Grand FinnFest 2005 Report – Brent Snodgrass – Gunboards.com and MosinNagant.Net

 My role at FinnFest was a bit mixed as I was involved in both the indoor and outdoor displays, since I had items from my collection in both locations.  I was also called upon to make a speech once a day dealing with the 120mm mortar as well as the Soviet attacks in Finland that took place in June of 1944.  This was my first truly public appearance as a speaker on such a subject but the speech seemed to be well received by the audience.  The biggest complement that I received was that a Finnish veteran of one of the battles I overviewed heard the speech and informed me that I did a good job.  I guess that is the best feedback that I could have ever asked for, so I was pleased with how it turned out.  Thankfully I did cut the speech times down a bit as the sun was hot and I did not wish to make people stand outside for the full 30 minutes.

While there are many events and happenings that one could focus on, by far the best of FinnFest came with interacting with Finnish War vets.  This made the event what it was and I wish to share a few of these stories.

  I met two men that took great interest in a satchel charge that I added to Tero’s display. I started to speak with them and it turns out both had been anti-tank men in 1944. They mentioned to me the satchel charges were too heavy to throw with any accuracy so the Finns snuck up on tanks and placed these on the treads. As the one Finn said “It then blew up and we waited. Sometimes we smoked while we waited for the Russians to come out of the tank. Then we shot them and we had a tank.” He also mentioned the cocktails they used ranged from good to poor. Some he said were not thick and these were dangerous to the user as often these blew up as soon as they were lit. He said they used the thicker mixtures first as these were the best and the most safe to use. It was also interesting that he mentioned early on the cocktails were thrown into what he called the air vent near the engine but since this tended to cause the entire tank to blow up they were ordered to throw the cocktails near the “radiator” as this would not blow up the engine. This would allow the tank to be captured. He laughed as he told this story as he said they killed tanks however they could and that if Mannerheim wanted to capture intact tanks that he should come knock them out himself (smile). These were two interesting fellows.

  One vet that I met was a member of an anti-air unit and was a loader – he was only 14 years old in 1944 when pressed into duty. He said he was one of the youngest vets of the war.  I have his address and plan to keep in touch. My new friend Aarne was manning the pea soup kitchen and he told me his story – He was 14 during the Winter War and was in the Boy Scouts. As such he was trained to aid those wounded in the bombings. His comment on this was that at that age you in most cases run from trouble where as he had to run directly to the trouble. Later in 1944 after two weeks of training he was on the way to the front, the train stopped for three days and the war ended. He was an interesting guy and had a lot of stories that had been passed on to him. When I get some time I will try and post more. He did mention a funny story about Finnish horses.  He said most horses were sent into service and after the war these horses were returned to their owners.  There was a milk cart horse in his town that served in the war and whenever a plane would fly overhead the horse would bolt off the road – as it had learned the sound of a plane meant danger.  I was told this was quite a sight as when the horse bolted all hell broke loose with the milk cart overturning many times.

 There were other stories but here is the one that made my entire trip worthwhile. I had been speaking with a Finn that came to Canada in the 1960’s after serving as a marksmanship instructor in the Finnish Army – he later did the same in the Canadian Army for 8 years. He and I talked over some of the Finnish sniper rifles Vic had on display then he told me about his father who had been wounded in 1944. He mentioned to me that his father had been pulled across a small area of water after being wounded and only the cold water kept him from bleeding to death. He had always been told of the location of this crossing – in fact he heard of it his whole life repeated by his father – but he had never been there. He said since the area was now a part of Russia he just could not bear traveling to the place his dad made the crossing.

 As a collector it was nice to be able to give something back and that is what FinnFest provided, an opportunity to give back to the Finnish communities in North America . It is rare that ones gets the chance to do this and giving back is what this hobby of collecting history is all about. I think the military side of FinnFest was a larger success than had been hoped for and in the future the military history of Finland will be a featured section of FinnFest events.

Brent - August 21, 2005