Night of the bombers - the most daring special mission of Finnishbombers in WW2

Night of the bombers - the most daring special mission of Finnish
bombers in WW2


I thougth this might be of interest, as it is quite precisely 60 years
from these missions, so I hastily wrote a little article combining
material from a few sources.
- Grendel

In February 1944 the long range Soviet bomber command ADD performed
three massive air raid on the Finnish capital Helsinki. The enemy
bombers came from airfields in the vicinity of Leningrad, where the
aerial reconnaissance flights had observed and photographed dozens of
aircraft in each field. During the take offs and landings the runways
were fully lit and thus offered an excellent bombing target.

Helsinki was well protected against the enemy bombers and the defenses
had been very successful against the three major ADD bombing attacks.
ADD flew over 2100 sorties and dropped 20 000 bombs against Helsinki,
but only 338 bombs (3 %) hit the city area. This was result from the
heavy and skillful anti aircraft artillery. Helsinki was actually the
heaviest protected capital at Europe, with largest number of heavy AA
guns per protected square kilometer. With good radar targeting and
special AA tactics most of the Soviet bombers were forced to drop their
bomb loads and turn away before reaching target area.

Pictu Third ADD attack 26-27th February 44. Helsinki area is marked
on the map with black. Notice how almost all of the Soviet bomber waves
turn back before reaching the target.

http://www.ilmatorjuntaupseeriyhdist...entokartta.gif

This was not enough, though. Finland had no night fighters and no way to
intercept the Soviet bombers before they were almost at the gates. The
initiative was completely in the Russian hands. Something different was
needed to protect Helsinki and other Finnish towns against the night
bombers.

There was something Finland had, though. Bombers, four squadrons of
bombers, with experienced pilots. Revenge attacks were out of question -
Finnish bombers had been forbidden to fly over Leningrad for the whole
duration of the war on account of not attacking civilian targets and
provoking Soviets. But what about attacking Soviet bombers on their own
bases?

Finnish reconnaissance had learned what fields the ADD used, listened
the Soviet radio communications and had spied how the Soviet bombers
operated. Therefore Finnish intelligence was fully aware on the Soviet
tactics.

Keskinen-Stenman:
"On 25th February the air force CO ordered bomber squadrons PLeLv 42 and
46 to attack these bases under suitable conditions. The Russians were to
be mislead by the Finnish bombers joining the formations at night over
the Gulf of Finland, when returning, say from a mission to Helsinki.

Bomber squadron 46 tested the new tactics on the night of 29th February.
Four Dornier Do 17 bombers too off and joined a returning Russian bomber
stream over the Gulf of Finland. The bombers flew to Levashovo airfield
and invidually bombed the lit airfield at 2230. The bomb rows hit parked
aircraft and shelters. Several fires were built up and a strong
explosion shook the airfield. The flak opened fire when the Finns were
already on their way home."

Each Dornier was equipped with 20 x 50 kg bombs with 0,08 second delay.
When the bombers took off and flew towards the Gulf of Finland own AA
artillery gave them a goodbye greeting, as they didn't seem to know the
identity of the bombers flying in middle of the night.

After joining the Soviet formation it took a lot of skill and nerves to
stay in the formation, as the Soviet pilots might recognize the strange
looking bombers. After crossing the front lines the Soviet planes turned
their navigation lights on, with the Finns following the example. When
the bombers arrived to their home field the Finnish pilots kept their
place in the landing circuit, circling the Soviet field in middle of the
Soviet squadrons, letting the Soviet planes land first. When it was
their turn to land the lights of the target airfield shined brightly
ahead but instead landing the Finnish planes instead opened their bomb
bays, throttled up and filled the field with 80 shrapnel bombs.

Keskinen-Stenman:
"Encouraged by the successes, all regiment squadrons were ordered on
March 2nd to participate on large scale attack against Leningrad area
airfields.

