Curtiss Hawk 75A/Mohawk. Part nine. The Hawk in Finland.

 

Finland became one of Germany's allies, not out of any sympathy for fascism. The main reason was its aggressive neighbour, the Soviet Union, which attacked the Nordic country by surprise on 30th November 1939, waging the so-called 'Winter War'. 
The heroic and effective of not just the Finnish army, but the entire Finnish society allowed Finland to keep its independence, albeit at the cost of some territorial losses. In this conflict the Soviets suffered very heavy losses, even if they were fighting an enemy several times weaker in numbers.

That stance won worldwide sympathy for the Finnish, but that sympathy soon faded away when Germany attacked the USSR and Finland sided with the Axis, as it was the only way to maintain their independence.
Finnish pilots were renown for their remarkable successes in aircraft deemed unsuitable for combat in other countries, like the American Brewster Buffalo. This was, of course, mainly due to the conditions they faced,. the abysmal quality of their equipment and the lack of experience of most Soviet pilots, faced with the determination with the Finnish pilots fought for their country. Among the aircraft that composed the Finnish Ilmavoimat (Air Force) there were also some Curtiss Hawks.

The first Hawks delivered to Finland were sent by the Germans, after the conquest of Norway. These consisted on several A-6 models delivered in the spring of 1941. After Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, additional Hawks were delivered to Finland, this time captured from the French. The Hawks of this batch included seven A-4 and nine A-2/A-3. The next delivery took place between 28th July and 2nd August 1941 and included 11 Hawk 75A-1, one A-3 and one A-6. Two more A-3 arrived in Finland on 4th and 5th December 1941.
Many of those ex-French aircraft were only now being unpacked from the crates in which they were shipped across the Atlantic, as they were not assembled before the fall of France. 
In the Finnish workshops, where they were being now assembled, their radio equipment and sights were replaced by German Revi 3D or C/12D ones. 
In the spring of 1943, the Ilmavoimat received 15 additional Hawks, this time ex-Vichy France ones.

In total the Finns had 44 Hawks, including six A-1s, nine A-2s, nine A-3s, seven A-4s and thirteen A-6s. They affectionately nicknamed them "Curtissi" or "Sussu" (meaning 'sweetheart' in Suomi), but complains about their poor armament or problems with the Cyclone engines in their seven A-4s were common. At the turn of 1942/1943 only four A-4s remained operative and their engines were replaced with Twin Wasp ones.

In service with the Finns the Hawk was, overall well-liked with a good victory-to-loss ratio. In total Finns Hawks scored 190 and one-third kills for the loss of 15 of their own between 16th July 1941 and 27th July 1944, the dates of the Continuation War.
The Finnish Hawks were initially armed with either four or six 7.5mm machine guns. This was enough at the opening phases of the Continuation War, however, due to the increasing speeds and armour on Soviet aircraft, that arrangement was not powerful enough, so in 1942 the Finnish Valtion lentokonetehdas (State Aircraft Factory) replaced the fuselage machine guns with either one or to .50 in (12.7mm) Colt or Browning FN machine guns and installed two or four .303 in (7.7mm)  Browning machine guns in each wing. Some cannibalized 12.7mm Berezin UB or LKk/42 heavy machine guns were also employed. This new arrangement did not change the good flying characteristics of the Hawks and the armament was much more effective against Soviet aircraft. 

After Continuation and Lapland Wars, surviving Finnish Hawks remained in service with various Ilmavoimat squadrons, namely HLeLv 13, 11 and LeSK (training unit) until 30th August 1948 when the last operational Finnish Hawks were put into storage. In 1953 they were scrapped.

Sources:
1st AJ Press - Monografie Lotnicze 61 - Curtiss P-36 Hawk part 1
2nd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_P-36_Hawk#Finland

Tupolev SB in Finnish service. Part two.

 

The Finnish Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force) assigned the 16 SB purchased from Germany (see our previous post for details) to the three flights of Lentolaivue 6 (Flying Squadron - LeLv.6) based at Nummela. Those SBs were employed in bomber, reconnaissance and anti-submarine patrols all over the Gulf of Finland. 

The Soviet coastal submarine M-95 was sunk by SB-1 flown by Lt. Virtanen east of Suursaari on 28th May 1942. On the next 14th July, many Finnish SBs attacked with depth charges a surfaced Soviet submarine off the Finnish town of Pellinki (east of Helsinki). Lelv.6 claimed it was a Shchuka-class submarine, Shch-317, to be more precise. On 14th October 1942, SB-1 destroyed Shch-302. 

