the "money value conversion factor", between
The sum equals in purchase power, FIM
1 350 920 000 or roughly Euro
227 208 000 spent in Defense Acquisitions in 12
441 000 000 spent in 1931-1934
||The average "money value
conversion factor" during 1931-1934 is 1.761 . So
the sum on the left equals FIM
776 600 000 or roughly Euro
130 615 000 spent in Defense Acquisitions in a
time 4 years.
FIM 1 085 000 000 spent in 1935-1938
||The average "money value
conversion factor" during 1935-1938 is 1.73125 .
So the sum on left equals FIM
1 878 400 000 or Euro
315 924 000 spent in 4 years.
|The additional funding, the
FIM 460 000 000 for the
year 1938 and FIM 400 000 000
for the year 1939 + the FIM
350 000 000 (Mannerheim's proposal)
||The conversion factor for
the year 1938 is 1.66 and for the year 1939 it is 1.619.
Using these, the combined sum is FIM
1 977 850 000 or Euro
332 650 000.
So in total, the Finnish Defense Forces had spent on material
acquisitions between 1919-1939 (in 21 years), roughly
FIM 5 983 770 000 or
about Euro 1 006 398 000
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From the Army's worst
shortages, the following were perhaps the most important:
The Tank arm was almost nonexistent, from the 35 ordered Vickers
6-ton tanks, 27 had been delivered before the war started, and even
these had been bought (to reduce costs) without guns, optics and
radios, so none were operational on 30 November 1939. The 32 old
WW I vintage Renault FT's were totally obsolete in 1939 without
any combat value.
Also the shortage of antitank (AT) weapons was critical. The Army
had in 1935 acquired the license to produce the 37 mm Bofors AT-gun,
which had been chosen as the primary antitank weapon. The domestic
production started in 1938, and only 50 guns were completed when
the war started. The troops received the first AT-guns only after
the mobilization had begun.
The domestic 20 mm Lahti AT-rifle, which was
proposed for the first time in 1936, wasn't approved until Fall
1939 as the light antitank weapon, but as the war begun, only a
few prototype weapons were available (with a mere 27 Mio Finnish
Marks, every Finnish battalion could've received 6 of these effective
weapons, and a large supply of replacements) .
One of the worst unpleasant surprises in the war, was the situation
of the Communications equipment. It was largely unknown, how difficult
it would be to maintain communications with cables in a constant
artillery bombardment. The lack of radios was a severe handicap,
which was realized only when it was too late to improve the situation
decisively. (Check out the page "Finnish Communications equipment...")
Artillery pieces and shells (check out the page "Finnish Artillery"
and the links on it)
The threat of war
On 6 October 1939, the negotiations in Moscow created an uncertain
atmosphere in Finland, the efforts to improve the defensive capabilities
of Finland were judged insufficient. In the following week, a partial
mobilization was made, called as "an extra rehearsal" ("Ylimääräiset
harjoitukset" in Finnish) to avoid international notice.
After a few days, Marshal Mannerheim, the chairman
of the defense council, made a motion, on 11 October, to the Minister
of Defense, for a full mobilization. On the 12th, the Ministry of
Defense gave an order of full mobilization, which started on 14 October
The Finnish President, who was, and is, the supreme commander of
the Finnish Defense Forces, couldn't give the job away in peacetime.
On 17 October 1939, an enactment was given, which made it possible
"...during special circumstances, the President can appoint a
Commander-in-Chief, who will act as the supreme commander of the Defense
Forces..." (my own translation, so it may not be an exact translation)
, and on the same day, President Kallio, appointed Baron Carl Gustav
Mannerheim, as the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
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The High Command
of the Finnish Defense Forces in start of December 1939
(Diagram source: "Talvisodan
historia 1", WSOY 1991, p.150)
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The Finnish field army mobilized 9 divisions in addition to the 3
brigades, which consisted of units of the standing army, and a large
number of separate battalions and other smaller units.
The Finnish units were raised in provinces. This meant that the reservists
knew each other, which resulted in a feeling of togetherness. This helped
a lot in the war of nerves and molded the men into a spirited combat force.
(The map on the left shows approximately the military provinces where
the divisions were raised. The separate battalions were raised mostly
from the border area inhabitants and border guard units.)
In order to provide replacements for the field army, a Field Replacement
Brigade "KT-Pr" (coming from the Finnish word Kenttätäydennysprikaati)
was formed during the mobilization. It was consisted of 9 infantry battalions
and 3 mortar companies. However, the circumstances on the fronts in mid-December
forced all units and battalions of the KT-Pr to be used in various parts
of the front as combat troops. 3 battalions were transported to Ilomantsi,
3 to Northern Finland and 3 to the Isthmus.
The army was divided into three Corps, the II and III Corps in the
Isthmus creating the Isthmus Army, and the IV Corps in the Ladoga
Karelia, N and NE of Lake Ladoga. The troops in northern Finland were
named the North Finland Group P-SR (Pohjois-Suomen Ryhmä in Finnish)
, divided into two subgroups, the Lapland Group LR (Lapin Ryhmä in
Finnish) defending a front from Petsamo to Salla, and the North Karelia
Group P-KR (Pohjois-Karjalan Ryhmä in Finnish) defending the front
from near Kuhmo to near Ilomantsi. Between those two groups were the
15th and 16th separate battalions (Er.P 15 and Er.P 16) . The gap
between P-KR and the bulk of the IV Corps was defended by small Task
Forces (combined into Group Talvela in early December) , which were
attached to IV Corps.
