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Flag Day Parade of the Finnish Defence Forces 2014

Discussion in 'Winter and Continuation Wars' started by Karjala, Jun 5, 2014.

  1. Karjala

    Karjala Don Quijote

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    This years annual FDF Flag Day (= Mannerheim's birthday) Parade was held in Lappeenranta, capitol of South (of what is left of the Finnish) Karelia, in South Eastern Finland.

    in addition of it's normal content - the survey, field prayers, speech and the march-past with modern equipment - it also included cavalry section wearing their famous (in Finland) m22 uniform with "hurmahousut" ("blood" trousers, because of the red colour) and "luurankotakki" ("skeleton" jacket, because of the horizontal stripes on chest), with a horse drawn gun, and a bicycle platoon in 1944 summer style with summer jackets, as well as two Ford V-8 m40 "Fighter" (based on the styling of it's nose) trucks (one with wood gas system) with an AT gun, Landverks anti AA tank, T-26 tank, Stu-40 Ausf. G "Sturmi" assault gun and T-34 "Sotka" (the silhuette looks like a bluebill water bird).

    The hole program (in Finnish) lasts 48 minutes, but if you want to skip the modern parts you can find the historical stuff here:

    http://areena.yle.fi/tv/2172328

    2'42'' - 5'15''
    32'00'' - 33'45''
    40'55'' - 44'49''

    The veteran standing next to the Lt.Gen. on the stand is Capt. Tuomas Gerdt, the last Mannerheim Cross Knight (out of total 191) alive.

    In addition there's a part where the Finnish reserve officer students get to know the "Salpa" (bolt) line bunkers and antitank barriers. "Salpa" line is still the biggest construction project ever in the Nordic countries. It's price in today's money would be app. 8 billion euros.

    16'44'' - 22'25''

    "The Salpa Line (Finnish: Salpalinja, literally Bolt-line; Swedish: Salpalinjen), or its official name, Suomen Salpa (Finland's Bolt), is a bunker line on the eastern border of Finland. It was built during the Interim Peace between the Winter War and the Continuation War to defend Finland against a possible Soviet invasion. The line is 1200 km long, stretching from the Gulf of Finland to Petsamo in northern Finland (now Pechenga, Russia). It never saw military action because the Soviet offensive in 1944 was stopped at the VKT-line on the Karelian Isthmus. The fortifications of the Salpa Line were much stronger than those of the Mannerheim Line.[1]"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salpa_Line
     
  2. Karjala

    Karjala Don Quijote

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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_IAdQ4Xn-0

    And here's the first part in a shorter version.
     

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