29-11-2003 02:10									#31
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quote: Originally posted by Pekka Chemical Ollie, your uncle was one of the volunteers? that's nice to know!

He came home alive, with bullet holes in his rucksack.

	29-11-2003 02:49									#32
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Figure of speaking, or literally?
Anyway, I wished we showed more respect for those who helped us... there are many Estonians, who we never thanked properly. We even gave some Estonian volunteers to SU when war was over and they demanded them, even though we were supposed to give them citizenship, or AT LEAST protection. What can I say, lots of traitors lived in here and I'm ashamed of that. There were also volunteers from other countries as well, but most came from Sweden, and we had lots of you guys coming here... THere should be a way we could somehow celebrate it or something..... what can I say, we do remember it now and forever, but we should show it too.

	29-11-2003 03:42									#33
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Now I'm threadjacking, but I started this thread, so who cares?

Pekka, my uncle literally came home with bullet holes in his rucksack. He didn't carry it at the moment the holes got there though. They had a camp in the forest (naturally, what other terrain is there?) and heard Russian aircraft approaching far away. Those Russian planes where so slow and noisy that my uncle and his friends had plenty of time to run into the woods and hide. The aircraft attacked the camp and headed for home, and when he came back to the camp his tent had been sprayed with heavy machine gun bullets, some going right through his rucksack. He never told me if he had actually been involved in some trench fighting. I guess those experiences were to scary to talk about with minors, or he was lucky enough to be on a front segment where Ivan did not focus any infantry attacks.

My father was 14 at the time. He told me my grandma was not very religious, but she was praying to God every night that her oldest son would come home alive.

	29-11-2003 04:00									#34
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Thank God for the slowness of those planes . Well, depends where they were assigned... but good chances of seeing some of the action anyway. I suppose he didn't injure himself badly? That's good, because even we didn't take the best care of the wounded ones AFTER the war was over. Even today, it's hard for some of the vets. So, if it was your uncle, I think he wouldn't have got a penny for his sacrifice of getting injured.

But that was a good story! I figure he don't want to talk about it too much.. I have many friends whose grandpas etc won't talk about it. I mean, they will tell where they were stationed, and what combats they saw and participated, but they won't tell you anything else. Except maybe if they're little drunk.. I guess they just want to forget it, so better not to talk about it huh?

	29-11-2003 04:07									#35
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And better not to bring it up too often either with them I guess.. I think it haunts many of them.. bad stuff, we had some of the bloodiest fights ever,, I think we had number 3 ranked biggest fight, or where it's measured in casualties (not counting bombings, and most casualties from the SU side, but bloody for both sides), so I figure they don't want to talk about the downside of the human side where life is cheap and nothing is respected.

There is this old man I know. Legends tells, that he was hunting with his friends, and one of his friends was in bad spot, spot where he didn't know he was, and he shot his friend close, missed though and his friend yelled 'don't shoot it's me!' and can you guess what he did? Yes, he shot again . Well then he realized what he was doing and just said 'well why the **** are you wearing red!'.. Talk about sad life. Sometimes these old guys just go back to those days and mix up reality with history.

	29-11-2003 04:26									#36
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Hey, Pekka
You know, when a Finn gets drunk, he starts to talk about ice hockey. After a few more drinks the topic changes to the Winter War and how Sweden betrayed (despite sending 1000's of volonteers, plus artillery pieces and aircraft). When he gets semi-unconscious, he tells all Swedes to go to hell and starts to discuss the civil war of 1917. Then before he finally passes out, he is sitting alone in a corner, muttering to himself and wondering who would come to his funeral if he killed himself.

I have lived long enough in Finland to experience that there is some truth behind that stereotype

	29-11-2003 04:32									#37
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Sorry, didn't see your second post. Here I am, making half-jokes about serious things.

Yes it was bloody alright. At Kåren in Åbo (have you been there, it's a nice student place anyway?), there is a stone plaqet hanging above the stairs with all the casualties among the students in the war. "För Fosterlandet". It gives you some perspective and it's hard to pass it without giving it a thought.

	29-11-2003 04:39									#38
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Yeah.. that's true about finns though! But you shouldn't speak to them at that point.. just remind when they sober up about the volunteers, and most of them will go 'well that's true...'. Many don't think about what kind of decision that was for Sweden, politically, it wasn't exactly as simple as 'yeahhh let's get in there!'. So, I guess that's what most drunkards babble about.. but they are just stupid. But mostly they don't mean much about it. What most are thinking about is not the decision of the government and volunteers, it's about the 'do they let UK guys through Sweden to help us'. It's unfair to blame Sweden for not letting them pass, since we never called the cards for it, we just assumed you might have something against it. So, all in all, it shouldn't be taken seriously what drunkards talk. They talk lots of crap anyway, well you know, you've been here
Most of them just want to argue about something. Better to leave, it's not getting any better.

edit: But you have legit claim to make them shut up with the fact that your uncle came here then.. it would take a fool to continue babbling stupidities after that.