s37755c@taltta.hut.fi (Jochen Grandell) (01/23/91)
From: s37755c@taltta.hut.fi (Jochen Grandell) In article <1991Jan22.015450.20374@cbnews.att.com> fiddler@Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Hix) writes: > >During the Winter War, the Finns *were* flying modern (well, the Brewster >Buffalo was fairly modern) monoplanes against Russian biplanes such as the >Tchaika. I have some statistics about the equipment of the Finnish Airforce in the beginning of the Winter war and then compared to the situation after the last day of the war. Aircraft type: number 1.12.1939 number 15.3.1940 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Bristol Bulldog 10 - Fokker D XXI 36 25 Gloster Gladiator - 13 Fiat G 50 - 23 Morane Saulnier-409 - 23 Brewster-239 - 6 Hawker Hurricane - 10 Blackburn Ripon 15 6 Junkers 7 3 Fokker C V E (D) 7 6 Fokker C X 29 16 Bristol Blenheim 16 19 So those Brewster Buffalos did we have 0 when the war broke out and managed to buy some (6) before peace. Too pity they just arrived to Finland after the war so we didn't have much use of them. The Hurricanes from Britain also reached us only one week before peace. As I'm not an expert on warplanes from WWII , I must admit that I don't know anything about most of those planes listed above. What comes to casualties, here are some figures: Finland lost totally destroyed 62 airplanes damaged 36 USSR lost totally destroyed 509 airplanes damaged(or destr.) 451 also the Swedish volunteer Regiment shot down 12 soviet planes. Even if the difference between soviet vs. Finnish casualties is big, they are known to be quite accurate. Even the Soviet side has more or less approved these figures. At least it's not like the Iraqi propaganda;) If someone is interested I could post a longer article about the Finnish Airforce and its function during the Winter War. Jochen /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ///s37755c@taltta.hut.fi///////////// blaa blaa ////////////////////// ///jochen@niksula.hut.fi///////////// etc. ////////////////////// ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
karppine@tele.nokia.fi (Veikko Karppinen) (01/27/91)
From: karppine@tele.nokia.fi (Veikko Karppinen) In article <1991Jan23.035641.4362@cbnews.att.com> s37755c@taltta.hut.fi (Jochen Grandell) writes: > > >From: s37755c@taltta.hut.fi (Jochen Grandell) >In article <1991Jan22.015450.20374@cbnews.att.com> fiddler@Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Hix) writes: >> >>During the Winter War, the Finns *were* flying modern (well, the Brewster >>Buffalo was fairly modern) monoplanes against Russian biplanes such as the >>Tchaika. > > I have some statistics about the equipment of the Finnish Airforce > in the beginning of the Winter war and then compared to the situation > after the last day of the war. > > Aircraft type: number 1.12.1939 number 15.3.1940 > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > [table of the planes used by the FAF and the rest of the article removed] A couple of notes on the Finnish Air Force in the Winter War and the monoplane vs. biplane question raised earlier. The fighter types actually used in combat by the FAF were mostly outdated: in the beginning of the war (and throughout it) the main fighter type used was Fokker D.XXI (monoplane with fixed undercarriage, 36 planes). Also biplanes were used: the 10 Bristol Bulldog IVAs mentioned by Jochen. The number of biplanes even grew in January when the FAF was joined by Swedish volunteers flying 12 Gloster Gladiator Is and the monoplane Fokkers were outnumbered in the FAF during January and February when 30 Gladiator II planes arrived from the UK. The Gladiators took quite a bit of beating: in February out of the 22 planes lost in air combat 12 were Gladiators. Out of the about 200 Soviet planes shot down during the war in air combat about 50 were shot by Bulldog and Gladiator pilots. And out of the 10 Winter War aces in the FAF two flew the Gladiator, the number two of those 10, Oiva Tuominen shot for example a couple of I-16 Ratas, which can be considered far more modern than the Gladiator. The Fiat G.50 and Morane-Saulnier Ms 406 planes received by the FAF during February and March were not used extensively, because they had serious teething problems because of the extremely cold winter weather (particularly the Fiats) and it took some time to train the pilots to fly them, so they didn't have an important role in this war. (These planes were used in the Continuation War and eg. Oiva Tuominen mentioned above shot down 23 planes flying the Fiat.) BTW, for those interested in the Winter War air activities there is a good book on the subject: 'Ilmavoimat Talvisodassa, The Finnish Air Force in the Winter War` by Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman (published in 1989 by Tietoteos, ISBN 951-9035-92-3). It is mainly a picture book and has a day by day coverage of the activities - this unfortunately only in Finnish but it includes a summary in English. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Veikko Karppinen Nokia Telecommunications karppine@tele.nokia.fi P.O. Box 33, SF-02601 Espoo, Finland