The North Finland Group was very weak. The Lapland group had only
the 17th separate battalion (Er.P 17) , the 10th separate company
(10.Er.K) , the 5th separate battery (5.Er.Ptri) and a field replacement
company. The North Karelia group had 3 separate battalions and the
4th separate battery and a replacements battalion. The P-SR had in
it's direct command 2 separate battalions (Er.P 16 and Er.P 15) ,
and in it's reserve the 9th division (only 2 regiments, the JR 27
and JR 25) , and two replacement battalions.
Two divisions, 9.D (9th division) and 6.D were reserved as Commander-in-Chief's
reserves, as was the KT-Pr (which had battalions both in south and
north Finland) , and the Os.Hanell which was originally intended to
be used in the Aaland islands.
Picture source: "Talvisodan Historia
The main task of the troops during the mobilization was to erect
adequate field fortifications. While the work had already begun in
the previous summer, by thousands of volunteers, the troops continued
it. The first priority was tank obstacles, that's only obvious as
the lack of AT-weapons was appalling. Shelters came in second, as
the lack of billeting equipment (tents) was severe, and the actual
trenches came only third. From early November onwards, the attention
shifted to mg and lmg-nests, which formed the backbone of the defenses.
The work on the trenches came last, so the result was, that on many
points, the communication trenches were unfinished when the war started.
Also, the bulk of the insufficiently trained men (results
of the shoestring budget of the 20s and 30s) , got an adequate training
during the mobilization, increased the team-spirit even further and
gave the men belief in their ability to resist an invasion.
In all, the Finnish Defense Forces had, when the war started, a
combined strength of 337 000 men (including all services) .
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The smaller units
The battalion was in the Finnish Army the most widely used tactical
unit, being light enough to maneuver in covered terrain, and strong
enough to pack adequate punch.
Apart from the battalions in the divisions and brigades, a large
number of independent/separate battalions were raised. From the peace
time Army units (conscripted forces) , 4 Jaeger battalions were raised
(JP 1 - JP 4) .
The largest group of the independent battalions, were the Separate
battalions (abbreviation Er.P #) , of which 25 (Er.P 1 - Er.P 24 and
Er.P 112) were ready when the war broke out (the number increased
during the war) . The separate battalions were usually raised from
local reservists in the border localities along the Finnish-Soviet
border, increasing their effectiveness when fighting in their home
Also 4 bicycle battalions were raised (PPP 5 - PPP 8) .
As a note, no Sissi-battalions had been raised
when the war broke out. The raising of these units began only
after the war had already started. To my best knowledge, 5 Sissi-battalions
were raised during the war.
The 23 separate companies, which were ready when the war started,
break down into the following unit types;
10 were separate companies (Er.K #) raised in the border areas,
9 of which were attached to the Delaying troops in the Isthmus (Er.K
1 - Er.K 9) and one in Petsamo (Er.K 10) .
9 were separate bicycle companies (1.Er.PPK - 7.Er.PPK and
Er.PPK 4) , which were used in coastal defense, 8 of which were stationed
along the Baltic Sea coast, and one to the Lake Ladoga coast defense
(Er.PPK 4, shows in the IV Corps column in the table below) .
4 were separate machine gun companies (Er.KKK 1 - Er.KKK 4)
, which were also used in coastal defense.
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of troops before the war, on 25 November 1939
(Note that some small changes were made before
the war broke out, but still the table gives nearly an exact idea of
the strength allocation of the Defense Forces, when the war broke out)
(Table source: "Talvisodan
historia 1", WSOY 1991, p.165)
The Isthmus Army
| Unit Type
|| II Corps
|| III Corps
| Inf. Div*
| Inf. Reg**
| Inf. Bgd
| Inf. Bn****
| Inf. Co ¤
| Cav Reg
| Art Reg
|| (2) ¤¤
| Art Bn ¤¤¤
|| 2 ¤¤
| Art Btry
| Eng. Co ¤¤¤¤
| Sign U ¤¤¤¤¤
|*=excluding the 1.D (which was formed
from the infantry brigades, listed in the table as "Inf.Bgd")
**= note that these regiments belong to the divisions above it,
so these are NOT additional regiments
***= JR 22/8.D attached to Os.Hanell
****= Separate battalions (Er.P #), Jaeger battalions (JP #) and
Bicycle battalions (PPP #)
***** = 7 Separate battalions (Er.P 18 - 24) and PPP 8 (attached
to Os. Hanell)
¤ = Separate companies (Er.K), Separate mg-companies (Er.KKK) and
Separate bicycle companies (Er.PPK)
¤¤ = II/KTR 6 and I/KTR 9 attached to Os. Hanell (Navy). The
II and III/KTR 9, in 9.D, had no guns (Gen.HQ)
¤¤¤ = heavy artillery battalions and brigade artillery battalions
¤¤¤¤ = all Engineer companies
¤¤¤¤¤ = Signals companies and Wire laying companies
Continue to Part
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