Swedish Volunteer

Swedish Volunteer 

As in the Winter War, Swedish volunteers were recruited. Until December 1941, they were tasked with guarding the Soviet naval base at Hanko. When it was evacuated by sea in December 1941, the Swedish unit was officially disbanded. During the Continuation War, the volunteers signed up for three to six months of service. In all, over 1,600 Swedish volunteers fought for Finland, although only about 60 remained by the summer of 1944. About a third of the volunteers had previously participated in the Winter War. Another significant group—about a quarter of the men—were Swedish officers on leave.

Hanko :1941.08.29

Fokker D.XXI

Mikkeli 1941.09.04

Utti 1941.11.15

Mikkeli 1941.09.04

Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2 MT-215

Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2 MT-215

More image: Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2 MT-215

Morane-Saulnier M.S.406

Soloman's airfield 1942.02.22
@SA-photo

In Finnish Service

The M.S.406 had a parallel career in Finland. In February 1940, the first 30 French fighters were allocated to LeLv 28, commanded by Major Jusu. These aircraft received the Finnish designations MS-301 to MS-330. They were used in combat during the Winter War, against the USSR and carried out 259 operational sorties and shot down 16 Soviet aircraft. In modified form, the M.S.406 were later involved in the Continuation War. Between November 1939 and 4 September 1944, Lv28 scored 118 aerial victories flying the Morane M.S.406 (the unit flew Bf 109Gs for a time, as well). The unit lost 15 aircraft. Total Finnish kills were 121. The top Morane ace in all theatres was W/O Urho Lehtovaara, with 15 of his 44.5 total kills achieved in Moranes. The Finnish nicknames were Murjaani (blackmoor), a twist on its name, and Mätimaha (roe-belly) and Riippuvatsa (hanging belly) because of its bulged ventral fuselage.

German in Lapland

Voknavolok 1941.07.17
@SA-photo

Position

Näytä suurempi kartta

Inside the Blenheim Mk

the pilot and the navigator

Mikkelin airfield 1941.07.31

SA-photo

Fiat G.50 :Olli Puhakka won even the landing gear is down

Olli Puhakka Värtsilä, 1941.07.13

In Finnish service

The G.50 saw its longest and most successful service in the two Finnish wars against the Soviet Union, the Winter War of 1939-1940 and the Continuation War of 1941-1944. At the end of 1939, before the outbreak of hostilities, Finland ordered 35 Fiat G.50s. The first 10 aircraft were to be delivered before February 1940. A group of Finnish pilots attended a 10-hour training course at Guidonia airport and later at Fiat Aviazione in Turin. On a training flight, during a dive from 3,500 m (11,500 ft), Lieutenant Tapani Harmaja reached an estimated speed of 780 km/h (480 mph), which was considered excessive for the structural integrity of the aircraft. The windscreen was damaged.
Germany hindered the transit of the aircraft, so they were dismantled and embarked in La Spezia on the Norwegian ship Braga, which set sail for Turku, Finland, on 20 January. Because of this delay, the first G.50s did not reach No. 26 Squadron, Finnish Air Force (HLeLv 26) at Utti until February 1940. The G.50s were numbered from FA-1 to FA-35, but it seems that only 33 were delivered (13 in February, 17 in March and 1 in June). Squadron No 26 received from material command G.50 fighters according to the table below. A day before the truce after the Winter War, they had received 30 Fiat G.50s of the 35 purchased and 33 not damaged during the procurement.

Nice fight whit Fiat ... reconstrutor battle. language is Finnish but  enjoy flight.. Olli Puhakka won even the landing gear is downs and not firing guns

                  

Battle of Tali-Ihantala

The Battle of Tali-Ihantala (June 25 to July 9, 1944) was part of the Finnish-Soviet Continuation War (1941–1944), which occurred during World War II. The battle was fought between Finnish forces—using war materiel provided by Germany—and Soviet forces. To date, it is the largest battle in the history of the Nordic countries.

The battle was one of attrition, with the Finns suffering proportionally more casualties than the Soviet forces.It marked a point in the Soviet offensive when the Finnish forces first prevented the Soviets from making any significant gains. However, already earlier at Siiranmäki and Perkjärvi the Finns had halted advancing Soviet forces. Finnish forces achieved a defensive victory, although Russian historian N. Baryshnikov criticizes this as an exaggeration.

After the Soviets had failed to create any breakthroughs at Tali-Ihantala, Viborg Bay, or Vuosalmi, the Soviet Leningrad Front started the previously planned transfer of troops from the Karelian Isthmus to support Operation Bagration, where they were encountering particularly fierce resistance. Though the Leningrad Front failed to advance into Finland as ordered by the Stavka, some historians state that the offensive did eventually force Finland from the war

Ihantala 1944.06.30

SA-phot

Finnish BT-5

The BT tanks, Bystrokhodny tank, lit. "fast moving tank" or "high-speed tank" were a series of Soviet cavalry tanks produced in large numbers between 1932 and 1941. They were lightly armoured, but reasonably well-armed for their time, and had the best mobility of all contemporary tanks of the world. The BT tanks were known by the nickname Betka from the acronym, or its diminutive Betushka.

The direct successor of the BT tanks would be the famous T-34 medium tank, introduced in 1940, which would replace all of the Soviet fast tanks, infantry tanks, and medium tanks in service.

Anti-tank

Testing anti-tank blinding bottle without firing. 

