Heikki Talvela -a veteran of the artillery from Tuusula

Heikki Talvela was born on 25th of June 1924 in his childhood home in Nummenkylä village of Tuusula. He continued his fathers work as a farmer on his ancestral lands together with his wife Mirja. Both Heikki and his wife graduated with a degree from agricultural sciences. Heikki Talvela was given the title of agricultural counsellor in 1983, a honorary title given to only 244 people in the history of Finland. He gathered a massive collection of objects related to the war years during his life, which began from the debris and mementos gathered during his years in the artillery corps during the war. Later he bartered items with his fellow soldiers, received donations from veterans and their widows, and purchased war time items from flea markets, auctions and second-hand stores all over the country. Word-of-mouth spread his fame across the veterans community and their next-of-kin, which also made his collections grow, as families donated war time material from their deceased fathers or grandfathers belongings, for example. A small part of his collection is displayed here in Captains Lodging.

During the Winter War, Heikki Talvela was a member of the Järvenpää section of Civil Guard Boys. He took part in aerial observation tasks and bomb shelter duties. In addition to this, he worked as a groundskeeper and orderly in the military hospital that was established at his home farm Malmari. The bitter winter froze the new water pipes installed to the farm buildings so at barely 15 years of age, young Heikki had to deliver water hacked from under the lake ice and firewood from the forests by horse carriage to fuel and water the needs of the military hospital and its patients. When he turned 16, he was accepted as a full member of Järvenpää Civil Guard. The thin-built and frail boy could not find a suitable uniform from the quartermasters depot, so in the jacket he was given, the brim was almost at his knees and at the place where his heart was, there was a bullet hole and some dried blood stains. It had been worn by a fallen soldier in the Winter War. During the mobilization to Contiunation War in 27^th of June 1941, Heikki worked in the mobilization centers quartermaster depot and delivered mobilization orders to the local reservists called up for military duty.

Heikki Talvelas own military service began in October of 1942. He got a permission from the doctors to train as an artillery gunner, so he signed up for service in the Riihimäki artillery school. From there he was sent to the Lance Corporal school. After his conscription military service continued in war time tasks in the field artillery regiment 7 form March 1943 at the Karelian isthmus, Rajajoki sector and starting in the July of 1943, at Syväri in the Kuuttilahti sector. Soviet army crossed the Syväri river on June 21^st 1944. The Finnish units began their heavy and slow retreat through the ancient forests and boglands of the Syväri region, as the Soviet naval infantry which had done an invasion through water at Vitele had to be avoided. In the summer of 1944, Heikki Talvela was ordered to the artillery officer school at Niinisalo , and to join the 59. officer course. He completed the officer training and was mustered out as an officer cadet in March of 1945 when the Lapland War ended. Later on the whole class was officially promoted to sub-lieutenants in 1948, once the most unstable years after the war had ended.

While in the reserves, Heikki Talvela was eventually promoted to captain. Working with the veterans of the Finnish wars was a dear hobby and a matter of personal pride for him. Between the years 1993-2012 he worked in the governing board of the veterans association of Uusimaa region, serving as the leader of the Uusimaa region for 20 years. He was bestowed with the title of honorary chairman by the Finnish society of veterans in 2013. He also worked in the governing bodies of Finnish war veterans association and the governing body of the regional associations. He was invited as a honorary member of the Finnish war veteran association in 2010. He has written a book from his war time experiences which was published in the turn of the 1980s and 1990s under the name “Seis, Tulikomento!” By Alea Kirja. Heikki Talvela finally joined his fallen brothers in arms on the national veterans day, 27^th of April 2016, at the age of 91.