The Times: Finns humiliated American soldiers – Finnish reservists were asked to take it easy during a NATO exercise. US soldiers found the losses too humiliating.
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/828b8e66-625d-4d2a-9276-e93b9f7a2ce8
Posted by ByGollie
26 Comments
Translation for those few out there who don’t speak Finnish
> According to the British newspaper The Times, Finnish reservists performed so well in a NATO exercise in northern Norway last year that the exercise leadership asked them to ease the pressure on American troops.
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> This was the Joint Viking exercise, held in March 2025, which tested NATO’s operational capabilities in Arctic conditions. In the exercise, Finnish reservists played the attacking side, while US forces played a defensive role.
> Read also
> Finnish Defence Forces conscripts beat the world’s most famous elite military unit in a NATO war exercise
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> According to a military source interviewed by the newspaper, the Finns were “asked to stop defeating the Americans” because the losses were perceived as humiliating and demoralising for the American troops.
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> **Indication of a wider problem**
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> According to The Times, the incident reflects a broader problem with the United States’ Arctic military capabilities. The newspaper’s assessment is that European NATO countries, especially Finland, Norway and the United Kingdom, clearly have more experience and capabilities to operate in northern and cold conditions.
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> The article also discusses US President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that Russia and China pose an immediate military threat to Greenland.
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> However, experts interviewed by The Times dispute Trump’s claims and emphasise that Russia’s military activity in the Arctic has weakened due to the war in Ukraine.
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> According to the newspaper, it is the expertise of European NATO allies, such as Finland, that plays a key role in the security of the Arctic region.
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> The United States is said to be dependent on Finland for, among other things, icebreaker technology and Arctic warfare expertise.
> **Joint Viking**
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> Joint Viking is a NATO winter exercise led by the Norwegian Defence Forces, which took place in Northern Norway in March 2025.
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> The exercise involved approximately 10,000 soldiers from several NATO countries, and its aim was to develop the alliance’s cooperation and operational capabilities in demanding Arctic conditions.
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> According to the Finnish Defence Forces, troops from the Jaeger Brigade readiness unit participated in the exercise. The United States included troops from the US Marine Corps’ II Army Corps (II MEF) and the US Army’s 41st Field Artillery Brigade.
[Here’s the English-language article](https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/greenland-russians-chinese-nato-8q6pvgdx6) referred to, but it’s behind a paywall
Extra tariffs on Finland announced by Trump in 3..2..1..
That’s really funny. Greetings from Finland.
This reminds me of a quote from Bane: “You merely adopted the dark; I was born in it, molded by it”
The US is no shape or form prepped for fighting in these conditions when compared to the Nordic armies.
Yeah, sounds familiar. Had some joint exercises with the Americans when I was doing my conscription and let’s just say they weren’t great.
Glad to have them on our side
Reminds me of the Reddit post by an american soldier on exercise in Norway about how they got destroyed in a snowball war against Norwegian children on their way to get food. [Fantastic read.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryStories/s/GQz9tRYIUe)
Finns don’t fuck around. Also what is the use of such an exercise if you have to falsify the efforts so one sides ego isn’t hurt?
That’s also a real strength Europe has militarily: the variety of training types and approach between countries depending on their culture and geography would make a European army extremely complete for almost all battlefield. Especially if we incorporate Ukraine and the experience in modern warfare in it.
The US soldiers should be proud they had the occasion to learn such valuable lessons from an ally. Even more, they should be grateful for this reminder about the importance of humility. And I’m sure most of them are.
Now I can’t stop laughing, but it’s not at the soldiers: I’m imagining their commanders reaction, especially the “MAGA” ones
Well a positive of there being in NATO is there are countries that excel in various types of warfare like, for instance the mentioned nations being more experienced in arctic warfare.
Means you have friends who can help you in every scenario, or for the US, did have friends who could
LOL! Thank you for your support from Denmark 🇩🇰
I remember Years ago something about Portuguese navy humiliating them in some exercises. The Portuguese were using some proper old submarines as well
Reminds me of the old joke:
A Soviet general is watching his troops march towards the Finnish border. He hears a voice from across the hill shout:
“One Finnish soldier is better than ten Soviet soldiers!”
The general, enraged, sends ten of his best men to take out the Finn. Intense gunfire is heard for a few minutes, and then everything goes quiet.
The voice calls out again:
“One Finnish soldier is better than one hundred Soviet soldiers!”
Furious, the general sends one hundred soldiers. Again, machine guns rattle, artillery booms, and then total silence.
The voice calls out a third time:
“One Finnish soldier is better than one thousand Soviet soldiers!”
The general, now completely enraged, sends a massive detachment of one thousand soldiers, along with tanks and artillery, ordering them to annihilate the opposition. After a long, thunderous battle, silence falls again.
