Winter War Volunteers; Finland 1939

[GrandyP]

My wife's father, Peter John (Wolf) Cooper, 1922-1972, was one of the lads who volunteered to go and help protect Finland from Russian invasion in 1939. Unfortunately, the conflict ended before they became fully involved but after they had arrived in Finland. As a result, they spent several years stranded in Finland and Sweden before eventually being able to make their way home. He is mentioned very briefly in Justin Brooke's book, 'The Volunteers' but we don't know too much about what he did there (apart from meeting and marrying my wife's mother in Sweden) or why he is referred to as 'Wolf' in the book. Does anyone else have family members who were involved in this endeavour or any information relating to this?

[janrm]

Hi,

You might want to have a look at this, there is a picture of some British volunteers in Finland here:

http://unkari3000.blogspot.no/2013/06/suomen-sodan-kuva-christopher-lee.html

(English text at the bottom)

According to Norwegian Wikipedia there were only 13 British volunteers present in Finland when the "Phony War" ended. (In comparison to some 8.000 Swedes and 1.000 Norwegians..)

Regards,

- J -

[GrandyP]

Thanks J

According to Justin Brooke's book 'The Volunteers' there were over 200 British volunteers who made it to Finland before the armistice was signed. They remained stranded there for some time before being sent to Sweden where my father in law met his future wife; the rest, as they say, is history!