SS Nord with Tent and White Camo in the Snow

The winter war in the far north brought many additional stresses to the fighting troops: cold, wet and months of darkness. However, these soldiers of the SS-Division "Nord" are equipped with good winter clothing and are therefore better protected from the weather. The tent in the background is constructed from several tent panels tied together, of which each soldiers carried one with them.

Source :
https://www.zinnfigur.com/en/Books-Media/Others/Calendars/Zweiter-Weltkrieg-in-Farbe-2023.html

Swedish Captain with World War I Veteran

Swedish Army Captain Viggo Olson (right) posed with a decorated World War I veteran, probably from Germany. One of the nice medal in his uniform is a Turkish one, Gallipoli Star. The picture was taken by Carl-Erik Suneson on 18 May 1941.

Source :
https://digitaltmuseum.se/021018855515/olson-viggo-kapten-a-3-langst-till-hoger

View of Rønvik in Norway

View of Rønvik, which located in Bodø Municipality in Nordland county, Norway, with water and mountains in the background. The picture was taken by Martin Hennig in 1944.

Source :
https://www.tekniskmuseum.no/grossraum-bildegalleri/39-nettutstillinger/grossraum/569-grossraum-korsnes-sorfold-morsvik-leirfjord

Russian POW Collecting Wood in Norway

Russian prisoners fetch wood for heating. In the background POW camp in Rønvik which located in Bodø Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The picture was taken by Martin Hennig in 1944.

Source :
https://www.tekniskmuseum.no/grossraum-bildegalleri/39-nettutstillinger/grossraum/569-grossraum-korsnes-sorfold-morsvik-leirfjord

Pilot Veikko Härmälä of Finnish Air Force

Captain Veikko Härmälä of the 2nd Flight of the 6th Naval Aviation Squadron of the Finnish Air Force in the cockpit of a captured Soviet-made SB-2M-103 reconnaissance bomber in flight over the Gulf of Finland, June 1944. Photographer: Niilo Helander.

 

Source :
https://www.facebook.com/groups/237076659811098/permalink/1657759404409476/?__cft__[0]=AZW-WKN084Jvvwzs7qGLPAjaESj1H93QqhVQBwkTwdUB_y7JjOQfwQwGudkaO_QVotMkBvAlELxtcv0Ropqbu-qERMg8Wzuf6ZJjcUJSg4DXg5ej0huDhelD_79E2Dh78o0iWU9fGgqgQe24RwsZ20S81cNwEEaL6Ow0_uLeAfvmJ0CiRJEKerfu6a8Ksr1N0IU&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R
http://sa-kuva.fi/neo?tem=webneofin

Finnish Bombers at Luonejärvi

Bombers of the 17th training squadron of the Finnish Air Force at the Luonejärvi airfield. Finland, March 28-30, 1944. Photographer: Niilo Helander.

 

Source :
https://www.facebook.com/groups/237076659811098/permalink/1657767927741957/?__cft__[0]=AZWfu-HJ9ckr94TdnGR7xPWM2mhbrmmz_h6DaSpdELcOpJ1wgzMNZ-VGjPgKLZRYrAHA1zfq_nfbcrV3ELaNs--JFJgpwMGF30sQ9uHXezgf7z7eMBOfPNzshlSqQaC-V0kVuJrOpnZiQ-J5PC6FSgLl0aZZl0CQU66e3n6lgG_LTo7ZRf9cRYeLwSiIMuXESYU&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R
http://sa-kuva.fi/

Organisation Todt Dog Sled

OT (Organization Todt) in Norway - dog sledding by an OT skier in warm clothes. From the estate of Franz Guthausen, three dogs pull a sled that carry two "OT" labeled boxes.

