Military uniform m/22 proved less than satisfactory, so Armed Forces introduced new military uniform and overcoat in August of 1927. With this new uniform also color of boots worn by officers and military officials changed from black to dark brown, while also leather belts changed color from light brown to dark brown. This new uniform known as field uniform m/27 (kenttäpuku m/27) was developed by committee lead by Colonel Lauri Malmberg (Chief of Civil Guard in 1921 – 1945 and Lieutenant General) in 1926 - 1927. It is quite apparent that the main intention for the committee was to develop two separate military uniforms – one for garrison duty and another one for field service. Hence its proposal contained garrison uniform, field uniform and light jacket.

From these three uniform types field uniform as the name suggest was intended to be used in the field. In other words it was planned to be better suited for combat use than existing military uniform m/22, while garrison uniform was intended to be more presentable than uniform m/22 and light jacket was apparently intended for summer use. But ultimately from the three intended uniforms only field uniform m/27 composed of field tunic m/27 and its trousers was issued in general use in Armed Forces, while light jacket became part of officer’s light uniform which officers could acquire privately and garrison uniform was never realized. The committee had clearly also intended to create military uniform, which both Finnish Armed Forces and Civil Guard would use – which did happen but only in certain degree, since ultimately Army never real did the transition in that sense that also previous military uniform m/22 remained in use until later replaced by military uniform m/36. As a side product field uniform m/27 ultimately ended up more commonly used by Civil Guard in such extent that the uniform got associated to Civil Guard in such extent that it is still often referred in Finland as "Civil Guard uniform". Introduction of field uniform m/27 was also intended be a starting point for standardizing similar uniforms to all service arms in even further extent than ever before by using the same uniform color ("brown-green-grey") for all service arms. The only notable exceptions to this among uniform items of field uniform m/27 were to be Air Force light uniform m/27 and Air Force raincoat, both of which were to be dark blue.

PICTURE: Rare period photo showing two Privates of Finnish Army in full field uniform m/27, considering the white armband with Finnish coat of arms emblem these would a holiday uniforms, which conscripts were required to wear while on leave. Tunics are m/27 and due to their color according uniform regulations only trousers that could be used with it were also m/27 - in this case straight pants m/27. The hats are fur cap m/27. Leather belts are presumably also leather belt m/27. Notice wide collars, they are the easy feature for identifying this tunic model. (Photo Jaeger Platoon photo collection.) CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (121 KB).

While orders issued to Finnish military specified that field uniform m/27 was no longer to be used after year 1937 although they could be issued to conscripts until they would be worn out. Also according orders officers, senior noncommissioned officers and military officials could still use the uniform until late 1941. But once Finland entered to war these orders were retracted. Guardsmen of Finnish Civil Guard (Suojeluskunta) commonly took their Civil Guard uniforms m/27 with them to mobilisation of year 1939 and with the shortage of uniforms from which Finnish Armed Forces suffered, guardsmen took their field uniforms m/27 to Winter War. Hence while Finnish Army did not issue field uniforms m/27 in large scale before World War 2, due to Civil Guard guardsmen the uniform model still saw large scale use with Finnish Army during Winter War. Then also shortage of materials needed for manufacturing new uniforms became a factor. Hence May of 1941 Finnish military issued new orders according which field uniforms m/27 could be used until end ofContinuation War because of problems in acquisition of uniform materials. As a result field uniform m/27 remained in use of Finnish military until end of World War 2, although using brown-green-grey field uniform m/27 in frontline service proved particularly perilous during the war due to its brown-tilted color resembling the brown/khaki fabrics used in Soviet uniforms. Hence during Continuation War these uniforms were apparently mostly re-issued for troops stationed in home front, although for obvious reasons they seem to have enjoyed some popularity as winter clothing particularly with officers. It is worth noting that while grand majority of field uniforms m/27 seems to have been made from brown-green-grey fabric in which brown is dominant color, late production versions (made starting at least from year 1937) of the tunic seem to be made from brown-green-grey wool in which green is the dominant color. It is not known if this change of fabric is due to earlier used fabric no longer being commonly available or due to some other reason. For it it is worth year 1930 uniform regulations (Valtion Puolustusvoimien Virkapukuohjesääntö mentions also field uniform m/27 vanh. which was manufactured from steel grey (wool) earlier used for production of military uniforms m/22