The opportunity came on March 9th when ADD bombers returned from the
bombardment of Tallinn, Estonian's capital. Nineteen Finnish bombers
from all four squadrons joined several formations between Seiskari and
Kronstadt and followed ADD aircraft to Gorskaya, Levashovo and Kasimovo
airfields."

After the huge success of the four bombers the whole bomber regiment was
ordered to readiness. It took until March 9th until the weather and
other conditions made new attack possible. The four bomber squadrons of
Flying Regiment 4 send total of 19 bombers (or 21, depending on source).
10 Blenheims, 5 Dornier Do 17s and 6 Junkers Ju 88s took off.

Once again the bombers infiltrated the Soviet bomber formations. The
Blenheims of PLeLv 42 (bomber squadron 42) followed ADD from north of
Seiskari.

PLeLv 44 joined the Soviet bombers near Kronstadt fortress island with
five Ju-88s.

PLeLv 46 joined the Soviet bombers near Kronstadt with five Dorniers.

And PLeLv 48s Blenheims followed the Soviet bombers from Kronstadt.

Tactics were similar to the previous mission. Either the bombers joined
the Soviet formation and flew alongside them, with landing lights on and
joining the landing pattern, or the Finns followed slightly behind.
Surprise was total both ways, bombs started to rain on the Soviet
airfields when the last bombers were still landing or taxiing on the
field. Bombs and the shrapnel struck without warning, and the Soviet
losses on material and personnel were high, as nobody was sheltered.

Paavo Alava, a Blenheim pilot from Bomber Squadron 42, was on the BL-151
on the attack at March 9th. He describes the mission:
"Our five planes took off with bellies filled with shrapnel- and
firebombs. The tension rose in the cockpit when we were over the Gulf of
Finland looking for a suitable enemy formation. There they come! Several
planes flying at 500 meters east of Seiskari island, flying eastwards.
Quick turn and then as silent, as unnoticeably as we can...
I could see clearly how the neighbor's boy sat in his turret, carefree.
A small light was on, he must have already dreamed of the coffee waiting
on the ground. There they go! Li-2s and so close that I could shoot them
with my machinegun. Sure hit! But I must restrain myself - the mission
would fail if they recognize us. Another Soviet bomber formation comes
towards us from east - they're going to bomb Tallinn...
Here we were - red stars over Gulf of Finland, with blue swastikas in
middle of them.
We are over Kronstadt, when the Ruskie planes start flashing signals
with red and white lights. We see responding signals from ground. I
guess this is permission to come in and land...
The planes turn north towards Gorskaja. It was interesting situation -
Soviet lead bomber navigates the formation to their home field, which
would soon be bombed by enemy bombers flying in the same formation.
There is the field - all lights on. Large number of planes are in
landing pattern and more in ground, when our four Blenheims dropped the
bombers from 1200 meters. Best regards from the people of Helsinki, were
the bombardiers thinking. I can see the explosions in the rows of
bombers and plane shelters. A huge explosion - fuel storage tanks go up
in flames and planes are burning on the ground.
This was one of the most successful and cunning missions in the history
of our squadron, as everything worked perfectly from the beginning to
the end."

Keskinen-Stenman:
"At around 2130 they released the bombs on landing airplanes, parked
aircraft and runways, causing huge explosions and numerous fires on all
airfields. The attacks came as total surprises and only at Levashovo
airfield the AA was on alert, though did not inflict any damage.

The airfield strikes continued on April 4th, when 34 bombers attacked
Kähy airfield north-east from Leningrad, where aerial reconnaissance had
observed 57 aircraft. Bombs were dropped at 2030 causing huge
explosions. 23 large fires were counted by the retreating bombers.
Further strikes were flown during May."