Source :
Akira Takiguchi photo collection
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10221071107640830&set=gm.1466913416827410&type=3&theater&ifg=1

World War II Snow Blowing Machines

 

Snow blowing machines used by the Germans in Norway during World War II. From the estate of Franz Guthausen, two pictures of snow blowing machines in action in Norway. The first one (top) was snow blower on a DER ( Diesel-Elektrisch-Raupenantrieb ) built on Renault R40 drive train by Süddeutsche Maschinenbaugesellschaft Erich Schad & Co.  The other is one (bottom) on a "BER" ( Benzin-Elektrisch-Raupenantrieb ). For more information, take a look at a thread in Missing Lynx forum - https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/missinglynx/identification-request-for-a-raupenfahrzeug-t324308-s10.html

Source :
Akira Takiguchi photo collection
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10221137924551211&set=pcb.1472700962915322&type=3&theater&ifg=1

German Generals of the Polar Front

From left to right: unidentified Gebirgsjäger officer, General der Infanterie Karl Weisenberger (Kommandierender General XXXVI. Gebirgskorps), Generalleutnant Hermann Tittel (Kommandeur 169. Infanterie-Division), and Generalmajor Anton Dostler (Kommandeur 163. Infanterie-Division). The picture was taken in 1942, when Generaloberst Eduard Dietl (Oberbefehlshaber 20. Gebirgsarmee) visiting troops in the polar region of war (Finland/Norway).

Source :
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14230&start=8340
http://www.gettyimages.com/license/549723035

Eduard Dietl Visiting Troops

 From left to right: Generaloberst Eduard Dietl (Oberbefehlshaber 20. Gebirgsarmee) and Generalleutnant Hermann Tittel (Kommandeur 169. Infanterie-Division). The picture was taken in 1942, when general Dietl visiting troops in the polar region of war (Finland/Norway).

Hermann Tittel and Eduard Dietl

Source :
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14230&start=8340
http://www.gettyimages.ca/license/549723031

Finnish Victory Ceremony in Vyborg

31 August 1941: Finnish forces held a victory ceremony in Viipuri/Vyborg Main Square before the statue of Torkel Knutsson, after the recapture of the city in Karelian Isthmus from the Soviet occupation. The Russian control of the Karelian Isthmus near lake Ladoga was crumbling after the defeat of the two Soviet divisions. On 29 August 1941, Vyborg was captured by Finnish troops.

Source :
http://www.kaleva.fi/uutiset/galleriat/viipurin-valtausparaati-varikuvissa/8522/
http://sa-kuva.fi/neo?tem=webneo_image_preview_max&lang=ENG&doc_id=7aa7d22766254111160c4bc40d5496df&archive=&zoom=YEShttp://vyborg-press.ru/forum/20/10/

Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 136 in Norway 1942

A group of German Gebirgsjäger (Mountain Troop) from III.Bataillon / Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 136 / 2.Gebirgs-Division pose for a photograph in Norway, summer of 1942. The picture was taken by Hugo Krause, one of the member of the battalion. GJR136 was raised on 1 August 1938 from the Tyrol Jäger-Regiment of the Austrian Army in Innsbruck. The III. Bataillon was raised in Landeck, the II. Bataillon didn't exist. The Regiment was put under the 2. Gebirgs-Division. The II.Bataillon / Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 140 was then put under GJR136 as its II. Bataillon and renamed it to II.Bataillon / Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 136 on 1 April 1940. The training unit was the I. Bataillon of the Gebirgsjäger-Ersatz-Regiment 136, the later then renamed as Reserve-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 136. The 2. Gebirgs-Division itself saw action in Poland in September 1939, followed by Norway from early 1940 until December 1941. Only elements of GJR136 were involved in the Norwegian campaign, noticeably about two company's worth were parachute trained and jumped (one company each), on the airfield of Bardufoss and the town of Tromsø, just after the Norwegian capitulation in June 1940. These still classified as operational jumps and those involved received the parachute badge. From the summer of 1940 until June 1941 the regiment, along with the rest of Gebirgskorps Norwegen, were on garrison duties in Northern Norway. The entire Corps crossed the Finnish\Norwegian border on the 22 june 1941 and a week later crossed into the Soviet union with the aim of reaching Murmansk. That never happened, and by the autumn of 1941 both sides settled down to three years of static warfare about 30-40km short of Murmansk. On the 7 October 1944 the Soviets launched a massive assault against what was now called the XIX. Gebirgskorps made up of the 2. and 6. Gebirgs-Division plus some smaller units. This offensive pushed the Germans into Norway over a period of three weeks until both sides broke contact 100 miles or so inside Norway. The 2. Gebirgs-Division was then withdrawn to the continent where it fought out the remainder of the war. The Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 136 was a part of 2. Gebirgs-Division throughout the war. The Regiment had one Ritterkreuzträger (Knight's Cross holder): Hauptmann Otto Stampfer, who won the award on 23 July 1942, while serving in the III. Bataillon of the GJR136. In addition to Stampfer's Ritterkreuz, the regiment had eight Deutsches Kreuz in Gold holders and one Ehrenblattspange holder.

