(This is what was ordered, reality varied a lot, in practice company strengths could be anywhere between 75 and 216 men).

Local HQ (5 - 10 men)

3 Rifle Platoons

5 Rifle Squads in each Rifle Platoon

In each Rifle Squad:

NCO

Jefreitteri (Lance-Corporal)

6 men (or 7 men according some sources)

(Organisation of 20 battalions established during the war, these were the first official units of Finnish Army. Organisational plan made in February 1918 had much more manpower in each Jaeger unit: About 400 men in each company and 1875 men in each battalion. There never were enough time or troops for that, so that organisation was never used. The ones shown here was developed and used instead.)

Battalion HQ

Battalion Supply Units

3 Rifle Companies

3 Rifle Platoons in each Rifle Company

6 Rifle Squads in each Rifle Platoon

9 men in each Rifle Squad

Higher levels of jaeger formations in 1918:

Brigade:

2 Regiments in each Brigade

Regiment:

3 Battalions

Machinegun Unit

Telephone Unit

Bicycle Unit

 

Manpower strengths of Jaeger formations:

Company 3 + 175

Battalion 10 + 525

Regiment 38 + 1777

 

Company HQ

Supply Units

2 or 3 Machinegun Platoons (Originally these had only 2 Platoons but if needed weapons were able to be captured a 3^rd Platoon was usually added)

2 machineguns (7.62 mm Maxim or Colt) in each platoon

(Uudenmaa and Hämeenmaa Cavalry Regiments were exceptionally recruited units and also only large cavalry units of 1918 war. Whole Uudenmaa Dragoon Regiment had just 3 Dragoon Squadrons).

Squadron Commander & HQ

3 Dragoon Platoons

2 Squads in each Dragoon Platoon

20 men in each Squad

Supply Units

2 ammunition sledges

2 food supplies sledges

3 cargo sledges

Field-kitchen

Squadron manpower strength: 136 men

Squadron HQ

4 machineguns (Maxim)

(First ones sent to battle in March, before Tampere battle weapons were mostly old 87 mm guns and 122 mm howitzers, lots of artillery weapons were captured in Tampere. Exceptions: Jaeger Artillery Batteries 1 - 3 sent to battle in 12^th - 13^th of February 1918 had all 4 guns or howitzers. Also, self-organised artillery batteries of Suojeluskunta often had 1 - 4 guns or howitzers, depending how many had been captured).

2 x gun or howitzer

85 men + 50 horses.

(Artillery Battalion = 3 Artillery Batteries. Large amounts of artillery captured in Rautu and Tampere allowed this reorganisation).

4 x guns or howitzers

170 men + 100 horses.

(Organisation was basically loaned from Sniper Battalions of "Old Guard" that had served Imperial Russia before 1880's, Red Guard organisation had also battalion level, in which battalion had 4 rifle companies but it existed only in theory).

Company Commander

Commissar

1^st Platoon

Platoon leader

2 Rifle Squads each Rifle Platoon

1 Squad Leader + 12 men (in each Rifle Squad)

2^nd Platoon

3^rd Platoon

4^th Platoon

Company Commander

Commissar

3 Machinegun Platoons

4 machineguns (Maxim) in each platoon

(Notice: Whites had one similar unit, which was sent to Vilppula front in 28th of February and participated in capturing Tampere before it run out of ammunition).

4 x 91 mm mine thrower model GR 1916 (mine thrower was ancestor of grenade thrower used in WW1).

4 x Guns or Howitzers

Finnish Civil War was fought between Reds and Whites, from the two Whites were the ones that won the war. Whites were in side with legal government and were supported by Germans. Reds (at start at least) were extreme revolutionary socialists supported by Russian Bolshevik government. First battle was bought in Viipuri in night between 19^th and 20^th of January 1918 and battles started escalating from there.

At 23^rd of January Reds started to secure railways for train full of weaponry about to arrive to them from Petrograd (Saint Petersburg). 25^th of January Finnish Senate declared Suojeluskunta troops as its troops and gave their command to Mannerheim next day. That day Mannerheim decided to start disarming the Russian troops in Pohjanmaa area with Suojeluskunta troops and those operations started in early hours of 28^th of January. Reds also gave first orders about revolution in 26^th of January. War was going on in all accounts by early hours of 28^th of January.

Country started to divide to two, first frontline running in Ahlainen - Vilppula - Mäntyharju - Antrea - Rautu line divided it to northern part controlled by Whites and southern part controlled by Reds. Both sides had also units deep into enemy territory when war started, soon both sides started mopping enemy units behind their lines. These unlucky units typically had two choices - they could try to get to their own lines (some White units also crossed Finnish Gulf to German controlled Estonia) or be destroyed. Frontline was composed from small bases of opposite sides on here and there with even tens of kilometres between the bases, specially railway lines had large strategic importance in this war but also roads were used, so bases were mostly build along roads and railways. And as both sides lacked military tents existing buildings had to be used for accommodation (Finnish winter being what it is), this lead villages also having strong importance. So, basically war was mainly fought along roads and railroads from one village to another.

