In December of 1917 Finland declared it’s independence from Russia. Shortly there after Civil War broke out between the Communist Finns and the White Finns. After a few months the White Guard or sometimes known as the Civil Guard defeated the Communist Finns in a very bloody battle. The newly formed Civil Guard continued as a volunteer organization and acted as the National Guard. Marksmanship was stressed with this group of men and they were precision shots. They believed a sign of a good soldier was one who was a good shot.
The newly formed Finnish Army was mainly equipped with the model 1891 Mosin Nagant, the Japanese Models 30, 35 and 38 Arisaka 6.5 and the old out dated 10. 67 mm Russian Berdan. The 6.5 Arisaka and Russian Berdan were issued to Russian second line troops in the Russian Army. After a short period of time the Arisaka and Berdan were transferred to the Civil Guard. When the Arisaka rifles were captured the Finns also captured 12.4 million cartridges for that 6.5 caliber rifle.
The Finns found they were armed with a wide variety of guns and needed to standardize their weapons. After about 10 years the 7.62 three line rifle was chosen. During the Civil War the Finns captured from the Russians approx. 111.6 millions rounds of 7.62x54R. and in addition had Germany send them 41.5 million rounds. This quality of ammunition was questionable and was past its service life. There was a need for the Finns to produced accurate fresh ammo to train their troops.
In 1918 the Finns decided they needed a Finnish Ammunition factory and thus SAT (Suomen Ampumatarvetehdas) was produced in the city of Riihimaki. It was a private enterprise and this factory did not get on its feet until 1920. The main function of this factory was to reload empty cases that the Finns had fired. SAT did not have facilities in the beginning to produce their own brass.
Needless to say these cartridges did not meet the Ministry of Defense (MOD) criteria for good ammunition and the MOD lost confidence on SAT. In 1922 SAT attempted to improve its factory and starting making their own bullets and cases. Once again the quality was below the Finnish MOD standard. A fire took place in the SAT factory in 1922 and finally the factory was closed.
The Finnish Govt decided to build its own ammunition factory. In 1923 they built one in Lapua and named it Valtion patruunatehdas (VPT). This factory supplied spitzer style bullets for the army. VPT then developed a competition bullet for the Finnish Civil Guard matches. This was the D46 and the D-47. This ammo was highly respected and was produced in 7.62x54R for the Estonian Army. VPT also loaded .303 ammo for the Latvian Army too.
In the 1930s the MOD met and decided they needed to test another bullet for use in the standard rifle and crew served machinegun. The MOD formed the “Standard cartridge Board” and tested 230 different bullets. From this testing a 200 grain .3095 diameter bullet was made for the rifle and standard crew served machinegun. This was called the D-166 bullet/loading. With this new cartridge came a change in the casing head. They now beveled the casing head for a more positive feed and ejection.
With the possibility of the Winter War coming the Finns decided to build an under ground ammunition making facility in Kanavuori. Unfortunately this facility was not completed in time for the Winter War. Finland needed more bullet head production to keep up with the upcoming needs. Two more bullet-making facilities were made in Kokkola, and Ahtari. In late 1939 bullet making facilities were also established in Kannus, Kauhajoki, Kurikka and Iissalmi.
The other large manufacturer of Finnish military ammo was Suojeluskuntain Ase-ja Konepaja Oskeyhtio (Oy Sako AB) This facility produced the boa tail bullets in 1929-1931. In 1932 they started loading these bullet heads into cartridges. Sako also started loading the 9mm and 7.65 pistol cartridges too. The empty brass from fired cases from VPT were now of a much higher quality. Sako also reloaded these empty cases with much greater success than the original SAT factory facility.
With any ammunition making operation on of the main ingredients is gunpowder. As early as 1919 another committee was formed by MOD to create a gunpowder mill. After several years the details were worked out and the facility was made at Jyvaskyla near Vithtavuori in 1926. This was also referred to as VRT. The powder for a Finish pistol, rifle and artillery powder was made here. VRT also exported a large amount of powder to other Baltic countries. Along with the powder VRT produced a large volume of mercuric primers from 1934 to 1939. In 1939 VRT started producing the non-mercuric Sinoxid primers as well.
War came to Finland again in November of 1939. Communist imperialism demanded that Finland give up their land for Communist Russian expansionism. VPT was geared up for war earlier that year and was producing 10 million cartridges a month. Sako was also loading cartridges at an alarming rate there and at four other temporary facilities. They were producing 1.8 million 9mm cartridges per month. Even at this rate the Finns were concerned that they would not have enough ammo.
The Finns made the decision to order from abroad. Here are some of the figures that were ordered/donated and from whom:
Winchester: 50 million ordered, 21 million delivered.
Belgium F.N.: 4 million pistol cartridges from 6.35 to 9mm.
Italy: 50 million rounds
France: 20 million 8mm Lebel, 1 million 7.5 Lebel, 1.5 million misc pistol.
Great Britain: 4 million .303 British
Sweden: 20 million 6.5x55
As the war progressed Finland was looking for other sources of ammunition for its army. At the end of the Winter War, production continued at the Finnish munitions plants and they exported larger amounts of ammo to Sweden. A total of 69 million cartridges were exported to Sweden prior to the outbreak of the Continuation War.
With the outbreak of war again these demands led to material shortages in Finland of copper and lead. This led the industry to develop the D-283 and D-284 7.62 Spitzer bullet in 1943, which was a lighter bullet. During 1944 some 80 million of these were loaded.
During the Continuation War the Finnish production level achieved 293 million rifle cartridges and 322 million pistol cartridges. Still the Finns bought a large amount of ammunition from the Germans between 1941 to 1944. The count was 82.1 million captured Russian 7.62 cartridges; 18.2 million German 9mm pistol cartridges, and 11.8 million Polish and Czech 7.9 Mauser rifle cartridges. In addition to what was purchased from Germany the Finns captured 39.6 million Russian rifle cartridges and 2.3 million pistol cartridges.
In Sept 1944 the Continuation War ended and all ammunition orders were cancelled. Some cartridges were allowed to be produced, to fight the Germans in the Lapland War. In April of 1945 all cartridge production stopped until the 1950s.
* An article from my site at
www.finnishmilitaryguns.com.
Login
Register
FAQ
