The highest priority task for Home Front Troops was supporting combat troops by supplying men and equipment. Hence much of the main missions done by Home Front Troops revolved around supplying Field Army. These included training new troops with majority of trainining centers being run by Home Front Troops and helping to create conditions in which industry could provide materials needed for the war effort.

Home Front Troops were also responsible for running prisoner of war camps in 1939 - 1940 and 1941 - 1943. Finnish Army took some 5,700 prisoners of war during Winter War (1939 - 1940) and about 64,200 during Continuation War (1941 - 1944). While the mortality among Soviet prisoners of war in Finnish prisoner of war camps was low during Winter War, later during Continuation War their mortality climbed notably higher with in total 19,085 prisoners of war dying in Finnish prisoner of war camps. Mortality rate among prisoners of war was exceptionally high particularly in winter of 1941 - 1942 mainly due to the food rations of prisoners of war at the time being too small. That winter whole of Finland was suffering from food shortage with sizes of food rations reserved for civilian population dropping at alarming level - being reduced to level which caused also other people locked up (in prisons, mental hospitals etc.) and hence unable to acquire additional food by growing it or obtaining it from relatives or black market to start dying to malnutrition. The food supply situation was ultimately resolved with Germany supplying Finland with food supplies, most important part of which were 228 tons of grain, but because particular winter was exceptionally cold and Baltic Sea froze in its entirety, shipping the food supplies to Finland proved slow and difficult. Year 1942 prisoner of war camps were transferred from HQ of Home Front troops directly under command of General Headquarters of Armed Forces and in September of 1943 under HQ of POW Commander (Sotavankikomentajan esikunta) specifically created for the purpose of running prisoner of war camps. Another source of help was International Red Cross, which during rest of the war provided in total 20 tons of food and medical supplies for the POW camps. Once the food situation improved and food rations were enlarged for the rest of the war the mortality among Soviet prisoners of war dropped to about the same level as it was among Finnish civilian population.

PICTURE: Nakkila Air Raid Defense Company (Nakkilan ilmasuojelukomppania) line up and in front of them Stefan Bobroff, who was found with stolen chicken and tin of milk. Bobroff was a Soviet prisoner of war, who had escaped and whom the company had been sent to search. Notice how most of the company is wearing civilian clothes, but does have armbands around their left arm. Photographer by Kurt K. Karlsson. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (173 KB).

During the Interim Peace in between Winter War and Continuation War new unit type for Home Front Troops was introduced - air raid protection company (ilmasuojelukomppania). While the actual name of this unit type could also be translated as civil defense company, its actual duties were far wider in nature than only traditional civil defense. Basically its duties covered wide variety of preparations performed beforehand for reducing damage of raids and tasks, which were performed during and after air raid to limit the damage that it has caused plus number of other Home Front duties for which manpower was needed. Municipal fire departments were joined into air defense raid units. In addition to duties involving air raids and firefighting their tasks including duties such sentry duty, hunting down escaped prisoners of war, desantti and crews of downed enemy aircraft and even helping in evacuations of civilian population and assisting in gathering harvests. During Continuation War the Soviets started using desantti much more frequently, due to which hunting them down often employed Home Front Troops. As to be expected personnel available for air raid protection companies were mainly young boys and old men, who were outside the age frame of men from which Armed Forces recruited its soldiers. Although this time apparently there was intentional attempt of trying to limit more dangerous duties of home front such as sentry duty and hunting down enemy personnel for only those who were at least 17 years of age. Quality of manpower varied widely in air raid protection companies, with some units being fortunate to have number of veterans of Winter War, while younger men often lacked experience & training and older men could suffer from physical problems. While air raid defense companies had guardsmen of Civil Guard in them, they appear to have been a minority among their ranks, experience and training level of which varied considerably. During early Continuation War 17 - 19 year old guardsmen of Civil Guard represented the best manpower material available for these units, but during the war their availability got gradually worse and worse. Men born in year 1923 were called to military service starting January of 1942, at which time grand majority of them was 18 years of age. By end of Continuation War even 17 year old men were called into service, with those being born at 1926 being the last age group of Finnish men to enter into service during the war and to see combat in substantial numbers.

