Allied Forces?

But they didn't...

 

Let.s not forget that Britain seriously considered sending military aid
to the Finns, against the Russians. Luckily, the Winter War ended before
that particular little debacle-in-the-making took place.

And a year and a half later, the Finns were German allies against Russia
anyway...

 

Without Googling, UK military casualties were about 360,000, I think.
Plus another 60,000 civilian. Plus merchant shipping casualties.

Very light, really.

Heaviest military casualty rates were in Bomber Command, I think. Royal
Marine Commando didn't fare too well, but their numbers were very small
anyway. Pa (a Commando) said the casualties in his unit were 90% (or
comparable with the U-Boat casualty rate).

 

<bat class="straight">
my picture's been on the cover of "Internet & Comms", "Net User" and (I
think, though maybe misremembering) ".Net". I've been on the op-ed page
of dozens of other magazines.
</bat>

 

I almost had a heart attack when you said green.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

They were co-belligerants actually. There's some sort of a subltle
difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-belligerence

The German seige of Leningrad failed at least in part because the
Finns took back only the territory they'd ceded to Stalin in 1939
and stopped short of cutting off the city.

I understand the Finns fought something like 15 separate wars
with Russia, loosing every one but maintaining their independance.
Something called "sisu".

 

.....or were they used to plant expolsives in WTC7?

 

Jolly good but I bet it was a first time appearance at the London
Coliseum?

 

Now your 2-wheeler museum?

 

Thus in essence, could you then say your 2nd mum wore combat boots?

I joined the Army at 18, to escape me dad. Life was a challenge in the Army
Band, but someone has to do it.

 

That is something I never heard before, my (somewhat vague)
understanding was that they met an altogether more dangerous
bear the second time around. It is definitly not true generally,
finnish troops crossed the 1918 border in many places.
All the same, the only "hole" they left open was the route across
lake Ladoga and getting enough military supplies in that way was
difficult. Getting food enough was impossible. The traditional
swedish attitude is very pro-finnish but at least personally I
have mixed feelings about the "continuation war".

What wars? Finland has only existed as a nation since 1918 when
Russia was occupied with other things. All wars before 1809 were
Swedish wars (in the end so costly for Finland that some nobles
and military suggested and plotted for annexation by Russia).
1809 to 1918 Finland was part of the Russian empire (but with
special status and laws).
And yes, the Finns were famous for their sisu as Swedish troops
too.

 

Humans are very, very strange animals.

 

My dad flew B-17s out of East Anglica. Of 250,000 US air crew members,
46,000 were killed or wounded.

Flying bombers was a very dangerous business.

Bryan

 

The Merchant Navy didn't fare all that well. Convoy duty nad all that.

Do you know which base he was at?

I visited the Lancaster museum in Alberta. The Canadians lost 10,000 Bomber
Command aircrew in WW2. This one tiny town of Nanton alone lost so many of
its young men.

And then, there were what my mother still calls "The Mad Poles". Flew like
wonderful insane lunatics, bless them. I know a couple of the old boys who
survived and live locally.

Ali

 

Hm. It eludes me, to be honest, especially as the Finnish air force
markings were swastikas...

 

It's my native Somerset accent coming out, ya Cunner.

Lips are as bad. Drawing on bigger lips than exist. Jerry Seinfeld made
the point definitively when he said "Ladies, understand: god has
already had the final word on where your lips end". So why Kiran does
it I can't begin to guess.

It's true. I have a weak stomach. I'm sure you'd be agreeing with me if
it hasn't been you that had said it in the first place.

I'm not really the breeding kind. It's one of the reasons I have a low
bitterness rating and can instead occupy my time getting needlessly
irate about the less important things in life. Plus, obviously upend my
life and move to far-flung corners at a whim.

He's always maintained his towel-head status, as far as I know.

 

Hm. It eludes me, to be honest, especially as the Finnish air force
markings were swastikas...[/QUOTE]

Heh, next time I'm playing IL2, I'll have a look. It's bloody accurate
and I doubt that they'll have got that detail wrong.

 

"Next week Darren Darsington tells you when flirting with the systems
support assistant is ok and when 0 means 1 back at his place, and takes
us shopping for man bags in Portabello market"

 

I've seen him claim spic hood over arab hood.

 

"During World War II, Finland fought the Soviet Union twice: in the
Winter War of 19391940 and in the Continuation War of 19411944 in
accordance with Operation Barbarossa in which Germany invaded the Soviet
Union. This was followed by the Lapland War of 19441945, when Finland
forced the Germans out of northern Finland."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland#Finland_in_World_War_II_.281939.E2.8
0.931945.29

A clue was that after Finnish independence from Russia, the
right-wingers outsourced a consultant in the King-business: In 1918 "the
parliament ... voted with a narrow majority to establish the Kingdom of
Finland. Frederick Charles of Hesse, a German prince, was elected King."
So I guess the Nazis saw them as another Nordic country that didn't
exactly need to be occupied. Or something.

There's more here...
http://hkkk.fi/~yrjola/war/finland/summary.html

Although the author concludes that Finland was on the "losing side", it
seems to me that Finland, like Switzerland, got caught in the middle and
did what it could to protect its own interests.

Interesting place, Finland. I have about doubled my knowledge of what I
previously knew, which is that
€ Finland has (or had) the highest rate of Internet connectivity in the
world (coding Linux and chatting about it with other snowed-in geeks
seems like a fun way to spend a dark winter)
€ The Finnish language is related to Estonian and Hungarian.
€ Finnish hockey players are handsome and quite ... ahhh ... never mind.
€ laplanders herd reindeer and hunt fatherchristmases (
).
€ There are six Finnish motorcycle manufacturers (
http://www.cybermotorcycle.com/euro/finland.htm ).