he was also a captain in three armies received the Mannerheim cross wich is the highest award in the Finnish armed forces he also received a iron cross second class followed by a legion of merit a distinguished flying cross a bronze star and two purple hearts
@@hipithautaa The uniforms weren't blue. They were grey. In old color photos they sometimes look kind of slightly blue, but that is just the old color photos making everything look kind of blue.
@@CombatArmsChannel It was not easy for Lauri Törni to join the U.S.Army. In fact they had to make an entire new law to make it possible for him. I believe that Lex Torni is still there. Like your videos.
Thorne/Törni is a SOF legend both in Finland and in the US; -Green beret Major -Finnish army Captain -German Hauptsturmfuhrer -7th Special Forces Group -5th Special Forces Group -10th Special Forces Group -11th Airborne Division His US memorial is the Larry Thorne Headquarters Building, 10th SFG(A), Fort Carson, Colorado. 10th Group honors him yearly by presenting the Larry Thorne Award to the best ODA in the command. The SFA Chapter 33 in Cleveland, Tennessee is named after Thorne. His personal awards include; Mannerheim Cross Iron Cross 2nd Class Legion of Merit Distinguished Flying Cross Bronze Star Purple Heart, X2 USSOCOM Hall of fame Guy is beyond a legend. His Bronze Star citation is insane. On top of that, you know Sven Kornie, the legendary green beret character? Based on Thorne. It's like from a god damn movie. Sure, he was an alcoholic and not a pleasant guy, but perhaps one of the greatest warriors and SOF operators of-all-time.
Alcoholic? I'm Finnish and I know that Törni didn't spit in the glass so to speak, but alcoholic... That's exaggeration. He wasn't some outcast and he had loving parents and sisters among other close relatives and friends in Finland. He was in some way restless guy for sure, but if someone calls him as alcoholic it doesn't sound right at all.
@@tindikukka @K. Lind His issues with alcohol are fairly well documented, though, and many of his interpersonal problems seem to have had alcohol as a catalyst. Very high-functioning alcoholic, but an alcoholic nonetheless. As for the outcast thing, I never said that, but now that you brought it up, in some ways he was one considering what happened post-war. He was lucky to have found a home in the green berets in the US - I don't think he would have done well as a civilian, as many other warriors of his kind also have not. I have a feeling that the green berets might have saved him from a life of alcoholism and drunken violence. I don't know what having loving relatives have do with this, so dunno how I'm supposed comment on that. It's a little odd to make these people into something more than what they were, turning them into these one-dimensional figures that seem like fictional characters and not real people. Törni was a complex, interesting person who lived a tough but fascinating life, and his issues don't devalue his achievements at all. I'd say it's actually the opposite - his flaws and struggles make his feats all the more impressive. It's a massive shame he was lost in Vietnam, who knows where someone of his caliber could have ended up - but deep down I have this feeling he didn't mind dying while trying to save the lives of his men.
@@yjfuykyil I simply bring in it, that you seem to exaggerate alcohol problem. And I also remind it, that Törni/Thorne was way more than some book and articles tell. He was respected for a good reason and still is as a man who can be called a hero. He did way more than anyone could expect or demand for one man.
@@tindikukka @K. Lind I both agree and disagree, but I think we can agree that he was a true warrior, and a warhero. Some might see his time in the SS as a badge of dishonor, but I don't think it's that black and white. I do believe it was a misjudgement on his part, but driven by a burning desire to fight the soviets by any means, and doesn't diminish his service. I respect him as a warrior and a hero of the continuation war, but the alcohol abuse was well documented, as it was for many well-known warriors at the time, and it did lead to more than a few issues. For him to have achieved all that he did despite that is remarkable, and says something about his drive. There are also recounts of his at times violent leadership style, but then again his people seem to have held him in high regard. You could make several movies of his life and still just scratch the surface - I think that says a lot. My first post should tell you that I hold him in extremely high regard as a warrior, a soldier's soldier - but I don't believe in cults of personality. He had his issues, but still managed to become a legend and a war hero - several times. He has very few peers in that regard.