@SA-photo

Brewster F2A

The Brewster F2A Buffalo was an American fighter aircraft which saw service early in World War II. Designed and built by the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation, it was one of the first U.S. monoplanes with an arrestor hook and other modifications for aircraft carriers. The Buffalo won a competition against the Grumman F4F Wildcat in 1939 to become the U.S. Navy's first monoplane fighter aircraft. Although superior to the Grumman F3F biplane it replaced and the early F4Fs, the Buffalo turned out to be a disappointment because the weight of added equipment was not balanced by an increase in horsepower.

Several nations, including Finland, Belgium, Britain and the Netherlands, ordered the Buffalo. Of all the users, the Finns were the most successful with their Buffalos, flying them in combat against early Soviet fighters with excellent results. During the Continuation War of 1941–1944, the B-239s (a de-navalized F2A-1) operated by the Finnish Air Force proved capable of engaging and destroying most types of Soviet fighter aircraft operating against Finland at that time and achieving in the first phase of that conflict 32 Soviet aircraft shot down for every B-239 lost. and producing 36 Buffalo "aces".

MORE  Brewster F2A photos. 

MORE  Brewster F2A photos. 

MORE  Brewster F2A photos. 

MORE  Brewster F2A photos. 

Messerschmitt Bf 109 G ”Gustav”

Lot of  Messerschmitt  image plane by plane photos  and  shutdown enemy maps

(text by Finnish)

Finnish T–28

The Soviet T–28 was a multi-turreted tank that was among the world's first medium tanks. The prototype was completed in 1931, and production began in late 1932. It was an infantry‑support tank intended to break through fortified defences. The T–28 was designed to complement the heavier T–35 (also multi-turreted), with which it shared turret designs. The type did not have much success in combat, but it played an important role as a development project for the Soviet designers. A series of new ideas and solutions were tried out on the T–28 which were later incorporated in future models.

@sa-photo
Varkaus 1940.04.01

Ogre Morane

Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 @SA-kuva

Ogre Morane

Mörkö-Morane

France sent 30 Morane-Saulnier to Finland, between 4 and 29 February 1940. By 1943 the Finns had received an additional 46 M.S.406s and 11 M.S.410s purchased from the Germans. By this point, the fighters were hopelessly outdated, but the Finns were so desperate for serviceable aircraft that they decided to start a modification program to bring all of their examples to a new standard.

The aircraft designer Aarne Lakomaa turned the obsolete "M-S" into a first rate fighter, the Mörkö-Morane (Finnish for Bogey or Ogre Morane), sometimes referred to as the "LaGG-Morane". Powered by captured Klimov M-105P engines (a licensed version of the HS 12Y) of 820.3 kW (1,100 hp) with a fully adjustable propeller, the airframe required some local strengthening and also gained a new and more aerodynamic engine cowling. These changes boosted the speed to 525 kilometres per hour (326 mph). Other changes included a new oil cooler taken from the Bf 109, the use of four belt-fed guns like the M.S.410, and the excellent 20 mm (0.787 in) MG 151/20 cannon in the engine mounting. However, supplies of the MG 151 were limited, and several received captured 12.7 mm (0.500 in) Berezin UBS guns instead.

The first example of the modified fighter, MS-631, made its first flight on 25 January 1943, and the results were startling: the aircraft was 64 kilometres per hour (40 mph) faster than the original French version, and the service ceiling was increased from 10,000–12,000 metres (33,000–39,000 ft).

Originally, it was planned to convert all the 41 remaining M.S.406s and M.S.410s with the Soviet engine, but it took time, and the first front-line aircraft of this type did not reach LeLv 28 until July/August 1944.By the end of the Continuation War in 1944, only three examples had been converted (including the original prototype).[17] Lieutenant Lars Hattinen (an ace with six victories) scored three kills with the Mörkö-Morane, one with each Mörkö-Morane in the squadron. More fighters arrived from the factory, though, and the Mörkö-Moranes took part in the Lapland War as reconnaissance and ground attack aircraft. Not all the Mörkö-Morane conversions were completed before March 1945, when the entire re-engining programme was halted.[16] After the end of the war, the total was brought to 41, which served as advanced trainers with TLeLv 14 until September 1948. In 1952 all remaining Finnish Moranes were scrapped

T-70 on fire

T-70 on fire

Uuksunjoki 1944.07.07

@SA-kuva

The T-70 

was a light tank used by the Red Army during World War II, replacing both the T-60 scout tank for reconnaissance and the T-50 light infantry tank for infantry support. The T-80 light tank was a more advanced version of the T-70 with a two-man turret—it was only produced in very small numbers when light tank production was abandoned. The T-90 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun was a prototype vehicle with twin machine guns, based on the T-70 chassis.

The T-70 was armed with a 45-mm L/46 gun Model 38 with forty-five rounds carried, and a coaxial 7.62-mm DT machine gun. The tank was operated by a driver and a commander who loaded and fired the gun. Armour thickness on the turret front was 60 mm, hull front and sides: 45 mm, rear and turret sides: 35 mm, roof and bottom: 10 mm.

German Panzer II : Finland Suomussalmi 1941

@SA-kuva Suomussalmi, Kuivajärvi 1941.06.27

@SA-kuva Suomussalmi, Kuivajärvi 1941.06.27

And upcoming diorama blog

http://makingscalemodels.blogspot.fi/2014/02/suomussalmi-1941-part-one.html

Brewster F2A

 Art from 1943

@sa-kuva

The Aviation Museum of Central Finland