PICTURE: Young soldier guards unexploded bomb following first air raid during Continuation War to city of Joensuu. The sentry placed to guard the unexploded bomb is a boy, who is wearing military uniform m/36 and is equipped with a rifle. He probably served in one of the air raid protection companies of the region. Text in the sign translates as "STOP! UNEXPLODED BOMB". Photographed by N.J. Vuorela. Photo crop. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photograph number 21613). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (221 KB).

Firearms needed for tasks such as sentry duty and hunting down desantti were rifles, which were received from Civil Guard. These companies were usually very poorly equipped and instead of uniforms their men were routinely supplied only with armband and maybe a cockade, with guardsmen of Civil Guard among them being the exception as they usually had their uniforms. Men serving in air raid defense companies were under orders to use uniform if they had one, but apparently were not at least early in the war widely issued uniforms of any sort. Due to lack of uniforms yellow VSS (väestönsuojelu - Civil Defense) marked armbands were often used for identification and some photos suggest that field cap m/36 may have been common more in use of these units than complete uniforms. Especially early on air raid protection companies also tended to be poorly trained, with situation gradually improving with Civil Guard arranged training courses. Training courses arranged for them included both basic training course and more specialized training courses providing deeper knowledge of particular duties. As noted level of training and specialization in air raid defense companies appears to varied considerably with companies containing platoon and squad size subunits, which could have training more specialized duties. These duties included sentry duty, firefighting, anti-chemical weapons duties, repairs and bomb disposal. They could also be serve as units referred as strike companies (iskukomppania), which could be sent to operate outside their own municipality or geographical area / when needed. Organization-wise raid protection companies along air surveillance and anti-aircraft units were part of Air Defense.

PICTURE: VSS armband. VSS is abbreviation of (väestönsuojelu - Civil Defense). Another related armband of similar color commonly used in home front was Is. armband (Is. was abbreviation of Ilmasuojelu - Air Raid Protection). This armband looks unusually orange in shade, which may have been caused by lighting, but exact shade of color of the armbands apparently also varied quite a bit. Photographer unknown. Photo source Lotta Museum (Lottamuseo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (49 KB).

PICTURE: Home front troops in manhunt for desantti . The term desantti was based on Russsian desantnik (parachutist) and referred to most of the spies and saboteurs being parachuted to their area of operation. Their total number have been estimated as having been about one thousand from which 785 were caught. Typically persons selected by the Soviets to be used as desantti spoke Finnish, with ethnic Finns and Ingrians being most common. Desantti were practically always armed and when being hunted down firefights were common. Treatment of desantti caught alive varied depending what they were wearing - those caught in Soviet military uniform were commonly treated as prisoners of war, while those caught in civilian clothing or in Finnish or German military uniform usually received death sentence. Underage and female desantti typically received prison sentence instead of death sentence. Photographed by A. Neittamo in year 1941. Photo source Museum Services of Kerava (Keravan museopalvelut), acquired via Finna.fi and used with CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (170 KB).

Military training centers were probably the most active part of the Home Front Troops during Continuation War. Year 1941 basically all remaining reserves were called and received training in them. During the war those of an age born 1921 - 1926 were called to service and trained. Year 1943 those men born 1909 - 1921, who had been earlier had been exempt from peacetime military duty for minor reasons, were called to serve as well. In the summer of 1944 those of an age born 1902 - 1908 who returned home circa 1942 were called back, received refresher training and were used as replacements to fill the ranks of the Field Army to replace the losses it had suffered. The HQ of Home Front troops (previous peacetime General Headquarters of Civil Guard) lead forming the bulk (Field Army training centers also formed some units) of new military units for the Field Army. Most of the soldiers who had been wounded or become seriously ill were also returned from their treatment to their units through Home Front troops. The total number of replacement soldiers sent by Home Front troops to the Field Army during the Continuation War reached the total of almost 390,000 men, from which almost 126,000 had been previously wounded. In addition, some 25,750 soldiers were used to form new military units.

