Osmo

Since I happen to have time to spare... 9. = 9th Company III = 3rd Battalion JR 23 = Jalkaväkirykmentti 23= Infantry Regiment 23 Thus, it's the 9th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the Infantry Regiment 23. In Winter War the companies in regiments were numbered as following: 1-3 (Rifle) Companies were part of the 1st Battalion in the regiment, 4-6 formed the 2nd Battalion and 7-9 the third one of the regiment. In addition each infantry battalion had a machine gun company, numbered 1-3 through the regiment. In Continuation War (41-44) MG Companies were renamed. Now they were called 4th, 8th and 12th Companies. Thus rifle companies became 1st-3rd in the 1st Bn, 5th-7th in the 2nd Bn and 9th-11th in the third Bn. It might be helpful for the non-Finnish speakers if the Finnish scenario designers started to translate the abbrevations too? Then again, not that many Finns are able to understand what do abbrevations like "Esk/KevOs 8", "RatsPtri" or "ErP 6" mean actually...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that the Finnish Pz-IV tanks were Pz-IVJ, not the PzIVH as the game claims?

It may well be so. From what source did you get the info, if I may ask?</font>

So the confusion comes from the fact that Finnish Alikersanttis were Corporals and Finnish Korpraalis were Lance-Corporals (in English)?</font>

So your troops didn´t meet these Überfinns? </font>

I was just reading a book about Winter Warc called "Patterinpäällikkönä Talvisodassa" (something like "Battery Commander in the Winter War") by Vilho Pösö, who was the commander of the First Battery of the Separate Artillery Battalion 4 (Erillinen Patteristo 4) during the Winter War. One appendix lists the names of the men who served in that battery. In the end he mentions "There are 5 officers, 29 NCOs and 130 Lance-Corporals (korpraali) and Gunners (tykkimies) in the name list, altogether 164 names". I noted from the list that from these 29 NCOs two were First Sergeants (=vääpeli; usually translated as Warrant Officer but I find "First Sergeant" better), one was Staff Sergeant (ylikersantti), five were Sergeants (kersantti) and 21 were Corporals (alikersantti). Out of the 130 enlisted men about 25 were Lance-Corporals, of which only three or four served in NCO positions. So at least according to this book, korpaali was not a NCO.

Platoon Leaders were most often Second Lieutenants (vänrikki), sometimes First Lieutenants (luutnantti) but rarely. Company Commanders were supposed to be Captains, but most often he was a First Lieutenant (of reserve). I think that even 2Lts were more common in Company Commander positions as Captains (i'm talking about the whole war; at the start of Winter War there might have been proportionally more Captains serving as Company (Battery) Commanders. Battalion Commanders were usually Captains or Majors, seldom Lieutenant-Colonels. Regiments were commanded by Lieutenant-Colonels or Colonels, Lt-Col being more common. Divisions were commanded by Colonels (1939-1942), but after the attack of 1941 had ended, division commanders started to receive promotions and by June 6, 1944, all of the 15 divisions were commanded by Majo-Generals.

I'm quite sure that korpraali was not a NCO during the WW2. It might have been a NCO rank at the first years of independece, but I don't think that was the case in the WW2.

Jääkäri As everybody knows, the word comes from the German word "Jäger", meaning hunter (the Germand word; Finnish word Jääkäri doens't have any additional meaning"). Centuries ago, at the time of line tactics and muskets, jaegers were light infantrymen, who fought as skirmishers. During the WW2 Jaeger units in Finland were fast-moving bicycle troops, which were especially used to pursuit or delay the enemy or in recce duties. This varies though: each battalion of infantry had a separate jaeger platoon, which functioned as a scouts. The Jaeger battalions were somewhat closer to the regular infantry. Sissi can be translated as either ranger or guerilla. I would prefer the first one, because the Finnish sissi troops were regular army forces, not some irregular bunch of civilians. They were more commando-type units.

Nitpicking: it was m/39 actually... 20 Panssarintorjuntakivääri 39 is the full name, meaning 20 Anti-Tank Rifle 39. 20 is the caliber, 39 is the year of introduction. This same pattern goes for nearly every weapon used by the Finnish Defence Forces. First is the caliber, then comes the type of the weapon, the the year of introduction. There are exceptions though. [ October 11, 2002, 03:45 PM: Message edited by: Osmo ]