In 1949, Törni, accompanied by his wartime executive officer Holger Pitkänen, traveled to Sweden, crossing the border from Tornio to Haparanda (Haaparanta), where many inhabitants are ethnic Finns.
A plaque in Hotel Tammer, Tampere, about Lauri Törni's jägers being banned from meeting there in 1946. President Juho Paasikivi granted him a pardon in December 1948. Imprisoned at the Turku provincial prison, Törni escaped in June, but was recaptured and sent to the Riihimäki State Prison.
#CAPTIN FIN CO TRIAL#
A trial in October and November resulted in a six-year sentence in January 1947. After escaping, he was arrested a second time in April 1946, and tried for treason for having joined the German military. Törni in a Waffen-SS uniform during training in 1941Īs his family had been evacuated from Karelia, Törni sought to rejoin them in Helsinki but was arrested by Valpo, the Finnish state police. He surrendered to British troops in the last stages of World War II and eventually returned to Finland in June 1945 after escaping a British POW camp in Lübeck, Germany. The training was prematurely ended in March, but as Törni could not secure transportation to Finland, he joined a German unit to fight Soviet troops near Schwerin, Germany. In January 1945, he was recruited by the Pro-German resistance movement in Finland and left for saboteur training in Germany, with the intention of organizing resistance in case Finland was occupied by the Soviet Union. The September 1944 Moscow Armistice required the Finnish government to remove German troops from its territory, resulting in the Lapland War during this period, much of the Finnish Army was demobilized, including Törni, leaving him unemployed in November 1944. He was decorated with the Mannerheim Cross 2nd Class on 9 July 1944. Törni's unit inflicted such heavy casualties on Soviet units that the Soviet Army placed a bounty of 3,000,000 Finnish marks on his head. Koivisto served in a reconnaissance company under Törni's command during the Battle of Ilomantsi, the final Finnish-Soviet engagement of the Continuation War, during July and August 1944. One of Törni's subordinates was future President of Finland Mauno Koivisto. This was an infantry unit that penetrated deep behind enemy lines and soon enjoyed a reputation on both sides of the front for its combat effectiveness. In 1943, a unit informally named Detachment Törni was created under his command. Most of Törni's reputation was based on his successful actions in the Continuation War (1941–44) between the Soviet Union and Finland. After the Winter War, in June 1941, Törni went to Vienna, Austria for seven weeks of training with the Waffen-SS, and returned to Finland in July as a Finnish officer, the Germans recognized him as an Untersturmführer. His performance during these engagements was noticed by his commanders, and toward the end of the war, he was assigned to officer training where he was commissioned a Vänrikki ( 2nd lieutenant) in the reserves. Career World War II Vänrikki Lauri Törni after graduating from cadet school in 1940ĭuring the battles at Lake Ladoga, Törni took part in the destruction of the encircled Soviet divisions in Lemetti. After attending business school and serving with the Civil Guard, Törni entered military service in 1938, joining Jaeger Battalion 4 stationed at Kiviniemi when the Winter War began in November 1939, his enlistment was extended and his unit confronted invading Soviet troops at Rautu. An athletic youth, Törni was an early friend of future Olympic Boxing Gold Medalist Sten Suvio. His remains were located three decades later and then buried in Arlington National Cemetery he is the only former member of the Waffen-SS known to be interred there.Ĭhristened Lauri Allan Törni, he was born in Viipuri, Viipuri Province, Finland, to ship captain Jalmari (Ilmari) Törni, and his wife, Rosa (née Kosonen). Törni died in a helicopter crash during the Vietnam War and he was promoted to the rank of major posthumously.
Lauri Allan Törni ( – 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 captain as a Waffen-SS captain (under the alias Larry Laine) of the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS when he fought the Red Army on the Eastern Front in World War II and as a United States Army Major (under the alias "Larry Thorne") when he served in the U.S.
0 kommentar(er)
