UPDATES
16th of December 2023
This update has been under work for a very long time - almost two years. The new main contect is Soldier's Issued Military Kit - basically all the items of basic military kit issued to Finnish soldiers in addition of uniform and weapons. In usual manner the website has also large number of updates, which are marked accordingly. In fact most pages on it have some new stuff added on them.
19th of December 2021
The new materials added in this update are from long waited subject - hand grenades. The update contains two new pages about them - one page covering hand grenades introduced to Finnish use with Finnish Civil War and another page about hand grenades introduced to use of Finnish Army during 1930's and World War 2. In addition in usual manner there is number of smaller updates in various parts of the website, with updated pages being marked accordingly. While reseach is still being complicated by COVID, I was fortunate to find several friendly collectors, whose contribution made this update possible.
5th of May 2021
The main thing of this new update is new page about Uniforms of Finnish Civil Guard. Finnish Civil Guard was a volunteer organisation rather independent of Finnish Armed Forces before World War 2 and hence had its own uniform related but not identical to those used by Finnish Army and Navy. As usual there are also plenty of updated pages, which have been marked accordingly. The next thing that I start working after this is new page about hand grenades used in Finland - a subject very much neglected until now. Unfortunately COVID-19 is still here and keeps complicating things, but hopefully it will be less of a problem by the time of next update.
6th of October 2020
This time the update does not contain new page, but a lot of updated made as part of the major update project that I started early 2019. I have new page about Civil Guard uniforms under work, but it is not ready yet, while there are A LOT of new photographs added to website and I wanted them online. As for so many people around the world COVID-19 pandemic forced major changes to my intended update schedule. All Finnish museums and archives were closed from March to June in 2020 and some places whose services I use for my research are still unavailable because of this. Rewritten pages are marked with MAJOR UPDATE, while pages with smaller pages are marked with UPDATE.
2nd of September 2019
Another update and more information about Finnish military uniforms. This time the new page is about Navy uniforms, which were directly based on internationally established uniform designs, but do show a slight Finnish twist. As far as updates are concerned this is also the starting point of major new update in which I intent to update the pages by going through all the text and if needed re-write it - in addition of which the long term plan is to add a lot more period photographs. As always the updated pages have been marked accordingly.
8th of December 2018
I originally intended to make this update available 6th of December (Finnish Indepedence Day), but it got delayed bit later. The new main content added in it are two new pages about Finnish military uniforms. The updated pages can be found in Uniforms-section of the website. Pages updated after last September have also been marked accordingly.
3rd of September 2018
Mini-update, which does not contain any new pages, but includes numerous larger and smaller updates made for existing pages. The largest updates are in recent pages about Finnish military uniforms.
18th of March 2018
It had been a long while since the last update, but finally there is something new to add - the first three pages of new section about Finnish military uniforms. The new updates can be found here: Uniforms of Finnish Armed Forces and Civil Guard.
19th of November 2016
The new content of this update are railway guns, which are the final part that completes the subject of coastal artillery. The update also contains what is basically the last part of graphics upgrade in which old photos (many of which are over decade old) in some pages are systematically replaced with higher resolution versions. There are still a handful of photos that will be upgraded later, but otherwise the graphics update is now basically complete. I also started another long-intended update with some of the formations pages, which now have some interesting SA-photos with unit type uniform markings added to them. The new main content about railway guns can be found here: Railway Guns.
1st of December 2015
Making of this update proved considerably more time-consuming than what I had expected. Originally I intended it to be a simple little small update about Finnish bayonets and puukko-knives, but it developed into something larger. Also - since getting certain materials proved far more difficult than what I had anticipated, in the end I had to read quite a few books about puukko-knives and even collect a small collection of them to get some material for the photos. The new main content Bayonets and Puukko-knives tells the story of how puukko-knife replaced bayonet in Finnish Army during World War 2, but also provides info about other tools that Finnish soldiers used for hand-to-hand combat. Graphics update has continued little by little and most of the photos in the website have now been updated, but there are still large number of photos to that have not yet gone through and they will be fixed later.
