Vintage Military - Part 15

Finland 1942

The fight of the Finns against the invading Russians continued throughout World War II.  But not even a war can stop Finns from enjoying their saunas, as seen in these photos from the amazing Finnish World War II photo archive SA-Kuva.

A soldier entering a rustic sauna in February 1942.

A more civilized sauna in Santahamina in February 1942.  The Finnish military academy was in Santahamina, so these are probably cadets.

Fetching water for the sauna, to pour over hot rocks and generate steam.

Inside a sauna, soldiers beat themselves with bundles of birch twigs to stimulate the circulation.

After working up a sweat, you run outside to cool off, as seen in this rare color photo from April 1942.

If there's no lake to jump into to cool off, you can rub yourself with snow ...

Or just jump into the snow ...

Or if you're young, like so many soldiers were in World War II, you might have a naked snowball fight.

We end with this 1942 video of three guys running out of a sauna and cooling off in a stream.