On November 30th 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland and kicked off a three-month-long conflict
known as the Winter War. The Finnish army was impossibly outnumbered and outgunned,
but they fought back bitterly. They were the plucky underdogs, and no one loves an
underdog more than the Americans. Before the war was over, a now-forgotten unit of
Finnish-Americans was battling the communists on Finland’s frontier. This is their story.
Finns have a long history of emigration to the United States. Between 1870 and 1930,
opportunities for agricultural and mining work attracted large numbers of Finns,
resulting in a “Great Migration.” Finnish communities were founded through the upper
Midwest, with many families relocating from the old country to upper Michigan,
upper Wisconsin, and Minnesota. This region even became known as the “Finn Hook.”
Ties to Finland remained strong in this region and the Finnish language was commonly used alongside
English. Children of the original immigrants were brought up to respect the autonomy of
their faraway homeland, and many joined clubs and societies promoting Finnish culture.
The Finnish-American community took a keen interest when Stalin, in an effort
to secure a buffer state in Northern Europe, demanded Finland cede territory to the USSR.
When the Finnish government refused, the Red Army invaded.
Soviet high command had massed 425,000 troops at the border and was confident that Finland would
fall within weeks. Recent experience in Poland had led them to overestimate the Red Army’s capability
to deal with difficult terrain, and adequate preparations for arctic warfare were not made.
Stalin and his mate Kulik, one of the worst generals of all time,
thought Finland would be a pushover. They couldn’t have been more wrong.
When the war began, so many Finns tried to join up that the army ran out of uniforms and equipment.
Regular army units moved to the border to engage the Soviets while militias
formed in remote settlements and started a guerilla campaign.
Back in the US, the Finnish community felt this wave of patriotism, too.
From the upper Midwest, Finnish-Americans began a media campaign to “Save Finland.”
They quickly found allies in the Republican Party, who were happy to throw their political
weight behind anything remotely anti-Soviet. One of these figures was Herbert Hoover,
the 31st US President. He became the head of Finnish relief efforts,
mobilising support in the form of money and materials.
But the major US contributions came from the Finnish-American communities themselves. Women’s
organisations raised large amounts of money with collection tins, and many donated nearly all they
had. One elderly woman gave away her entire life savings to the relief effort, totalling $1,000.
By January 1940, Hoover’s Finnish Relief Fund had already raised one million dollars to aid
the Finns in their fight against communism. But America would send more than money. From December
1939, men began embarking on Finland-bound ships in New York. They were itching to fight.
Landing in Oulu, men from Minnesota and Michigan arrived at the barracks reserved
for international volunteers. They shared the space with Brits, Italians, Hungarians,
Danes, Balts, Swedes, and others. Large contingents, like the Swedes and Danes,
were grouped into special units right from the start of the conflict. The other international
volunteers were thrown into an infantry unit named "Osasto Sisu.”This is where the Midwesterners,
many of whom had never been to Finland before, received weapons and training.
However, it soon became clear these men didn’t need much instruction.
Over a third of the Finnish-American volunteers were veterans of previous conflicts.
Many had fought the Russians in the ill-fated 1918 war to reclaim Karelia.
The wild forests and lakes of eastern Finland was a battlefield they knew
intimately, and it was here that they were deployed with devastating efficiency.
Lieutenant Albert Pentilla, a Minnesotan and veteran of the Karelia war, lead a guerilla
force comprised entirely of American volunteers in the backwoods north of Lake Lagoda. Pentilla’s
Guerillas wore all-white uniforms and used skis to manoeuvre through the frozen terrain.
Their weaponry was non-standard too. Armed with a mix of captured Soviet weapons,
Finnish Army equipment, and civilian rifles, these men caused chaos behind the Soviet lines.
They observed enemy movements from concealed positions,
carefully planning rapid and devastating strikes.
They disrupted supply lines, took out commanders, and reported enemy troop movements back to HQ.
Armed with information from guerilla units like Pentilla’s, Finnish commanders could use
the inhospitable terrain to box the Soviets in, inflicting terrible casualties on the invaders.
But not every Finnish-American arrived in Oulu with the skills and experience of Pentilla’s band.
Most needed substantial military training to become an effective fighting force.
However, the training officers had an issue with Finnish-American recruits
they had never experienced before. The men from the Midwest kept deserting,
but not to escape combat. They went AWOL so they could get to the front line!
Possibly due to the media campaign back in the US, the Finnish-American volunteers had exceptionally
high morale. Lauri Saarinen, the Secretary of Minnesota’s primary Finnish veteran’s group,
declared, “Everyone in Finland, be he a businessman or a toiler,
knows after twenty years it is better to die than to be a slave of Russia.” Saarinen later informed
the Finnish military Attache in Washington that “There would be no shortage of men.”
Finnish commanders knew that high morale can turn the tide of battle, so they removed the
Finnish-Americans from Osasto Sisu and gave them their own unit. At first, it was called
the American Finnish Corps, but by 1940, it had a much cooler name: the Finnish-American Legion.
By the time the bulk of the legion’s volunteers arrived in early 1940, the Finnish Army was
strapped for material. Uniforms were needed for regular Finnish infantry units and there weren’t
any left for the international volunteers, so they made their own. The Finnish-American Legion
contracted local seamstresses and kitted itself out in distinctive black uniforms.
They also wore specially-made buttons with their unit crest: crossed rifles on a blue background.
On the front lines, however, the soldiers of the Finnish-American Legion wore white hats,
capes, and trousers over their black uniforms to camouflage into the snowy environment.
The can-do attitude that got them their distinctive uniforms couldn’t solve their
weapons shortage, though. Until March 1940, the Finnish-American Legion was critically
undersupplied with arms. But that didn’t stop the men from scrounging what they could.
Personal weapons brought from home were highly prized,
and many Legionnaires wielded civilian hunting rifles they’d acquired locally.
Under its policy of strict neutrality, the US government refused to supply arms directly to
Finland. But they did supply foodstuffs, which the Finns sold to the British,
using the money to buy American weapons, albeit at a markup. These weapons began
arriving in March 1940, by which time the Winter War was drawing to a close.
On March 9th, seven officers, 48 NCOs, and 251 other ranks of the Finnish-American Legion
packed themselves onto trains at Tuiras Station. Their trip to the frontline took a few days,
and they deployed on the 13th. At 0650, the first company, comprising those most eager to fight,
was ordered to rotate into the primary defensive line. But before they got there, word reached
the officers that a peace treaty between Finland and the Soviet Union had been signed.
The men were gutted, but resolutely occupied their line until ordered
to retreat. The Finnish-American Legion was one of the last units to leave the front.
Roughly 350 Finnish-Americans volunteered to fight in the Winter War and deployed to Finland.
The initial wave saw action in various units and Pentilla’s Guerrillas, while the bulk of the force
readied themselves and waited for equipment. By March 1940, when the armistice was signed,
another 1,000 volunteers had signed up in the US and were waiting to be shipped out.
If the Finnish-American Legion had been formed as planned, receiving American weapons and
training from the Karelia veterans, it would have been one of the strongest units fighting
against the communists in the Winter War. History, however, took a different course.
THAT was the little-known story of the Finnish-American Midwesterners who went
to fight against the Soviets in the Winter War. But what do YOU think?
Did YOU know the Finns were supported by volunteers from so many different nations?
What impact do YOU think the Legion would have had on the war if they had been armed earlier?
Do YOU think the age of volunteer legions is over? Let us know in the comments!