List of Mannerheim Cross recipients



The Mannerheim Cross of the Cross of Liberty is the most distinguished Finnish military honour. Proposed by and named after Field Marshal Gustaf Mannerheim, it was introduced after the Winter War on 16 December 1940. The decoration was awarded to soldiers for exceptional bravery, for the achievement of crucially important objectives by combat, or for especially successfully conducted operations. Unlike other awards associated with the Order of the Cross of Liberty, the awarding of the Mannerheim Cross was not influenced by the military rank of the recipient.

The cross is awarded as either Mannerheim Cross of Liberty 1st Class or as Mannerheim Cross of Liberty 2nd Class. No special requirements differing from 2nd class were laid out for the Mannerheim Cross 1st Class. A recipient of the cross is called "Knight of the Mannerheim Cross".

Although still active de jure, no crosses have been awarded since 1945. Tuomas Gerdt, the last living Knight of the Mannerheim Cross, died on 1 November 2020.

Recipients
The Mannerheim Cross 2nd Class has been awarded to 191 people. The first cross was awarded to Colonel Ruben Lagus on 22 July 1941. The first private to be awarded the cross was Vilho Rättö, who was awarded his cross on 3 August 1941 for destroying four enemy tanks with a sightless anti-tank gun taken from the enemy, by aiming the gun through its bore. The last cross was awarded to Lieutenant Colonel Viljo Laakso on 7 May 1945. A total of four persons have been awarded the Mannerheim Cross 2nd Class twice. These double-awardees were given a small clasp, consisting of two crossed marshal's batons, to be worn above the cross. The first recipient of the Mannerheim Cross 1st Class was its namesake, Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, who accepted it together with a Mannerheim Cross 2nd Class from President of the Republic Risto Ryti on 7 October 1941 after all the previous awardees had requested him to accept the award. The only other recipient of the Mannerheim Cross 1st Class is General of Infantry Erik Heinrichs, who received it on 31 December 1944, following an earlier Mannerheim Cross 2nd Class on 5 February 1942.

Demographics
The awardees were predominately young, with a mean age of 32 years and 72% of the awardees 35 or younger. The three youngest awardees were all aged 19. Only 8 of the recipients were 51 or older, with the oldest recipient being Mannerheim himself. A majority of the knights came from rural families, with only 46 having been born in cities. This is also reflected in the fact that 80 knights' fathers had been farmers. A further 24 had fathers who had worked as either for the railroad or as labourers, while 32 came from families of public servants.

The crosses were awarded primarily to personnel from the army, with 159 recipients in the infantry, 4 in artillery and 2 in engineering units. Seven crosses were awarded to navy personnel, of which two were received by people serving in coastal artillery. Finally, 19 awards were granted to air force personnel. The largest group among army awardees, at 74 people, were those serving as platoon, patrol or squad leaders or in other similar NCO roles. The second largest group were various commanders (from company to corps), who numbered 62. The army rank-and-file were awarded with 22 crosses, and various staff officers with 7 crosses.

Crosses were rarely awarded posthumously. Two people were awarded the cross on the day they were killed, and a further 8 receiving the cross posthumously.

A total of 25 officers, 10 non-commissioned officers and 3 other ranks who had received the cross were killed during the war. Of these 38, 28 were killed in action. Almost half, 12, of those killed in action died during the summer of 1944, with five knights dying during the Battle of Tali–Ihantala. A further three knights were killed during the Finno-German Lapland War, which followed the armistice between Finland and Soviet Union.

Both the first and the last recipient of the cross had a background in the Jaeger Movement. Members of the movement had traveled in secret to Germany in 1916 to receive military training, and returned to Finland at the onset of the Finnish Civil War. Of the 710 people with a jaeger background still working in tasks related to national defence, 20 were awarded with a cross. 115 knights also had a background in the White Guard.

The most distinguished unit was Infantry Regiment 7, the members of which received 11 crosses. A further three awardees had been part of the regiment at some point, but received their crosses after transferring to other units. Also distinguished was the 1st Jaeger Brigade (later Jaeger Brigade, Armoured Division), which had nine of its members receive the cross. Another over-represented group are those involved with long-range reconnaissance patrols, of whom 19 received a cross.

Denied proposals
A list of people who had been denied a Mannerheim cross by the General Headquarters disappeared from the military archives sometimes after early 1980s, but research by historians Hurmerinta and Viitanen indicates that at least 104 proposals were rejected at this final stage of the process.

In addition, there were plans to award medals for actions from the Winter War. To this end, some 483 names were submitted for consideration between the founding of the award and the start of the Continuation War, but this project was abandoned in April 1944 before any medals could be awarded. At the same time, a total of 19 of those who had been put forth to receive a cross for their actions in the Winter War were awarded for their actions in the Continuation War.