Jääkäri Platoon

A Jääkäri platoon(Finnish for Jaegers) was a legacy unit from WWI that carried over into WWII in the Finnish armed forces. They were mobile infantry forces that were quite effective during the Winter and continuation war.

IRL

Before we can talk about WWII, we have to talk about WWI. See, Finland is actually a very recent country. They used to be a duchy loyal to the Russian crown and before that a principality loyal to the Swedish crown. However the rise of nationalism lead to the Finns hoping for their own country one day, and ultimately lead to Germany taking notice of this. They trained light infantry, calling them Jaegers, and sent them into Finland to revolt and cause mayhem in Russian Finland. The Finns called themselves Jääkäri, but needless to say a legacy was born, to the extent that post-WW2 the Finnish infantry in general are known as such.

Former members of these Jaegers were instrumental in influencing the Finnish government to develop the military, and for all intents and purposes probably helped prepare Finland for the Winter War. Stalin, being really pissed that there was a former Russian territory that he could not kill all the officers in, decided to invade. It was a decision that lead to many to say the Russians fear the snow speaking Finnish.

Jaegers differed from traditional infantry in two ways: They would serve as bike and ski infantry, depending on the time of year, and had a higher esprit de corps in order to facilitate the difficult actions they would be performing on the battlefield, primarily recon and counter-attack operations.

As the war progressed, Finland slowly began to motorize their forces, and the Jaegers benefitted from this as well with motorized supply trains being given to them to allow for offensive operations, as well as additional anti-tank weapons being integrated into combat units like the PaK 40.

Rifle platoons were organized under a Lieutenant or an Ensign who was assisted by a Sergeant. These platoons had four squads, each commanded by a Junior Sergeant or a Corporal. Initially, each half the squads in the platoon were comprised of nine men with rifles and one with an SMG, while the other comprised of six men with rifles and one with an LMG. By the end of the Winter War this had transformed into four squads all comprising of seven men with rifles and two men with SMGs and would later become six with rifles and three with SMGs.

Unlike some elite units of fiction, the Jaegers didn't really have a whole lot of equipment different from the rest of the main army, so there isn't a whole lot to elaborate on for that. And like the rest of the army, a lot of their equipment was generously gifted to them by the Soviets each time they got their asses handed to them.

Finnish Forces in Flames of War
Tanks:	Vickers 6 Ton - T-26 - T-28
Transports:
Infantry:	Finnish MG Platoon - Tank Hunter Platoon - Finnish Pioneer Platoon - Finnish Rifle Platoon - Finnish SMG Platoon - Jääkäri Platoon
Artillery:	75 PstK/40 - 76K/02 - Finnish 81mm Mortar -
Tank Destroyers and Assault guns:	BT-42
Armored Cars:
Aircraft:	JU-87 Stuka - Fokker C.X
Anti-Aircraft:	Landsverk SPAA