Reindeer transport units of the 14th Army in the Arctic during the war

"In the first winter of the war, reindeer transport units began to be organised in all the divisions of the 14th Army. Sámi, Nenets and Komi served in them. The reindeer were often used not only for evacuating the wounded and delivering military supplies, but also for inserting scouts behind enemy lines, for recovering downed aircraft and their crews, and for maintaining contact with the border guards. The reindeer herders saved the lives of many soldiers and officers of the 14th Army and the Northern Fleet. Over the years of the war they carried more than 10,000 men from the front line, delivered 17,000 tonnes of ammunition and military supplies to the front over trackless country, evacuated from the tundra more than 160 aircraft that had made forced landings or been shot down, and, besides, transported about 8,000 servicemen and partisans to carry out combat missions, many of them deep behind enemy lines"

Kiselev A.A. War in the Arctic