It was October 18th, 1965...
the outdated South Vietnam Air Force H-34 helicopter...
hugged tightly to the mountainous terrain of the Phước Sơn District of Vietnam.
As the French and Americans had found this reliable...
but old workhorse was not well suited for frontline combat duty...
due to its low speed and large silhouette.
But maybe most significantly of all...
its magnesium skin was prone to very intense and deadly fires if hit.
Despite their best efforts...
rescue teams could not locate the downed helicopter...
and its crew...
or the Special Forces soldiers on board.
It was not until over 30 years later...
that the crash site of the helicopter was found.
It was concluded that the helicopter had crashed into the side of a mountain while flying nap of the Earth
Among the remains retrieved at the site...
was that of an American officer who was the team leader of the mission.
He was Captain Larry Thorne...
the US Military advisor who had also been in World War II.
A commander in the German Waffen-SS...
and a Finnish Army First Lieutenant.
He was a highly decorated soldier...
and his awards included the German Iron Cross 2nd Class...
and American Legion of Merit medal...
and the highest of Finnish awards:
The Mannerheim Cross.
Well, he wasn't originally an American...
nor was his name Larry Thorne.
In fact...
his real name was Lauri Törni.
And he was born in Viipuri, Finland...
on May 28th, 1919.
Just two years before his birth...
the Russian Empire had collapsed...
allowing Finland to emerge as a new independent nation.
Lauri's hometown found itself on the very border with the Soviet Union...
and over the next two decades...
the Soviet Union became more and more interested in annexing Finland.
In 1938...
Lauri joined the Finnish 4th Independent Jaeger Infantry Battalion at the age of 19.
This wasn't an ordinary unit...
It was a Sissi unit who were experts at sabotage and guerrilla warfare...
as well as long-range reconnaissance.
They were often considered an elite unit and their job was to penetrate deep behind enemy lines often gathering intelligence...
operating from concealed positions.
Sometimes, they would carry out roadside ambushes even being used to hunt down and destroy enemies special forces.
He would soon need these skills as just a year later in 1939.
The Soviet Union carried out an unprovoked attack on Finland...
called the Winter War.
Lauri's battalion was based at Kiviniemi when the war started...
tasked with protecting the strategically important Leningrad-Kirov railroad line.
Once it was realised that the Red Army was poring over the Finnish-Soviet border...
Lauri's battalion redeployed and moved forward to defend the massive lake at Ladoga.
The lake was the largest in Europe...
and had been shared by the Finnish and the Soviet Union since 1918...
and had always been an area of high tension between the two nations.
The Red Army attacked the area with overwhelming numbers...
but they were ill-equipped.
Lacking adequate winter equipment...
their tanks were also still painted olive green...
and their infantry were still wearing brown coats...
as their camouflaged winter clothing had yet to arrive.
Lauri's Battalion pushed back and surrounded a large number of Red Army troops...
that lamenting on the northern part of the lake.
Both Lauri's Battalion and the winter weather in the form of frostbite...
inflicted huge casualties on the Red Army divisions that circled there.
Lauri took command the defence of Sugar Loaf Hill...
a hill that had to be held against the enemy forces in order to maintain Finnish reinforcements.
The Finnish headquarters couldn't contact the defenders...
So Lauri using his skis...
stealthily moved past the Soviet positions...
re-establishing communications.
Lauri then took command of a group of demoralised Swedish-speaking Finns...
defending a key position, conveying orders through gestures and shouting and punches...
because he didn't speak Swedish.
Lauri's courageous performance during this engagement came to the attention of his commanding officers...
and he was promoted to Second Lieutenant...
But it was ultimately to no avail for it was a short and bloody war lasting just over a hundred days.
In the end, Finland was forced to concede 11% of its territory.
But it was a hollow victory for the Soviet Union...
they were thrown out of the League of Nations.
Their casualties had been truly staggering and many including...
