Post
by mosu » Sat Dec 31, 2005 7:00 pm
Thanks for shearing these pictures TaosB.
The #1 has been taken during the great Sovjet summer offensive in summer 1944 in Karelian Isthmus. The farthest back man keeps a Maxim model MG in his hands. Notice the water pipe rolled around the gun. The two men have, as TaosB mentioned, perunanuija to say ’potato mashers’ in their hands. It appears to me that the grenade is hanging on the nearest man’s belt but it is not sure because it is partially behind the drum magazine. If it is hanging on and not pushed behind the belt, it should be Finnish varsikäsikranaatti m/32 (handle hand grenade model/32) which had a belt hook. Otherwise it may be German M24 which was known here as m/39 or Finnish m/41 which did not have this m/32’s belt hook because it had in some cases got caught in gear which resulted in disaster. I guess m/41.
In #2 the second from left is, and I bet TaosB knows it, is Lauri Törni aka Larry A. Thorne in 1944. The SMG is perhaps KP44. Lahti (co-designer to Lahti-Saloranta LMG) improved a little PPS43 in Jyväskylä, Tikkakoski factories and that became 9 mm KP44.
joseyclosey:
There were a variety of different kind of helmets in IIWW Finland: Swedish, Czech, German IWW, German and German model made in Hungary ones. This at least. German models beeing most common.
By the way did you know that Lahti was allowed to gulp down shots during working hours and he had a special permission for it given by Mannerheim.
We have a New Year since two hours :-)
mosu
Last edited by
mosu on Sun Jan 01, 2006 8:06 am, edited 10 times in total.