A few minutes later, one wounded Soviet soldier crawls back over the hill, battered and bloody. He screams to the general:
“Don’t send any more! It’s a trap… there are two of them!”
Not an expert but i think multiple militaries from different countries are not really tested and capable. I would call out my own, the swiss but the Finns are defently not to mess with. They know their neighbour.
A large group of Russian soldiers in the border area in 1939 are moving down a road when they hear a voice call from behind a small hill: “One Finnish soldier is better than ten Russian”.
The Russian commander quickly orders 10 of his best men over the hill where Upon a gun-battle breaks out and continues for a few minutes, then silence. The voice once again calls out: “One Finn is better than one hundred Russian.”
Furious, the Russian commander sends his next best 100 troops over the hill and instantly a huge gun fight commences. After 10 minutes of battle, again Silence. The calm Finnish voice calls out again: “One Finn is better than one thousand Russians!”
The enraged Russian commander musters 1000 fighters and sends them to the other side of the hill. Rifle fire, machine guns, grenades, rockets and cannon fire ring out as a terrible battle is fought…
Then silence.
Eventually one badly wounded Russian fighter crawls back over the hill and with his dying words tells his commander, “Don’t send any more men…it’s a trap. There’s two of them.”
Meal Team 6 and Gravy Seals
I took part in the 2018 Nato exercise Trident Juncture as a Finnish conscript, and our jaeger company defeated our opposition as we left the roads and climbed over the mountains. Something the other unit’s didn’t want to do because of the weather.
We defeated Norwegian and German units that had extensive combat deployments just due to our willingness (or the willingness of our superiors to command us) to get wet and uncomfortable in sub zero weather to out maneuver them. Our officers had multiple spats with them as they would not accept defeat. One of our lieutenants threw our training NLAWs at a german apc after they denied our capability to destroy them.
Just facing Finnish soldiers during winter is demoralising by itself, and I say that as a Swede 😅
As a Finn that served i can only survive in finnish climate you send me to desert or even florida i would be dead in seconds most likely. As a southern finn i still had campaigns in -30°C it says a lot what those training in the north have to endure. Worst is our firewatch fell asleep and waking up in your underware in a puddle of water that was turning ice and all your clothes were wet is still to this day one of my worst experiences in life.
Not familiar with nature, animals and anything inbetween is almost bigger enemy than the actual enemy.
In a logical sense we should stop training American soldiers until they stop threatening Iceland (Greenland) and Canada or any other Nato country.
God I love the Finns.
My sister did a tour in Iraq with the British army, their common opinion of the US forces was, “All the gear… no idea!”.
🤷♂️
Haven’t the Americans watched “Sisu”? There is no stopping the Finnish!
Movie details: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14846026/
This is typical of U.S. training exercises – you vary the resistance of the OPFOR to match the training audience and objectives. The U.S. military does this at all of its own CTC rotations (NTC, JRTC, JMRC) – because the OPFOR almost always wins if they are not constrained in some fashion.
My observations as someone who spent 20 years in the U.S. Army.
– The average U.S. Army staff is dysfunctional. They’re lost in the minutiae of the GWOT mentality. They don’t understand how to work at a “good enough” level, focused on the big picture, and execute rapid planning cycles with clear dissemination of orders and instructions.
– The average U.S.. Army Commander usually significantly out cycles their staff (see above) – and Commander to Commander dialog is often the main driver for actual planning and coordination. However, the ability to articulate clear guidance still depends on the staff.
– The preponderance of U.S. Army units attending a CTC like event are in their training/building phase. U.S. Army units turn over 33-50% of their personnel every year (depending on location, OPTEMPO). A major training exercise is like to incorporate a large number of Soldiers with less than 6 months in that organization. This is in addition to the majority of personnel having less than 4 years of experience.
– These events are exactly what the name implies – critical training for U.S. forces. During the vast majority of my 20 year tenure, these major events were when and how units came together and learned their actual job. Home station training and preparation simply isn’t up to the level required to recreate the challenging environment that CTCs do.
– The U.S. military has a long history of learning how to do the job, on the job. Whether it’s WW2 or Iraq (to name two)… U.S. Soldiers learn as they go, arriving to the start of conflict with little experience and inadequate training. However, the U.S. military does a much better job than most of empowering subordinates and adapting rapidly.
America doesn’t have/need specialised arctic troops because NATO already has them.
Americans didn’t perform well in 1942 in North Africa, but they learned on the job. However, Hegseth’s mindset seems to be “we have nothing to learn and nothing to fear”. That’s the kind of mindset that gets your soldiers killed very quickly.
Fascists are just bad at war.
[https://acoup.blog/2024/02/23/fireside-friday-february-23-2024-on-the-military-failures-of-fascism/](https://acoup.blog/2024/02/23/fireside-friday-february-23-2024-on-the-military-failures-of-fascism/)