Source :
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=78922
http://www.pixpast.com/index.php?category=europe-north&flow=1&items=100&str=1
http://thirdreichcolorpictures.blogspot.co.id/2010/11/gebirgsjager-german-mountain-troops-in.html

Air-Observation Lotta Eillen Kiuru at Lahdenpohja Observation Tower

Air-observation Lotta Eillen Kiuru posed for a propaganda picture in front of Finnish and German war correspondents at Lahdenpohja observation tower on 11 July 1942. The women of Finland fulfilled numerous important roles, even near the front line. 'Lotta Svärd' was a Finnish voluntary auxiliary paramilitary organisation for women. Formed originally in 1918, it had a large membership undertaking volunteer social work in the 1920s and 1930s. During the Winter War some 100,000 men whose jobs were taken over by "Lottas" were freed for military service. The Lottas worked in hospitals, at air-raid warning posts and other auxiliary tasks in conjunction with the armed forces. The Lottas, however, were officially unarmed. The only exception was a voluntary anti-aircraft battery in Helsinki in the summer of 1944, composed of Lotta Svärd members. The battery operated the AA search-lights. The unit was issued rifles for self-protection, thus being the only armed female military unit of the Finnish Defence Forces history! The dire need for labor led to fast recruitment and there was often no time to properly train the new Lottas according to the principles of the organization. In addition, most new recruits were young and inexperienced. This caused some friction between the veterans and the new recruits. Lotta Svärd suffered relatively light losses, considering the number of women posted to a war zone and the length of the war. During the wars, 291 Lottas died, most of which (140) from diseases caught on duty. 66 were killed near the front, 47 in air raids and 34 in accidents. The fallen Lottas were buried in war heroes' graves in their home parishes. Finnish author Aila Virtanen argues that, their "accountability to the nation took a masculine and military form in public, but had a private, feminine side to it including features like caring, helping and loving." The organisation was suppressed by the government after the war.

Source :

Book "Finland at War: The Continuation and Lapland Wars 1941-45" by Vesa Nenye, Peter Munter, Toni Wirtanen and Chris Birks

Finnish Light Mortar Team at Hanko

During the Summer War in 1941, the Finns were content to disturb the supply of and contain the Soviet garrison at Hanko. Here, light mortars are shown firing from their protective trenches on the Hanko front. At the start of the war, the Soviet naval base on the leased Hanko Peninsula had been surrounded by Group Hanko. This included the 17th Division and the 4th Coastal Brigade. The Finnish Navy tried to disrupt the Soviets from reinforcing their garrison and applied pressure from the cover of the nearby archipelago. At its height, the Soviet troops at Hanko numbered around 35,000 men, supported by heavy artillery and tanks. The main fear at the time was that this strong force would attack straight into western Finland. In general, the Finns were content to leave the Soviets alone and tried to soften the motti rather than risk losing men in capturing the base. With winter drawing near, the position of the Red Army and Navy at Hanko became more precarious. During the thaw and the season of open seas, the relatively weak Finnish Navy was unable to bring about a decisive victory. However, the ocean would soon freeze, allowing the army to bring in overwhelming numbers. Therefore, on 2 December 1941, the Soviets abandoned the area under the cover of darkness.

