Landsverk at Svir river. Winter 1943. The Landsverk anti II was a Swedish self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, which was used by Finland during WWII. The tank was based on the Hungarian Toldi tank and it had the 40mm Bofors as it's main weapon. The landsverks were in use of the Finnish armoured division and their main purpose was to cover the armoured troops from enemy aircrafts. The Finnish landsverks scored 11 confirmed kills just during the summer of 1944.

Self-propelled anti-aircraft gun

Taavetti "Pappa" Laatikainen(1886–1954) was Finnish Jäger officer, infantry general and Knight of the Mannerheim Cross #17.

Before his military career, Laatikainen was a high school teacher. In January 1916 he joined the "Königlich Preussisches Jägerbataillon Nr. 27", which was the battalion of Finnish volunteers in German army during WWI. The battalion participated in the battles on the eastern front, but it's main purpose after the training was to get combat expirience for the coming Finland's war for independence. In the German army Laatikainen's rank was Gruppenführer.

In February 1918 when Laatikainen returned to Finland to fight for independence, the war had turned into bloody civil war. He fought in many battles including the Battle of Viipuri.

After the civil war he remained in military career and served in different commander jobs. He also commanded the reserve officer school and build up the school to hard reputation. He left his mark to the finnish reserve officer school(RUK) which still can be seen today. RUK is also where he was nicknamed as "pappa"(grandpa) because for training and studying he was very demanding, but on his other side he was fair and fatherly and liked to have conversations with the young students.

When the Winter War begun on November 30,1939, Taavetti Laatikainen was a Major General and commanded the 1st Division. The division fought on Karelian Isthmus and expirienced it's worst moments of Winter War in February 1940 when Soviet troops were breaking through at Summa. During the intense fighting, Laatikainen was made the commander of the corps, which he commanded untill the end of the war. 

When the Continuation War begun in 1941, he led the II Corps attack on Karelian Isthmus which reached all it's objectives by end of august. Laatikainen was awarded the Mannerheim Cross on October 3, 1941, and was put to command a army corps in East-Karelia. He led his troops to the capture of Karhumäki and he was then promoted as Lieutenant General. Laatikainen commanded the troops on Metsäselkä's isthmus untill march 1, 1944, when he was made the commander of the IV Corps on Karelian Isthmus. He commanded the corps through heavy battles of the summer, the decisive victory of Tali-Ihantala, untill the eventual armstice and peacetreaty with Soviets in september 1944. After the war he remained in military untill his retirement in 1948. He died on april 15, 1954.

Promotions:
# Hilfsgruppenführer on October 1, 1916
# Gruppenführer on Septmeber 19, 1917
# Lieutenant on February 11, 1918
# Captain on January 28, 1919
# Major on May 16, 1921
# Lieutenant Colonel on May 16, 1925
# Colonel on June 15, 1928
# Major General on May 16, 1938
# Lieutenant General in 1942
# General of the infantry in 1948

Some of his decorations:
#Mannerheim Cross 2nd class
#Cross of Liberty 4th class(with swords), 3rd class, 2nd class, and 1st class(with Oak Leafs and star)
#German Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class
#German Cross in Gold
#Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Romania

Taavetti "Pappa" Laatikainen

Aarne Sihvo(1889–1963) was Finnish Jäger General, commander of the Finnish Defence Forces 1926–1933 and 1946–1953 and Chief of Civilian Protection 1938–1946.

He started his military career in the "Königlich Preussisches Jägerbataillon Nr. 27" of the German army, serving 1915-1918 and participated in battles on the eastern front but spent lot of the time on the trips to Finland, recruiting more volunteers to the Finnish battalion.

He fought in the Finnish Civil War of 1918 and led the "Group Karelia" which later changed to "Group Sihvo". His extraordinary leadership in several battles brought him many promotions within months and already in May 3, 1918, the 29-year-old Sihvo had the rank of colonel. After the Finnish Civil War had ended, he was much more known in Karelia than General Mannerheim himself. Sihvo is often seen as rival of Mannerheim and it was very typical that the top moments of Sihvo's career happened during the quiet moments of Mannerheim's career. 

Sihvo was the commander of the defence forces in 1926-1933 and during his command happened the failed fascist rebellion(Mäntsälä rebellion) of 1932.

Unlike his brother Major General Jussi Sihvo, and despite of his great leadership skills he wasn't put to command frontline units during whole WWII. It is speculated that Mannerheim would have intentionally kept his rival in homefront duty during WWII, as a chief of the civilian protection. In 1941 Aarne Sihvo's only son was killed in action near Viipuri.

After WWII in 1946 Sihvo was again made the commander of the defence forces and promoted as General of the Infantry in the same year. During his command happened the riot of Kemi and then the defence forces' state of emergency in 1948, for possible communist coup attempt. Sihvo retired in 1953 and died 10 years later, on June 12, 1963.

Promotions:
# Hilfsgruppenführer - September 2, 1915
# Guppenführer - November 6, 1915
# Zugführer - March 1, 1916
# Captain - January 12, 1918
# Major - March 15, 1918
# Lieutenant Colonel - April 6, 1918
# Colonel - May 3, 1918
# Major General - December 5, 1925
# Lieutenant General - August 14, 1930
# General of the Infantry - September 20, 1946

Some of his decorations:
Grand Cross of the Order of the Cross of Liberty
Cross of Liberty 2nd and 1st class(with star)
Grand Cross of the White Rose of Finland
German Iron Cross 2nd class (World War I)
Order of the German Eagle(with Star)
Grand Cross of the Order of Dannebrog(Denmark)
Order of the Cross of the Eagle, 1st Class(Estonia)
Order of Lāčplēsis, 2nd class(Latvia)
Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav(Norway)
Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta(Poland)