The Ilmavoimat did not lose any of their SBs to Soviet fighters or anti-air fire, however six SB 2M-103s were destroyed in accidents or technical failures. During Continuation War, three Soviet submarines were sunk by SBs and many other were damaged. Additionally, one merchant ship and four other small vessels were also sunk by Finnish SBs.

Eventually when the Red Army launched an offensive against Karelia in June 1944, Finland was prompted to sign an armistice on 4th September 1944, giving way to the Lapland War (1944-1945) to drive out Germans from Finland. The Finnish overpainted the yellow identification bars on wing and fuselage. During this war a total of 84 anti-submarine sorties were flown by Lelv.6's SBs over the Gulf of Finland but they did not damage nor sink any German U-boat. No Finnish SB was lost during the Lapland War and, on 1st April 1945 the roundels were changed from the Finnish swastika to the white-blue-white roundel of the Ilmavoimat. Those markings were applied to any surviving SB. After the war they served either as trainers or were kept in storage depots until late 1940s when they were phased out.

Going back to the Winter War, among the eight SB 2M-103 captured by the Finns, there was a late production machine which, after being refurbished, received the code of SB-8. This bomber was selected to be converted into trainer, similar to the Tupolev USB. 

This SB-8 machine was different from other SBs in having the landing light in the right wing's leading edge. Its conversion was completed on 25th January 1943 and was assigned to Täydennyslentolaivue 17 (TLelv.17 - Advanced Training Squadron) at the town of Luonetjärvi, in Central Finland on 19th February. This trainer was later re-assigned to Pommituslentolaivue 46 (PLelv.46 - Bomber Squadron) based at Luonetjärvi too. It was later assigned to Lelv.45. On 24th February 1945 it was put in storage after having flown 268 hours with Ilmavoimat.

Sources:

1st Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 194 - Tupolev SB in Action

2nd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_SB

3rd https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/sb/tapani/finnish/finnish-number.htm

4th https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/sb/tapani/usb/usb.htm

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

Morane-Saulnier Ms.406 & Mörkö Morane

 

As we've said in previous posts, France sent 30 Morane-Saulnier to Finland between the 4th and the 29th February 1940 and, by 1943, the Finns received an additional 46 Ms.406 and 11 Ms.410 (an improved version of the Ms.406 which will be also the subject of a future post) bought from the Germans. By that year, however, the Ms.406 was showing signs of being seriously outdated. Anyway, as the Finns were desperate for serviceable aircraft, they decided to start a modification program to bring all their serviceable aircraft to new standards.

The Finnish aircraft engineer Aarne Lakomaa turned the Ms.406 into a competent frontline fighter, the Mörkö (Suomi word for "Bogeyman" or "Bugbear"), sometimes known as the LaGG-Morane. It was powered by captured Klimov M-105P engines (which were themselves a licensed copy of the Hispano-Suiza 12Y) which yielded 1.100 hp of power driving a fully adjustable propeller. In order to fit the engine, the airframe required some strengthening and a more aerodynamic engine cowling had to be fitted too. Thanks to those changes, the speed was boosted to 525 km/h (326 mph). Some additional changes included a new oil cooler, taken from the Messerschmitt Bf.109G, the usage of four belt-fed guns, system which was already present at the Ms.410, and a single 20 mm MG 151/20 in the engine mounting firing through the propeller hub. However, as the MG 151/20 was in short supply in Finland, some Mörkös were fitted with the captured 12.7 mm Berezin UBS guns.

Conversion work started in August 1942 and the first Mörkö flew for the first time on 25th January 1943 with very good results as the fighter was 64 km/h (40 mph) faster than the original French Ms.406 and the service ceiling was increased in 2.000 m, from 10.000m (33.000 ft) to 12.000m (39.000 ft).

Initial plans included the conversion of all the 41 remaining Ms.406 and Ms.410 to the Soviet engine, but the process took time and it wasn't until July/August 1944 that the first exemplars of the Mörkö were assigned to the Lentolaivue (Suomi word for "Squadron") 28. By September 1944, with the end of the Continuation War, only three machines, including the original prototype, had been converted. Lieutenant Lars Hattinen (Finnish ace with six victories) scored three kills flying the Mörkö-Morane, one with each Mörkö-Morane in the squadron. Anyway, more fighters were converted and the Mörkö-Morane took part in the Lapland War in the reconnaissance and ground-attack role. Not every Mörkö conversion was completed before March 1945, when the whole re-engine program was halted. At the end of the World War 2, the total number of converted Mörkö-Moranes was 41, which were used as advanced trainers with the TLeLv 14 until September 1948, when they were retired from service and, in 1952 they were all scrapped.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_M.S.406#Finnish_variants

2. https://www.valka.cz/Valtion-Lentokonetehdas-Moerkoe-Morane-t29432

3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters