A rare 1944 military court convened in Tammela

A rare military court session in 1944, held at Saari Manor in Tammela, has been documented in a new local film, Yle reports.

The court-martial tried two officers for the collapse of Viipuri’s defence in June 1944: Colonel Armas Kemppi, commander of the 20th Brigade, and Major Kurt Bäckman, commander of the brigade’s second battalion.

The Soviet Red Army captured Viipuri on 10 June 1944 after the city’s defence collapsed. Finland’s loss of the city sparked a search for those responsible, leading to the charges.

Filmmaker Jukka-Pekka Rantanen and screenwriter Jani Mäkivalli, a history teacher and author, produced the documentary Viimeinen linja – Viipurin taistelun oikeudenkäynti 1944 (The Last Line – The 1944 Trial of the Viipuri Battle). Rantanen had previously made two documentaries on the Finnish Civil War in Southwest Häme.

The officers were accused of battlefield failures—essentially dereliction of duty. Both were alleged to have abandoned their posts in the final stages of the battle: Bäckman left his battalion, and Kemppi left his brigade to join the army corps headquarters.

Mäkivalli noted that such a trial of officers was exceptional in Finnish military history.

Saari Manor, owned by Erik von Frenckell—a civil servant, politician, and sports figure—provided the venue for the court-martial. The manor offered suitable facilities for the proceedings.

Due to limited historical footage, the filmmakers used AI-generated imagery to illustrate events. Rantanen acknowledged potential criticism but defended the choice as both artistic and economic.

Bäckman received an eight-month prison sentence from the military court, later reduced on appeal to one year. Kemppi received a reprimand for negligence, later commuted to 25 days’ arrest. Bäckman appealed the January 1945 verdict but died by suicide before the Supreme Court’s March decision.