Tykkimiehen muistelmia Karjalan rintamalta by Aarno Karimo
"Tykkimiehen muistelmia Karjalan rintamalta" by Aarno Karimo is a war memoir written in the early 20th century. It chronicles a Finnish artilleryman’s experiences on the Karelian front during the civil war, blending gritty combat, makeshift ingenuity, and dry humor. The narrative follows the narrator and his small gun crew as they stumble into gunnery, fight Red and Russian units, and draw vivid portraits of comrades—especially the hapless yet steadfast horseman Jussi. It
offers a ground-level view of skirmishes, deprivation, and morale among White forces. The opening of the memoir states it is not a formal history but a set of frontline recollections, then plunges into the narrator’s scramble to join the artillery, improvised training in Sortavala with a mechanic, and chaotic first test firings. He is rushed to the Antrea sector, where an audacious, roughly plotted shot toward Ora becomes the first artillery salvo on that front, followed by a tense winter night defending the Vuoksi crossings with scant men and almost no firearms. Early actions around Noskua feature a dramatic mishap—a shell stuck in the barrel due to a bad casing—solved by firing it out, and culminate in driving the enemy from stone cowsheds and capturing machine guns. A comic-sympathetic portrait of Jussi (“Sven Dufva”) showcases blunders, loyalty, and rough camaraderie. Life at Ora is depicted as crowded and lice-ridden yet resilient, with constant patrols, gramophone interludes, captured diaries, and grim accounts of Red atrocities, as reinforcements trickle in and green recruits struggle even to stay awake on guard. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
