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Fought for Finland, the Nazis, and the US Army Special Forces - His Amazing Story

Beaudreaux

Beaudreaux

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The crazy story of the man who fought for Finland, the Nazis, and the US Army Special Forces

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Larry Thorne enlisted in the US Army as a private in 1954, but he was already a war hero. That's because his real name was Lauri Törni, and he had been fighting the Soviets for much of his adult life.

Born in Finland in 1919, Törni enlisted at age 19 in his country's army and fought against the Soviet Union in the Winter War of 1939-1940, according to the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.

He quickly rose to the rank of captain and took command of a group of ski troops, who quite literally skied into battle against enemy forces.

In 1942 he was severely wounded after he skied into a mine, but that didn't slow him down. In 1944, during what the Finns called The Continuation War, he received Finland's version of the Medal of Honor — the Mannerheim Cross — for his bravery while leading a light infantry battalion.

Unfortunately for Törni, Finland eventually fell to the communists in 1944.

But instead of surrendering, he joined up with the German SS so he could continue to fight the Soviets.

He received additional training in Nazi Germany and then looked forward to returning to the battlefield.

But then Germany fell, too, and the Finn-turned-Waffen SS officer was arrested by the British, according to War History Online.

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The rest of this amazing story is found here: Man fought for Finland, Nazis, and US Army Special Forces - Business Insider
 
That is some anti-Soviet dedication.
 
As an SS-Untersturmführer, he was a member of a criminal organization. At the post-war Nürnberg trials, the Waffen-SS was condemned as a criminal organisation due to its connection to the Nazi Party and involvement in numerous war crimes.
 
Something very odd with this story..... for one Finland did not fall to the communists.
 
Heinrich said:
As an SS-Untersturmführer, he was a member of a criminal organization. At the post-war Nürnberg trials, the Waffen-SS was condemned as a criminal organisation due to its connection to the Nazi Party and involvement in numerous war crimes.
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Thank you for pointing out the obvious, which was also discussed in the article, and in US history courses since the late 1940's. It does not change the fact that this man had an incredible career and has an amazing story.
 
PeteEU said:
Something very odd with this story..... for one Finland did not fall to the communists.
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You are correct. The guy was clearly a Nazi sympathizer after his own country quit its alliance with the Third Reich and expelled the Germans from Finland.
 
Heinrich said:
You are correct. The guy was clearly a Nazi sympathizer after his own country quit its alliance with the Third Reich and expelled the Germans from Finland.
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I don't think it had anything to do with Nazis whatsoever. Finland did succumb to the USSR during WWII - that is an historical fact. He likely left and joined the SS (a decision I do not agree with) out of a bloodlust and Russophobia bordering on blatant racism. I can see why he did the things he did - considering his country's peace accord with the USSR even after the latter's invasion of the former. But it does not make sense in my opinion considering that Finland wasn't exactly 'defeated' outright.
 
Abbazorkzog said:
I don't think it had anything to do with Nazis whatsoever.
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I see it differently.

Abbazorkzog said:
Finland did succumb to the USSR during WWII - that is an historical fact.
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The Moscow armistice was signed by Finland and the Soviet Union on 19 September 1944 ending the War with the Soviet Union. Some territory was ceded by Finland to the Soviet Union but Finland was not occupied. The Finns got off lightly. This is when our friend donned the SS uniform. He was a turncoat and traitor at a time when his country went to war against the Third Reich.
 
Heinrich said:
As an SS-Untersturmführer, he was a member of a criminal organization. At the post-war Nürnberg trials, the Waffen-SS was condemned as a criminal organisation due to its connection to the Nazi Party and involvement in numerous war crimes.
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However most of those in it were not criminals, maybe misguided but not criminals, the SS was largely just an elite combat force. One of my family friends was an SS soldier, he and many others did not even see combat as he was captured by the Canadians when Amsterdam was surrendered. He later immigrated to Canada and is just a normal everyday guy, who just so happened to have the wrong uniform. Also at Nuremberg they decided that those who joined after 1943 were not largely responsible for crimes as after that men were forced into it.
 
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Beaudreaux said:
Although I'm not a big fan of Wiki's, read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Finland_during_World_War_II
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Since you brought up a finnish man from WW2, you might Simo Hayha's story pretty amazing.

