Vintage Military - Part 2

Finland, 1940-1941

Although the U.S. didn't enter World War II until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the war had been going on in Europe since Hitler's invasion of Poland in September, 1939.  Two months later, the Soviet Union attacked Finland, and Finland fought Russia until the war ended in 1945.

But even at the height of the war, Finnish soldiers managed to indulge in their beloved saunas, and thanks to intrepid war reporters, we have the photographic evidence.

Peripatetic LIFE photographer Carl Mydans took this classic photo of a Finnish soldier fetching water for the sauna in 1940.

I'll wash your back if you'll wash mine.  Saunas are not for washing.  You wash before entering the sauna.  This and the following photos and video show Finnish soldiers in 1940-1941.  All are from SA-kuva, the Finnish wartime photo archive.

Those bundles of birch leaves are called vihta.  You beat yourself with them to increase blood circulation and open the pores.  

After roasting in the sauna, you run outside and jump in the lake to cool off

In the winter, maybe someone has made a hole in the ice.

Or you can just roll in the snow.

If a log cabin sauna isn't available, a woodland sauna made of branches and dirt will do.

Or, in a pinch, even a sauna tent.

These are Russian prisoners taking a sauna.  The Finns allowed even enemy prisoners to take saunas.  To deny them that would be uncivilized.

For a Finn, this is heaven.