Was it an early example of an assault rifle or perhaps an inferior LMG?

It was among Lahtis first forays into gun design, but certainly wouldnt be his last.

He would go on to be described as the John Browning of Finland.

In this photo, we see two Finnish soldiers in defensive positions during the Continuation War circa 1942. One is armed with the Lahti-Saloranta M/26. The Lahti-Saloranta M/26 is a light machine gun which was designed by Aimo Lahti and Arvo Saloranta in 1926. The weapon was able to fire in both full automatic and semi-automatic modes.

The extremely advanced Lahti-Saloranta M/26 was used extensively by the Finnish Army. Image: SA-kuva

His initial concept was certainly innovative for the era.

It featured a two-position fire selector switch, and to the rear a safety switch.

These facts cant be understated for the era.

Shown in this image is a Finnish ski patrol with Lahti-Saloranta M26 in the Continuation War against the Soviet Union. Aimo Johannes Lahti was a self-taught Finnish weapons designer. Of the 50 weapons he designed, the best known is the Suomi KP/-31 SMG.

During the Winter War and the Continuation War, the Finland Army made good use of ski troops. These men are armed with an AVS-36 rifle (left), M/26 (center) and SVT-38 (right). Image: SA-kuva

It is also important to note that the Finnish cartridge was generally interchangeable with the Soviet 7.62x54mmR.

The LS/26 officially entered service with the Finnish military, which eventually issued around 5,000 of the rifles.

Experienced machine gunners in fixed positions praised the firearms accuracy.

Shown in this picture is a Lahti-Saloranta L/S-26 LMG that was used extensively by the Finland Army in World War 2. It was most famously used in the Winter War and the Continuation War. It also saw action in the Lapland War and Second Sino-Japanese War. The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940.

The Finnish Lahti-Saloranta L/S-26 entered service in 1927. It served in the Finnish military through to the 1970s. Image: SA-kuva

Yet, it was during the war when its most notable flaws became all too apparent.

This matter was made worse by the fact that it was hard to clean due to its 188 parts.

Moreover, the quick-change barrel required that the bolt had to be removed during the change process.

Shown in this photograph are Finnish troops training with the guns at the Järvenpää Educational Center. The Finnish Army seems to have given the Lahti-Saloranta the nickname of quick rifle. The firearm had many similar characteristics to the DP-27 Degtyarev light machine gun but with a more limited magazine capacity. It was chambered in the 7.62x53 cartridge, but would also fire 7.62 x 54 r round as well. A platoon was often equipped with two guns that each had a folding bipod and no less than two magazines. The 7.62×53mmR rifle cartridge is a Finnish design based on the Russian 7.62×54mmR round dating back to 1891.

Finnish troops train at the Järvenpää Educational Center with the M/26 light machine gun. Image: SA-kuva

It was clearly not a weapon that was designed with a citizen soldier in mind!

The 20-round magazine also proved to be an issue in combat.

Efforts to attract buyers in Europe and then South America came to naught.

In this digital photograph, we see a Finnish soldier firing the M/26 machine gun. The Finnish Army is the land forces branch of the Finnish Defence Forces. The Finnish Army is divided into six branches: the infantry, field artillery, anti-aircraft artillery, engineers, signals, and materiel troops. Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a country in East Asia. It is located at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People’s Republic of China to the northwest, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south.

While the Finnish Army purchased 5,000 M/26 LMGs, the Republic of China ordered 30,000 units. Only about 1,200 were delivered due to pressure from Japan. Image: SA-kuva

Of the thousands that were produced only a handful are even known to be on display in museums.

As a result of its rarity, it is unclear if any are even in private collections.

The first version was made in 1955, and it has since been remade in 1985 and 2017.

Shown in this photographic image are two Finnish soldiers. The one on the left is shooting a M/26 while the one on the right is firing a KP/-31 SMG. Both of these guns were Lahti designs and were used extensively against the Red Army. The weapons were produced for the Finnish services.

Two of the automatic weapons developed by Aimo Lahti for the Finnish armed forces are the LS/26 (left) and theSuomi KP/-31 submachine gun(right). Image: SA-kuva

All three versions have been among the top-grossing Finnish films for the respective year the film was released.

In this photo, a soldier of the Finland Army assumes a prone defensive position with his machine gun to repel communist troops from the Soviet Union. The gun used a short recoil operation and automatic firing to produce a high firing rate. While the gun could come with a drum magazine, most Finnish troops were issued 20-round box-style magazines. The innovative design was largely in part due to Finnish inventor and co-designer Arvo Saloranta.

This Finnish soldier assumes a defensive position near the Imatra-Salo border to defend against Red Army troops. Image: SA-kuva

Shown in this photo is a right side view of the machine gun. The muzzle of this gun varies depending on the specific variant you have. Finland used the guns in multiple wars and exported them to China (later known as Taiwan). It is an amazing part of military history and might be the crown jewel of any firearms collection.

It is not known how many of these guns still exist today. A few are in museums, and it is not publicly known if any are the possession of private collectors. Image: SA-kuva

This is a photo of Finnish soldiers firing M/26 light machine guns near Nurmijärvi. Nurmijärvi is a rural municipality north of Helsinki, the capital of Finland.

Finnish soldiers from the area of Nurmijärvi practice shooting the Lahti-Saloranta M/26 chambered in 7.62x53R. Image: Nurmijärvi Museum/CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

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