wwii axis reenactment forum

I have a couple of these quali badges (excellent rifleman and radio operator/signals?)
Does anyone know if there is an english or finnish reference for these? the different types? periods of wear? etc?
here's the photos of mine and a wartime photo of the rifleman one in wear......




Regards,
Rich

These were awards that you get during the compulsory military service. If you shot high enough scores (90/100 these days), you would be called 'valioampuja' which means something like 'elite marksman'. You would then be awarded with that badge with two rifles and given a KL (kuntoisuusloma, which is one day vacation you get from doing something very well). This is purely conscription thing, and these awards were only used by the enlisted men on while they were on leave or in a parade or some other fancy thing. NCO's had their NCO cross and reserve officers had their own. It also depended where you served if you actually used the cross or not.

The flash-thing reminds me of some sort of signals-badge, but who knows. I couldn't find much info in finnish, so I don't think there's much info out there in english. Try searching "ansiomerkki" or "ansioristi" or something.

Thanks for trying Peter, i added a couple more to the collection recently......


regards,
rich

Might mean that you are qualified SMG guy and MG guy respectively.

Might mean that you are qualified SMG guy and MG guy respectively.

Yep that would be logical, would be nice to find out how many types there are for ordinary conscripts (rather than career nco's or officers.)
i.ve also seen one in the same design for the lahti light machine gun which i must get.

cheers,
rich

Well they weren't (and still aren't) really used in the finnish army, so I think these must have been pretty rare ones, most likely pre-war.

But unfortunately I don't know for sure, maybe someone does.