PICTURE: Good example of Civil Guard's field uniform m/27 made Army uniform for Winter War. The uniform has Civil Guard belt design, but Civil Guard insignia have been removed from left arm of tunic and Civil Guard "jaeger cap" type hat now has Armed Forces cockade. I am not sure if the trousers shown here are original - their fabric seems unusually "shiny". Photo taken in Finnish Military Museum (Sotamuseo), Helsinki. Rifle bayonet seen in this photo is bayonet m/28-30. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (127 KB).

Field tunic m/27 is blouse-like grouch-length jacket. It had six hidden chest buttons and large external pockets, which have flaps closed with buttons, which have Finnish coat of arms lion emblem. The tunic is unusual in that sense that it is otherwise very loosely fitted, but its waist is adjusted (tightened) with about 5 cm / 2 in wide fabric belt, that is inside the jacket. Also tunic cuffs can be tightened, the tunic has belt hooks for leather belt and extra layer of fabric on elbows. The tunic can be most easily recognized from its rather massive collar made from same fabric as rest of the tunic – normally this collar was folded down, but if needed could be raised up to protect neck from cold and foul weather. The tunic has seems on its back on both sides. Inside the jacket waist on both sides are pockets intended for first aid bandage. Cavalry version of the tunic has its fabric belt attached in slightly different manner than in other versions and belt hooks on sides instead of back. The material selected for this new uniform was rather thick coarse cloth (wool) of "brown-green-grey" color with brown being the dominating color – although later on the wool used for manufacturing of these tunics apparently had green as dominating color. It is worth noting that original orders specified the fabric type only as "wool", hence there were apparently some variation of suitable wool fabrics used these uniforms when it came to privately acquired uniforms.

PICTURE: Finnish Army Corporal's (Alikersantti) field tunic m/27. Notice wide collar and cuff design. Cuff buttons of this tunic are missing. The colour of this tunic seems more greyish than normal. Photo taken in Finnish Military Museum (Sotamuseo), Helsinki. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (115 KB).

One of the basic ideas behind the field tunic design was likely an attempt to make having separate greatcoat unnecessary – in other words if equipped with field tunic m/27, soldiers could have been able to do in winter-time without being burdened by heavy and bulky greatcoat. The idea was not without merit, since the tunic apparently proved well suited for winter use when used properly with layered clothing under it. At the same time the tunic cut used in m/27 was clearly the most best suited for combat of all Finnish military tunic designs introduced by World War 2. But for it to be suitable as overcoat for winter use on own tunic m/27 needed to made from thick wool, which made the jacket poorly suited for summer. Not only was field tunic m/27 too warm for summer use, but if its thick coarse cloth got wet, it became quite heavy and difficult to dry. What made this a major problem for Armed Forces was that unlike Civil Guard they did not introduce any sort of summer uniform to be used along field uniform m/27 before summer tunic m/32 being introduced in May of 1932. While "brown-green-grey" blended in better with terrain than steel grey tunic m/22, its brown-dominated color later caused some blue-on-blue incidents during World War 2. With field tunic m/27 officers of Armed Forces had their rank marked with pips (shape of heraldic rose) placed on collar of the tunic, while military officials and non-commissioned officers wore their rank markings on epaulets.

