Saturday, 31 March 2018

Messerschmitt Bf.109G, Finnish users part two

In today's post we are going to focus on the Finnish Bf.109Gs that survived the war.
After the Moscow Armistice, which put an end to the Continuation War in September 1944, and conceded Petsamo province to the USSR plus a naval base in Porkkala Peninsula, Finland turned against the Germans begining that way the Lapland war which lasted until April 1945.
Apparently, as the theoretically the Finnish Air Force had capitulated, the Bf.109Gs weren't employed and the Finnish Air Force used mainly ground attack aircrafts in that war.
After the war, one-hundred and two Bf.109Gs survived and they remained as the main fighter of the inmediate post-war Finnish Air Force for almost a decade after the end of the war. In spite of its expected short lifespan, due to being built as a wartime fighter and it was calculated to last around 100 or 200 flight hours, it continued to serve until 1954 when they were replaced by the De-Havilland D.H.100 Vampire Mk.52. However, until then, they had been relegated in some units to the night-fighter role. It's curious to point out that it was maybe the last Bf.109G which beared the famous shark mouth painted in the nose. Some of them were used as racers in the famous Utti races, which were won by many Bf.109Gs painted in some flashy colours. Some of them were still being used in the 1960s as acrobat aircraft equipped with gun-cams.
The last official flight of the Bf.109G by the Finnish Air Force was performed by Major Erkki Heinilä on 13th March 1954. Nowadays some of them are preserved at the airfield in Utti and the Central Finland Aviation Museum. It was also the main inspiration for the VL Pyörremyrsky which was only produced as a prototype and it's also exposed in that same museum.










Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Bf_109_operational_history#Combat_service_with_Finland
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Air_Force#After_World_War_II
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

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