"motti" is a finnish term for one cubic metre of firewood packed in a certain way. woodcutters etc. were paid based on how many mottis they cut. so you get the idea of cutting up a russian column into these nice easily manageable standard blocks before processing them.
The eventual 9th president of Finland, Mauno Koivisto, was one of Törni's men. Cool pics in Wikipedia. Also, Sabaton has a really cool song about him, Soldier of Three Armies. It actually details his biography pretty well, for a power metal song. It gives me a chuckle to have a Swedish band make a song about a Finnish war hero (and why not, they're all right, and Finns by and large won't do it ourselves). Finally, I remember reading somewhere how Törni personally instructed his men on how to stab an enemy dead with the Finnish knife, which traditionally has no handguard. It involves having the end of the handle against your palm, but I'm not sure how his technique was exactly.
That technique is still being taught today, if you don't use it the second stab will cut you more than the one being stabbed (when using knife/dagger without Good handguard).
Little correction to Törnis early carea, he didn't go to officers school before winter war, but during it. What's actually quite funny, Törni started his warpath as like "kitchen corporal", I don't know the exact term. But shortly it was noticed that he wasn't spending too much time stirring soup kettles.. 😁 He was behind enemy lines finding out something more interesting to do.
Which to me was surprising because I remember Koivisto was a deep thinker who did not make decisions in a hurry. While Törni was clearly a man of action.
Biggest things why Germans and Finns started co-operations. Originally Finland wanted help from the allies but that didn’t happen because Germany invaded Denmark and Norway and was boxed in. Meanwhile Soviet Union was planning next invasion to Finland and it was ready but stopped when they infromed Germans about it (bce. Molotov-Ribbentropp pact). Germans were planning Operation Barbarossa and also were buying nickle from Finland. Germany later leaked the attack plans to Finland for leverage for joining in Barbarossa (Officially by accident but I doubt it). 2nd why was that Germany and Finland had close ties together after WW1 the white armys backbone came from the ”original” jaegers who were trained in Germany and even fought on Eastern front and after that in Finnish Civil war (the great war has a vid about it).
My grand fathers brother was in same battalion (Finnish volunteers in the Waffen-SS) as Lauri Törni, fighting with German against Russia in Ukraine and south-west Russia. Then he came back to Finland for continuation war, and also to Lapland war fighting now against German. After WW2 he went to French Foreign Legion and died 1951 in first Indochina (North Vietnam) war. Probably he had similar issues than Lauri Törni, that he was not able to stay in Finland after WW2. And only thing what he was learnt to do was to be a soldier since young age.
That whole conclusion of him being specifically anti-communist or having any political agenda is only based on him happening to fight communists technically three times actually two times. It makes a good heroic story but honestly he would have fought the Red army anyways like any Finn regardless of political affiliation as it was a question of duty not ideology and after he had spent much of his youth in the war he was really better out there in the field where he excelled than in the civilian life especially for his personality traits of being silent almost anti-social and often violent when drunk. Törni joined the US military in the 50's way before it was clear that Americans would join the war so his motivation again was the military life and combat than anything else really. Finnish army had to abandon him as a "traitor" and no other military but the US at the time would have accepted him except maybe the French foreign legion but even they were at least officially not very keen on recruiting former Waffen-SS. Funnily enough if he would gone to the legion that would have landed him in Vietnam too.
@@Aapee1 Joo, mut siin on enemmä kivenkovaa asiaa, ku mitä tollanen bemarikuski lukee koko elämäsä aikan. Toiseks ihmettelen, et miten se englanniks lukemine on noin raskasta, mut sit energiaa riittää kommentointiin ja höpöhöpön laukomisee kyseisel kielel, mut se on miulle yks hailee, ku muutki lukee näitä ja joitain kiinnostaa enemmä, toisii vähemmä.
