GOLDEN FRIENDS AND DEAREST BROTHERS - Martin Seppala

New Ipswich Historical Society

FINNS: An Oral History of Finnish-Americans in New Hampshire’s Monadnock Region

Excerpted from FINNS: An Oral History... by Patricia Kangas Ktistes, 1997, all rights reserved.

Arvi Kangas - WWII

Martin Seppala

We lived to hear radio reports about the Winter War. My dad had one of the first radios in town. Did we rejoice—it was just ordained of God that mighty Russian Army could not take over Finland. It was the elder Kennedy that advised Roosevelt not to help Finland; that’s why I never cared for the Kennedys. That poor little country: we’re supposed to be such humanitarians and for the little guy. But the Finns didn’t need us; they held them off on their own. Boy did a lot of Russian soldiers die! The big thing was that the Russians had tanks, airplanes, they could bomb the Finns. The Finns didn’t have the ability to bomb the Russians back. But the thing the Finns had that was exceptional was their submachine gun: they manufactured it. And in real cold weather, the Russian guns would not fire. And when the Finns surrounded those three divisions, that’s where they wiped the Russians out. More Russian soldiers froze to death than the Finns killed. Their casualties—I’ve heard it was even up to 1,000,000 men—were enormous. I’m sure my entire family was listening every night. We had relatives over in Finland. And also, someone in almost every family from the church (Laestadian church in Finland) was fighting. When we hired Finns at Seppala & Aho, almost every one had been fighting the Russians. Like the Rantala Boys. There were about four brothers. Tauno Rantala said when they encircled the Russian camp, it was a huge problem.

The Finns were so outnumbered and they had these Russians surrounded. The only thing they could hope to do was kill the Russians off so they could fight the next horde that would come. So at night they’d go into the camp and slice their throats—the Finns would be in there—just one Russian right after another. What actually happened was the Russians got scared and didn’t know what was going on when the Finns came. The Russians were screaming and got up and ran out of the camp and then the Finns opened fire on them. Anything just to get rid of the hordes. But the United States wouldn’t lift a finger. Though I remember Italy—which was almost the opposite side—sent a few planes to Finland. That’s the way I remember it.

[Next: Toivo Kangas]