White had about 80 % of country, but only 50 % population in its area. This made transports one of the main issues to it. The 20 % of country that Reds controlled had more dense road and railway network and also almost all industry. When war started White Army had shortage of weapons (Due to cut in communications White Army had not received German weapons transport cargo of S/S Equity in December of 1917). So in main front it first took defensive stand. Weak point of White Army was in Vilppula front, Haapamäki railway crossing less then 40 km behind it was a key point of railway lines in their control. Loosing Haapamäki would have left White Army without railway connection between western and eastern parts of frontline.

Red side decided to attack. For some reason Reds didn't first realise the importance of Haapamäki as their first attacks (designed by Russian Colonel Mihail Svetsnikov) were small attacks all over the front - naturally it failed. By early March Reds had realised the situation and now their whole attack was concentrated towards Haapamäki - but getting breakthrough in Vilppula failed again. Not that Red attacks were masterpieces of military tactics even then - Basically Red infantry tried to make frontal assault in snow again and again ending up being mowed down by well-placed White machineguns.

Whites started their attack in 15^th of March. Town of Tampere was main target of their attack. First White troops advanced toward Tampere and surrounded it by 25^th of March. Next phase of their attack was to conquer Tampere - battle started in 3^rd of April and ended to remaining Reds surrendering (some units managed to escape) three days later. in 3^rd of April German troops (of Ostsee Division) landed to Hanko and 7^th of April also in Loviisa. German troops attacked from Hanko to Helsinki, this made Red Guard leadership (Military Committee) to escape from Helsinki first to Viipuri and from there to Petrograd. Reds didn't manage to build large defence lines anymore (they had no connections to their leadership after it escaped from Helsinki), even if they still had some 70,000 armed men left. Large amounts of Reds started their escape towards Russian border. When German troops from Loviisa also advanced towards north cutting the route of retreat to Russia from the situation of Reds got really desperate. Several bitter battles were fought, but Red units had no change of winning and they surrendered one by one. Fighting ended officially in 4^th of April, but some isolated Red units were encountered still during the next few weeks. Battle losses of both sides were reasonably small, Whites lost about 3100 dead and 9000 wounded while Reds lost some 3400 dead. During war both sides executed their POWs in many occations. After the war large amounts of Reds died in prison camps mostly to hunger and pesticide, but also to executions.

Reasons behind reds starting a rebellion were numerous but social democratic party seriously losing elections, inspiration from Russian revolution, poor conditions of that part of farming population that cultivated rented land, food shortage and high unempoyment get to just about any list.

The most early sign of Red Guards can be found from "Protection Guards of Workers" organised for general strike of year 1905, which was also reason behind organising first "Security Guards" that later become Suojeluskuntas. First violent clash between the these two happened already in July of 1906 in Hakaniemi Square in Helsinki. 2^nd era of Russian oppression starting from 1905 calmed things between the two sides until 1917 as it offered a common enemy to both sides - Imperial Russia with its czar, ohrana and police.

Minor political violence was going on starting from July of 1917, but the general strike in November really changed things. It planted the seeds of violence (34 people died to political violence and political murders during it) also recreating (much stronger) hate between Red Guards and Suojeluskunta. Finland become independent in 6^th of December 1917, but Russian Army was still present (at January of 1918 some 42500 soldiers of Russian units were still in Finland) and new Bolshevik leadership had no hurry to call them off. Instead Bolsheviks started to support Finnish Red Guard by supplying it with weaponry, offering specialists to train it and work as advisors in it and even trying (with little success) to order Russian troops to fight on its side.

First battles of war were in night of 19^th - 20^th of January, first orders for rebellion were issued starting from 26^th of January. Red Guard had mainly working and non-land owning farming population and its organisations were mainly local. It had its HQ in Helsinki and also local HQs in Tampere and Viipuri, but these typically had somewhat limited power over local organisations and units. During war Red Guard stopped public works and used wages to get more volunteers, later on also calling in of male-population with universal conscription was tried (with very limited success). Typically Red Guard lacked real organisation in its units higher then company-level and each company had been gathered from men from same working place, village or local branch of union. Power base of Red Guard was in industrialised towns and among non land owning population in countryside of Southern Finland.