6th of December 2014
I had long planned that Finnish Independence Day (6th of December) would be a deadline for this update, but still getting it done in time proved quite a challenge - not least due to change of computer and all the hassle resulting from it. But here it finally is. The new main content is Assault Guns page telling the story of BT-42, Stu 40 G and JSU 152 (ISU-152) with Finnish Army. Due to problems related to new version of Corel PSP, there are no major graphics update included this time. As usual the updated pages have been marked with (UPDATED).
31st of May 2014
The long delayed update of two new pages about super-heavy coastal guns is now finally complete. The main reason for the long delay of this update is graphics update, which is now done until end of antitank-guns section, but will still continue in the upcoming updates. The updated pages have been marked with (UPDATED), while I decided to remove the graphics updated markings, since they did not seem to have much use.
15th of September 2013
The long waited update of two new pages about light coastal guns and heavy coastal guns. While I am normally concentrating to Army and even if the coastal artillery was part of Navy, that notable role that coastal artillery in many occations played in land battles kind of required including it. Super heavy coastal artillery and railroad artillery will be includeded in later update. The reason why it took so many months to make this update is that I started a graphics update, first part of which is now included. This graphics update proved to be very time consuming, which explains why at the moment only few of the pages have been updated, with it continuing in later updates. The pages on which the graphics have already been updated have been marked with (UPDATED GRAPHICS) text, while pages with smaller updates have been marked with (UPDATED).
5th of December 2012
Website updated with new page about KV-1 and PzKw IVJ tanks in Finnish use. Neither of these tanks played important role in Finnish military history, but without their story the history of armour vehicles in Finnish use could not be told. As usual, there are also smaller updates marked according all over the website.
8th of July 2012
New update. This time new stuff is in two pages, which are about infantry heavy weapons and artillery weapons of various kind which never got to large-scale use with Finnish Army. Most of these items were Finnish weapons pre-war and World War 2 era weapons prototypes, many proving unsuccessful, but in some cases simply being developed too late for limited Finnish manufacturing capacity to pick up. In usual manner there is also smaller and larger updates all over the site marked accordingly in the main page.
5th of December 2011
New update with main content about T-28 and T-34 tanks in use of Finnish Army. Also, as usual there are also smaller and larger updates all over the site. The biggest update can be found in Tank Guns page.
16th of May 2011
New update with main content about Finnish - German battle of Suursaari Island in September of 1944. This battle was significant in many levels being a turning point with considerable political significance. Due to amount of text the subject is divided into two parts.
16th of November 2010
One more update. New main content is history of BT-5, BT-7 and T-50 tanks in use of Finnish Army. The subject is not very well covered even in Finnish, so hopefully this page proves useful for those searching info about these tanks.
4th of July 2010
Yet another update. Two new pages added this time. One page about Soviet flame tanks in use of Finnish Army and page about Border Jaeger Troops. The story of flame tanks in Finnish use has not been very known since very little has been written about the subject even in Finnish publications. As usual also smaller updates all over the website are marked accordingly.
14th of March 2010
This time the new main content added in this update is a page about captured T-26 tanks used by Finnish Army. These were the most numerous tanks in Finnish use during World War 2 and did a long career as training vehicles after the war. As usual there are also smaller updates all over the website and the updated pages have been marked accordingly.
30th of November 2009
The main updates continue to cover tanks used by Finnish Army. With this update it's time to tell the history of Vickers 6 ton tank and T-26E tank, which was its later Finnish modified version. I thought these might be a good choice for 70 year anniversary for starting of Winter War, since during it Vickers 6 ton tank was the only modern tank used by Finnish Army in any real numbers. Since covering the tank guns in existing pages proved difficult, I also started a new page about tank guns used in Finnish armoured vehicles. At the moment the tank guns page has detailed info only about 37-mm and 45-mm tank guns, but I plan to add more info about heavier caliber guns in future updated with new pages about the tanks and assault guns equipped them. As usual smaller updates all over the website are marked with (UPDATED).
6th of September 2009
This time the new main content of this update is information about Renault FT 17 tanks in Finnish use. The page contains also information of other tanks, which Finnish Army acquired for tests in 1920's and 1930's, but which were never bought in numbers. While their actual contribution of Renault FT 17 in battle-use was quite limited (some were dug-in and used as bunkers during Winter War), they have their own important part in history of armoured vehicles used by Finnish Army. As usual smaller updates all over the website are marked with (UPDATED).
