Finnish Army

The Finnish Army, called Maavoimat in Finnish, is the land forces branch of the Finnish Defence Forces. It is organised into six branches: infantry, which includes the armoured units, field artillery, ground-based air defence, engineers, signals and logistics troops. Its duties are the defence of the land area of Finland, support to the civilian authorities and international military crisis management, and it is also responsible for conscription and for the personnel management of the reserve. In peacetime its brigades are training formations that prepare each intake of conscripts for a specific wartime unit before releasing them into the reserve. The army counts 24 February 1555, when King Gustav Vasa ordered a unit of Finns raised within the Swedish Army, as its anniversary. In the twentieth century it fought the Winter War, the Continuation War and the Lapland War against Germany.