@@user-id3ku3ws2l Unfortunately they have a lot more rights than that. Nowadays people can do and say anything in certain "developed" countries if they're left-leaning.
2:04 It's called Mainilan laukaukset, Shelling of Mainila. Soviets shelled their own village and blamed it on Finnish. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelling_of_Mainila
There were actually a number of Finnish-American officers who had served in the Finnish Army during WWII in the US Army at the time Törni joined, all of whom, as well as Törni, having joined the military under the Lodge-Philbin Act (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodge-Philbin_Act). These officers were a big part of why and how Törni's skill set was so quickly and so efficiently utilized, as they definitely knew who he was and what he'd done.
In Sweden we had Allan Mann, he also fought in 3 army's. Finland (1939-1940) Norge (1940-1951) Storbritannien (vk2) Sverige (1939-1984 SAndra världskriget Räden i Dieppe Slaget vid Narvik Finska vinterkriget
@@sammakkotonttu Strange coincidence! However I actually met Allan Mann when I "studied" to lieutenant (sv:Löjtnant) at War Academy Karlsberg (Sv:Krigshögskolan) in Stockholm, he held some lectures in leadership.
My grandfather was a captain of an remote patrol, he took part in every war against the soviets in Finland was part in the gun hiding in case for another soviet invasion. For his effort he was sentenced to be banish into the soviet union. After he fled to Venezuela he never lied another foot on the Finnish soil his friends had died and he made every effort he could for Finnish independence only for the country he loved for abandon him. These are the heroes our people are silent about.
Mainilan laukaukset or mainila shots is very interesting piece of finnish military history. Russia will probably never admid they shot those first shots.q
The skiing animations are pretty amusing. Skate style skiing is not really a thing outside of maintained ski trails, and it wasn't even a thing in competitive skiing until the 70s or something. In deep snow with skis you move by sliding the skis forward one after the other.
Our late president Mauno Koivisto fought in the same reconnaissanse unit as Lauri Törni! Alpo Marttinen, at the age of 35(!), was promoted to colonel by Marshal Mannerheim on the phone after the defense victory at Tienhaara, "Finland's lock", on June 25 1944. After the war he fled to the US, where he also became a colonel. He played an important role in introducing Törni to the US army
Great rewiew! The video animation has some things that are not entirely accurate, though. The Finnish uniforms were grey, the skiers ski with skating style (!) like the snow would be hard, the tanks in Winter War seem to be T-34 (not by then in service). But, informative and entertaining video.
The Rockets they fired from those truck rails were often using artillery warheads that had failed inspection for quality.. so as not to waste the war production ..
me and my cousins were asking my grandfather, how was winter war. he never wanted to talk about it. once we just keep asking and he told when they went to a house and he saw his friends head blown up by a mine. we never asked him about war after that
It used to be common practice in Europe, at the time, for units or formations to have their commanders name. The Katyusha multiple rocket launcher is a type of rocket artillery first built and fielded by the Soviet Union in World War II. Multiple rocket launchers such as these deliver explosives to a target area more intensively than conventional artillery, but with lower accuracy and requiring a longer time to reload. They are fragile compared to artillery guns, but are cheap, easy to produce, and usable on any chassis. The Katyushas of World War II, the first self-propelled artillery mass-produced by the Soviet Union, were usually mounted on ordinary trucks. This mobility gave the Katyusha, and other self-propelled artillery, another advantage: being able to deliver a large blow all at once, and then move before being located and attacked with counter-battery fire. German troops coined the nickname "Stalin's organ" (Stalinorgel), after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, comparing the visual resemblance of the launch array to a pipe organ, and the sound of the weapon's rocket motors, a distinctive howling sound which terrified the German troops, adding a psychological warfare aspect to their use. Katyusha weapons of World War II included the BM-13 launcher, light BM-8, and heavy BM-31. Today, the nickname is also applied to newer truck-mounted post-Soviet - in addition to non-Soviet - multiple-rocket launchers, notably the common BM-21 Grad and its derivatives. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ArSZmPz6dAo.html
When i saw that Truck i was also Confused Just like you, i couldnt believe the soviets would use trucks from the 1920's and Attaching Some rockets, After reading some WWII Books and Watching WWII History, Now i know Why. Thanks for the Reaction Video!