24th of May 2009
Another long waited update. The new main content added this time are three pages about armoured cars used by Finnish Army during World War 2. Some new photos have also been added and some of these were provided by friendly military history enthusiasts. As usual, new updates all over the website, the updated pages have been marked with (UPDATED) on the main page. One time-consuming part of update were pictures of flame-throwers, which have now been totally redrawn.
13th of December 2008
Finally a new update. This time the biggest new thing is Armoured Cars Captured Year 1918, a new page about Russian armoured cars captured during Civil War and used by Finnish Civil Guard after it until 1920's. As usual there are a lot of new updates all over the website - as before these are marked with (UPDATED) in the main page. Thanks to Lemmy, the light machinegun pages now have some pictures showing equipment used with them. The armoured trains part from from year 1918 also had to be partially re-written due to new information received. I promise to try making the next real update sooner the next time - this took way too long.
5th of May 2008
Minor update to the website. Unfortunately no new pages this time, but small improvements and fixes all over the website.
6th of December 2007
As a personal way of celebrating Finnish Independence Day I made this small update. It goes into new area, which I have long planned adding to this website, but have not been able to find time before - operations and battles. While back I was contacted asking information about this operation and once I had did some writing about it I started considering adding it to the website - and here it is. Also minor text update concerning production of AVS-36 automatic rifle and some wartime photos added in armoured trains and landmines pages - the particular pages are marked with (UPDATED).
23rd of September 2007
The main new content of this update is mine throwers and mortars, the subject which the website now gets six pages of information gathered from variety of sources. Since very little (only few articles) have been previously written about the subject even in Finnish, writing these pages proved difficult but interesting. I also succeeded finding some test reports concerning live fire testing of armour piercing rounds done in Finnish Army Field Artillery Testing Grounds in Niinisalo year 1943. This information has been added to variety of pages. In addition the same thing as always - bunch of pages have received smaller or larger updates. These are marked with (UPDATED).
28th of February 2007
This update contains the last part of armoured trains series, which completes the history of Finnish armoured trains. Included are also additional drawings showing wagons and locomotives that were used in these trains. Don't be spooked if your web-browser informs you about active content - I added some java code to each page. The code is just a connection to Google Analyst, which is the tool I am testing for getting statistics about traffic in the website. If it works as planned hopefully I get some idea which pages are most popular and what pages I should concentrate improving in the future. As usual number of pages have been updated. These updated pages have been marked with (UPDATED).
4th of September 2006
This update contains the next part of armoured trains series, history of Finnish armoured trains from end of Civil War in 1918 to 1940. Included are also drawings giving more detailed view of wagons used in Finnish armoured trains and their development. Another major new update are two pages containing often asked information of Finnish pre-WW2 and WW2-era military small arms projects, which never reached mass-production. Or at these particular weapons failed to reach mass production in time to be used in World War 2. As usual there are also number of minor and bit larger improvements in pages marked with text (UPDATED).
4th of May 2006
Minor update concentrating fixing typos, improving rediability and adding some new information to existing pages. Naturally also few photos added every here and there. Pages with new information or corrections in information have been marked as updated.
17th of November 2005
Getting this update ready took several months more than I originally expected. This was mainly due to problems concerning the Part 1 of armoured trains, which ballooned up four times the size originally intended. Anyway, that is the main contents of this update - Part 1 of armoured trains telling about armoured trains in Finnish Civil War at year 1918. Another area, which got quite a lot of new stuff is antiaircraft-machineguns and anti-aircract guns pages. This was possible thanks to to two new books published in Finland this year and some remarkably rare military manuals (some of which I got to loan from friendly collector who prefers to remain anonymous). As usual the website has also smaller updates all over the place. I tried my best to add some additional background information to some of the small arms and also succeeded finding some new small arms manuals, from which the data is now added. I also tried to improve readbility in some of the pages. Some links added to Links-page and some links updated.
13th of March 2005
The website is now in new webhosting up and running. Due to break in communications the website didn't work properly during the last three weeks or so. Incidentally I had a update coming up, but due to certain problems with the website it the update became bit different than what I had planned. Anyway, to the updates we go: