THE SUOJELUSKUNTA : 

A History Of The Finnish Civil Guard

From JTV - Finland For Mosin Nagant Dot Net

Edited By Charlie Bowles

PART IV: SUOJELUSKUNTA TRAINING

Training in Suojeluskuntas didn't start well. After the Civil War, the Armed Forces picked the best trained and most competent officers and non-commissioned-officers. Meanwhile Sk organizations had trouble hiring capable officers and NCOs. A Low quality of training with Sk officials handling training, also manifested itself into a low quality of training in the whole Sk organization. In December 1918 the leadership of Suojeluskunta decided that Sk organization needed its own Officer School. The Officer School ("Päällystökoulu" aka "Sk.Pk") was established the next year in the town of Hämeenlinna, and the first course for Sk officials was held in there in October. A few Sk districts organized their own courses for Sk officers, and starting in 1921, some Sk officers started getting training in Kadettikoulu (Cadet School) of the Armed Forces. The number Sk officers it trained proved minuscule compared to Sk Officer Schools which during just the first three years its courses had more than 1,100 participants.

The Officer School got several new buildings and the training it gave improved and diversified. During the 1930s, 269 courses were given there with almost 12,400 participants. In the 1930s the average course length in Sk Officer School was 8 months (containing about 800 hours of training). One could very well say that Sk Officer School created the officer core for Suojeluskunta. The high quality of training given to Sk officers there in the 1930s reflected on training given at all levels of Sk organization as an immensely improving quality of training in the whole organization. Another factor improving the situation in the 1920s was that, especially in key-positions of Sk-district HQs level, starting in 1921 professional soldiers (officers from the Finnish Army) replaced high-spirited but less skilled independence activists.

Sk Officer training:

The educational standards for Sk Officers was confirmed first in May of 1921. The required basic training for them was at least 5 years of secondary school or equivalent schooling with Sk officer courses and the Sk officers exam. Still having done all this didn't necessary guarantee promotion. In 1923 the courses and studies for Sk-officers were also standardized. These studies included much book knowledge, so reading and studying listed books was an important part.

The subjects studied included:

Military Forces doctrine
Suojeluskunta doctrine
Weapons doctrine
Terrain doctrine
Fortification doctrine
Tactics
Company tactics
Machinegun tactics
Artillery tactics
Horse management

If mobilization had happened in the 1920s ,Sk officers would have been ordered to ranks and missions for which they had received training when they served in military. This was a clear weakness and would have been a waste of resources.

Sk Private training:

Starting in 1921 active members of were ordered to participate at least 12 days (about 100 hours) of training per year. The training would usually last one to several days at time and was organized as garrison/encampment-like. In theory the emphasis was on shooting and battle training. In reality however, the early Sk training included lot of close order drill,  while battle training was less common and shooting was a rare treat. Suojeluskuntas also proved to have problems reaching the 12 days/year training levels for their active members. Only the very best of Suojeluskuntas managed to get the average amount of yearly training to reach this level and they didn't even succeed in that earlier than the late 1930s. Naturally each branch of arms giving training in Sk organization had its own demands concerning training of their members. Maneuvers had a large part in Sk training, and the first large maneuvers were held by Sk organization in 1929 with 283 officers and 3.841 NCOs and men near the town of Jyväskylä. In only a few years the maneuvers grew in size so much that they had tens of thousands of participants.

As the level of military skills expected from non-officer and non-NCO members of Sk were standardized, its men were divided into two classes-

A class:
A1: Men fit for frontline service under 40-years old.
A2: Men fit only for guard duty or over 40-years old (only infantry).

B class: Those who had not passed Sk-private exams.

Timetable of Sk-private courses, showing the time reserved for its parts (based on the rule books of Suojeluskunta):

General military training -
Military forces doctrine, laws and regulations 9 hours
Routine duty 2 hours
Garrison duty 2 hours

Total 13 hours

Formal training -
Close order drill 12 hours
Open order drill 8 hours

Total 20 hours

Battle training and field service -
Individual battle training 26 hours
Squad battle training 20 hours
Field Service 18 hours

Total 64 hours

Field works 4 hours
Anti chemical weapons training 10 hours
Equipment training 15 hours
Shooting training 15 hours
Sports education 8 hours
Maintenance 6 hours

Total 68 hours

GRAND TOTAL 155 Hours

Types of training:

Typically Suojeluskuntas cities had several companies, the largest ones  battalions and in a way Helsinki Suojeluskunta had regiments. In the 1920s training in rural Suojeluskuntas was typically exclusively for infantry. At that time only Suojeluskuntas of largest cities units were also training other branches of arms, those special units being trained:

Artillery (also with few Suojeluskuntas outside cities)
Cavalry (also with few Suojeluskuntas outside cities)
Bicycle troops
Engineers (only in Helsinki and very small scale)
Signal units (starting in 1927)
Medical units (also with few Suojeluskuntas outside cities, starting in1919)

Artillery training started in Sk in 1919. First the artillery weapons used were "75 VK 98" mountain guns, but starting in 1920 Sk got also other guns. Training units of Sk-artillery were 2 gun and 4 gun strong batteries called "Sk batteries". These Sk batteries were directly under the command of Sk.Y. Between 1918 - 1921 Sk had also manned static batteries of 152-mm fortification guns located at Suvanto-Vuoksi area for the Bolshevik threat. Shooting with live-fire ammunition was quite limited as the oldest gun types were typically in rather poor shape and there was an ammunition shortage for modern guns.

Another interesting part of Sk-organization directly under Sk.Y and having its own uniforms was Sk-Navy. The idea for Sk-Navy was based on the British Auxiliary Fleet and appeared in 1919, but of the idea took until 1923 to materialize. The number vessels used was quite small, but their number was large on a Finnish scale. Participants of the first Sk-Navy maneuvers included: About 200 boats, 14 tugboats, and about 650 men. Their planned wartime use was supporting coastal artillery with guard, connection, and transport missions. Members of Sk Navy had also received training for installing and clearing sea mines and were familiar with signaling, naval guns and torpedoes. The obligatory minimum amount of training for Sk Navy members was 6 days/year.

Shooting as part of training:

Shooting was and is a vital part of military skills. Suojeluskunta decided to include practice shooting and competitions into its activities from the start, but early on this wasn't easy. Hunting was popular among the Finns living in rural areas, but the usual hunting weapon had been a shotgun, not a rifle. After the Civil war Finnish military dumped major mix of captured rifles on Suojeluskunta and even the more standard types like Mosin-Nagant M/91 rifles were often in very poor shape. Between 1918 - 1923 Sk organization also found it difficult finding acceptable quality ammunition at reasonable prices. The basic necessities needed for shooting training were accurate rifles and good ammunition, so the rifles needed to be repaired and a supply of ammunition organized. When it came to repairing and building rifles "Asepaja" (Weapons Workshop, later known as SAKO) started in 1919 and proved very useful, but results of its hard work appeared slowly. A temporary solution to the ammunition shortage was loading ammunition with simple equipment in local Suojeluskuntas, and this continued until the ammunition shortage passed.

Rules used in early Sk shooting competitions can sound bit odd to shooters of this day. Hits were measured as centimeters from the center of the target, and sighting in shots or using rifle slings for support was forbidden. Some Sk members who had the money and wanted good shooting results bought new (usually 7 mm x 57 caliber) Mauser rifles at their own expense. Because Japanese and Mosin-Nagant rifles of Suojeluskunta and their ammunition were what they were, a special handicap system was introduced for them. Basically the handicap system worked like this: Shooters using Japanese rifle got 5 % compensation and shooters using Mosin-Nagant rifle got 10 % compensation, those who used new Mauser rifles didn't get any compensation. In a way the compensation system didn't always work as perceived. Many of the most successful shooters took trophies using self-loaded ammunition with Mosin-Nagant rifles. Suojeluskunta soon had the best shooters in Finland. When it comes to the overall plan of shooting in Sk-organization, in principle it was to put emphasis on military shooting (fast and precise shooting at various distances), but in reality the emphasis remained on sports shooting (shooting accurately from pre-known distance). Suojeluskuntas also built hundreds of shooting ranges for its use. The number of Suojeluskunta organized shooting competitions and their participants skyrocketed in the 1920s. One of the goals of Sk organization was making shooting one of the national sports and one could say it succeeded to a large extent.

Suojeluskunta and sports:

The reason why Sk organization supported sports was quite simple: Fit people make better soldiers and , in general, wide spread sports which maintain fitness have positive effects on a community. Sports had an important part in Suojeluskunta and Sk organization also contributed to their development in Finland. Possibly the still most visible effect was introducing "pesäpallo" (basically Finnish version of baseball, main developer Sk-officer Lauri "Tahko" Pihkala) in 1922 and spreading it so popular, that it still nowadays belongs to Finnish national sports. For Sk organization popularizing pesäpallo had purposes beyond developing physical fitness and team spirit: Short spurts and dashes ending by throwing a hand grenade sized ball were also useful skills for war. The most important sports for Suojeluskunta were skiing, running, gymnastics, and field & track sports. From these, skiing slowly became the most important. In fact, Sk-organization even developed of new kind of cross-country ski (which also become Finnish military skis), which were handier in forests than traditional Finnish skis. Suojeluskunta also started rewarding its best shooters and the most fit members with fitness medals in 1921. Suojeluskunta fitness medals were issued in three classes and naturally getting the 1st class medal demanded most fitness. One could way say that Sk-organization was the most important sports organization in Finland before WW2.

PART V: SUOJELUSKUNTA AND MOBILIZATION

Suojeluskuntas briefly had a role in mobilization in late 1918, but after that the task was removed from its responsibilities. In 1934 the situation changed and Suojeluskunta became a vital part of the mobilization system and change of the mobilization system impacted the whole Sk organization.

Cadre mobilization system:

The Cadre mobilization system was used in the Finnish army from April of 1918 to April of 1934. Just as in later mobilization systems the whole country was divided into military districts and upon mobilization a certain number of units would be formed in each of these districts. In this system (based to German mobilization system) each of the wartime Armed Force regiments had an active peacetime Armed Force battalion sized unit as cadre,  around which the wartime unit ,when mobilized, would be formed by filling up the ranks with reservists. The first ambitious mobilization plan made in 1918 would have required forming 9 divisions (with a total of 27 infantry regiments), but at that time Finland didn't even have half of the needed trained troops or weaponry for an the Army of that size. So Finns started with a wartime Army of only three division. As the Finns got more soldiers trained in the reserves the strength of the Finnish Armed forces grew larger. Unfortunately this also meant that even if more equipment were acquired, the equipment situation for Finnish soldiers didn't improve much as there were more and more soldiers to whom equipment need to be issued upon mobilization. In 1921 the goal of mobilization was re-set to 6 divisions and 1 Jaeger brigade, but the same Finnish military still came to conclusion that 10 divisions would be needed to have a capability for defensive war. In 1927 Finland finally had resources the for 7 divisions, but the Defense Revision of that time suggested a future wartime Army of 13 divisions.

Development of Finnish Armed Forces mobilization strength:

1919: 110,000 men
1925: 150,000 men
1930: 200,000 men
1934: 315,000 men

The part Sk organization played in this organization was two-fold: Suojeluskuntas of border-areas were to fight against the enemy as part of Suojajoukot in their own areas, while the role of Sk organization would have formed additional units as reserves. If there been war during this mobilization system, there would have been pure Sk-units in the war. The main problems of this mobilization system were that it was centralized (units were to be formed in small number of locations) and its ability to effectively mobilize an ever larger growing Army was questionable. Large numbers of troops and vehicles gathering for mobilization would have made good targets for an enemy air force and successful sabotage against some of the few large depots, in which the equipment was stored, could have been devastating.

"Suojajoukot" (= Protective troops):

Suojajoukot were Finnish units defending the border areas against the first attack of the enemy, their mission was to delay (or even stop) the enemy just after the start of war to buy time for full-scale mobilization. Suojeluskuntas played an interesting role in them. During the Cadre mobilization system (1918 - 1933) in case of war Suojeluskuntas would have indeed formed their own pure battle units, which would have been part of these troops. The amount of Sk units in Suojajoukot started out small, but was increased considerably by the late 1920s. During the last decade or so before replacing the cadre mobilization system with the area mobilization system, their part in Suojajoukot would have been vital.

When Sk organization was first organized in 1918 ,certain areas called "Rajamaa" (= borderland) were left outside areas included in Sk mobilization district system. Had the war started many of Rajamaa Suojeluskuntas would have fought as part of Suojajoukot along with Army units located in the area. Other Suojeluskuntas around Finland would have guarded their own areas of the home front. Starting in 1921, the amount of Sk units reserved for Suojajoukot became even larger, when Suojeluskuntas of Viipuri-, Sortavala- and Joensuu Sk-districts were assigned to them. After this, their part continued to grow and by 1926 the amount of Sk districts, whose Suojeluskuntas were included in Suojajoukot had doubled and another five Sk-district would have organized their own coastal defense units during war.

The Mobilization Plan for 1928 included the following pure Sk-units for Sk Districts:

7 Sk Regiments
29 Sk Battalions
2 Sk Artillery Battalions
1 light Sk Detachment

Area mobilization system:

The Cadre Mobilization System was replaced with the Area mobilization System on the 1st of May 1934. The ideas behind this new system were in suggestions to the Puolustusrevisio (Defense Revision), which (then) Major Leonard Grandell  had already made a decade earlier. The new Area Mobilization Plan was decentralization: Troops would be formed as small company / artillery battery sized units all over the place. Equipment, which the formed units needed to have, was in smaller mobilization storage locations, from which they would be transported to each unit's place of mobilization. "Suojajoukot" (Protection troops) formed mainly from active peacetime Army units would delay the enemy, giving time for full mobilization.

The role of Sk organization changed totally. It got an active role in mobilization. Separate mobilization organizations were formed and District HQ level and local level of Sk organizations gave resources to it. These resources (in close operation with Military District HQs) did the actual work of distributing orders for the Reservists to come forward. In March of 1932, Sk organization delivered copies of its membership card registery to the Headquarters of Military Districts, these cards formed the starting point for forming area mobilization system. Now Sk-members had become the cadre around which the units would be formed from other reservists in mobilization. Suojeluskuntas of the border areas would no longer form their own units for battle and there would no longer be pure Suojeluskunta units in becoming war.

Each military district would mobilize:

One Infantry Regiment
One Field Artillery Battalion
Varying amount of other units

Sk Cadres in the Area Mobilization System:

An even more important part came with training the Sk Cadres, the skeleton around which the other reservists would be gathered to form units in mobilization. Training at Suojeluskuntas was now centered around training Sk-Cadres (aka Army Reservists who were also Sk members) and resources had to be re-focused for training them. These officers, NCOs and men forming Sk-Cadres had to be well trained and now Sk-organization had to be able to train all kinds of troops needed for various fighting arms. For this, Suojeluskuntas had to totally re-plan their training system, as now the training types it gave needed large diversification. Thus far the large majority of countryside Suojeluskuntas had trained only infantry. Now they also started to train unit-types such as artillery, signal corps, air defense, engineers, cavalry, etc. as Sk Cadres for these type units which would be mobilized from their area. The previously rare training units of these types in Suojeluskuntas also had to be enlarged. This change was so large-scale that large numbers of previous infantry Suojeluskuntas now were transformed as artillery, air defense, engineer, signal corps, etc. Suojeluskuntas. Only Suojeluskuntas of the largest cities (which already had trained their members for variety of fighting arms) remained basically the same through this change.

Naturally training of the rifle infantry also continued in Suojeluskuntas, but starting from the year 1933 Suojeluskuntas gave the following amount of training listed below:

(Source: Suojeluskuntain historia, part 3)

Missions of Sk-organization in Area Mobilization System:

1) Training and maintaining Sk cadres for mobilization
2) Forming coastal defense units for Pellinki, Turku, Satakunta, Vaasa and Oulu coastal defense sectors. Training and maintaining Sk cadres for these units.
3) Reinforcing field posts of Frontier Guard with Sk members.
4) Forming units for distributing orders in mobilization. Once the mobilization was ready these units would be free for other uses.
5) Training personnel for home front use and forming units for these home front duties.

