Finnish volunteers in 'Nord' ?

[mario33]

I'm interested in the subject of Finnish volunteers in Waffen SS units.

As far as the public knowlege puts it, they were mostly in Wiking division and later remnants in 'Nordland' Regiment and 'Kurt Eggers' Kampfgruppe.

I'm however interested in getting to know whether there were some Finns in 'Nord' division. I've read some fragmented info that after initial problems with poor fighting due to lack of training and experience in 1941, the units of the division were temporarily transferred under Finnish command and later reformed as GJ division, based on Finnish ski fighting experience. If that was a fact, there should have been at least some Finnish instructors that were included in the units of the Division.

I'm looking for any info confirming the above facts, as well as info regarding whether some Finns remained in Nord for a longer period of time (beyond training) and fought along Germans in that Division. And info on their uniforms, special insignia would be invaluable (maybe photos ?).

[Franz repper]

My dear Mario33 I have not replied to your PM on this as I was looking to find the numbers for you.There was not a great number of Finns in SS Nord the largest amount of Finns were in Wiking and Nordland Regiment (3000).SS Nord was broken up after salla and trained by Finnish units Nord is also the only SS unit to be commanded by a Foreign Command, Division J commanded by Finnish General Siilasuo.
The largest group of foreign troops in Nord was to form Freiwillign-Schikkompanie Norwegena round 700 men strong

Norwegen troops serving in SS Nord Note the badge on the Right hand man

for more on the The SS Skijegerbataljon Norge go to this link http://www.frontkjemper.com/index_files ... talion.htm

[mario33]

Franz thank you for the info. I knew that you have been looking for the info for me, i just thought there might accidentaly be someone having some more info on that. However, having in mind your vast knowledge about, it was doubtful right from the starters

I'm not into Norge though. I need the Finns

I know there should have been some in 'Nord'. I need an evidence The news about Finnish general is a good start I wonder if they were there as instructors, they either were given SS uniform or stayed in Finnish one... That bothers me most

[Franz repper]

after the disaster at salla the poorly trained SS troops were attached to finnish units like this
SS Infantry Regiment 6and Nords Artillery regiment were attached to Finnish Group J a brigade size infantry formation in III Finnish Corps.SS infantry regiment 7 part of 169 Infantry Division Reconnaissance Battalion Nord was attached to the Finnish 6th Infantry Division ,All the German units that came under Finnish comand gained from there time with the Finns .The train was achived by attaching Finnish rifle companys the the german companys ,some of the commanders mixed the Finnish in to the German companys and as most Finnish officers spoke german communication was not to much of a problem.
The Finnish troops wore there own finnish uniform when they were in the German units

[Willi Heydrich]

After the armstice between Finland and Soviet Union, some Finns remained at the services of Nord or joined it. Apparently, many of them didn´t see any action for the remainder of the war but were trained as "intelligence guerrillas" to be used in the after-war, "Soviet-occupied" Finland. There were exceptions, namely Lauri Törni, but that´s another story...

[Franz repper]

Willi my dear Lauri Törni never served in SS Nord

[Willi Heydrich]

No, but he joined the WSS again after the armstice and saw some action on the eastern front.