World War II - Finland, 1944
Finland continued fighting the Soviet Union, which had invaded Finland shortly after World War II broke out in Europe. Because the USSR was fighting Germany and was therefore an ally of the U.S. and Britain, the U.S and Britain refused to help Finland fight the invading Russians. So Finland turned to Nazi Germany, and in this period, Germany helped Finland against Russia.
These photos are all from SA-Kuva, the great Finnish archive of World War II photos.
Finnish soldiers having a naked snow fight after taking a sauna, April, 1944.
Some Finnish soldiers at the doorway of a sauna in June, 1944. The guy sitting down has a nice set of low hangers.
An officer and three men in June, 1944.
An improvised outdoor shower, July, 1944. It looks like this will be a very quick shower unless he has a buddy to keep refilling the bucket.
A group of soldiers around a lake in July, 1944. Finland has 188,000 lakes, and the Finns love playing in and on their lakes.
Need to lay cable across a lake? No problem. Strap a reel of cable to a naked guy's back and have him wade or swim across. Note another cable-laying guy in the background.
August, 1944. I think these guys are washing up. The guy in the center is shaving.
Another guy shaving. I think he's holding a small mirror with one hand so he can see what he's doing.
We end with another sauna group in September, 1944. If there wasn't a sauna handy, soldiers would make one, like this one dug into the ground and roofed with logs. Finns gotta have saunas!
5 comments:
The Finns are not at all hung up about swinging it in the breeze.
I hope no one has to go to war ever again.
The doorway pic looks almost like a prank,
"So all of us guys are showing it? yalls, too, right?
Yes, Bill.
Sauna culture: You're supposed to be naked.
The obvious problem being that, well, just look at Ukraine.
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