Headgear for field uniform m/27

Two new headgear designs were designed for field uniform m/27, but what is commonly known only one of them seem to have been used in real numbers. The design that saw actual use was field cap m/27 (kenttälakki m/27) a somewhat boat-shaped peaked wool hat with visor made from the same material and sides, which were normally folded and buttoned up. This field cap is made from similar "brown-green-grey" wool as rest of field uniform m/27 with also its visor being made from the same fabric. The another version that never saw large-scale use was fur-cap m/27 (turkislakki m/27) originally intended for winter use – it had quite a similar basic design as with field cap m/27, but had its folding sides lined up with brown fur. Although somewhat weird due to its boat-shaped basic design and not necessarily that militarily looking field cap m/27 proved apparently quite successful, but fur cap m/27 later faced considerable critique (?). Frontier Guard reported in year 1934 that they found fur hat m/27 to be unfit for cold and harsh weather due to its visor limiting visibility and steel bunckle of chinstrap causing frostbite. In addition the fur hat had tendendy to considerably shrink in size after getting wet.

PICTURE: Leather belt m/27. Notice that this belt design has the same steel belt buckle as previous leather belt m/22, but the actual belt is dark brown tanned leather. Photo source Digitaltmuseum.se - original photo by Armémuseum (Sweden), CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (85 KB).

Leather belt m/27 (nahkavyö m/27)

This leather belt has the same rectangular steel belt buckle with "coat of arms lion inside the crest" emblem that was earlier used with (light brown) leather belt m/22, but the belt buckle has been transferred to a new belt 40-mm wide and made from dark brown leather. As the leather belt m/22 that it replaced this belt design was intended for enlisted men and non-commissioned officers. Not only were the leather parts of the belt replaced, but also the (light brown) Y-strap harness (Y-hihnat), that mainly cavalry and bicycle troops used with it, was replaced with Y-strap harness m/27 made from similar dark brown leather as the new belt model and with steel parts. Aluminium belt buckle of similar design was later manufactured for enlisted men's parade belt M/58 (miehistön juhlavyö M/58). Reproductions of leather belt m/27 have been manufactured by several manufacturers - with original, aluminium and reproduction belt buckles.

PICTURE: Finnish Army Captain's field tunic m/27 with (rather worn out) officer's leather belt m/27. Notice how the heraldic roses are arranged in tips of tunic collar, large external pockets, wide collar and desing of cuffs with row of three buttons. Photo taken in Finnish Military Museum (Sotamuseo), Helsinki. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (141 KB).

Officer’s leather belt m/27 (upseerien nahkavyö m/27):

This was a new Sam Browne type leather belt as the name suggests design for military officers. It has 55-mm wide dark brown belt with brass roller belt buckle that has two prongs. The leather strap, that goes across right shoulder is similar dark brown leather 27-mm wide and have ends that are 23-mm wide. This basic belt design proved so successful that its slightly modified version officer’s leather belt m/51 have remained in use of Finnish military to this day and the belt buckle design have been used in standard issue service belt issued to all Finnish soldiers as part of their uniform kit for decades. While very similar officer’s leather belts m/27 and m/51 can be separated from one another by checking the number of metal loops for sword hanger in left side of belt – m/27 has only one loop, while m/51 has two.

Overcoat m/27 (päällystakki m/27)

Field uniform m/27 may have been intended to work without greatcoat, but such jacket was still also included to clothing that could be issued with it. As rest of the field uniform m/27, also greatcoat m/27 was made from brown-green-grey wool. As typical to great coats used in Finnish military uniforms also this model had two rows of buttons on chest. Length-wise it was similar to earlier greatcoat m/22 – in other words standard version reached to 35 cm / 14 in from surface, while soldiers who needed to ride horses were issued with 5 cm / 2 in shorter version. Apparently this great coat model was quite rare and did not see any large-scale use.

 

SPECIAL FIELD UNIFORM ITEMS M/27 INTENDED FOR OFFICERS AND MILITARY OFFICIALS:

As with military uniform also field uniform m/27 had several uniform items intended only for officers and military officials. These included following uniforms items:

• Officer’s rain coat m/27 (upseerien sadetakki m/27): This is a classic trench coat jacket design intended for officers. Version intended for all other service arms besides Air Force is the standard "brown-green-grey" color wool or cotton with English cut, two rows of buttons, internal pockets and fabric belt.

PICTURE: Major Vilho Tuulensuu in his officer's raincoat m/27. Notice classic trench coat like design made of relatively light fabric, fabric belt, two rows of buttons in chest and places for rank markings in cuffs. Photo taken in September of 1941. (SA-kuva.fi archive, photo number 113132).CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (39 KB).

• Officer’s fur coat m/27 (upseerien turkki m/27): This was a "brown-green-grey" colored fur coat with fur inside the jacket, wide dark brown-grey collar and two rows of leather-covered buttons. The jacket was long enough to cover about two thirds of thigh.

• Officer’s light uniform m/27 (upseerien kevyt puku m/27): This was quite possibly the most fashionable and stylish uniform introduced by Finnish military by World War 2. What is known suggests that it was intended as summertime and office uniform was officers. Cut of its tunic bear considerable resemblance to civilian business suit of the era and had open collar, which was not used in any other Finnish uniform until 1950's. Also unlike other Finnish military uniforms it had no cuffs or belt. This tunic design loaned heavily from British tunics of its era with its close-fitted cut. Uniform material was either from diagonal cloth or some other thin wool and the tunic was buttoned with four large buttons with Finnish coat of arms lion motif. The tunic had external breast pockets and internal side pockets. Each pocket flap, epaulets and cuffs had smaller version of the same buttons. Coat of the tunic was such that its back curved and had both seam and slit in middle of back. Epaulets were made the same fabric as rest of the tunic and (in normal) manner had both officer’s coat of arms lion insignia and markings indicating service unit. Rank markings were only in tunic cuffs. All other service arms except Air Force used "brown-green-grey" colored version of this uniform, while Air Force version was dark blue. All other service arms also wore the uniform with white dress shirt and "brown-green-grey" necktie of somewhat lighter shade than the uniform, while Air Force personnel could optionally use steel-grey shirt and used black necktie with their uniform. Either straight pants or riding breeches could be worn with this uniform.

PICTURE: Finnish Air Force Major's light uniform m/27. Notice how tunic has open collar, tie and marks of rank in tunic cuffs. During World War 2 tunic of light uniform m/27 was the only tunic with this sort of open collar design in Finnish use. Cap seen here is Air Force version of officer's cap m/27 and belt is officer's belt m/27. Photo taken in Finnish Military Museum (Sotamuseo), Helsinki. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (68 KB).

• Officer’s cap m/27 (Upseerien lippalakki m/27): Officers of other service arms besides Air Force and Coastal Artillery could use this hat design. It was a brown-green-grey fabric cap with tight cover and visor made from brown leather. Chinstrap and embellishments on visor varied depending military rank. It seems that this cap design never became really popular and is far less common in World War 2 era photos than its predecessor officer's cap m/22. In post-war era both this cap model and officer's cap m/22 were replaced by new peaked cap design - officer's cap M/49 (upseerinlakki M/49), which have remained in use with Finnish military to this day.

PICTURE: 2^nd Lieutenant of Finnish Army military band of musicians with officer's light uniform m/27 and officer's cap m/27. As can be seen the basic shape of officer's cap m/27 resembled the design used in earlier officer's cap m/22, but was had same brown-green-grey color as rest of field uniform m/27 and brown leather visor. The Sam Browne type belt he has seems to be officer's leather belt m/27. (Photo Jaeger Platoon photo collection.) CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (53 KB).

 

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