Early on leading idea of White Army was freeing Finland from Russian rule by disarming Russian troops and using violence to do this if necessary. As war progressed it became more and more clear the Red Guard was the main enemy instead of Russians, but this just lead into Red Guard being seen as traitors who had sided up with Russian oppressors. Whites had some major advantages, 2000 Finnish volunteers that had travelled to Germany in 1915 - 1916 had received German military training and had been battle-hardened as "Prussian Jaeger Battalion 27" in battles of eastern front. White Army also received large amounts of weaponry (that Germans had captured from Russian earlier) from Germany during the war. These two factors allowed building of superior trained troops during the war and arming them.

White Army can be divided to three kinds of troops:

• Suojeluskunta troops, that were local voluntary units that were united under nation-wide leadership after war started.
• Recruited (volunteers) troops: 2 Grenadier Regiments (2 battalion strong each), Uudenmaa Dragoon Regiment and 6 artillery batteries.
• Recruited (called in with legislation): 6 Jaeger Regiments (3 battalions each), Karelian Cavalry Regiment, 11 artillery batteries and 6 field telegraph units.

Leadership of Suojeluskunta organisations had some roots in other earlier Finnish organisations that had wanted to end Russian rule in Finland. Some of them like Kagaani and Voimaliitto had been planning use of violence for this purpose already earlier, in 1918 many of their leading figures appeared to Military Council, which organised starting of White Army. Typically Suojeluskunta organisations were local and this combined with suspicion concerning trust-worthiness of those officers that had earlier served in Russian Army. Local Suojeluskunta organisations often had their roots in "security guards" established for general strike of 1905, but it was the "svoboda" of Russian military after Russian revolution, which really got most of the large amount of them established. Basically "svoboda" was Russian military going off control: They were shooting their officers, acting violently, being intoxicated, looting everything they wanted etc. As Kerenski government had disestablished police earlier there were no police to take care about public safety. When war started local Suojeluskunta units were (more or less) organised under one nation-wide leadership. Hired (hiring them started in 14^th of February) recruited units basically had the situation as Suojeluskunta units, but they were established during the war.

Finnish Senate (Government) made in 18^th of February 1918 a declaration, which used 1878 law of recruitment allowing calling in male population to military service. The law was used to establish 6 Jaeger Regiments, 11 artillery batteries, Karelian Cavalry Regiment (which never got near being a real regiment, it never had more then 420 men) and some other smaller units. These units were the first actual units of Finnish Army. Jaegers returning from Germany in 25^th of February 1918 were used as officers and NCOs for these new units.

• White Army:
• Suojeluskunta troops: Lacking, they had existed disguised as "voluntary fire departments" earlier, so practising openly had been basically impossible
• Recruited (recruited volunteers) troops: Lacking, they had no previous military experience.
• Jaeger Battalions: Received short, but up to date military training before sending to battle.
• White artillery units: Early on no training. 10^th of February Artillery School was established in Pietarsaari, it quickly trained artillery crews and sent first trained units to battle already in 18^th of February. This extremely fast trained units proved to be much better trained then the ones in Red side typically were.

• Red Guard: Lacking, just like Suojeluskunta units they typically had not been trained openly before the war. Some units got minimal training for using their weapons before their first battle and some got Russian experts (especially machinegun- and artillery units) with them.

• White Army:
• Early on:
• Higher ranks: Fairly competent. Mostly Finnish born ex Russian Army officers and soon also Swedish officers that had volunteered.
• Lower ranks: Not so competent. Lot of local leadership figures (successful farmers and merchants etc), some ex officers, NCOs and soldiers from Finnish military units (of Russian Army) disbanded in 1901. Only few jaegers trained in Germany among them and those who had served in "old guard" had military experience and basics of battle had somewhat changed from those used in 1901.
• Later on (after return of jaegers in 25^th of February):
• Higher ranks: Getting more and more competent all the time. Comparable to any Army at that time.
• Lower ranks: German trained jaegers filled these ranks and improved the situation to good level. White Army also had two courses for training leadership, first one (Kept in Vimpeli from 28^th of December to 14^th of January) managed to give short training for 200 men. But the second one (Kept in Vöyri starting from 26^th of January) of 240 men had to be sent to battle before the training was finished.

• Red Guard:
• Higher ranks: Mismatched lot of extreme left wing political leaders, some ex soldiers & NCOs from Finnish military units (of Russian Army) disbanded in 1901 and few Finnish-born red officers from Russia. Some Russian advisors also held ranks in higher leadership of Red Guard. Basically Red Guard leadership was less competent then White Army one, especially political leaders selected to it had none-existent military experience, which soon become visible.
• Lower ranks: These were even more incompetent. Red Guard selected its low rank leadership (platoon and company commanders) by voting. The situation of voted leadership was not easy - if troops started running or got too many casualties or even if orders were not liked by troops they could vote another leader any time. In case that battle had went poorly troops would easily start doubting their leadership and if any suspicion of betrayal appeared getting the situation became really hazardous to voted leadership. Being shot by own troops without any investigation was not unheard end to leadership in Red Guard.