WINTER WAR MEMORIES 1939-40

Valto Antero Tolvanen. Karkkila. Summer 1939.Photo: VTK.

    In the summer of 1939 I spent my vacation in Kannas [the Karelian Isthmus] helping with the building of fortifications [Salpa-linja]. I think I may have some pictures of that but they aren’t anything special. 

Salpa Line construction, 1939. 

     The spirit there was very patriotic, and some people even made trips to the border, to Terijoki, where a bridge and a railroad track go over the river.

Pre World War 2 districts on the Karelian Isthmus. 

Pre World War 2 map of Terijoki, Finland. 

      With us on the trip were some foul-mouth ruffians who threatened the Russian border guards and in every other way were obnoxious and loud. Maybe that was reason enough to start a war, who knows. But in any case the volunteers built rifle pits and cement bunkers so that we would be more prepared for the coming winter. All of the members of our volunteer militia regiment tried to spend at least a part of their summer vacation helping with the fortifications. 

Volunteer shovel crews in Karkkila, (Kannas), Finland, working on fortifications along the eastern front with Russia. Antero Tolvanen on the left with a shovel over his shoulder, emerging from behind a tree. 1939.

     And then suddenly it was November 30, which is my name day [Anteron Päivä], as well as the day when the Finns commemorate the famous Viipuri Explosion [Viipurin Pamahdus]. As I recall the Viipuri Explosion too place in 1485. So I guess that special day has been commemorated many times since then. 

Olaus Magnus included the Viborg explosion in his 1536 Carta marina.

 

      Early the very next morning, December 1, the Russian bombers came and started bombing. The Russian airfield was in Tallinn [Estonia] – a distance of only 60 kilometers away. And there seemed to be no end to their fleet of planes.

Aftermath of Russian bombing of Helsinki, December 1, 1939.

 
      We didn’t have very many aircraft ourselves, and it was nearly impossible to obtain them from anywhere else in this emergency. But in spite of this the Russians lost over 1200 planes in the next 100 days. The most memorable event which has stayed with me was the heroic effort of Joppe Karhunen who, all by himself, destroyed a whole fleet of Russian planes – 7 of them. 

Joppe Karhunen - Knight Flight Commander, 1939.

     
     And he was not the only one. – Italy sent 50 bombers to our aid, but our good friend Germany stopped them at the border. After all, they had a friendship and defense treaty with Russia as well, and Russia was a big player in the region. Well, on the battlefield they [the Russians] lost over 1800 tanks. And from a speech given by Khrushchev after Stalin’s death, it became evident that the loss of life had been over 1,000,000 men for the Russians. We on the other hand only had about 300,000 men on the front lines. 

      During the Winter War there were all kinds of regulations which meant that many men were not able to serve in the military. For instance, full time government employees such as I was were exempt from servicing in the military, and no one seemed to be able to make changes to these regulations during the Winter War. I was called up, or actually I volunteered, for the Home Guard on behalf of the Postal Service, and since I was the only Home Guard volunteer I was made the Assistant to the Commander of the Home Guard. 

Antero Tolvanen in his home guard uniform with little sister, Sirkka. Helsinki. 

      He was the director of the Post Office yet we rarely saw him performing his Home Guard duties. He had his own interests, but then so did I. This was when I met Aune Irene Mäkinen, who was performing volunteer service of her own working at the switchboard at the bomb shelter. And so we met and fell in love. I had to be on guard duty almost every day and night, and so I hardly ever went home.

Aune (rt.) at the switchboard. Post-Len-Tel. Helsinki, Finland 1939.

 

     That was when Aili and I became officially separated, even though getting together had been very infrequent even a few years before the war.  The feelings between Aune and me blossomed and grew stronger, so that by the time the Winter War was over we were nearly inseparable.

     When my guard duties finally ended I went home, but as soon as I received my summer vacation I left to go build fortifications at Miehikkälä. There was one difference, however, and that was that I

Salpa Line Constrution. Miehikkälä. 1940.

was paid for my work.  First I became the secretary to a certain Lieutenant who was familiar to me from our days at Kannas. He was a Transportation Chief, and when I became familiar with the routine, I was made Transportation Officer. I guess I took care of my duties quite well because as I was leaving the Battalion Commander, Karhu, said to me, "We would have all kinds of work for you here if you stayed."

Finnish Army Commander, Ilmari Karhu.

       In the meantime, however, I had made some new friends, one of whom was Lieutenant Kelhu, the Quarter Master who for some reason wanted to be transferred to Kuusamo. And that’s where I followed him.

Lieutenant Kelhu and Antero Tolvanen. 1940.

      Unfortunately Kelhu was one of those acquaintances who wanted to put down and belittle his associates. He was the "Lord and Master" and everyone else had to lick his boots. He had his own circle of friends from Helsinki who followed him to Kuusamo. And he wanted me to be part of that same group who were willing to do whatever to please their master. It was midwinter in Kuusamo right at that time so there wasn’t much daylight to be seen. Another guy, Iimo, and I started drinking and ignoring out duties, so I didn’t last past the end of January when I had to make my hurried exit back to Helsinki. That was one time when I got my fill of Lapland. I went back to my job at the Post Office – back to sorting the mail as I had done previously.

       I had, however, been on leave for almost six months and because my pay at the fortifications was much better than at the post office, and Aune was taking care of all my affairs in Helsinki, I was soon starting to pay down my debts to a great extent. I took a room with a young couple in Käpylä. I lived only a few blocks from Aune’s home where she had a carefree life living in her father’s privately owned apartment unit. We were able to meet on a regular basis. Aili had signed for my paycheck from the Post Office until now, but when we became separated she demanded that I pay her 800 marks per month for spouse support.

Antero and Aili Tolvanen with daughter Tuula, and several friends. Helsinki. 1936.

         Our  daughter, Tuula, had already gone to Sweden in the fall on 1939 as a war refugee – that’s where many Finnish children were taken to escape the war. I felt sorry for my little girl, but what could I do since I had to build a new life on top of the ruins of my old one. And so it was that I didn’t see Tuula again until after the Continuation War had started. At that point we went our separate ways.

Translated from the original Finnish by Marja-Leena Tolvanen Rogers