Actually looking for the following anecdote I found a way more accurate translation from Wikipedia:
These terms were based on a Finnish battle cry hakkaa päälle (English: strike upon [them]; Swedish: hacka på), commonly translated as "Cut them down!"
And here is the anecdote (which I've previously read in finnish):
Aulis J. Alanen described the Finnish cavalry:
"Our [Finnish] Hakkapelites cannot have been any sort of fine representatives. I should mention a parade of the Gustaf Adolf troops in the Thirty Years' War, while the king still lived. At first went the blue, yellow, green etc. mercenaries of the regiment in their flashy gear. Then came, clothed so-so, bridles and baldricks repaired with birch bark and cord, legs hanging from the backs of their small, shaggy horses, cutlasses dragging on the ground, a troop of hollow-cheeked but stern-eyed men. When the Dutch ambassador inquired who they were, the last rider, a fat German Quartermaster [kuormastovääpeli] in charge of the cargo proudly replied "The royal Life Guards: Finnish, pärkkele!".
Pärkkele = foreign mangling of Perkele, a rather strong Finnish profanity literally meaning Satan/The Devil. However, the most appropriate translation would probably be "Goddammit!"
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