Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Finnish war movies

The Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon Sotilas) From 2017

The first and latest entry on our list is the most expensive movie every produced in Finland.

It's around 3 hours long and there's a mini-TV series version which is around 4 and a half hours long. It covers the era between 1941 during the invasion of the Soviet Union and recovery of lost Finnish territory from the Soviets during the previous Winter War all the way up to the armistice of 1944.

I watched it recently and what I like about it is that it's not some one sided patriotic production like some others where war is glorified and the main characters are the "good guys". Everyone is flawed, some people fight for honor and fame to gain rank, some fight for themselves and to survive, others fight for their family and nation and without trying to spoil anything I'll just mention that there are a few sections where the more civilian aspect of things is shown, from both sides of the conflict.

In terms of actually understanding what they're talking about I found the version of the 4 and a half hour long mini-TV series with English subtitles, however understandably I cannot share it and I have no idea if it's being streamed on platforms such as Netflix so it will be up to you to find where to watch it but I highly recommend it. And for the record there's 2 more movie versions based on the same story, that's why I wrote that it's from 2017 because the others from the 1955 and 1985 respectively.

Tali-Ihantala 1944 (2007)

Known under several different names such as 1944: The Final Defense or Schlacht um Finland (Battle of Finland) in the German translation, the movie follows the Battle of Tali–Ihantala during the Continuation War in 1944 as the name suggests.

It also features some tank and air battles as well with faithfully recreated props since the director wanted to make the movie as real as possible to serve as a memoir of the Finnish soldiers who lost their lives during the war.

The Winter War (Talvisota) From 1989

Now we come to where the new Finnish DLC is based on, namely the Winter War of 1939-1940 where the Soviet Union under the pretext of a threat from Finland invaded the country, ultimately paying a high price in terms of men and material and ending the conflict in an uneasy to make peace.

The movie shows the guerilla tactics used during the fighting in the cold and frosty countryside of Finland with few roads and many forests. Skis, molotov cocktails thrown at tanks as well as ambushes lurking under every branch are all shown here to give you a sense of how brutal it actually was, and how the Soviets were unprepared to enter this conflict to the dismay of many of the regular soldiers who suffered to both the elements as well as inhumane conditions presented to them.

Beyond The Front Line (2004)

In Swedish: Framom främsta linjen and in Finnish: Etulinjan edessä is apparently a movie about some Swedish speaking volunteers during the Continuation War.

I only recently found out about this movie so I don't know much about it other than the premise that it was based on memoirs written by one of those same volunteers that the film follows.

Girls Und Panzer

A bit of an odd one but for all of those anime fans out there I couldn't finish this without mentioning Continuation High School, also known as Jatkosota High School. They are featured in both Der Film and Das Finale part 3 and 4.

As the name suggests they represent the Finnish forces during the Continuation War with many captured, lent and some modified tanks which I will mention in the next last section.

Finnish Equipment Trivia

There will probably be a lot of questions as to why for example the Fins used inverted swastikas as well as the roundel, or why they had PPSh 41 looking guns before the Soviets, or why they had German uniforms during the fighting against the Soviets, or why they used both captured, lent and modified tanks.

So this is why I decided to end this guide with a quick note to maybe hopefully answer a few of these questions.

To begin, the swastika was originally a religious symbol found in both Asia and Europe before being hijacked by crazy Austrian moustache man to fight again angry Russian moustache man. As such it was used not just by Germany starting in the 1930s but many other countries as well, including Finland which used it as heraldry until 1945 and their airforce even still had it in use until recently as well.

The roundel was also used although it being less popular and for reasons of not being controversial I assume the developers of the game have chosen to use it instead.

The Suomi KP/-31 prominently featured in the first movie on this list, The Unknown Soldier, by one of the main characters is a PPSh 41 looking weapon that was originally developed in Finland.

It was a high quality weapon with a 71 round drum magazine with a high, somewhat accurate fire rate. The Soviets first encountering it during the Winter War liked it and decided to adapt it for themselves, however due to the high production cost and time of the weapon since the Finnish made it all by hand manually it was simplified and made for high production numbers, being named the PPSh 41.

Coming to the next question of the German-looking uniforms, between 1917 and 1939 similar to many other countries in Europe at the time, especially in the East, there was a lot of fighting between communist and non-communist forces, in the case of Finland and Spain for example, the nationalists loyal to each respective country's monarchy. Generally the republican or communist forces were backed by the Soviet Union while the nationalist forces were backed, supported and supplied by Germany at the time with each country trying to fight the other's influence over the smaller nations on the continent.

Which leads us to this brilliant ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, Baron or Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim who was a nationalist Finnish hero and leader at the time that fought against the bolsheviks and was basically only pro-German because he wanted to protect his country from their neighbours to the East. A portrait of his beautiful mug in a German-looking uniform can be seen below.

Lastly we come to the tank question. Generally the Finnish never had the industrial capacity like say England or Germany, or hell even France or some of the other smaller countries such as Czechoslovakia at the time to produce tanks. Their country was mostly filled with trees and few and far between roads which is also why Soviet armor became bogged down and ambushed during the Winter War.

Hence why for example you can see pictures of many T-26 and T-34s in Finnish service with their own camo patterns and markings. During the Continuation War they also managed to capture some T34/85s as well as ISU152s, represented in this game. And they of course also modified the few BT-7s they captured by replacing the normal turret with a box shaped one armed with a British 4.5 inch howitzer that can be seen in Girls und Panzer in the form of the BT-42. But besides that they also received from Panzer IVs and StuGs which they affectionally called "Sturmi" and modified by fitting them with additional concrete "armor" on the front and wooden "armor" on the sides.

Well that's about it, I hope you enjoyed reading this and found some new and interesting information.

And for the record what I wrote here isn't the full story, I just wanted to include some snippets for people who want to dig deeper to have something to look up on the internet or elsewhere.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2826218478

Finnish war movies