Trousers used with field uniform m/27 were made from the same fabric as the jacket – in other words "brown-green-grey" wool. Three types of trousers were used with it – breeches, riding breeches and straight pants. Riding breeches m/27 (commonly referred as "luukkuhousut" ("hatch pants") for large buttoned up opening in the groin) are type of breeches reinforced with leather or fabric for riding horses. From those three trouser types, the standard issued version was straight pants. Only field artillery, cavalry and other riding units issued riding breeches for their enlisted men and non-commissioned officers. Riding pants version of trousers was early on found unsatisfactory with improved experimental versions developed until year 1932. Trousers had normally two back pockets and small waist pocket intended for pocket watch.

PICTURE: Straight pants for field uniform m/27. Photo source Digitaltmuseum.se - original photo by Armémuseum (Sweden). Used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (88 KB).

Two new headgear designs were designed for field uniform m/27, but what is commonly known only one of them seem to have been used in real numbers. The design that saw actual use was field cap m/27 (kenttälakki m/27) a somewhat boat-shaped peaked wool hat with visor made from the same material and sides, which were normally folded and buttoned up. This field cap is made from similar "brown-green-grey" wool as rest of field uniform m/27 with also its visor being made from the same fabric. The another version that never saw large-scale use was fur-cap m/27 (turkislakki m/27) originally intended for winter use – it had quite a similar basic design as with field cap m/27, but had its folding sides lined up with brown fur. Although somewhat weird due to its boat-shaped basic design and not necessarily that militarily looking field cap m/27 proved apparently quite successful, but fur cap m/27 later faced considerable critique (?). Frontier Guard reported in year 1934 that they found fur hat m/27 to be unfit for cold and harsh weather due to its visor limiting visibility and steel bunckle of chinstrap causing frostbite. In addition the fur hat had tendendy to considerably shrink in size after getting wet.

PICTURE: Field cap m/27. Notice cap with its visor and how sides of the cap which have been folded and buttoned up. Also notice leather chin strap placed on top of the visor. Photo taken in Maneesi (Manage) of Finnish Military Museum (Suomenlinna, Helsinki). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (103 KB).

PICTURE: Fur cap m/27. Notice structural similarity with field cap m/27. This cap has painted tin version of white-blue-white national cockade, which was issued to enlisted men and junior NCO ranks. Notice leather chin strap. Fabric is coarse cloth (wool) and the fur is lamb, with apparently all sort of colours of lamb fur being used for the purpose. Photo provided by Lappeenrannan museot (Museums in city of Lappeenranta). Acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (111 KB).

This leather belt has the same rectangular steel belt buckle with "coat of arms lion inside the crest" emblem that was earlier used with (light brown) leather belt m/22, but the belt buckle has been transferred to a new belt 40-mm wide and made from dark brown leather. As the leather belt m/22 that it replaced this belt design was intended for enlisted men and non-commissioned officers. Not only were the leather parts of the belt replaced, but also the (light brown) Y-strap harness (Y-hihnat), that mainly cavalry and bicycle troops used with it, was replaced with Y-strap harness m/27 made from similar dark brown leather as the new belt model and with steel parts. Aluminium belt buckle of similar design was later manufactured for enlisted men's parade belt M/58 (miehistön juhlavyö M/58). Reproductions of leather belt m/27 have been manufactured by several manufacturers - with original, aluminium and reproduction belt buckles.

PICTURE: Leather belt m/27. Notice that this belt design has the same steel belt buckle as previous leather belt m/22, but the actual belt is dark brown tanned leather. Photo source Digitaltmuseum.se - original photo by Armémuseum (Sweden), CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (104 KB).

This was a new Sam Browne type leather belt as the name suggests design for military officers. It has 55-mm wide dark brown belt with brass roller belt buckle that has two prongs. The leather strap, that goes across right shoulder is similar dark brown leather 27-mm wide and have ends that are 23-mm wide. This basic belt design proved so successful that its slightly modified version officer’s leather belt m/51 have remained in use of Finnish military to this day and the belt buckle design have been used in standard issue service belt issued to all Finnish soldiers as part of their uniform kit for decades. While very similar officer’s leather belts m/27 and m/51 can be separated from one another by checking the number of metal loops for sword hanger in left side of belt – m/27 has only one loop, while m/51 has two.

