Machine gun designed by Aimo Lahti. 50th Infantry Regiment, Svir River, 3 December 1942. SA-kuva 117423

This rare picture shows one of only 30 L-41 "Sampo" machine guns issued to frontline units.

L-41 "Sampo" machine gun

Finnish soldier escorting his shellshocked comrade to aid station. Vuosalmi, Karelian Isthmus, 13.7.1944.

SA-kuva 155977

shell-shocked

In Finland during World War II, some 242,000 women join Lotta-Svard (named for a fictional Finnish battlefield heroine), making the female paramilitary group the largest volunteer organization in the world.
