Fetching the Hurricanes - new articles

When Winter War started, with Soviet Union's attack against the tiny
Finland, Finnish government started seeking for equipment and aircraft
from any plane and country that would sell.

"Calle: Let's review the general situation at first. Finland was a poor
country, so we couldn't buy proper flight equipment before the World War
II. Only when the war began, people got busy. All embassies around the
world were instructed to acquire planes, cheaply of course.
Nobody was really willing to sell planes at that time, when they weren't
sure if they'd themselves have use for them. But we had good enough
trade relationships with England, we sold them wood, butter and things
like that. They gave us ten Gloster Gladiator II planes as present, and
we bought twenty more. We needed better equipment too, so on Feb 2th,
'40, they agreed that we could buy 12 of their Hawker Hurricane Mk I
fighters. The Trade Agreement #1555/40 was dated retroactively to
February 17th, though the planes were handed over to the Air Force on
Feb 21 and Feb 26. The planes were numbered HU-451 to 462."

Britain agreed to sell 12 Hawker Hurricane fighters. 12 Finnish pilots
was sent to Britain for training.

In this unique document four Finnish Hurricane pilots ponder the
backgrounds for Finland's Hurricane purchase and especially the mission
to train 12 young pilots to Hurricanes - and ferry them to Finland in
early 1940. The HC pilots think back their training, the people and the
transfer flight to Finland.

"A: Pinkham's officers were waiting for us at the station near St.Athan.
They took us by lorries straight to the air base commander. He was Air
Commodore Rt.Hon.J.D.Boyle. He gave a magnificently beautiful speech to
the "heroic Finns." Even Paavo "Jesus" Myllylä nudged my sleeve and
said, "Isi, we're tough guys.""

"A: It was fun time, when we flew. There were no flying of flag, giving
signs or shouts of any kind. When we left from the hangars, we started
from two sides of the field, gathered downwind and took off in order.
Same thing with landings, so it went fine. There were British students
too. Once Jussi was on the field with Pinkham, when a HC came with the
propellor set on steep angle, gear and flaps up, and landed on the
field. The plane ended up near the hangar wall. "Let's go and see
first," said Jussi. It was a Canadian who emerged from the plane.
Jussi patted Pinkham on the shoulder and said, "your boy!""

--

In another new article, "Torsten Sannamo and the POW", the Blenheim
gunner Torsten Sannamo thinks back about a strange encounter during the war.

--

The article "Remembering Kullervo Lahtela" tells about the less known
great Finnish pilot, Kullervo Lahtela, who was a successful trainer and
he prepared for war a number of young, enthusiastic, and above all
highly qualified combat pilots, who performed with excellence in aerial
battle. During the war years he served in LeLv 32, 34, HLeLv 30 and
finally as the squadron commander of HLeLv 32.

--

You can read these articles from the Finnish Virtual Pilots Association
aviation history site:

http://www.virtualpilots.fi/hist/

Feedback / comments appreciated.

jok

You can read these articles from the Finnish Virtual Pilots Association
aviation history site:

http://www.virtualpilots.fi/hist/

Feedback / comments appreciated

jok


All I can say is your site is one of my favorites. I find the Finnish
experience in WW2 fascinating on many counts but not least in the way some
aircraft maligned elsewhere (F2A) and some highly regarded (Hurricane) had
completely different histories in Finnish service. Keep up the good work. Now
if I could only convince someone to translate Lentajan Nakokulma to English!

John Dupre'