PICTURE: Finnish Army Captain's field tunic m/27 with (rather worn out) officer's leather belt m/27. Notice how pips marking military rank are arranged in tips of tunic collar, large external pockets, wide collar and desing of cuffs with row of three buttons. Photo taken in Finnish Military Museum (Sotamuseo), Helsinki. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (141 KB).

Field uniform m/27 may have been intended to work without greatcoat, but such jacket was still also included to clothing that could be issued with it. As rest of the field uniform m/27, also greatcoat m/27 was made from brown-green-grey wool. As typical to great coats used in Finnish military uniforms also this model had two rows of buttons on chest. Length-wise it was similar to earlier greatcoat m/22 – in other words standard version reached to 35 cm / 14 in from surface, while soldiers who needed to ride horses were issued with 5 cm / 2 in shorter version. Apparently this great coat model was quite rare in use of Army, but seems to have been somewhat more common with Civil Guard.

SPECIAL FIELD UNIFORM ITEMS M/27 INTENDED FOR OFFICERS AND MILITARY OFFICIALS:

As with military uniform also field uniform m/27 had several uniform items intended only for officers and military officials. These included following uniforms items:

• Officer’s rain coat m/27 (upseerien sadetakki m/27): This is a classic trench coat jacket design intended for officers. Version intended for all other service arms besides Air Force is the standard "brown-green-grey" color wool or cotton with English cut, two rows of buttons, internal pockets and fabric belt.

PICTURE: Major Vilho Tuulensuu in his officer's raincoat m/27. Notice classic trench coat like design made of relatively light fabric, fabric belt, two rows of buttons in chest and places for rank markings in cuffs. Photo taken in September of 1941. (SA-kuva.fi archive, photo number 113132).CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (39 KB).

• Officer’s fur coat m/27 (upseerien turkki m/27): This was a "brown-green-grey" colored fur coat with fur inside the jacket, wide dark brown-grey collar and two rows of leather-covered buttons. The jacket was long enough to cover about two thirds of thigh.

• Officer’s light uniform m/27 (upseerien kevyt puku m/27): This was quite possibly the most fashionable and stylish uniform introduced by Finnish military by World War 2. What is known suggests that it was intended as summertime and office uniform was officers. Cut of its tunic bear considerable resemblance to civilian business suit of the era and had open collar, which was not used in any other Finnish uniform until 1950's. Also unlike other Finnish military uniforms it had no cuffs or belt. This tunic design loaned heavily from British tunics of its era with its close-fitted cut. Uniform material was either from diagonal cloth or some other thin wool and the tunic was buttoned with four large buttons with Finnish coat of arms lion motif. The tunic had external breast pockets and internal side pockets. Each pocket flap, epaulets and cuffs had smaller version of the same buttons. Coat of the tunic was such that its back curved and had both seam and slit in middle of back. Epaulets were made the same fabric as rest of the tunic and (in normal) manner had both officer’s coat of arms lion insignia and markings indicating service unit. Rank markings were only in tunic cuffs. All other service arms except Air Force used "brown-green-grey" colored version of this uniform, while Air Force version was dark blue. All other service arms also wore the uniform with white dress shirt and "brown-green-grey" necktie of somewhat lighter shade than the uniform, while Air Force personnel could optionally use steel-grey shirt and used black necktie with their uniform. Either straight pants or riding breeches could be worn with this uniform.



PICTURE: Finnish Air Force Major's light uniform m/27. Notice how tunic has open collar, tie and marks of rank in tunic cuffs. During World War 2 tunic of light uniform m/27 was the only tunic with this sort of open collar design in Finnish use. Cap seen here is Air Force version of officer's cap m/27 and belt is officer's belt m/27. Photo taken in Finnish Military Museum (Sotamuseo), Helsinki. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (68 KB).