Building up new military units did not end to mobilization of summer 1941. Following it, but by 19^th of September 1944 Home Front Troops build up in total 222 new military units. These included building up three new light field artillery battalions in February of 1944 and creating of Detachment H (Osasto H) in summer of 1944. Detachment H was notable for Civil Guard in that sense that it was created from troops of Civil Guard Districts of Helsinki, Nyland Södra and Pohjois-Uusimaa and placed directly under command of Commander of Helsinki Military District. Officially it was established as precaution for the case of the Soviets either attempting dropping paratroopers or landing troops by sea directly to Finnish capital Helsinki, but real classified reason was preparing for possibility of the Germans trying to capture Helsinki and try setting up puppet government. Fortunately Detachment H was never needed - apparently neither its personnel or equipment reserved for it were exactly best possible quality. Originally the idea had been get much of the necessary manpower for Detachment H from soldiers of Field Army, who were in the city on leave, since it was typical to have few thousand of them around at any given time. But once Soviet offensive summer offensive of 1944 started in Carelian Isthmus and East Carelia, all leaves were cancelled and after that what was left for the detachment were overage men and underage boys - and with 17 - 18 years olds being called to military service and older reservists called back to military even those came in short supply. As bad as the manpower situation was, the detachment had even worse shortages of heavy weapons and vehicles - making it lack real firepower and mobility. One can only consider it fortunate, that battle-worthiness of Detachment H was never put into ultimate test of combat.

Finnish Military training centers during the Continuation War:

Training centers by type and how many was there:

(Source: Suojeluskuntain historia, part 3).

PICTURE: Troops from Järvenpää Infantry Training Center on a road march in April of 1942. Photographer unknown. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photograph number 82445). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (139 KB).

Just as during the Winter War training inside Civil Guard was almost non-existent during the Continuation War and for much the same reasons: Guardsmen of Civil guard who could have been trained and had been ordered to duties at the home front were busy and there was not much free training personnel for the purpose around either. As during Interim Peace training program of Civil Guard private was kept running if possible, but since wartime conditions rarely left days free for training, during Continuation War the training course was also made available as evening course with duration of 50 hours.

Civil Guard created its boy units already in 1920's. Year 1938 Boy Units of Civil Guards had some 28,000 boys. When Winter War started in November of 1939 there was need for activating larger number of boys for volunteer work that benefited national defence. The solution was establishing new temporary organization named Boys of Finland (Suomen pojat, which regardless of its name was for all practical purposes run by Civil Guard organization. Boys of Finland was intended as joined organization with Boy Scouts (Partiolaiset), but failed to gain necessary traction or reach real popularity. Hence boy units of Civil Guard continued their work in home front gathering materials such as metals and glass bottles to be recycled as materials for industry. Boys of the Civil Guard boy units also served in the home front as messengers, air surveillance, civil defence and sentry duty.

PICTURE: Group of Sotilaspojat (Soldier Boys) have lined up with cargo bikes and ready start collecting items such as wool mittens, wool socks and various rags. Due to Finnish industry suffering from shortage of materials for fabrics, recycled rags mixed with other materials were used for production of fabrics. Location where photo was taken was next to hall of Helsinki Civil Guard District. Photographer unknown, photographed sometime during Continuation War. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (183 KB).

Year 1941 there were in total some 45,000 boys in Boy Units of Civil Guard and Boys of Finland, with about 90% of those in Boy Units of Civil Guard and only 10% in Boys of Finland. September of 1941 the title reserved for members of these units was changed from Suojeluskuntapojat (Civil Guard Boys) to Sotilaspojat (Soldier Boys). These units gained new importance during Continuation War as they were basically the only part of Civil Guard still present at the home front in real numbers and available for training. In fact, during World War 2 Sotilaspojat become the largest youth organization in Finland. Soldier Boy Units became very popular among boys who had not yet quite reached the required age for military service and the number of members in Boy Units increased considerably during the war: Year 1941 they had about 50,000 boys and year 1942 the number climbed to 70,000. Their role during Continuation War quite similar to what had been for Boy Units of Civil Guard and Boys of Finland organization. They received training, but also continued to collect materials, which could be recycled as raw-materials for industry and served as voluntary work-force when needed. But in addition during Continuation War they could volunteer in Home Front for wide variety of duties with younger boys being commonly used as messengers, while older boys could volunteer for air surveillance and numerous units of Home Front Troops such as air raid protection companies, parts of which handled more dangerous tasks such as sentry duty and when needed were sent to hunt down enemy air crews of downed aircraft, escaped prisoners of war and even desantti. During the Continuation War the Finnish military allowed 17-years old male volunteers, who had received military training to volunteer for frontline service. Those volunteers, who had received training in Civil Guard or Soldier Boy Units got through training given at training centers in more rapid manner and were able to enter frontline service sooner.

