Finnish army jumpers

Moderator: Pirkka

User avatar
Peter Bauer
Posts: 450
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2009 8:24 pm
Location: Oita, Japan
Contact:

Re: Finnish army jumpers

Post by Peter Bauer »

The fur hats finns used differ from modern ones and russian ones, that you see being sold in internet sometimes...

Ushanka is pretty similar, but still different.
Image
Kyrl
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2010 10:16 pm

Re: Finnish army jumpers

Post by Kyrl »

Thank you! At last, I see some pictures of these "Cajander" uniforms!
User avatar
Peter Bauer
Posts: 450
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2009 8:24 pm
Location: Oita, Japan
Contact:

Re: Finnish army jumpers

Post by Peter Bauer »

Hattu.fi - this is a finnish store selling some quality hats! Most of these are good for re-enacting finns (All the "suikkas", Mahdottoman Hyvä, Antti, Mauri, Nikitas too, perhaps even Lammaslippis MJ if you want to go for more rare look).

There was an article about Malli Cajander in Suomen Sotilas recently, it basicly stated that early war reserve units started the war with malli Cajander, but those at the front quite quickly received M36 or M27 uniforms. Conscript units were all using M36 when they went to war, but they gave their spare uniforms away. Some conscripts had to use M22, as they were considered "having a uniform" already, thus not needing a replacement. They were given M36 uniforms by the end of december. In February-March they actually stopped producing M36 wool uniforms and started making M39 summer uniforms, since there was a good stock of the wool tunics by then. For example, Suojeluskunta equipped almost 150 000 men with (mostly) M27 uniforms and some M36 uniforms, while the defence force equipped the rest 200 000 men.

New units that came to the front did continue having only malli Cajander when they arrived to the front, but they were given army uniforms within few weeks of arrival, as all the uniforms from factories went straight to the front to the be given to the men there. But this means that the men got only trousers and tunics, sometimes boots and M36 caps. Most of the men continued using civilian hats and mittens/gloves etc. Army also bought large number of civilian boots from civilian producers to be given to soldiers at front, so sometimes these civilian boots were infact army issued rather than brought from home.

The problem is that the intendant office of finnish defence force simply listed ALL the uniforms as "takki" and "housut", meaning jacket/tunic and trousers resppectively. So it's quite difficult to know what they were exactly giving out. Fact is though, that by the time continuation war started, there were no M22's or M27's issued to troops. They were given mostly M39 summer uniforms, with some of the less important units behind the line getting M36 uniforms.
Image
Kyrl
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2010 10:16 pm

Re: Finnish army jumpers

Post by Kyrl »

Thank you for these useful details!
Post Reply

Return to “Finnish Discussion”