Source :

Book "Finland at War: The Continuation and Lapland Wars 1941-45" by Vesa Nenye, Peter Munter, Toni Wirtanen and Chris Birks

Finnish Soldiers Advancing Under Barbed-Wire Obstacles

Finnish soldiers advancing under barbed-wire obstacles on the Hanko front. Fearing an assault over the ice during the oncoming winter, the Soviet garrison fled during the night of 2 December 1941. The evacuation of Hanko itself was performed in several convoys, between October 16 and December 2, 1941, which managed to transport roughly 23,000 troops to Leningrad. The fleet suffered casualties from Finnish minefields and coastal artillery, losing 3 destroyers and 2 large transports (Andrei Zhdanov and Iosif Stalin) as well as several smaller vessels. Finnish troops entering the area found it heavily mined.

Source :

Book "Finland at War: The Continuation and Lapland Wars 1941-45" by Vesa Nenye, Peter Munter, Toni Wirtanen and Chris Birks 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hanko_%281941%29

A Bofors AA Gun on the Finnish Minelayer Ruotsinsalmi

A Bofors anti-aircraft gun on the Finnish minelayer Ruotsinsalmi. Ruotsinsalmi was armed with one 75-millimetre (3.0 in) gun, one Bofors 40 mm guns and two Madsen 20 mm anti-aircraft cannons. The vessel had three mine dropping rails, and could carry about 100 mines. Due to Soviet dominance of the Gulf of Finland and their strong presence at the leased Hanko naval base, the Finnish Navy’s operations were severely limited at the start of Continuation War. When the German advance progressed and the Finns captured strategically important islands on the gulf, the situation was reversed and the Red Fleet became bottled up near Leningrad.

Source :
Book "Finland at War: The Continuation and Lapland Wars 1941-45" by Vesa Nenye, Peter Munter, Toni Wirtanen and Chris Birks
http://maximietteita.blogspot.co.id/2015/07/minelayers-ruotsinsalmi-riilahti.html

Finnish Infantry Advancing Through a Smoke Screen

Finnish Infantry advancing to a new position through a smoke screen - possibly in a training. The grand majority of Finnish infantry served in infantry regiments, which belonged to some certain division. Finnish Winter War era division and infantry regiment were much lighter and more weakly equipped armament-wise than their Soviet equivalents, hence the major improvement made by starting of Continuation War was giving them additional units, which gave them reasonable antitank- and antiaircraft-capacity, that they had been earlier lacking. Since the Soviets at the same time downsized their own divisions, in 1941 Finnish division actually ended up being larger than their Soviet equivalent. Around 1942 - 1943 Finnish Army downsized its divisions, but this was to release more manpower to home front, which was struggling to keep the military provided with weapons, food, ammunition and other equipment. While necessary, from purely military point of view this downsizing proved very poor idea, since it basically ruined the system in which way infantry regiments of division were used. After this downsizing divisions had only two infantry regiments, which made impossible the previous system of division typically using two of its regiments in frontline while keeping the third regiment as reserve. For all practical purposes this meant leaving divisions without their own reserves of useful size. At the same time Soviet infantry divisions developed to what could be described being close to brigade concept and relied more to firepower than manpower. During World War II Finnish Army also noted, that division was so large, that it was often difficult to command effectively. One solution for this problem was creating new (infantry) brigades around 1943 - 1944. These were units about size of infantry regiment, but with support units usually provided to Division. But the transition was not completed to many of the designed brigades and this new formation type didn't replace divisions in Finnish Army until after the war ended. Compared to their Soviet equivalent, Finnish divisions and infantry regiments were motorised in much lesser extent, even if the number of trucks in their use was considerably increased after Winter War (1939 - 1940).

