Finnish Forces

Korpraali Pauli Tanttu

Pauli Tanttu (1921-1952), photographed as Lance Corporal possibly after receiving the Mannerheim Cross No.180. He fought as submachine gunner at Karelian Isthmus in 1st Infantry Regiment, 10th Division. Tanttu became soon known as one of the battalion's bravest soldiers, and was promoted to Korpraali (Lance Corporal) on 24.9.1941. He volunteered to all patrols of his platoon. In 1944 he expirienced the heavy bombardments and start of Soviet major offensive at Valkeasaari, where his regiment took the hardest blow of the attack. As the enemy broke through there and retreating began, he voluntarily stayed behind to delay the attacking enemies, shooting many. Later in the summer, during single counter-attack, he destroyed three machine gun nests, four nests of light machine guns, and then went on alone to capture a mortar after eliminating it's crew and killing six enemies on the way. He had big positive impact to the morale of his tired comrades. Lance Corporal Tanttu was demobilized from the army in November 1944 and returned to his job as a logger in his hometown. He was awarded the Mannerheim Cross just before Christmas of the same year. The war never left him and he sometimes even saw hallucinations. By the years his alcohol consumption also grew, but he never slacked off nor quit his work. After Pauli was barely past middle-aged, he ended his own life by hanging himself on the Christmas day of 1952.