Finnish sniper in WW2. He didn't join up with the Nazis. But he did have more than 500 confirmed kills making him the worlds deadliest sniper in history.. Makes a guy like Chris Kyle look like an amateur. He was often in pure white camo in the snow, out there in far below freezing temperatures.
The soviets spared no efforts in trying to kill him. He was finally hit by a soviet sniper which blew half of Simo's face off. He was in a coma for 11 days, it took him a long time to recover but he went back into combat and took out the sniper who blew his face off.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_Häyhä
 
Carjosse said:
... Also at Nuremberg they decided that those who joined after 1943 were not largely responsible for crimes as after that men were forced into it.
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Lauri Törni was not conscripted. He was a volunteer in the most Nazi outfit, the SS, when his country was at war with the Third Reich.
 
Heinrich said:
Lauri Törni was not conscripted. He was a volunteer in the most Nazi outfit, the SS, when his country was at war with the Third Reich.
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Well the SS accepted foreign troops, and clearly his hate for the Soviet Union and communism outweighed that of the Nazis. I do not see anything particularly wrong with that. A my enemy's enemy is my friend situation.
 
Carjosse said:
Well the SS accepted foreign troops, and clearly his hate for the Soviet Union and communism outweighed that of the Nazis. I do not see anything particularly wrong with that. A my enemy's enemy is my friend situation.
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He was a Finn. Finland was at war with the Third Reich. He joined the SS. He was now the enemy of his own country, a traitor. Many Nazis went to Canada and the USA after the war. They were all regular guys, the salt of the earth. We all know the story.
 
Heinrich said:
He was a Finn. Finland was at war with the Third Reich. He joined the SS. He was now the enemy of his own country, a traitor. Many Nazis went to Canada and the USA after the war. They were all regular guys, the salt of the earth. We all know the story.
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They were at war with the Soviet Union first and posed a much larger threat to Finnish independence than the Nazis.
 
Carjosse said:
They were at war with the Soviet Union first and posed a much larger threat to Finnish independence than the Nazis.
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Finland was at war with the Third Reich when Lauri Törni joined the SS, the armed wing of the Nazi Party.
 
PeteEU said:
Something very odd with this story..... for one Finland did not fall to the communists.
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This struck me as well. It is very true that Finland never surrendered to the Soviets, and maintained it's government to this day.

However, there is a word I like to use that is well known in geopolitical circles, "Finlandization". After the end of WWII, the Soviets were very unhappy with Finland because of the assistance they had given to Germany. They used indirect pressure and threats in order to get Finland to bend to their will in a great many cases. This is why Finland has never joined NATO, and often bowed to their wishes, even though they hated the Soviet Union.

Heinrich said:
You are correct. The guy was clearly a Nazi sympathizer after his own country quit its alliance with the Third Reich and expelled the Germans from Finland.
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Not really.

Remember, Finland was invaded by the Soviets several times, and a great many had a deep hatred of the Soviet Union.

And yes, by his uniform he was indeed a member of the Waffen SS. But there were a great many units in the Waffen SS, and not all were the same. The "German" units were largely militarized SS. However, there were many foreign Waffen SS units from countries all over Europe. These were more like the various Foreign Legion units, like the French Foreign Legion.

The SS Freiwilligen-Battalion Nordost was not so much pro-Nazi, as they were Anti-Soviet. A freat many joined the various foreign Waffen SS units not because they supported Fascism, but because they strongly opposed Communism.

And as a side note, the SS Freiwilligen-Battalion Nordost was not a single time accused of any war crimes. And not a single member of it was ever accused of war crimes. To all evidence they fought properly and with honor.
 
Heinrich said:
The Moscow armistice was signed by Finland and the Soviet Union on 19 September 1944 ending the War with the Soviet Union. Some territory was ceded by Finland to the Soviet Union but Finland was not occupied. The Finns got off lightly. This is when our friend donned the SS uniform. He was a turncoat and traitor at a time when his country went to war against the Third Reich.
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I still think I - personally - would be more motivated by the fact that a neighboring belligerent faction carved out a chunk of my home territory than "Nazis!"

-facebrick-
 
Oozlefinch said:
... Remember, Finland was invaded by the Soviets several times, and a great many had a deep hatred of the Soviet Union.
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I do not doubt it.

Oozlefinch said:
And yes, by his uniform he was indeed a member of the Waffen SS. But there were a great many units in the Waffen SS, and not all were the same. The "German" units were largely militarized SS. However, there were many foreign Waffen SS units from countries all over Europe. These were more like the various Foreign Legion units, like the French Foreign Legion.