Aarno Ylennysmäki was bombardier in PLeLv 48's Blenheims and flew a
mission in 3rd May against yet another Soviet airfield. He describes the
mission:
"Vector 270 degrees, five minutes to target, I heard on headphones.
The pilot turned and matched altitude to ordered 2900 meters. Then he
pushed throttles forward and accelerated to over 300 km/h. At that speed
they'd stay shorter time at the target area at AA fire.
We would be the 2nd last wave. Behind us follows only the big Stukas,
Ju-88s, with their 1000 kg bombs. Now I saw the first bomb explosions
ahead, from the first bomber wave. I took them as my target and then
continued to give more exact commands to the pilot as we approached.
Two degrees left, straight, one right, here we go, straight ahead. I
could see a plane row in the light from the other burning planes and the
row was running straight on the aiming line of the mechanical bombsight.
Then the line, aiming dot and the beginning of the plane row connected
and I released the bombs.
The plane wavered as it got lighter and the signal lights came on
showing all the bombs had been released successfully. Only now I had
time to watch out and noticed the anti-aircraft fire cloudlets around
our plane.
Aki, in his turret behind us, was watching downwards when he noticed
that a searchlight was trying to find us. He called suddenly "DIVE!".
The pilot pushed his stick almost to the instrument panel and the plane
dropped quickly almost thousand meters lower. Then he pulled back and
leveled the plane at 1500 meters. The G forces pushed us to our chairs
at almost three times our normal weight.
A moment later Aki called that a night fighter had flashed past us, just
lower. We kept sharp lookout but didn't see it anymore.
The whole regiment returned without losses and also the planes from
Onttola base had landed to Immola. The chatter of almost 30 pilots
filled the field and it was found out, that an enemy night fighter had
followed the bombers to almost Immola. Next day the Commander of the Air
Force arrived to the base and awarded number of men"

Mr. Torsten Sannamo was radio operator / gunner at Bomber Squadron 42 in
the time of these attacks. He participated in the bombing of Kähy
airfield May 3rd 1944. Mr. Sannamo describes his attack:
"Our squadron was the first to arrive to the target. Our bombing
altitude was 3100 meters. The enemy AA fire did not reach our altitude,
at least on my case, and my pilot Akke dropped the bomb load on the
barracks of the enemy base. From my turret I saw several fires coming up.
Our squadron had two groups, both with five planes. Any attacking
fighter would have been met with machine gun fire from five guns, but we
didn't see any fighters and we landed to our base Värtsilä at 2200."

Photo: Mr. Kauko Aho, Blenheim pilot (left) and mr. Torsten Sannamo,
gunner & radio operator (right), participated in the attack to Kähy, 3rd
May. The gentlemen are photographed at a meeting of Finnish Virtual
Pilots Association 2003.
http://www.virtualpilots.fi/hist/kuv...-sannamo4t.jpg

Summary

Especially the first attacks at Soviet bomber bases were surprisingly
successful. The inventive tactic of joining the formation of the enemy
night bombers was unheard of, and the Finnish bombers were not
recognized in any mission. The bombers flew in same formation, behind or
in middle of enemy bombers, even with the navigational lights on, and at
times joined their landing pattern. This allowed the bombers to aim at
will and made sure the targets are visible - and plentiful. Good
intelligence on Soviet numbers and plane positions on the fields helped
much.

Soon after the initial missions the aerial reconnaissance noticed, that
the Soviet long range bombers, ADD, are moving away from the front
fields, either further to the rear or completely disappearing. If ADD
was planning further strikes against Finnish targets they never
materialized. Perhaps this resulted, at least partly, from the
destruction of ADD bombers in their home bases and the possibility of
further attacks.

Whatever the results were in larger strategic scale, on tactical level
the Finnish bombers performed very well in the missions. The disciplined
aircrews from all four Finnish bomber squadrons managed to perform
mission, which is quite unique even in the scale of World War II, and
definitely the most daring in the history of Finnish bomber command
during the war.

Sources used:
Keskinen-Stenman: Suomen Ilmavoimien historia 4 - LeR4
Torsten A. Sannamo: Kundina hesassa flygaajana krigussa
Jukka Piipponen: Onttolan punaiset pirut
P. Hirvonen: Raskaan sarjan laivueet

Three different types of bombers participated in the missions, flown by
all 4 Finnish bomber squadrons: Blenheims, Dornier Do 17s and Junkers Ju
88s.

