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FRENCH, BRITISH, AND AMERICAN UNITS HOSTED FOR ANNUAL WAR GAMES

^{FINLAND: THE SENTRY IN THE NORTH
GREATER FINLAND—SPRING-SUMMER 1929}

Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, the grand general of Greater Finland's Armed Forces and the Chairman of Finland's Defense Council, organized a truly spectacular season of war games to take place in the forests of central Finland in the spring and summer of 1929. Military units and officials from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States were invited to participate in exercises and competitions in rugged Finland. The games are meant to demonstrate the modernizing, improving Greater Finnish Armed Forces—increasingly integrated and well-ordered—and will be held at the top of an increasingly embattled continent, with Southern European armies constantly on the move. As conflict and militarization spread across Europe, Mannerheim's games truly evidenced the constant compromise by the social-democratic government of its love of peace and cooperation in Europe and popular demand for militarization to prevent expansion into Finland. The government has espoused a policy of peace even with the neighboring Soviet Union—with rumors suggesting the Finnish Foreign Ministry's wishes to seek a non-aggression pact with them—but the rise of reactionary violence in Europe was pointing towards a more violent decade to come.

Beginning in May, the games will be a show of Finland's martial discipline and international connections. Of particular note is the attendance of General Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, a guest sent from France to oversee French soldiers and the mastermind of the Great War's Macedonian campaign. France, which supplied many of the tanks and planes currently in Finnish service, was labeled in a speech by President Väinö Tanner the "anchor of continental Europe" and a vital ally of the Greater Finnish Republic. The units of the United Kingdom, representing a pivotal friend of Finland that lately entered a deal to aid Finnish industrialization, have already been well-received among the Finns. Those of the United States—a long-time economic partner of Finland from whom the Armed Forces have purchased their chief pistol, the M1911—saw a warm welcome as well under the legendary General of the Armies John J. Pershing. The units will remain in Finland for a few months, where they will adapt to the Finnish landscape, perform various drills, demonstrate and share strategic training with the help of Finland's Taistelukoulu military school, and compete in contests ranging from marksmanship to athletics.