Source :

Book "Finland at War: The Continuation and Lapland Wars 1941-45" by Vesa Nenye, Peter Munter, Toni Wirtanen and Chris Birks 

http://www.jaegerplatoon.net/FORMATIONS3.htm

General Vladimir Kirpichnikov as a POW of the Finns

Major-General Vladimir Kirpichnikov with a packet of Chesterfield cigarettes at the Kyöliö officers’ prison in November 1943. He was the only prisoner of general rank that the Finns captured during the wars! Kirpichnikov was captured by the Finns near the city of Viborg on 1 September 1941. He was first interrogated in the village of Karisalmi and later moved to Finnish Army headquarters in Mikkeli. The Finns wanted to use Kirpichnikov for propagandist purposes since they knew he had some opinions that were critical of the Soviet regime. However, Kirpichnikov did not agree to work for the Finns. In December 1941 he was moved to Sotavankileiri 1 (Prison camp 1), which was located in the municipality of Köyliö in Western Finland. It was a camp for more than 3,000 Soviet prisoners, including 1,000 officers. According to other prisoners, Kirpichnikov was offered the commander's post of the Russian Liberation Army but he refused. The pictures taken of Kirpichnikov were used as a propaganda tool. Most famous are a picture of Kirpichnikov lighting the cigarette of his interrogator, General Lennart Oesch, and this color photo of Kirpichnikov with a newspaper and a pack of Chesterfield cigarettes. He was also seen in a Finnish propaganda film. After the war was over, Kirpichnikov was sent back to the Soviet Union where he was immediately arrested by the SMERSH. Kirpichnikov was held in a prison camp in Podolsk, then later at Lefortovo Prison in Moscow. He was charged with treason and sentenced to death by the USSR Military Collegium on 8 October 1950. Two days later, Kirpichnikov was shot. Some sources report the date of his execution as 28 August 1950, prior to the recorded death sentence.

Source :

 Book "Finland at War: The Continuation and Lapland Wars 1941-45" by Vesa Nenye, Peter Munter, Toni Wirtanen and Chris Birks 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Kirpichnikov_%28general%29

Finnish NCO Inspects the Russian Vehicles Captured at the Porlampi Motti

A Finnish junior sergeant inspects the Russian vehicles captured at the Porlampi motti on 5 September 1941. Here some 9,000 Soviet soldiers were captured by Finns, along with their leader Major General Vladimir Kirpitsnikov, while 7,000 of their comrades died in the encirclement and some 12,000 managed to escape, having to leave behind all heavy equipment.

Source :

Book "Finland at War: The Continuation and Lapland Wars 1941-45" by Vesa Nenye, Peter Munter, Toni Wirtanen and Chris Birks 

http://www.ww2incolor.com/finnish_forces/BillionMotti_Porlammi-Sommee_encirclement_1941.html

A Finnish NCO Inspecting Ammo

A Finnish junior sergeant (Alikersantti) inspecting ammunition. The shells seem to be for 152 H/37 heavy howitzer (Soviet 152 mm Gaubitsa-Pushka obr. 1937 g. aka ML-20). The artillery shell under this NCO's hand is captured Soviet OF-540, better known by Finnish Army as "152 p tkr 36/40-RG" (152-mm long TNT-filled high explosive shell with 36/40 fuse slot type -RG). At least one of the shells in the pile seems to have Finnish markings painted into it, so the shells are not recently captured. During the Interim Peace the artillery had been significantly improved. When the war restarted in 1941, it now numbered 1,829 pieces with nearly 1,500 shells in place for each gun. Additionally, antitank weapons were finally plentiful. This was a completely different situation to that of the Winter War (1939-40), where most weapons were obsolete and lacked enough ammunition to complete even a week’s fire missions!

Source :

Book "Finland at War: The Continuation and Lapland Wars 1941-45 by Vesa Nenye

http://www.ww2incolor.com/finnish_forces/254.html