PICTURE: Civil Guard Boy Unit in Helsinki. According original captions boys seen the photo had volunteered to serve as couriers in Helsinki. Notice how large majority of them are wearing British battledress pattern 1937. Photographed by Neittamo (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photograph number 35720). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (161 KB).

February of 1941 change was made into law about Civil Guards to allow volunteer boys 15 years of age or older with parental approval to be used for Home Front military duties, which were fitting to their capabilities and physical strength. But what were these duties that they now also legally fit? Finnish Armed Forces did not want to sent children into combat, but number of underage boys had succeeded getting into frontline troops in beginning of Continuation War and the problem became apparent. Finnish Armed Forces GHQ responded the situation by issuing orders in August of 1941 for all boys younger than 17 to be demobilized from Field Army and in September of 1941 further raised the minimum age in frontline troops to age 19, although this decision proved to be short-lived one. Not only did Finnish Army start calling 18 year olds to military service already in next January, but age limits did not always apply that well to units of Home Front Troops. Some volunteer units created from Soldier Boys were sent to gather materials from earlier battlefields, were they faced dangers of unexploded ordnance. As noted boys who volunteered to Home Front units or dangerous duty needed to provide documentation about approval or their parents concerning the matter, but the parents were not necessarily always aware about nature of the service in the volunteer unit. Finnish Air Defence was strengthened, but had problem finding enough manpower. Starting year 1942 volunteers from Sotilaspojat (Soldier Boys) were called to serve as assistant personnel in anti-aircraft artillery units stationed in Home Front - originally age-limit for the volunteers was age 16, but was raised to age 17 starting year 1943. The anti-aircraft unit in which volunteers from Soldier Boys played largest role was Ilmatorjuntarykmentti 1 (Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment 1), which defended Helsinki and which during Soviet bombing campaign against Helsinki at February of 1944 and at the time had about 4,500 people, from with some 400 were volunteers from Soldier Boys. Volunteer boys serving in anti-aircraft artillery units assisted storage personnel, mechanics, gun smiths, served as messengers, transported equipment with horses and used telephones, but sometimes also carried ammunition to the guns.

As a standard volunteers belonging to Soldier Boys were not normally armed, but depending unit in which served and they duties they could be armed temporarily when needed. Guns handed to them when needed were service rifles used by the military and this happened on temporary basis depending task at hand. In addition at least in theory only to older boys who were at least 17 years old, although later on the age limit for arming the boys was lowered to 15 years of age. Like Boy Units of Civil Guards in pre-war era Soldier Boy units also did have small bore rifles provided for them for training purposes.

PICTURE: Soldier Boys (Sotilaspojat) seen practicing taking proper sight picture with supported .22 caliber GECO small bore rifles originating from Civil Guard inventory sometime during Continuation War. Notice British battledress pattern 1937 worn by most boys in the photograph. Photo source NUOPERI, acquired via finna.fi, public domain.. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (190 KB).

Activities of Civil Guard Navy had been halted for the duration of the Winter War. Much of the personnel of Naval Civil Guards had been mobilized to Finnish Navy already before Winter War and boats owned by them were transferred to use of Finnish military units. Year 1941 further maintaining of Civil Guard Navy was noted unnecessary and hence its officers and equipment were transferred to the Finnish Navy.

Wartime Finnish Armed Forces were demobilized after the Continuation War and that included Home Front Troops as well. Only conscripts (privates & corporals born at year 1925 and reserve non-commissioned officers & reserve officers born in 1924), those who had not yet served 350 days and permanent staff remained in the Army and continued to take part into Lapland War against the Germans. As demanded by the Soviets in Armistice Treaty of 1944 practically all other Finnish troops (almost 430,000 men) were demobilized in between 30^th of September and 4^th of December 1944. The Home Front Troops were demobilized between the 20^th of November - 30^th of November 1944.

PICTURE: Civil Guard patrol about to head out somewhere on Ahvenanmaa / Åland Islands sometime during Continuation War. While particular islands were demilitarized during peace time, they were not during war. Civil Guards had no presence on the islands either before World War 2. Locals organized their own Civil Guard like organization named Ålands Hemvärnet (Home Guard of Åland) during Winter War. Civil Guard of Ahvenanmaa / Åland was formed in August of 1941. Rifles are Swedish infantry rifles M/96. Photographed by I Vasenius (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photograph number 64326). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (139 KB).