Adolf Hitler, now viewed the Soviet Armed Forces as a weak and ineffective force.
In June, 1941...
Lauri went to train with the Waffen-SS in Austria for seven weeks...
to gain further Specialist skills...
as by now, Nazi Germany was a strong ally of Finland.
During training, he wore a Waffen-SS uniform...
and was given the rank of Untersturmführer or Junior Storm Leader.
Ignorant of the political implications...
his swearing of the oath of loyalty even after death would lay haunt him in the years to come.
Much to Lauri's distress...
his hometown was now on the Soviet side of the border...
as was the whole Lake Ladoga region he had fought so hard to protect...
even his barracks at Kiviniemi were all now in Soviet hands.
On June 22nd, 1941...
the Germans launched "Operation Barbarossa" with a surprise attack on the Soviet Union.
Three days later the Finnish attack too - in what became known as the Continuation War.
Lauri was back in Finland...
put in charge of an armoured unit consisting of captured Soviet tanks and armoured cars.
Finland would not take part in Germany's road to conquest...
only advancing as far as its previous territories lost during the Winter War.
On March 23rd, 1942...
Lauri was skiing behind enemy lines when he skied over a friendly shrapnel mine...
while trying to capture enemy prisoners.
He was hospitalised but eventually recovered and instead of going on home leave...
He went AWOL back to the front.
By this time, the conflict had fallen into static trench style warfare...
and Lauri's Unit was tasked with counter-guerrilla...
and counter reconnaissance against Soviet special units that were behind enemy lines.
Later, this would move into aggressive actions as they infiltrated behind Soviet lines themselves...
taking on Red Army Headquarters and communication sites.
Laurie impressed his superiors, and in January 1943...
he was given the chance by his senior officers...
to take command of a deep strike infantry unit that later became known as...
With the promise of better rations and more active combat during what had become trench warfare...
He received countless keen volunteers...
with a strict criteria for aggressiveness, physical stamina and good marksmanship.
He rejected those that were unfit and picked the best men.
They would take part in sabotage...
capturing prisoners...
and intelligence gathering behind Soviet lines.
In one mission...
Lauri's Unit used rowing boats to get into place...
They ambushed a Soviet truck and obtained a bag of Intel.
Then, when a second truck came out of nowhere...
moved into close combat using puukko knives and axes.
More Red Army troops reinforced the position...
while Lauri's Raiders escaped into the forest
stealthily sneaking past Soviet patrols
Eventually making it back to the boats.
Lauri had made sure that every man knew the enemy Intel, in case only one of them made it out alive.
The Unit would succeed in several hit and run skirmishes...
operating from a base camp that was deep in Soviet territory.
They also learned to use the enemy weapons which created confusion during engagements...
and made ammo plentiful as they were operating deep in Red Army territory.
Lauri and his men soon gained a formidable reputation for bravery and mayhem...
to the extent that the Soviets put a bounty of three million Finnish marks on his head as they feared him so much.
By June, 1944...
the war was all but lost for the Finnish despite victory after victory against the Soviet Union...
They were simply too outnumbered.
For his outstanding bravery and leadership during the battle...
Lauri was awarded the Mannerheim Cross on July 9th, 1944.
In September, 1944...
the Finnish brokered the best deal it could with the Soviet Union and in effect the war ended
Most of the Finnish Army was demobilizing, including Lauri who was by now a Captain.
So...
by November, 1944...
Lauri found himself a civilian...
unemployed...
and his country forced into a humiliating armistice.
Once again, they had to concede territory and pay the Soviet Union reparation...
as well as this, key members of the Finnish war were put on trial.
Lauri joined the Finnish Resistance who formed in the event that the Soviets tried to completely occupy Finland.
He went to Germany for training in early 1945, with the intention of returning to train the resistance...
but ended up joining the German Army.
He had secretly boarded a u-boat when had taken the alias of "Lauri Laine"...
to hide the fact that he was involving himself with the Germans.
