Finland. A Taipale Cross, by Alexander Tillander & Co., c.1943

In bronze, maker marked "KUNNIAMERKKITEHDAS" ("Award Manufactory", Alexander Tillander & Co. of Helsinki having used this mark from 1941 to 1945) on the reverse, measuring 40.2 mm (w) x 41 mm (h), original ribbon, extremely fine.

Footnote: The award was created in 1940 for those engaged in the fighting in the Taipale sector during the Winter War against invading Soviet forces. The village was situated at the eastern end of the defensive Mannerheim Line on the shores of Lake Ladoga on the Karelian Isthmus near the Soviet border and was the scene of heavy fighting. Finnish forces successfully held the village during the war but it was ceded to the Soviet Union, along with the rest of Finnish Karelia under the terms of the peace treaty of March 1940.