The SS Freiwilligen-Battalion Nordost was not so much pro-Nazi, as they were Anti-Soviet. A freat many joined the various foreign Waffen SS units not because they supported Fascism, but because they strongly opposed Communism.

And as a side note, the SS Freiwilligen-Battalion Nordost was not a single time accused of any war crimes. And not a single member of it was ever accused of war crimes. To all evidence they fought properly and with honor.
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There is some truth in what you say. In the case of Lauri Törni, however, he did not join with the Nazis until January 1945 four months after the Soviet/Finnish armistice by which time there was no SS Freiwilligen-Battalion Nordost. He seems to have joined a partisan group which was proscribed by his own country and went with them to Germany where he was likely attached to the 15th Waffen SS-Grenadier-Division (1st Latvian). This constituted an act of treason for which Törni was imprisoned in Finland after the war.

Abbazorkzog said:
I still think I - personally - would be more motivated by the fact that a neighboring belligerent faction carved out a chunk of my home territory than "Nazis!"
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Finland had negotiated a sensible peace with the Soviets and the British and avoided occupation. The war was lost and nothing was to be gained for Finland by joining the Nazis in their retreat to Berlin. Lauri Törni strikes me as a man who, unlike most soldiers caught up in war, could not live in peace.
 
PeteEU said:
And it states that Finland never fell to Russia. Yes they made a peace deal that resulted in 10% of their country went to Russia, but no communist troops ever set foot in their capital, let alone take over the whole country.
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techniclly the communists created finland, they were under swedish rule for centuries, then the russian empire conquered them in the early 1800's, they remained apart of the russian empire until its collapse under the communist revolution, conservative finns immediately setup an alliance with germany and attempted to establish the first finnish monarchy, which led to a civil war, the finnish conservatives then outlwed communism, began installing forced labor camps and executing 10's of thousands of suspected communists and their families, leading to the eventual soviet invasion.

so finland didn't really exist at all, until they were freed by the communists and then subsequently re-enslaved by the conservative finns who this young gentleman appears to be apart of..... it does make you wonder how many nazis were in the US military
 
Carjosse said:
That is some anti-Soviet dedication.
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I would have stopped when I hit the mine. I don't know if it is anti-Soviet so much as just loving the rush and adventure.

As a contractor I worked with people like that. I was a bit like that after the Navy and is why I hired on.

but....

There comes a time when you realize dying in a warm bed surrounded by your loved ones is a better way to go than leaving half your skull in the dirt of some foreign land.

We had one old grizzled armorer who was in the Rhodesian Light Infantry. He forget more about the FAL than most people ever knew.
 
dimensionallava said:
techniclly the communists created finland, they were under swedish rule for centuries, then the russian empire conquered them in the early 1800's, they remained apart of the russian empire until its collapse under the communist revolution, conservative finns immediately setup an alliance with germany and attempted to establish the first finnish monarchy, which led to a civil war, the finnish conservatives then outlwed communism, began installing forced labor camps and executing 10's of thousands of suspected communists and their families, leading to the eventual soviet invasion.

so finland didn't really exist at all, until they were freed by the communists and then subsequently re-enslaved by the conservative finns who this young gentleman appears to be apart of..... it does make you wonder how many nazis were in the US military
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Thank you for the history lesson. That was eye opening.

Unfortunately, COMMUNISTS have a long history themselves of rewriting history, writing people out of its pages, massacring millions, and turning a blind eye to it all.
That is why it is a complete failure as an economic and governmental system, and you can count on one hand the countries that still use it.

It is against human nature to share your chickens with those that did not work to catch or care for them.

I overheard this very discussion in Nicaragua between 2 young men.
a) You don't understand the revolution. I will help you. You have two chickens, I have ZERO chickens. You give me one chicken, and now we both have one chicken. It is easy to understand.
b) NO it is not. I have two chickens and you did nothing, but still want to take mine. How about I give you some eggs, you hatch them, and have and care for your own chickens.
a) NO, I hate caring for chickens!

COMMUNISM in a nutshell.
 
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PeteEU said:
And it states that Finland never fell to Russia. Yes they made a peace deal that resulted in 10% of their country went to Russia, but no communist troops ever set foot in their capital, let alone take over the whole country.
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Who said it did? Who said that the Russians did? You took a simple statement in the article and are using it to try and derail this thread. That, and the Nazi SS part of the story which was short lived.

Why did you even enter this thread if you didn't intend on discussing the topic which is the man and how he fought against Communism?
 
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