the pages by Booker. KevOs4 owns no copyright on
the following material. No copy of this material may
be made without permission of Military Badges by
Booker and Digger History. KevOs4 gets no money for
displaying the following material.
Special text information added by
Jarkko Vihavainen - Jaeger Platoon Website. Thank you from KevOs4!
Each image is a thumbnail. Click on the image to get
a larger picture.
Before the war officers and special officers (medical officers, engineer
officers etc…) used also unit insignias in shoulder straps in addition of
lions. Lion was the first marking and unit insignia was on top of it. This
probably changed during the war – using only either lions or unit insignia
at seems to have been quite usual among officers during the war. The unit
insignias used by officers before the war and during it were made from
metal. The officer’s shoulder straps were typically non-removable.
Officers seem to have used the lions in this way until Interim Peace (1940
– 1941), at which time adding them to tunics was forbidden, but the
officers didn’t have to remove the lion-symbols from tunics, which had
them already. Naval officers were exception to this.
Rank Badges - Finnish Generals and Senior Officers
Rank Badges - Junior Officers and N.C.O.s
Rank Badges - Officers of the Services
Before the war ordinary soldiers carried
sewn (or painted in some rare cases) markings indicating the unit they
served in this way. The unit markings were sewn with yellow thread. The
units, which didn’t have own unit insignia used just fighting arm symbol.
The shoulder straps used by non-officers were removable, so this was
possible. According photographs also some non-officers seem to have worn
the unit insignias made from metal already before the war (even if it was
forbidden). After Winter War many of the old units were abolished and new
ones established, but nobody made new unit insignias for them. In some
cases unit insignias made from metal were available, but not for free
(soldiers could buy them and use the insignias while having a leave at
homefront). Because many units no longer had unit insignias Finnish
soldiers assumed the basic parts of unit markings (indicating to with
fighting arm the unit belonged) and started carrying them in similar
manner, but now they indicated only service arm instead of unit. Example
of this: "crossed rifles" symbol with number "2" below it indicated
Infantry Regiment 2 before the war, but wearing only "crossed rifles"
symbol indicated that the soldier served in infantry. Issuing the unit
insignias for free (at that point they were always made from metal) didn’t
continue until after WW2.
Arm-of-Service Badges
Arm-of-Service Badges
Commemorative badges
Basically it seems that in officer tunics one
could use shoulder straps with either:
Both lions and unit
insignias (and say its pre-war arrangement of officer who served
already before the war and which nobody changed during the war – as
this happened)
Only lions (and say its
wartime arrangement)
Only unit insignias (and
say its wartime arrangement)
Only fighting arm symbol
(and say its wartime arrangement belonging to officer whose unit
didn’t have unit insignia)
BTW: These unit insignias have rather nice
nickname among Finnish soldiers – "satiaiset" (= crab louse).
Some insignia from GUIDO ROSIGNOLI who wrote:1
"Badges and Insignia of World War Two Air Force, Naval, Marine" (1980). 2 "Army
Badges and Insignia - Book 1 of World War Two" (1979). 3 Army Badges and
Insignia - Book 2" (1975). 4 "Army Badges and Insignia Since 1945" (1973).
Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. Book Two ISBN Number is 0-02-605080-3 (v.2) 1976