At the beginning of January Ruotuvaki, Finland’s armed forces magazine published a story about Hannes Tuovinen, a veteran of the Continuation War, who was reunited with the Finish Maxim M/32-33 after 76 years. As an 18 year old Tuovinen had been trained to use the Maxim M/32-33 and fought during the Continuation War – a conflict separate from but fought concurrently to World War Two by Finland and Nazi Germany, as co-belligerents, against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944. The Continuation War began just over a year after the end of the 1940 Winter War.

Finnish soldiers in snowsuits manning a Maxim M-32 machine gun in a foxhole during the Winter War (Military Museum of Finland)

94 year old Hannes Tuovinen enjoyed a day at the range with his son Erkki and put a belt through the original Maxim M/32-33. Check out the Ruotuvaki article here.

Back in 2018, Eric wrote about the Finnish gun’s Soviet counterpart the Maxim M1910 firing again in Moscow.