Thousands of homes in Finland were destroyed and burned during the war. Only the chimneys remained standing.

Finnish children board trains to Sweden during the war. 70,000 children left Finland for safety. Not all of them had homes or family to come home to.

Conscripts follow their new sergeant. Next stop, haircuts, uniforms, and the drill grounds. Older conscripts were inducted into the Home Army which was responsible for civil order and home defense against air raids.

Wartime clothing was in short supply. Women all over Finland pitched in and made socks, sweaters, scarves and mittens for the troops and civilians too.

Women took over the major duties in health care and hospital work as well as transportation, communications, clerical, postal, and delivery of food and war materials to the front.

Women took over most of the chores on the farms. Occasionally, local troops might pitch in to help plow or bring in the crops.

The war was not all work. This cross country skiing contest took place in the winter of 1944.

The women's auxiliary corps (Lotta Svärd) operated canteens behind the front lines for the troops.

The Home Front in Finland during the war was a collaboration between the labor unions, civilians, Civil Guard, Lotta Svärd, political parties and regular army. Each part was organized in support of the total war effort to defend Finland. During WWII,  the populations of the major European cities were brought into the second world war even though they were far behind the front lines.  For the Finns, the Home Front was an essential part of the fighting. While all the men of fighting age were at the front lines, the elderly, the children, and the women took their places and became the workers in the factories, the farmers, truck drivers, and medical staff at all the hospitals. They sat at home and made socks and sweaters for the front line troops. They learned to run the machinery that made the ammunition for the rifles and cannons, and stood on freezing rooftops and scouted for enemy aircraft.

The Finnish home front can be divided into 3 main categories: The Lotta Svard, the Home Army or Civil Guard, and civilian volunteers plus regular army troops who worked behind the lines while recovering from wounds suffered in battle. 

In Finland, the women's auxiliary corp was called the Lotta Svärd. This organization was started immediately after the War for Independence. The women were mostly trained in medical duties.  During WWII, in addition to hospital duties, Lotta women were trained for tasks ranging from spotting enemy aircraft to delivering mail to soldiers in the field, and they also served as switchboard operators. In battle zones, Lotta women provided food for the soldiers. On the home front they baked bread and manufactured goods for the front lines. In 1939 the number of Lotta Svard members jumped to about 130,000 and reached almost 173,000 in year 1943. When Lotta-Svard was abolished in November of 1944 it had some 150,000 active members, about 30,000 supporting members and about 52,000 Lotta-girls.  New types of training introduced in late 1930's included anti-chemical weapons training, air-surveillance courses, and signal training. 

Even if Lottas were not combatants, serving in Lotta Svard during the war wasn't risk free. The total number of Lottas that died during WW2 was 661. During Continuation War 228 Lottas lost their lives while serving in locations where they had been ordered to serve. As many as 64 of them died from enemy action. In addition 4 Lottas went missing.

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