Liekinheitin M/44

During the Winter War and the Continuation War, the Finnish Army used Italian Model 40 (designated as the Liekinheitin M/40 by the finns) flamethrowers and captured Soviet flamethrowers.^[1] The Liekinheitin M/44 was designed by Sergeant M. Kuusinen in 1944. He attached the flame tube of a flamethrower to the under barrel of a Suomi KP/-31, Finland's standard issue submachine gun.^[2] This turned the Suomi into a combination weapon that could act as both a submachine gun and a flamethrower so the operator wouldn't have to rely for assistance of other soldiers so much for covering fire.^[3] Since the M/44 was designed to be attached to the under barrel of a regular Suomi KP/-31, it was less costly to produce and it did not require any changes to other existing equipment.^[3] One is example is on display at the Finnish Military Museum in Helsinki.^[4]

A prototype of the M/44 was approved for further development after successful presentation to the Finnish Armed Forces in April 1944. A small series was produced for troop trials with positive feedback, although its limited range was criticized.^[5] The Finnish Army initially ordered 100 M/44s, but only around 40 were completed by the delivery date of July 15, 1944. A few units were kept for training purposes by border guards until the 1970s.^[5]