Bristol Blenheim, part five, Finnish users

The Bristol Blenheim was a British bomber designed and manufactured by Bristol Aeroplane Company and was used extensively during the first half of the Second World War by the Royal Air Force (RAF), but also by other users, like Finland.

It comes no surprise, with European countries re-arming during the late 1930s, that the Blenheim attracted the attention of many foreign customers, the first of which to place an order being Finland. Eighteen were ordered in as early as 1936 with various internal modifications to carry Swedish and American bombs and were delivered between 26th June 1937 and 27th July 1938. They were assigned to Lentolaivues (Suomi word for "Squadron") 44 and 46, where they saw action during the Winter War in November 1939 against the USSR. 

The beginning of the Winter War, prompted the Finns to order 24 additional Blenheims, of which, half were Mk.I and the other half Mk.IV. These were raised from RAF's stocks and delivered to the newly created Lentolaivue 42. In early 1940 with the war still raging on, the Finns also bought a production license to manufacture the type locally at the Valtion lentokonetehdas (State Aircraft Factory, more commonly known by its acronym of "VL") at the city of Tampere. 

After the end of the Winter War in March 1940, VL manufactured the type, and during the short period of peace between Finland and the USSR known as the Interim Peace, a total of 55 Blenheim were built, with production lines being active during Continuation War, which ranged from June 1941 until September 1944. Thanks to VL's production a total of 97 Blenheims were in active service with the Nordic country (75 Mk.Is and 22 Mk.IVs). After the fall of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Finland also received 20 ex-Yugoslav incompleted Blenheim Mk.IVs, together with manufacturing tools, production equipment and huge loads of the much valued spare parts, although many of these were either damaged or destroyed in sabotage actions. 

Finnish Blenheims were divided into six production series, the first ones being the original British-supplied ones, many of them modified to carry bigger bomb-load and last two ones (Series V and VI) being those manufactured entirely in Tampere. There was an extra Series VII, of which six Blenheim Mk.I were modified, but production was cancelled in September 1944.
During Winter War alone, Finnish Blenheims flew 423 sorties and close to 3.000 during Continuation War and Lapland War, conflicts where the gunners shot down a total of 8 Soviet aircraft, for a total of 37 Blenheims lost in combat. 

The Blenheim remained in service with the Finnish Air Force after the war, however, as Finland was prohibited from flying bomber aircraft, they were put into storage in 1948. Three years later, however, they were re-activated to be used as target tugs, with the last flight of a Finnish Blenheim taking place on 20th May 1958 (though some sources claim it was two years earlier, in 1956).

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Blenheim#Finland

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bristol_Blenheim_operators#Finland

3. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 26 - Bristol Blenheim