Some of the pics aaz sent are missing from the posts
Yesterday there was the 75 anniversary of the start of the Winter War and I had an idea to search some images from SA-kuva-arkisto. Today's topic is sniper rifles in Finnish service. Here's some backstory:
Finnish Army didn't have sniper rifles or sniper training before the Winter War. Finnish Civil Guard (Suojeluskunta) was the only organization providing both, but the amount of sniper rifles and designated marksmen was minuscule. Only around 40 sniper rifles were manufactured in Finland for the Civil Guard before the war.
That doesn't mean Finnish Army wasn't interested about designated marksmen, Finnish Army just acted too late. In December of 1937 they ordered 250 Physica-scopes from Oy Physica Ab; 150 scopes for Finnish M/27 rifle and 100 for Maxim machineguns. Only 84 scopes were manufactured before the Winter War and none had been yet installed to the rifles. Only a few M/27 PH (aka sniper rifle M/37) were made in time to use in the Winter War. The production of 150 sniper rifles was completed in June of 1940, 3 months after the end of the war.
(SA photo 113219)
Sniper Rifle Model 30 and 27. Helsinki. Av1 (Arms Depot 1). 1942.12.12
So the most numerous sniper rifle in Finnish hands in the Winter War was a captured Soviet M/91-30 rifle with a PE or PEM scope. But as captured sniper rifles were usually immediately taken to own use without official channels and captured sniper rifles usually ended up as war souvenirs, the number of Soviet sniper rifles on paper was not high. Only 213 Soviet sniper rifles were delivered to official channels in the Winter War.
(SA photo 4607)
Russian sniper rifle 3/Er.P.5. (3rd company of 5th Detached Battalion) 1940.02.13
The Continuation War started in similiar situation, Finnish Army still lacked sniper rifles and sniper training. Finland captured more sniper rifles during the Finnish Offensive in 1941, but again Finnish soldiers tended to keep those weapons in their own hands without official channels. Finns captured over 128 000 Soviet M/91-30 rifles during the Continuation War, but only 67 M/91-30 snipers were handed over the official channels. Most of the captured M/91-30 sniper rifles were again with a PE or PEM scope, because the production of PU scope for M/91-30 started after the Finnish Offensive halted. Most of the captured PU scopes were mounted on SVT rifles, but the number of captured SVT sniper rifles seems to be quite small.
(SA photo 76622)
Sniper rifle captured from Russians is first examined and now used to confuse Russians. The front of Osta 1942.03.07
During the trench war period (from January of 1942 to June 1944) Finnish Army started to train marksmen and in 1943 they acquired new sniper rifles. M/39 SOV was a Finnish M/39 rifle with a captured Soviet scope. These scopes were usually stripped from damaged or worn out M/91-30 sniper rifles. About 200 were made.
(SA photo 161858)
Finnish marksman is on the lookout with his sniper rifle, behind a bundle of sticks (it's a shame that fagg*t is a censored word) which he uses as a camoflage. He's protecting himself from mosquitos by lowering his earflaps. The direction of Rukaj