Weaponry and equipment of Civil Guard organization during World War 2

In mobilization for Winter War, Civil Guard organization transferred the majority of its useful weaponry to the Finnish Army, which used them to arm part of its mobilized units. Chart showing changes in Civil Guard inventory from 30^th September 1939 and 15^th of March 1940:

(Source: Suojeluskuntain historia, part 3, page 363).

The weapons transferred in mobilization included not only weaponry received from the Finnish State and owned by Civil Guard organization, but also those purchased with private financing. Guardsmen who belonged to the Army Reserve and owned personal rifles took their rifles with them in mobilization. Basically all serviceable military small arms and not extremely non-standard heavy weapons were transferred to the Army. Even 1,200 M/28-30 rifles ordered by General Headquarters of Civil Guard from SAKO and manufactured during Winter War were transferred to the Army, which used the rifles for equipping new Divisions created during the war. Only some rifles, small number of Bergmann submachine guns, and mixed heavier weaponry reserved for securing defense in home front remained in use of Civil Guard organization. This proved problematic to Civil Guards when large number of volunteers wanted to join them during the Winter War and the organization had virtually no guns left for equipping them. In effort to remedy the situation Civil Guard gathered all possible rifles and ammunition, no matter how non-standard they were, the resulting added weaponry included:

(Source: Suojeluskuntain historia, part 3).

Needless to mention the number of guns gathered in this way was insufficient for the task. But weaponry purchased from foreign countries by Finnish military during Winter War provided much bigger help. From those guns Civil Guard organization received 17,415 of the Swedish Mauser infantry rifles M/96, while another 5,865 rifles were provided to training centers. Another newly acquired gun issued for use of Civil Guards in large numbers was the ill-reputed Chauchat M/1915 light machinegun donated by France. Civil Guard Districts received 473 Chauchat light machine guns, while 845 were provided to training centers. Swedish infantry rifle M/96 was long infantry rifle originating from pre World War 1 era - while it was long and heavy it proved to be very good weapon. French Chauchat M/15 light machine gun had been developed during World War 1 and had gained poor reputation already before being donated to Finland and its reputation did not improve in Finnish use either. Not only was it known for reliability, but it also had poor ergonomics, which Ordnance Department of Civil Guard partially tried to fix by moving the gun's sights to the left.

When the Continuation War started, a large part of Civil Guard organizations weaponry was again transferred to the Field Army and military training centers. Civil Guard organization received some Swedish infantry rifles M/96 and Italian rifles M/38 as their replacements. Italian rifle M/38 was disliked by Finnish soldiers due to fixed rear sight, which did not allow properly zeroing in the rifle or adjusting its rear sight for various ranges. The problem was noted early on. But Ordnance Department in General Headquarters of Finnish Armed Forces did not start developing adjustable rear sight for the rifle until 1943 and when ending of Continuation War in September of 1944 halted all weapons production, new adjustable rear sights were still in production and never issued in wide scale. During the Continuation War, the Headquarters of Home Front troops (former: GHQ of Civil Guard) also now acquired some pistols for troops, which were under its command – 100 pistols Astra M/300 were acquired at year 1941 and 500 pistols Beretta M/34 got delivered in April of 1943. However the most important purchase of weapons for Civil Guard organization during the Continuation War was purchases of domestic new military rifles M/39, with in total 20,500 rifles being ordered from SAKO and about 10,500 of those being received by end of Continuation War.

PICTURE: New recruits of Finnish Army seen cleaning rifles. Photographed in Utti Training Center in October of 1941. Rifles are Italian rifles M/38. Photographed by Military official L. Johnsson. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photograph number 64326). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (184 KB).

Armistice and abolishing of Civil Guard

On the 19^th of September 1944, Finland and Soviet Union signed Armistice Treaty, which ended the Continuation War. According to the 21^st article of the treaty Finland committed itself to: "abolishing all Hitlerian-minded (fascist-natured) political, military-like and military-natured, and other organizations which practiced propaganda that was against the United Nations and in particular hostile towards the Soviet Union".

