In the fall of 1939, Lauri T�rni was just completing his enlistment in the Finnish Army when the Soviet Union attacked Finland. T�rni's term in the army was extended as part of the country's general mobilization, and he was originally assigned to supply troops. During the battles at Lake Ladoga he was transferred to the front line. He took part in the annihilation of the encircled Russian divisions in Lemetti. His heroic feats during these engagements were quickly noticed by his commanders and toward the end of the war he was assigned to officer training where he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant as the war ended. After the Winter War, in 1941 T�rni was one of the men who were sent to Germany to train with Waffen-SS, but he soon returned home.
Most of T�rni's reputation is based on his successful feats in the Continuation War (1941?44) between the Soviet Union and Finland. In 1943 a famous unit informally named Detachment T�rni was created under his command. This was an infantry unit that penetrated and fought deep behind the enemy lines and soon enjoyed a reputation on both sides of the front for its effectiveness. One of T�rni's men was the future President of Finland, Mauno Koivisto. The two served together for instance in the crucial Battle of Ilomantsi, the very final Finnish-Soviet fight of the Continuation War in July and August 1944. Koivisto witnessed this battle as a soldier in a reconnaissance company commanded by Captain T�rni.
T�rni's units inflicted continued heavy casualties on Russian units and the Soviet Army had a bounty on T�rni's head equivalent to 3 million Finnish Marks (650,000 USD), reputedly the only Finnish officer so recognized. He was decorated with the Mannerheim Cross, the equivalent of the American Congressional Medal of Honor, on July 9, 1944.