During his training...
the German front in the east collapsed and the Red Army were on the borders of Germany.
With no ships left, Lauri couldn't return to Finland...
so he figured he could fight the Soviets by joining a ragtag band of Germans and was given the rank of a Captain.
Lauri used the same tactics that he had used so successfully against the Soviets in Finland.
He was also joined by a fellow Finn...
an officer named Solmu Korpela.
Soon...
he had gained a reputation for bravery and his men loyally followed him...
even though his grasp of the German language was poor.
By March, 1945...
The German Army was defeated.
Lauri and his men were fighting for their lives...
decided to head west while they still could...
this was to avoid the terrible fate of falling into the hands of the Red Army.
After VE Day...
Lauri and his men found themselves behind German lines.
Once again, Lauri performed a remarkable feat...
he led his unit into Western Germany...
and he surrendered with his men to the British at Lübeck.
By doing so...
the Finn had saved himself and the men of his unit from years of captivity in Siberia.
Lauri ended up being put in a Prisoner of War camp in Lübeck, Germany.
He feared that he would be turned over to the Soviets because of his role in the Continuation War...
or they would discover his involvement in the Waffen-SS.
A few months later in June 1945...
He escaped the camp with Solmu Korpela...
and made his way back to Finland.
He was arrested this time by the Finnish State Police...
but shortly escaped from them too...
Lauri was then arrested again in June, 1946...
and tried for treason for joining the German army when Finland had signed a peace treaty with the Soviets...
He was sentenced to six years in prison.
During his time in prison....
He had made several escape attempts which all ended in failure.
His last one used a grappling hook made from bed-sheets and scrap from the metal shop.
He was finally pardoned by the Finnish President in December 1948 and released.
Unhappy and disillusioned...
Lauri went to Sweden in 1949...
under the false name of "Elino Morsky".
He ended up in Venezuela and in 1950...
found work on a Swedish cargo ship: the MS Skagen.
A few months later, when it was off the coast of Alabama...
he jumped ship and swam ashore.
He was reduced to doing carpentry and cleaning jobs and in 1953...
he was granted a residence visa.
In 1954, at the age of 35...
He joined the US Army, adopting the name "Larry Thorne".
Even though he was a recruit...
his experience stood out vastly compared to the other men.
His natural leadership abilities gained him rapid promotion...
and he was made a First Lieutenant in 1957...
and then a Captain in 1960.
He had been stationed in West Germany from 1958 to 1962...
during this time...
he got in trouble when he got into a bar fight.
A fellow Finnish officer pulled some strings and he got Larry transferred to the 10th Special Forces Group.
He was able to use his experience to teach skiing...
survival mountaineering and guerrilla tactics.
and learned new skills himself in Airborne School
In January, 1962...
Larry was sent to the Zagros Mountains of Iran in command of his team...
where he successfully completed his mission to destroy the top secret material in a crashed US plane.
Then in 1963...
he was sent to South Vietnam to assist in the formation of local CIDG (Civilian Irregular Defence Group) Units
In one particular vicious firefight at Tịnh Biên near the Cambodian border...
he was awarded two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for bravery.
The Việt Cộng attacked his base in force and breached the outer perimeter almost overrunning the area.
It wasn't for his determination, The base would have been lost
It is said that in Robin Moore's book: "The Green Berets"...
Captain Steve Kornie is based on Larry Thorne.
When he returned to the United States, instead of retiring to a desk job...
Larry volunteered for a second tour of duty.
During his second tour of duty on October 18th, 1965...
Larry was put in command of a top-secret Special Forces Unit called MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group).
Trying to locate Việt Cộng turnaround points along the Hồ Chí Minh Trail...
when his helicopter crashed in the mountains, he was killed.
His remains went undiscovered for over 30 years.
Lauri earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and was promoted to Major posthumously.
His name is honoured on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC.
And in 2003, his remains were brought back to America.
He was buried with full military honours...
at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
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