Finnish military equipment of the old type

17 May 2012 1

Somehow it so happened that Russia is ranked among the northern countries and is constantly being compared with other countries that lie at about the same latitudes. Often the comparison is in terms of the operation of military equipment. And one of the countries with which this kind of comparison occurs with a certain degree of regularity is Finland.

Today such a comparison concerns not so much the current state of things as stories more than 70 years ago, namely the time when there was a bloody war between Finland and the Soviet Union. Many military historians and specialists in military equipment declare that during the times of that war the Finnish army could not be called well-equipped. According to the participants of the war themselves, Finnish soldiers often fought in what they left home for. With the military equipment the Finns also had not everything went smoothly. For the front it was from the Finnish military equipment that the Sisu S-321 cars were used, which were completed with an all-metal cabin, a Volvo engine, and also very low sides. Many experts are sure that, despite all the lacklusterness of these military vehicles, they had one big advantage - a tread pattern, a derivative of which is still used by Finnish tire manufacturers - for example, Nordman tires.

In addition to the Sisu S-321 cars, which began to roll off the conveyors in 1933, the Finnish troops were at the disposal of the Sisu SH armored vehicles. The engine power of this armored vehicle was 80 horsepower, while the total weight of the "Sisu SH" was equal to 3 tons. Armored car was equipped with cast tires. In its arsenal, the machine had a 2 machine gun. Only here the armor of this car could not withstand heavy mechanical loads and was damaged even from the direct hit of their machine gun with a large caliber. These machines were eventually improved and overgrown with additional armor, which led to an increase in their mass to 6,5 tons. These cars were actively used by the Finns during the Second World War.

It should be noted that the “SIS SH” in Finland may well be called a long-liver. Up to 1962, this armored vehicle was used in the Finnish police.

However, one should not think that the Finnish army was far behind in equipping from the Soviet army. If we talk about comparative figures, then, for example, before the war, the Finns had 11000 rifles, the Red Army soldiers had 13500, easel machine guns - in the ratio 116 / 162. Only in mortars USSR surpassed Finland twice. However, the Soviet-Finnish war, as we know, did not become an easy walk for Soviet soldiers. Someone blames the Soviet command on this, someone - Finnish drifts, but someone is not inclined to look for the guilty and just talks about the war, as a historical event, the page of which is turned even before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.