In the U.S Marines we were still using trucks in 2000 from the Vietnam era for training purposes haha Some of them were almost 30 years old. Luckily we phazed them out of the fleet soon after for the newer 7 ton Oshkosh. And the old 5 tons were actually manual transmissions. It makes sense now why they made us do Motor T training in the Ozark mountains at Fort Leonardwood alongside our U.S Army brethren. Lol Cuz we were dangerous on the road to say the least.
One rather serious mistake at around 9:05. In reality, nobody was accused of war crimes and none from the military were accused. Only 9 politicians were accused of being guilty of 'keeping Finland at war'. Commander-in -chief, Mannerheim, was not accused of anything. The trials were the result of the peace treaty where it was agreed that those 'guilty of war' should be trialed, but the USSR and the comission had no power of having any kinds of trials in Finland - Finland remained a sovereign state and the trials were held by Finns only to fulfill the peace treaty articles - the 'criminals' had short sentences in prison and were considered war heroes, returning later to their positions. One of the convicted, PM J. Rangell was a friend of my grandfather and I have two letters he wrote during his imprisonment. I have met him in my grandmother's funeral at our home back in 1977.
I have three books about Törni. I think you could find at least J.Michael Cleverley's "Born to soldier" book writen in english. These videos just scratch little bit of surface.
2:19 That event is called "The shelling of Mainila"(Mainilan laukaukset). Finland and the Soviet Union actually had a written contract that prohibited both countries on attacking each other. So they staged an the artillery attack and blamed Finland on it.
That is correct he was the first MAC-V SOG casualty. The fact the video didn’t really mention he was MAC-V kinda disappointed me. Or the fact he trained MAC-V to fight in snow and guerrilla tactics.
@@hawks356gaming2 Yes, I agree. That winter training video was fascinating to watch. First time I saw it, I didn't know it was Törni. I was just wondering why that person looks so familiar.
Mottis to my knowledge was a finish take on the German Kessel or cauldron. They would try to trap troops in pockets and then reduce that pocket by cutting it in to smaller and smaller pieces.
Soviet trucks in the video were the GAZ-AA and ZIS 5 (at least they look like it) and yea they did look like that, basically soviet built copies of the Ford model AA and Autocar SD, modernised in some ways and toughened up, but looked basically the same.
"I tried" Loori toornei xD.. Ok, wasnt flawless but understandable. :P Yeah, soviets provocated attack (false flag op) and attacked Finland. "Mainilan laukaukset", shots at Mainila. It was all because Ribbentrop agreement with Germany and Soviets.. They shared poland and planned that Soviets take Finland.. Well, it didnt quite go as planned at Finnish front.... :D If you kill dog of John Wicks, hes getting mad.. If you take Lauris hometown.. Well.. xD You should read book about Lauri Törni, its friggen amazing. This video doesent even scratch the surface..
Ijust love and appreciate your channel, I feel so connected to the brave veterans in my family. To Honur my Father I watch Military content and support The Brave- in the way I can.
He received the Mannerheim cross, the Finnish version of The Medal of Honor. If you are interested in Lauri Törni you should watch this (english subtitles): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4geJx_AMrDg.html More videos: crashsite and finnish news of his remans being found: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KIzTeCaGMrk.html His funeral (the last few seconds from a memorial in Finland held by his comrades in arms from "detachment Törni") : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TTHzgCOaLNA.html
During the 1970's we in Northern England had quite a large community of displaced people from Poland and the Baltic States from WW2 and as a result of the Cold War. Some were ex-Polish Brigade paratroopers. A number had jobs as labourers and supervisors, There was one individual who had begun WW2 as part of the Polish Army until captured by the Germans. He then volunteered to fight for the German Army and was eventually captured by the Russians. After his capture he joined the Russian Army and fought with them until the end of of the war.
