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Originally posted by Kai-Petri:
Although we have our "mutual" disagreements and jokes of each other and especially the ice hockey games must not be lost at any price...
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I absolutely agree! Although in recent years the ice-hockey games have lost much of their old charm, with all too few classic reversals in the last minutes! Still, the Finnish Lions sometimes get a satisfyingly wobbly look when leading the game by two goals! [img]tongue.gif[/img] Of course, nowdays you guys actually win most of the games...
Quote:
Originally posted by Kai-Petri:
...I salute the Swedish volunteers for they truly did their duty and more when fighting in WW2 in the Finnish army!
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Amazingly, they have been largely ignored over here. The first recognition they got from "official sources" was when our (then) Defense Minister Björn von Sydow laid down a wreath at a memorial in Helsinki. This was in...2001!
Another interesting sidenote is the fact that Orvar Nilsson offered his services to help build up the old invasion defense against the Soviet Union following the war. The army chief of staff shrugged off the idea with the comment that "War experience is all well and good, but must also be adapted to Swedish terrain, Swedish soldiers and Swedish codes of conduct." Which seems like a polite way of saying he did not really find the experience offered by the volunteers useful at all!
Orvar Nilsson had quite an interesting career by the way. After the war he served in the Ethiopian Imperial Guard in Addis Abbeba(!), in Korea, and in Cyprus as part of the UN forces, apparently.