"They huddled together for warmth. All of them spread out on the dock waiting for their equipment. Despite many of the Akrilaner soldiers missing their winter clothes they were still high spirited. Many of them sharing drinks and stories of how their forefathers had fought in Europe before them. Some of the officers men from those stories, molded by their time in the Great War and its after conflicts. There was no shortage of experience among them. Neither was there among the Sentinel detachment responsible for overseeing this intervention. The Lord Sentinel himself present, though neither I nor any of my associates with the press got to speak with him. He and his entourage were the first to head to the front only hours after landing. Some of the regulars we spoke with informed us it was tradition for the sentinels to be the first to fight. Meaning we just missed out on all the glory our front-line photographer friends were going to soak up from snapping shots of Akrilan's finest. None the less I can't complain about events. The soldiers were kind to us, treating us like children they had taken under their wing. They told us their stories, showed us their weapons, and introduced us to their families through photos they kept stashed on their person. Not a man among them even seemed remotely phased by the fact he'd soon be fighting untold numbers of soviet soldiers in the frozen fields and forests of our nation. One truly eye catching event was when the tank crewman were unloaded. Among them so many women even my female coworkers recount as beautiful. Yet they were in uniform, ready to hop into the tanks purchased from Sweden or borrowed from our own army. The same happened with the pilots, a small wing of them almost completely female. None the less they shared similar predisposition with their male counterparts. One woman, a panther whose name escaped my notes, was quite adamant at her desire to destroy the Soviets. Even touting that her crew alone could wipe out the entire Soviet armored corps given enough ammunition. For the good of my homeland I hope she's as capable as she talked herself up to be. I hope they are all as capable as they seem, for I know I may soon be documenting the ships carrying many of them home draped in a flag."- Excerpt from a Finnish journalist's diary December 10, 1939.

Art by the amazing