The first two mentioned missions were handled by Sk members belonging to the Army Reserve. Sk members belonging to home reserve could also be used for the third mission. The remaining 4th and 5th missions at the home front could be left to those, which themselves would not be mobilized in to the Army in mobilization (like home reserve, those released from military duty, Sk veterans and members of Lotta-Svärd). 

The duties on the home front included:

1) Guard duty
2) Maintaining security and public order.
3) Air surveillance and air defense (included also looking for downed aircraft and their crews).
4) Assisting & organizing road and water transports.
5) Assessing civilian authorities in evacuation and housing of civilians.
6) Propaganda.
7) Taking care of war-invalids, burial of those killed in combat, war orphans and relatives of those killed in combat.
8) Assisting in putting out forest fires.
9) Hunting down enemy saboteurs and spies.

In the Cadre Mobilization System the Suojeluskuntas of Sk-districts at the Eastern Borders had participated in mobilization as part of "Suojajoukot" (protective troops, troops protecting the full-scale mobilization), but in the Area mobilization System they no longer had such a role. This was quite clearly visible in the wars to come.

PART VI: WORLD WAR TWO

Fortification works:

The Finnish main fortified defense line of the Winter War on the Karelian Isthmus become known as the Mannerheim line during the war. The line's concrete structures had been built in two phases: The first ones in the early 1920s and the second ones in the late 1930s, when many early 1920s bunkers were also modified. The somewhat small number of concrete structures , however, were only part of the defense line. The other equally or more important elements of the defense line included field fortifications like: Trenches, barbwire obstacles, wooden posts for machineguns , and dugouts. Unlike concrete structures these field fortifications were largely not built by contractors but by volunteers and soldiers. Sk organizations and Sk members had their own important part among volunteer fortification builders of the Summer of 1939.

Civil Guard members in 1939

The idea of gathering volunteers for fortification works of Karelian Isthmus came from Lieutenant Colonel Väinö Leopold Merikallio, who was Commander of the Keski-Pohjanmaa Sk-district. Sk.Y Chief-of-Staff Martola introduced the idea to both Sk.Y and Defense Minister Niukkanen, who liked the idea and set a committee to develop the idea. The committee got the plan ready in April of 1939. At the time the basic plan was for a maximum of 3,300 volunteers working from early June to the end of October. From those volunteers 3,000 were to work on the Karelian Isthmus and 300 at coastal forts. Technical leadership and supervision of the volunteer fortification workforce was left to Lieutenant Colonel Otto Bonsdorff. When the work was about to start on the 4th of June 1939, 4,000 men arrived instead of the planned 3,300. Volunteer fortification works continued until 8 October 1939, when the military took over the fortification line. By that time over 60,000 had taken part in voluntary fortification works, over half of them had been Sk-members.

The Winter War (1939 - 1940):

The Finnish mobilization for the Winter War was accomplished in good time and succeeded well. The Finns ordered Suojajoukot (Protective troops) ready near the border on the 6th of October 1939, so they could ensure the further mobilization. The next day (7th of October) partial mobilization of other troops was ordered with YH-orders (YH = Ylimääräinen Harjoitus = Extra Rehearsals). The rest of the troops were also mobilized with YH-orders a few days later (12th of October). When the war started on the 30th of October 1939 Finnish troops were ready for it.

Home front troops (Kotijoukot) were formed from Sk organization and Home-replacement troops (Kotitäydennysjoukot). Suojeluskunta General HQs (Sk.Y) was transformed into the HQs of Home front troops (Kotijoukkojen Esikunta). The HQs of Home Front troops started to work on the12th of October, but the actual name change from Sk.Y to HQs of Home Front troops only happened only after the fact on the 2nd of December. The Lotta-Svärd organization also belonged under its command.

After the mobilization had been finished and the Field-Army transported to its areas of operations the HQs of Home Front troops started handling its new missions:

1) Securing home front areas against enemy attacks.
2) Conscripting, transporting, training, and equipping more troops.
3) Supplying Home front troops and field hospitals.
4) Gathering and purchasing more materials needed for battle (barbwire, tools, clothing, etc).

