The Weapons Cache Case ( fi, Asekätkentä, sv, Vapengömmoaffären) was a Finnish military plan to continue battle after the ceasefire in 1944, if needed. It concerned a secret and officially unsanctioned military operation following the end of combat on the Soviet–Finnish theater of WWII known as the

Continuation War The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet-Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, as part of World War II.; sv, fortsättningskriget; german: Fortsetzungskrie ...

, where a large amount of

Finnish Army The Finnish Army ( Finnish: ''Maavoimat'', Swedish: ''Armén'') is the land forces branch of the Finnish Defence Forces. The Finnish Army is divided into six branches: the infantry (which includes armoured units), field artillery, anti-aircra ...

weapons and equipment was hidden in caches scattered around the country.

Background

Following the

Moscow Armistice The Moscow Armistice was signed between Finland on one side and the Soviet Union and United Kingdom on the other side on 19 September 1944, ending the Continuation War. The Armistice restored the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, with a number of mod ...

of September 19, 1944, two high-ranking officers in the Operational department of Finnish Military HQ,

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

Valo Nihtilä and Lieutenant Colonel Usko Haahti, started planning countermeasures against a possible

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

occupation of the country. They came up with the idea of decentralized storage of light infantry weapons, so that in case of occupation, an immediate

guerrilla war Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactic ...

could be launched. During the demobilization, an organization responsible for hiding the equipment was created and war

materiel Materiel (; ) refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context. In a military context, the term ''materiel'' refers either to the spec ...

and other supplies were given to them for safekeeping. A total of 5,000–10,000 people participated in the operation. It was planned that they would cache supplies for 8,000 men, but the participants worked so eagerly that it is supposed they hid enough for 35,000 soldiers. The case started to unravel in the spring of 1945, when one man, who had stolen foodstuffs from the cache to sell them on the lucrative

black market A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the ...

and feared reprisal from his comrades, divulged the existence of the caches to the

Allied Control Commission Following the termination of hostilities in World War II, the Allies were in control of the defeated Axis countries. Anticipating the defeat of Germany and Japan, they had already set up the European Advisory Commission and a proposed Far Easter ...

(ACC). Initially the ACC was eager to follow the case, but after written orders from Nihtilä and Haahti surfaced, they left the investigation to

Valpo The State Police (Valpo) ( fi, Valtiollinen poliisi) is the predecessor of the Finnish Security Intelligence Service. History Etsivä keskuspoliisi Valtiollinen poliisi has its roots in Osasto III ("Section III") which was formed in summer 1 ...

, the much

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

-controlled security police of Finland at the time. Valpo interrogated more than 5,000 people but failed to completely crack the case and find all the weapons. Most of the weapons were silently returned to army depots, and some were destroyed, but even today when old buildings are demolished, caches turn up every year. The investigators failed to find out how many people participated in the operation, as the participants tended to be reluctant to divulge meaningful information. While the operation was unofficial, there was no Finnish law under which those involved could be prosecuted. An ''ex post facto'' law was passed for the purpose in January 1947. In the end, 1,488 people were convicted, most of them sentenced to 1–4 months in prison. Decades later, in 1980, social democrat

Arvo Tuominen Arvo “Poika” Tuominen (5 September 1894 – 27 May 1981) was a Finnish communist revolutionary and later a social democratic journalist, politician and author. Tuominen was given his nickname, "Poika", in 1920 because of his boyish look; ''p ...

, a former Finnish Communist leader, claimed that the weapons cache case was the tipping point which transferred the power within the Finnish Communist movement from the revolutionary to the parliamentary wing, as the communists feared armed resistance against revolutionary takeover. However, according to historian Kimmo Rentola and others, Tuominen's claims are to be treated very sceptically. Several private, unrelated, weapons caches have been found all over Finland after the war. One "famous" by

Lauri Törni Lauri Allan Törni (28 May 1919 – 18 October 1965), later known as Larry Alan Thorne, was a Finnish-born soldier who fought under three flags: as a Finnish Army officer in the Winter War and the Continuation War ultimately gaining a rank of ca ...

and his fellow veterans. This cache included a light machine gun, semi-automatic rifle, 5 submachineguns, 3 rifles, 36 hand grenades and some 2000 rounds of ammunition. The

Degtyaryov machine gun The Degtyaryov machine gun (russian: Пулемёт Дегтярёвa Пехотный, Pulemyot Degtyaryova Pekhotny literally: "Degtyaryov's infantry machine gun") or DP-27/DP-28 is a light machine gun firing the 7.62×54mmR cartridge that was ...

was later identified as the president

Mauno Koivisto Mauno Henrik Koivisto (; 25 November 1923 – 12 May 2017) was a Finnish politician who served as the ninth president of Finland from 1982 to 1994. He also served as the country's prime minister twice, from 1968 to 1970 and again from 1979 to 1 ...

's issue weapon from his war service.

References

* Lukkari, Matti (3rd ed 1992): ''Asekätkentä'' * Rentola, Kimmo (1994): ''Kenen joukoissa seisot? Suomalainen kommunismi ja sota 1937–1945'' * Rentola, Kimmo (1997): ''Niin kylmää että polttaa. Kommunistit, Kekkonen ja Kreml 1947–1958''

Background

See also

References

Further reading