Btw, some of the warstories, what becomes to L. Toerni, must be taken with a pinch of salt ;) (gotta remember, he is Finnish national hero, from wartime and post-wartime...) Still there is no question about his skills as a soldier. 👍
SHOUT LAURI TÖRNIS NAME, SOLDIER OF THREE ARMIES KNOW THE GAME-From sabatons song, soldier of three armies. IM FROM FINLAND TOO, ive heard too that when lauri törni was selected to lead the troops, hw didnt say anything to soldiers that he was leading, and he was just solo'ing and he was rlly tactica, but i havent ever heard about he's fights this deep
Listen, you've clearly presented interest into his story, so I'm pretty sure you might appreciate the book/biography about him. Was written by an American, one J. Michael Cleverley, 2003. It offers a more indepth look into his life and journey.
Since you asked about his fellow soldiers interviews. Here is full video copy "Törni - Sotilaan tarina (A Soldier's Story) English Subtitles" There are other copies with same name without subs. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4geJx_AMrDg.html PS did you know that there are few things named after him in US (Once saw "Thorne academy" (military) or something visited by one Vietnam veteran, but can't find the video anymore.) PS2. Did you know that Thorne had some impact on US military training after WW2. For example he was asked why Finns were so fearless soldiers when defending against big enemy troops. He told that you knew for sure that you can trust the buddy next to you. .If you get wounded, he would make sure you will be transferred back for medical treatment. And if you fall, you knew that your platoon leader will make sure he will arrange your body transport to cemetery around your home church close to loved ones and he will write handwritten personal letter to your parents detailing their sons last days. Look at US movie "Blackhawk down" where this principle is well emphasized.
Interesting!🌹 But two mistakes in the beginning😉 1) "You never lift your hand to an empty head" = you only salute in uniform and with the uniformer hat on your head 2) Lauri and his father had various positions on their hands when they saluted. The father's introduction was the correct one!😉
6:32 also, Finns felt betrayed during the winter war, because no Allied nation came to help them ( not including many volunteers tho came from sweden and america for example ). Stalin pressured the other nordic / scandinavian countries not to join to finlands aid, so they happily took Nazi germanys help. And during the finnish civil war, the capital Helsinki was under control of the red guard, but with help from german armies the whites finally got the capital
Because Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Germany halted a lot of foreign aid to Finland during Winter War. French and British aid ferry was turned back in Baltic Sea. Finland was donated 50 planes from France, but they never made it to Finland during Winter War. Also 50 planes Finland bought from Italy had to be ferried to Finland because Germany did not allow then to fly using German airspace. And those planes also arrived late. Germany and Soviets were allies fro 1939 to 1941 so of course they did not want to make each others conquests harder.
Finland lost all confidence to allies during winter war. Because the allies did not come and help even though they promised. That is why Finland started continuation war with Germany.
There is a Korean who ended up at Normandy fighting for the Germans during D day, I just tried to put a link to the video, check it out as well they made a movie about it
The pronounciation wasn't THAT bad. You said it like Loori Torni, the AU in Lauri is pronounced pretty much like "ow" (you know when you hurt yourself) The Ö in Törni is the sound you make to the toilet at 6am after a wild night. About the attack on the soviet village of Mainila. The guns Finns had at the time couldn't even reach the village since they were already ordered away from the front and not after like it said in the video. Also there's a mistake in the very beginning of the video, we Finns don't salute the flag. However, in 1941 before the Finns took the village of Mainila, they shelled it because. hey, why not. Also the shells were marked "Mainilaan" or "To Mainila"
There's an actual documentary of him on yt. English subs and with a lot of commentary of his Finnish and American friends/comrades. It's really good! It's called "sotilaan tarina (a soldiers story) - Törni"
actually, anticipating an act like mainila, finns had already moved their artillery away from border, so that they didnt even have the range to shoot to mainila..