When the armistice treaty was signed, early on the Finnish Parliament and Finnish military did not consider that Civil Guard organization would be counted as such an organization due to it being part of Finnish military as Home Front troops. During the last days of September 1944 the Finns started to suspect that Soviet leadership was about to demand abolishment of Civil Guard and started their own preparations. The Finnish plan was to establish a new Aluejärjestö (Area-organization), which would have been under command of the Commander of Armed Forces. The Area organization would have been part of the Armed Forces with tasks quite similar as what Home Front Troops had handled during the war. Its members would have had uniforms, but weaponry would have been in stored in warehouses of the organization. The new Area organization would have basically replaced the old Civil Guard organization, which would have been abolished. Part of the plan was to hide the State-wide reservist organization for defending the country voluntarily inside the new Area organization. In this way the new Area organization would have continued the work of Civil Guard organization.

But the Soviets acted too fast, on the 30^th of October Andrey Zhdanov, who was the Soviet leader of the Allied Control Commission (which officially controlled Finland following the Armistice Treaty) in Helsinki wrote a letter to Finnish Defense Minister Walden with strict list of demands. The Zhdanov's letter made clear that the Soviets considered Civil Guard organization as one of the "Hitlerian-minded" organizations mentioned in the 21^st article of the armistice treaty and demanded abolishing the Civil Guard organization by the 7^th of November 1944. Another reason given in this particular Zhdanov's demand was based on maximum size limitation of the Finnish Armed Forces set in the truce agreement. The armistice treaty set the maximum allowed size of Finnish Armed Forces at 37,000 men and Soviets claimed to fear that the Finns would be able leave large number of additional armed troops in Civil Guards. The Soviet reasons for the demand contained quite a contradiction - on the other hand they claimed that Civil Guard organization was a separate "Hitlerian" (fascist) organization, but at the same time they wanted to include its guardsmen as soldiers that were part of the Finnish Armed Forces. Part of the demand also made clear that Finland was forbidden to establish similar organization in the future.

The Finnish politicians did not have any options. If they wanted armistice treaty to hold, their only choice was to abolish Civil Guard organization and do it fast. Hence legislative process was set in motion at record-breaking speed. The Finnish government gave its proposal concerning abolishing of Civil Guard organization to the Finnish Parliament the same day.Key part of the legal abolishing process was rescending Civil Guard law enacted in year 1927. It took only nine minutes for the Finnish Parliament to forward the matter to the its Board of Defense. The next day Parliament spent only five minutes to forward the matter to the next Parliamentary Board, whose decision was also needed. The matter came back to Parliament less than an hour later and the final vote about the matter was taken at the Parliament on the 1^st of November. During the process the matter had been addressed only twice in Parliament. The first speech (given by member of parliament, who had taken part in establishing of Civil Guard organization) thanked its guardsmen from their hard work and sacrifices, while the other speech (given by former Red Guard member of the 1918 Civil War) welcomed abolishing of Civil Guard organization.

Marshal Mannerheim had been commander of White Army in Finnish Civil, commander of Finnish Armed Forces in World War 2 and was the honorary commander of Civil Guards. As President of Finland he ratified the change of legislation by signing it on the 3^rd of November 1944. The change of legislation concerning abolishing of Civil Guard organization was published in Official Journal (Virallinen lehti) of Finland in 4^th of November making particular piece of legislation valid right away. The same day, Civil Guard districts become military districts. Two days later at 6^th of November Finnish Armed Forces ordered Civil Guard organization to be disbanded - just day before the Soviet deadline. That same day former Civil Guard districts of the areas lost (Viipuri, Käkisalmi and Sortavala Districts) and the previously demilitarized Ahvenanmaa / Åland Civil Guard District were abolished. A special clearing organ handled the unfinished businesses of Civil Guard Organization. The property of Civil Guard organization and organizations supporting it was given in part or donated to the state and municipalities. The other part was donated to charity (for giving financial aid mainly to war invalids, war orphans and supporting family members of those who had died in combat) and other non-profit organizations. The largest individual recipient of Civil Guard property was Finnish Red Cross. Lotta Svärd organization, which had originally started as female auxiliary volunteer organization for Civil Guard was also abolished due to further Soviet demands at 23^rd of November 1944 besides turning into during World War 2 non-combatant female auxiliary organization for Finnish military. Soviet demands kept coming and even the separate societies, which had provided support for Civil Guard were systematically abolished at 24^th of November 1944 and 18^th of January 1945.