• Officer’s cap m/27 (Upseerien lippalakki m/27): Officers of other service arms besides Air Force and Coastal Artillery could use this hat design. It was a brown-green-grey fabric cap with tight cover and visor made from brown leather. Chinstrap and embellishments on visor varied depending military rank. It seems that this cap design never became really popular and is far less common in World War 2 era photos than its predecessor officer's cap m/22. In post-war era both this cap model and officer's cap m/22 were replaced by new peaked cap design - officer's cap M/49 (upseerinlakki M/49), which have remained in use with Finnish military to this day.



PICTURE: 2^nd Lieutenant of Finnish Army military band of musicians with officer's light uniform m/27 and officer's cap m/27. As can be seen the basic shape of officer's cap m/27 resembled the design used in earlier officer's cap m/22, but was had same brown-green-grey color as rest of field uniform m/27 and brown leather visor. The Sam Browne type belt he has seems to be officer's leather belt m/27. (Photo Jaeger Platoon photo collection.) CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (53 KB).

In theory all other service arms besides Air Force were supposed to use brown "jackboot" type leather boots, while only Air Force used black boots of similar type. In similar manner laced shoes used by Air Force were to be black, while all other service arms used brown shoes of similar type. Shoes were normally to be worn with straight pants, while boots were worn with riding breeches. If shoes were worn with ridding breeches they needed to be worn with leather gaiters. In reality it seems likely that the earlier black leather boots may not have been replaced in such extent, that they would have been completely replaced with new brown boots. Hence while officers, military officials and senior non-commissioned officers likely had brown boots, it seems unlikely that boots of enlisted men would have been completely replaced.

Pekka Aarniaho: Kaluunat ja rähinäremmit. Itsenäisen Suomen virkapuvut ja arvomerkit 1918 – 1945 (Uniforms and Rank Markings of Independent Finland 1918 - 1945).

Petteri Leino: Asepuku M/36 vuosina 1936 – 1945 (Uniform m/36 in years 1936 - 1945).

Stig Roudasmaa: Suojeluskuntapuvut. Suojeluskuntajärjestön puvut 1918 – 1944 (Civil Guard Uniforms. Uniforms of Civil Guard in 1918 - 1944).

Juhani U.E. Lehtonen: Sotilaselämän perinnekirja (The Tradition Book of Military Life).

Puolustusvoimien huolto 1918 – 1986 (Supply of Defense Forces 1918 - 1986) by Huoltoupseeriyhdistys.

Suomalaisen sotilaan historia ristiretkistä rauhanturvaamiseen (History of Finnish Soldier from Crusades to Peacekeeping).

Marko Palokangas: Itsenäisen Suomen sotilasarvot ja –arvomerkit / Military Ranks and Rank Badges of Independent Finland.

Article: Marko Palokangas: Sotilasarvomerkkiemme taustaa ja taivalta (Background and Development of Our Military Rank Markings), (Ase-lehti magazine vol 5/1995).

Article: Tapio Saarni: Panssarijoukkojen univormuja IV osa (Uniforms of Tank Corps, part IV), in Panssari-lehti magazine vol. 3/1991.

Theses: Kristian Värri: Itsenäisen Suomen ratsuväen varusteiden kehitys talvisotaan mennessä (Development of Equipment in Cavalry of Independent Finland before Winter War).

Military manual: Valtakunnan puolustusvoimien virkapukusääntö, V.P.O. (Uniform Regulations for Armed Forces of the Nation) by Ministry of Defense (published year 1930).

Military manual: Suojeluskuntajäjestön virkapukuohjesäntö (Civil Guard's Uniform Regulations), published year 1930.

Special thanks to Finnish Military Museum (Sotamuseo), Helsinki.

Special thanks to Museum Militaria (Museo Militaria), Hämeenlinna.

Special thanks to Infantry Museum (Jalkaväkimuseo), Mikkeli.

Special thanks to Tank Museum (Panssarimuseo), Parola.

Special thanks to Armémuseum (Sweden)