Lahti-Saloranta M/26
Produced by Valtion kivääritehdas
The Lahti-Saloranta M/26 (alternatively LS/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. Both 20-round box and 75-round drum magazines were produced, but the Finnish Army seems to have only used the smaller 20-round magazine. In the Winter War, there were two squads in each platoon that provided covering fire for two ten-man rifle squads. In each squad, there was one M/26 gunner, one assistant and the rest of the men carrying rifles. Soldiers found it would jam when magazine was loaded to capacity. Often they would take a round out of the magazine and hope an officer did not inspect it.