PICTURE: Prime Minister Linkomies and President Mannerheim in front of House of Parliament 4^th of August 1944 after Finnish Parliament had just elected Marshal Mannerheim as President of the Republic. Notice district shield belonging to General Headquarters of Civil Guard organization in Marshal Mannerheim's left sleeve. Guard of honor on the background. Just three days before President Ryti had resigned to provide option for peace talks with Soviet Union. Also Prime Minister Linkomies was to resign to create room for new government selected for peace negotiations. That new government proved to be most short-lived in Finnish history since the Soviets left Finnish peace delegation waiting in Moscow until Prime Minister Hackzell under immerse psychological pressure suffered a stroke and was replaced by Castrén. Edvin Linkomies was a Professor of Latin literature, who represented Kokoomuspuolue (National Coalition Party) in Parliament and became Prime Minister in March of 1943. The Soviets demanded Finnish wartime political leaders to condemned with prison sentences and in resulting War-responsibility trials received 5.5 year prison sentence for "delaying achieving peace". He was pardoned after serving 2 years 9 months of his sentence and returned to Helsinki University - ultimately becoming its Chancellor. Photographed by Hedenström (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photograph number 156452). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (145 KB).

Marshal Mannerheim had introduced during Civil War a routine of when needed making daily orders (päiväkäsky), which were delivered to the troops in written format and had re-introduced the practice during Winter War. During World War 2 General Headquarters of Finnish Armed Forces produced in total 136 of these daily orders originating from Mannerheim. The very last of those 136 daily orders was published in 16^th November 1944 and was used by Mannerheim for addressing former guardsmen of Civil Guard.

Here a translation of daily number 136 by Marshal Mannerheim:

"DAILY ORDER FROM COMMANDER OF CHIEF OF ARMED FORCES

The final daily order from your aged Honorary Commander to his most willing to serve and sacrifice-ready brothers in arms from days of wars and place, shall be ended to the motto, which has guided you: Everything for the Fatherland!

PICTURE: Marshal Mannerheim's daily order 136. Written down by General Headquarters of Armed Forces (Päämaja) and printed by Printing House of Finnish Literature Society Ltd (Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran Kirjapaino Oy). Photo source Mikkeli City Museums (Mikkelin kaupungin museot), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (124 KB).

It is worth noting that while the Soviets tried to portray their reasons for demanding abolishing Civil Guard as political and shrouded the decision with their ideology, but what is known now suggests that the actual main reason may have been military one. If Civil Guard organization had not been disbanded, it would have been possible for Finland to move its immobilized military units under Civil Guard. And as it was Civil Guard was a powerful and well-organized militia force, which would have been serious hindrance for any Communist coup attempt or Soviet invasion. As a bonus abolishing of Civil Guard temporarily crippled Finnish mobilization system by removing essential part from its machinery.

Once Finnish Army started its offensive against the Germans in Lapland and turned Lapland War into real shooting war with attack to city of Tornio the first Finnish unit to enter combat was ad hoc military unit created in Tornio from various home front units and military personnel which existed in the city and was commanded by District Chief of Länsi-Pohja Civil Guard District Thure Larjo. The unit contained 18 officers, 70 NCOs and 233 men, so 321 men total - admitted that contains military police platoon of 55 men, which refused to take orders and saw no action. From those some 140 men were from 961^st Air Raid Protection Company (961. Ilmasuojelukomppania) transferred from Kemi, while the rest included soldiers on a leave and even convalescent soldiers gathered at the last minute. For the purpose of secreting task of the unit that he had gathered and possibly for identification purposes Larho equipped its men with white armbands, which had text Evakuointiesikunta (Evacuation Headquarters). This small force was lightly armed with only two machine guns and small arms. The unit succeeded captured bridges, which had strategic importance and provided distraction, which allowed Finnish Army to land Infantry Regiment 11 unnoticed from cargo ships to nearby Röyttä harbor and the regiment to advance to the city. But at the same time the unit proved too weak to capture railway station and numerous other key buildings. This Larho's motley crew of a unit created in Tornio was apparently the last time that Home Front Troops intentionally were sent to combat. Even if Civil Guard Organization had been abolished, large number of its previous guardsmen continued serving in Finnish Army and fighting a war against the Germans in Lapland.