The Chief of Skorganization also became Chief of Home Front troops. The organization used for Area Mobilization dispersed after mobilization as the bulk of the Military Districts HQs personnel left and joined the Field-Army. Basically the Military District HQs disappeared and Sk-organization, which was  another of the Area Mobilization System still remaining, took over its remaining tasks. For this purpose the whole Sk District system was replaced with a new one and distribution of the new one was an exact replica of the Military District system it had replaced. The new wartime Sk district HQs handled both their old tasks and the new ones, which had earlier belonged to the Military District HQs. When it came to military issues, the Home Front troops HQs was under command of Finnish Armed Forces HQ and in administrative issues it was under command of the Defense Ministry.

Sk cadres forming the core of mobilized units added cohesion to their units in vital first battles and were able to guide less trained reservists early on. As the troops gained experience this become less important. About 16 % (49,000) of reservists mobilized for the Winter War to the Field Army were Sk members. The total of Sk-members who served in theFinnish Field Army during the Winter War was about 65,000. The Suojeluskuntas were left with about 55,000 members who were either too young, too old, or had orders to work for the State, a municipality or an industry. Their own training inside Sk-organization shrank considerably for the duration of the war. There were no training personnel left, and Sk-members of suitable age left on the home front were too busy with their wartime responsibilities to do training.

The Home Front troops trained a lot of new troops during the Winter War. The Finnish State had conserved in the 1930s by classifying a lot of men as unfit for military service during peace for minor problems and left them without military training. Now these previously unfit men (2nd class home reserve as the Finnish military classed them) needed to be trained fast. Volunteers also appeared by the thousands and needed training. Luckily, all new recruits didn't need military training starting at point zero: Of the new recruits trained during the Winter War, about 20 % (6,000) were Sk members and the share of Sk members was also very large among domestic volunteers. When the Finnish Army found itself having too few officers, the third large training mission was to train Reserve Officers with 6 - 8 week courses. Men conscripted in the Autumn of 1939 started their military service with about 4,000 men who had received postponement for military training earlier in February of 1940. Combined they numbered about 34,000 men who needed to be trained for frontline service. The largest new Finnish military formations created during the Winter War were the 21st, 22nd and 23rd Divisions.

As the area Mobilization System introduced in 1933 had marked an end to the idea of pure Suojeluskunta units.Such units fighting at the frontline were extremely rare during the Winter War. Only in a few cases in which more troops were needed desperately at the frontline and new conscripts from training centers could not be sent fast enough, saw use of units hastily created from Sk members. The best known examples of these rare cases included Sk battalion formed from young members of Viipuri Suojeluskunta, which served as reserves in the Summa sector of the Mannerheim line in February of 1940, and 7 Sk battalions created by Kymenlaakso Sk district from its members left on the home front. During a phase of the Winter War, Soviets threatened to land at the Kotka coastal sector from the  frozen Finnish Gulf of the Baltic Sea. The coastal artillery units defending the coastal sector had basically no infantry, so 4 out of 7 Kymenlaakso Sk district Sk-battalions were sent to defend the coast.

One of the dramatic events of Winter War with a large effect on the Finnish nation was reconciliation between Sk organization and the leading Finnish leftist political party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP). In the 1930s the events showing rising totalitarian dictatorships in Europe, and other similar dangerous developments had affected opinions inside the SDP and the party had started to gain more positive opinions towards the Finnish Country's defense. Earlier Sk members had not been welcome in the party, but by 1939 the opinions had started change and when the Winter War created the spirit of national unity,it was ready to take the first step in removing hostility between the SDP and Sk-organization. In February of 1940, the SDP party committee made contact with Sk.Y and the two found common ground very fast. Only the way of publishing the news of reconciliation between the two needed some negotiating. The formal event welcoming Social Democrats to Suojeluskuntas and Sk-members to SDP was on the 15th of February 1940. The symbolic significance was large, but the actual results for members of both organizations was not terribly large. By the 10th of April 1940, only about 1,000 Social Democrats joined Sk organization.

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