Armour of the Winter War 2007 Calendar
The Soviet assault on Finland involved up to sixty divisions and thousands of tanks. The Finnish Army was badly prepared and at the beginning could field only about 5000 mines and fewer than 150 anti-tank guns. Most enemy tanks were destroyed using satchel charges and Molotov cocktails, at times even lengths of firewood were used to jam tracks, rendering the steel beasts immobile. According to recent estimates more than 3500 Soviet tanks were lost during the 105 day campaign, falling prey to the intrepid defenders of Summa, Taipale, Kollaa and Raate Road.
But now it is your turn. You can now face the formidable armoured might of the Red Army for a whole year by obtaining our Armour of the Winter War 2007 Calendar. Our spiral-bound wall Calendar features 21 spectacular black-and-white photographs of tanks and armoured cars taken at the front. Some are rare, so rare that even we have not seen them before. There are pictures of armour ranging from the diminutive Komsomolets tractor to the humongous 55-ton SMK experimental tank, and we have included comments for your enjoyment. The Calendar is 28x21 cm in size closed, 28x43 cm opened (11"x8.5" closed, 11"x17" opened).
The Calendar is yours for 20 USD (about 16 Euros) plus postage. By buying our Calendar you are supporting the conservation and recording of Finnish armoured history. Click here to enter our secure webstore.
About the Armour Guild
The Armour Guild was established in Parola, Finland in 1951 as an organisation publishing a magazine - Panssari - for active-duty soldiers of the armoured forces. By 1957 the Guild was able to include war veterans and reservists of both the armour and anti-tank defence troops among its ranks. During the Sixties and Seventies the membership requirements were again eased and today our membership is open to anyone interested in Finnish armour.
From 1959 to 2004 the main activity of the Armour Guild was to establish and run the Parola Tank Museum. The daily activities of the Museum are now handled by the Armour Museum Association but Armour Guild is still actively involved in supporting it both financially and through volunteer work. The Parola Armour Museum is a unique collection of vehicles, including some which are extremely rare even in the former Soviet Union - the T-28 medium tank and the BA-10 armoured car for example.
Today, Armour Guild is the association of the current Armoured Brigade personnel and reservists, as well as the association preserving the history of the peacetime Light Brigade and Armoured Brigade and of the wartime Jaeger Brigades and Finland's only Armoured Division. The Armour Guild continues to publish the highly acclaimed, quarterly Panssari magazine in addition to books and various other materials.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Will I have to pay customs or taxes when I order the Calendar from you?
A: Although the Calendar is a Finnish product it will be mailed to you from the United States because our webstore and printing house is located in the USA. Whether you end up paying customs or taxes depends on where you are located and on your country's policies on imports from the USA. Remember that as printed matter our Calendar enjoys far lower taxation and import duties than other goods.
Q: How long will it take for the Calendar to reach me?
A: Our printer/webstore promises a delivery within 14 days. When we tested this it took about six days for them to print and ship, and another four days for it to reach our mailbox in southern Finland.
Q: Why do I need to sign in to your webstore? And why do you want my email address and phone number?
A: Our secure webstore is in fact our printing house (Lulu.com) and we cannot influence their way of handling this. Lulu want your email address so that they can send you an order receipt, and also to inform you by email when your Calendar ships three to five working days later. That way you are kept informed of your order's status. And because your email address is also your login id in the webstore's system they want you to supply a password (of six characters minimum length) before you can order anything (this is possibly a security feature). We do not know why they also ask for your phone number, as far as we can tell it is not used by the webstore. If you are uncomfortable with giving it to them we suppose you could give an incorrect number though we do not recommend this.
Q: Why is the postage so expensive?
A: The postage is not expensive at all but due to Christmas time our webstore is defaulting to its "Express shipping method" (which is a whopping 25.5 USD to Finland, which is about 20.5 Euros... hopefully much less for the USA though). Be sure to select the "Standard shipping method" (which is 4.24 USD to Finland, which is about 3.5 Euros... and should also be much less for the USA). Do note however that our webstore does not guarantee that the Standard shipping method will get the Calendar to you before Christmas, at least if you're not in the USA.
Q: I have some more questions!
A: Please e-mail Mr. Eero Juhola.