"As if Russia could sneak up on Finland.." Dont forget this kind of thing, here is French Foreign Legion soldiers answer;
"How well trained are basic Finnish reconnaissance soldiers?"
"You don't want to mess with the Sissi."
"Don´t be fooled by their odd name, they are the epitome of long range reconnaissance patrol and would give anybody on earth a run for their money."
"In support of Matti Porkka ´s answer, I will correlate in saying that some retelling from friends of mine in the Swedish Defense Forces who did joint exercises with them are a bit unsettling…"
"As an exemple, during one of these exercises, a platoon of Swedish soldiers was to try and track down a team of Finnish Long Range Recon Patrol in Northern Sweden. The Swedes were equipped with all kinds of gear including helicopters, night vision gear and K-9 assets."
"The exercise was supposed to last 6 days. The Swedes never found them. They never so little as glimpsed or heard them once and every trail their dogs picked up led into a maze of several hours in impossible terrain before leading them back to the exact original point where they had picked the scent up."
"During this week, the Sissi :
regularly stole food from the Swedes and left thank you notes in Finnish
“ borrowed ” canteens, ammo, clothing and even boots from the Swedes which they hanged up in trees
stuffed the heads of dead rabbits and snakes in some of the Swedes´ rucksacks
woke them up early in the morning with tear gas
they culminated in capturing one of their sentries and held him captive for 48 hours before returning him blindfolded and unarmed but well fed and healthy to his camp"
"At the end of the exercise, the Sissi exposed to the Swedes high resolution photographies of each one of them with names and ranks. They even had some of their nicknames written down. They had sketches portraits of the dogs with their specificities such as name, sex, size, approximative weight and physical characteristics. They also had their radio codes."
"That might give you an idea how well trained and skilled they are at what they do."
"These people train at “ welcoming” Russians to their land again any day of the week since WWII and that is a very serious matter to them. They have not let their guard down since then, it´s part of their military culture. Finns in general are very special compared to the rest of Nordics. Finns are considerably tougher on the average, it is due to a rather unique cultural concept they refer to as sisú. Mental toughness and resolve is still a cultural value to Finns which is very unique among Nordics. I have always been impressed by Finnish military knowledge of bushcraft and winter warfare and not many military in the world of armed forces master these type of knowledge to the extent Finnish long range recon patrols do."
Stay Strong
0
"As if Russia could sneak up on Finland.." Dont forget this kind of thing, here is French Foreign Legion soldiers answer;
"How well trained are basic Finnish reconnaissance soldiers?"
"You don't want to mess with the Sissi."
"Don´t be fooled by their odd name, they are the epitome of long range reconnaissance patrol and would give anybody on earth a run for their money."
"In support of Matti Porkka ´s answer, I will correlate in saying that some retelling from friends of mine in the Swedish Defense Forces who did joint exercises with them are a bit unsettling…"
"As an exemple, during one of these exercises, a platoon of Swedish soldiers was to try and track down a team of Finnish Long Range Recon Patrol in Northern Sweden. The Swedes were equipped with all kinds of gear including helicopters, night vision gear and K-9 assets."
"The exercise was supposed to last 6 days. The Swedes never found them. They never so little as glimpsed or heard them once and every trail their dogs picked up led into a maze of several hours in impossible terrain before leading them back to the exact original point where they had picked the scent up."
"During this week, the Sissi :
regularly stole food from the Swedes and left thank you notes in Finnish
“ borrowed ” canteens, ammo, clothing and even boots from the Swedes which they hanged up in trees
stuffed the heads of dead rabbits and snakes in some of the Swedes´ rucksacks
woke them up early in the morning with tear gas
they culminated in capturing one of their sentries and held him captive for 48 hours before returning him blindfolded and unarmed but well fed and healthy to his camp"
"At the end of the exercise, the Sissi exposed to the Swedes high resolution photographies of each one of them with names and ranks. They even had some of their nicknames written down. They had sketches portraits of the dogs with their specificities such as name, sex, size, approximative weight and physical characteristics. They also had their radio codes."
"That might give you an idea how well trained and skilled they are at what they do."
"These people train at “ welcoming” Russians to their land again any day of the week since WWII and that is a very serious matter to them. They have not let their guard down since then, it´s part of their military culture. Finns in general are very special compared to the rest of Nordics. Finns are considerably tougher on the average, it is due to a rather unique cultural concept they refer to as sisú. Mental toughness and resolve is still a cultural value to Finns which is very unique among Nordics. I have always been impressed by Finnish military knowledge of bushcraft and winter warfare and not many military in the world of armed forces master these type of knowledge to the extent Finnish long range recon patrols do."
Stay Strong
https://www.quora.com/How-well-trained-are-basic-Finnish-reconnaissance-soldiers