PICTURE: Civil Guard's silver cross of merit (Suojeluskuntain hopeinen ansioristi). Cross of merit (ansioristi) was the highest decoration that Civil Guard had for awarding people. It was introduced in yar 1922 and existed in three versions - iron cross, silver cross and gold cross from which the version made from iron was most common. Some 1,300 of these crosses had been awarded before Winter War and another 2,000 in total were awarded during World War 2. The last time these merit crosses were awarded was in 5^th of November 1944, at which time it was already known that the organization was to be abolished and at that day 900 crosses were awarded - more than had ever before awarded in a single day. Photo source Turku City Museum (Turun kaupunginmuseo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (86 KB).

After World War 2 public view towards Civil Guards and its former guardsmen started to change and the left-wing radicalism of the 1960’s further spread old Soviet propaganda in Finland. Some parts of that communist and Soviet propaganda were so widely spread that they hampered objective research of Civil Guards in Finland. Since the 1980's more objective research about the subject has become possible.

Author's notes:

This article was originally written from a request. I took the mission of writing after noticing that at the moment there did not seem to be any extensive articles about Finnish Civil Guard online and there were (still are not) really no books about the subject in English either. Books used as sources for this article are listed below, unfortunately for non-Finnish readers all are only in Finnish. Both the Finnish Civil War and Civil Guards can still be very much subjects of debate in Finland, so I do not expect all my countrymen to agree with this article, but tried to handle the most debatable subjects in such way that a reader can form his own opinions. Reading with thought and willingness to question motives is recommended with books dealing about Finnish Civil War or Civil Guards.

SOURCES:

Suojeluskuntain historia (History of Civil Guard) book series of three volumes written by those who had served in Civil Guard. First two volumes were authored by Major-General Niilo Hersalo and third volume by Colonel Hannes Raikkala.

Kari Selén: Sarkatakkien maa, Suojeluskuntajärjestö ja yhteiskunta 1918 -1944 (Land of Coarse Cloth Jackets, Civil Guard Organization and Society 1918 - 1944).

Kari Selén: Sarkatakkien armeija, Suojeluskunnat ja suojeluskuntalaiset 1918 -1944 (Army of Coarse Cloth Jackets, Civil Guards and Their Guardsmen 1918 - 1944).

Ali Pylkkänen: Suojeluskuntalaiset, keitä he olivat? (Guardsmen of Civil Guard, Who Were They?)

Martti Sinerma: Lauri Malmberg ja Suojeluskunnat (Lauri Malmberg and Civil Guards).

Esko Lammi: Tuli ja liike. Urheilu maanpuolustuksen ja maanpuolustus urheilun tukena. (Fire and movement. Sports as Support of National Defense and National Defense as Support of Sports).

Jarl Kronlund: Suomen Puolustuslaitos 1918 - 1939 (Finnish Military 1918 -1939).

Markku Palokangas: Sotilaskäsiaseet Suomessa 1918 - 1988 (Military Small Arms in Finland 1918 - 1988).

Risto Alapuro (editor): Raja railona, näkökulmia suojeluskuntiin (= Border as Crevasse, Viewpoints to the Civil Guards).

Pekka Tiilikainen and Ilmari Pusa: Talvisodan Jäinen loppunäytös (Icy Epiloque of Winter War).

Jaakko Hakala and Martti Santavuori: Summa.

Pentti Luutinen: The Imperial Russian Army and Navy in Finland 1808 - 1918.

Erkki Fredriksson: Kätketyt kiväärit, veriset pistimet (Hidden Rifles, Bloody Bayonets)

Mika Kulju: Lapin Sota 1944 - 1944 (Lapland War 1944 - 1945).

Article Ilmasuojelujoukkojen toiminta Joensuun alueella 1941 - 1944 (Home Force in Joensuu Area during Continuation War in 1941 - 1944) by Elli Kiuru in Sotahistoriallinen Aikakauskirja 45 (Journal of Military History 45).

Lars Westerlund (editor): Sotaoloissa vuosina 1914 - 1922 surmansa saaneet, tilastoraportti (Those Killed in Wartime Conditions of 1914 - 1922, statistical report).

Pentti Mäkelä: Vuosien 1917 - 1919 kulkutaudit, espanjantauti ja vankileirikatastrofi (Years 1917 - 1919 Pestilence, Spanish Flu and Prison Camp Disaster).

Finnish National Archives (Kansallisarkisto), archive folder Sk-2513/258, Civil Guard small arms inventories 1921 - 1939.