There is a video that you should watch it’s only short about 2 minutes long. But it’s when 9/11 happened the guards at Buckingham palace played the star spangled banner when changing guard. It’s really beautiful and emotional!
also the "cobelligerency" with germans was a must, since it was obvious to all parties that if soviets go into war against germany, they will have to take finland , to defend against a german invasion coming via finland (still applies this day....). so regardless of agreements finland knew it will be drawn into a war.
Actually in finnish army it was called 'special detachment Törni' but so did all those special recon units get named after their leading officer. Those units were used for recon and special fight duties... Kind of black ops of its time... And you may well say that Thorne/Törni was creating special ops in two armies, since he was also writing out the first SOPs for the Green Barets, when they were formed and trained for the US Army. And that starting new in USA wasn't that uncommon at the time, since USA was also interested in getting info from the Nazi army creations in weapons and tactics to improve their army and troops. Not to forget that Germany was way more improved than USA in science on that time, but lost mostly due lack of raw materials. (Wernher von Braun first invented V-2 rocket for Germany, and later was creating Apollo Program for NASA)
Finnish President Mauno Koivisto was Lauri Törni unit during WW2.. later Mauno Koivisto and USA President George Bush was warm somekind friendship.. there is ole reason why finns selected USA figters ..
Difference between US and soviet vehicles was that soviets focused more easy to manufacture and maintain "if it works don't touch it" . In picture is ZIS-6 all around cargo truck. Even modern Russian vehicles tend to look like reshaped carborad box still higly effective trucks and stuff.
soviets just mass produced everything cheap and rushed, sometimes they didn't even work, like T-34s being rolled out of the factory and into combat without even any sights on their guns.
Soviets vehicles weren't easier to maintain, the famous T-34 constantly broke down, whilst M4s could always be counted to be ready for an operation. Soviets produced what they could, but the quality was often lacking considering they didn't have enough skilled workers and machinery unlike the US. The steel of the T-34 was heat treated so badly that even non penetrating hits caused lot of casualties due to spalling, whilst drving a Sherman was about the safest job combat role of the war. T-34 was a decent tank, but maybe not the peak of engineering it is made out to be.
@@lepathewarrior4445 M4 was ridiculously reliable even by todays standards, you could drive one from Paris to Berlin and back only needing fuel and new rubber pads on tracks while mid to late war T-34 would need overhaul after 300-400km. Both by design and strategic needs; For soviets quantity was quality while Americans were limited by logistics requiring reliability.
Also those famous mainila shots were defenedly soviet, just because finnish army didnt have artillery/mortars at area what were capable to shoot that range.
Check out Sotilaan tarina here on RU-vid. Its doc about Törni, his sister and people who served with him share storys about him. It has eng sub. On that doc there is alot more info, who ever made these short videos probably got their info from this doc 👌🙏
@@RoyalMela Well that isn’t very true. Finland could have joined USSR or even stayed as a part of russia, and fought against Germany. But yes i understand your point.
A note. In the video their cross country skiing technique is totally wrong, you could get nowhere with the skating style in the Finnish forest. The correct technique would be a three-kick classical style.
I talk at summer whit one of 1400 Finnish waffen SS man. 102years old. There wass enymore 3 live, they ar call "pantti armeija" Google => articles of the army. Some one can ofcourse tell more tetales about it but thit is what i talk white that vet, he wasent nazt, he said that he is Finnish soldier. after 19old one year trip one line of germany war, they game Back to Finland for the one war. Easyes way to think that was idea that if Finland giwes man power for rent to the line. German will hel on border of Finland when soviet will attack. But that all is history. And i can tell something more about that.
We have used motti tactics at least from 1008 AD when Norwegian king Olaf who later became to known as St Olaf thought it would be a good idea to raid us with his viking army. Well, it wasn't. They failed, miserably. He barely managed to escape with few men that he had left. Lesson of the day: Don't fuck with Finns, it will not end well for you.
