The Woods are full of Finnish Dragoons

Here we see, some 85 years ago this month, a Finnish dragoon (Rakuuna) on horseback, 12th of September 1941, near Tsalkki-Suojärvi on the Russo-Finnish border during the Continuation War between the two countries, which saw Finland allied with Germany. Photo by Heikki Aho, SA Kuva Image number 47915 Photo by Heikki Aho, SA Kuva Image number 47916 The above dragoon was likely from Finland’s oldest cavalry regiment, the Nyland Regiment of Dragoons, or the Uudenmaan rakuunarykmentti (URR). While you wouldn’t think of Finland, with its dense forests, rugged coastline, and frozen north, as good cavalry country, the country has a horse soldier tradition going back over 400 years. Finns under the Swedish Crown The Swedes formed the Uusimaa Riders (Nylands ryttare), along with the Viborg (Viborgs läns kavalleriregemente), and Karelian Cavalry Regiments (Karelska kavalleriregementet) as far back as 1618, when Karelia (the region north of what is now St. Petersburg around the White Sea and…