First, its members were not to swear a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler, but rather to follow the orders of the Supreme Commander of the German Armed Forces. Second the Finnish Government reserved the right to recall the battalion after two years of service. Third, initial enlistments were no more than 12 months, but the individual had the right to re-enlist. And finally it could only be deployed against the Soviets. The restrictions didn't apply to individuals volunteering on their own.
Most of the early recruits had military service in the Winter War and a number were actually serving members of the Finnish Army. The first shipment of 116 men arrived on 6 May and were immediately assigned to Wiking, followed by 257 more on 15 May. The later arrivals were held back for more training and to form the battalion agreed to by the Finnish Government. This was initially designated Nordost, but became the "finnisches Freiwilligen-Batallion der Waffen-SS (Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS) on 19 September (or 15 October?). It was structured as a standard infantry battalion with three infantry companies and a machine-gun company, although it did have its own replacement company.
In mid-January '42 the Finns were summoned East to replace some of Wiking's losses. They were initially attached to the Westland Regiment, but later served under Nordland and formally became that regiment's third battalion on 23 May. Previously though the machine-gun company was broken up and distributed among the three line infantry companies and a new heavy-weapons company was formed. The men for this new company were presumably provided by other elements in Nordland and newly-arriving recruits and replacements. It consisted of a platoon each of engineers, anti-tank, infantry-gun, and signals.
III. (finn.)/Nordland was relieved by 13 July and moved to the rear where it gave up its trucks to help keep the rest of Wiking mechanized. There it sat out the initial stages of the German summer offensive aimed at the Caucasus oil fields along with Westland and III./Germania. The intention was to bring these units to the front once their missing vehicles had been replaced by new production from Germany. For the Finns this was 9 August as it had received 78 light and medium trucks, 8 heavy trucks and 10 staff vehicles by that date.
It advanced into a cauldron from which many Finns weren't to survive as Wiking suffered enormous casualties in its drive into the Caucasus. By 15 October the line companies had only some 50 men available for operations! And total battalion strength was around 300 men! However, by early 1943 strength was around 900 men as new recruits arrived and the wounded trickled back from hospitals.
In May '43 the Finnish Government excercised its option to terminate the battalion as it needed the men for its own Army. It was withdrawn from the front on 28 May and sent home via Estonia. It was formally disbanded on 11 July after negotiations to extend its service failed. Only some 100 men volunteered to continue service in the Waffen-SS.
It suffered some 255 KIA and 557 WIA during its time in the Waffen-SS; a very high rate considering that only some 2000 men served in the battalion.
Commanders:
Stubaf. Hans Collani
Strength:
| 9/1/42 | 34/786 |
| 8/12/42 | 158 |
| 29/4/43 | 16/353 |
| 8/5/43 | 18/740 |
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