(plane drawings Jouni Rönkkö. Dornier photo from Yrjö Perttula's Collection)
http://www.sci.fi/~ambush/faf/bl201.jpg
http://www.sci.fi/~ambush/faf/dn52_mv.jpg
http://www.sci.fi/~ambush/faf/jk256.jpg

Excellent posting - thanks, Jukka

v/r

Gordon

Very interesting post. The Finns certainly were superb airmen! Were
there any female combat pilots in the Finnish Air Force? Cheers,

Tony

"Jukka O. Kauppinen" wrote in
message ...
Night of the bombers - the most daring special mission of Finnish
bombers in WW2


I thougth this might be of interest, as it is quite precisely 60 years
from these missions, so I hastily wrote a little article combining
material from a few sources.
- Grendel

In February 1944 the long range Soviet bomber command ADD performed
three massive air raid on the Finnish capital Helsinki. The enemy
bombers came from airfields in the vicinity of Leningrad, where the
aerial reconnaissance flights had observed and photographed dozens of
aircraft in each field. During the take offs and landings the runways
were fully lit and thus offered an excellent bombing target.

Helsinki was well protected against the enemy bombers and the defenses
had been very successful against the three major ADD bombing attacks.
ADD flew over 2100 sorties and dropped 20 000 bombs against Helsinki,
but only 338 bombs (3 %) hit the city area. This was result from the
heavy and skillful anti aircraft artillery. Helsinki was actually the
heaviest protected capital at Europe, with largest number of heavy AA
guns per protected square kilometer. With good radar targeting and
special AA tactics most of the Soviet bombers were forced to drop their
bomb loads and turn away before reaching target area.

Pictu Third ADD attack 26-27th February 44. Helsinki area is marked
on the map with black. Notice how almost all of the Soviet bomber waves
turn back before reaching the target.

http://www.ilmatorjuntaupseeriyhdist...entokartta.gif

This was not enough, though. Finland had no night fighters and no way to
intercept the Soviet bombers before they were almost at the gates. The
initiative was completely in the Russian hands. Something different was
needed to protect Helsinki and other Finnish towns against the night
bombers.

There was something Finland had, though. Bombers, four squadrons of
bombers, with experienced pilots. Revenge attacks were out of question -
Finnish bombers had been forbidden to fly over Leningrad for the whole
duration of the war on account of not attacking civilian targets and
provoking Soviets. But what about attacking Soviet bombers on their own
bases?

Finnish reconnaissance had learned what fields the ADD used, listened
the Soviet radio communications and had spied how the Soviet bombers
operated. Therefore Finnish intelligence was fully aware on the Soviet
tactics.

Keskinen-Stenman:
"On 25th February the air force CO ordered bomber squadrons PLeLv 42 and
46 to attack these bases under suitable conditions. The Russians were to
be mislead by the Finnish bombers joining the formations at night over
the Gulf of Finland, when returning, say from a mission to Helsinki.

Bomber squadron 46 tested the new tactics on the night of 29th February.
Four Dornier Do 17 bombers too off and joined a returning Russian bomber
stream over the Gulf of Finland. The bombers flew to Levashovo airfield
and invidually bombed the lit airfield at 2230. The bomb rows hit parked
aircraft and shelters. Several fires were built up and a strong
explosion shook the airfield. The flak opened fire when the Finns were
already on their way home."

Each Dornier was equipped with 20 x 50 kg bombs with 0,08 second delay.
When the bombers took off and flew towards the Gulf of Finland own AA
artillery gave them a goodbye greeting, as they didn't seem to know the
identity of the bombers flying in middle of the night.

After joining the Soviet formation it took a lot of skill and nerves to
stay in the formation, as the Soviet pilots might recognize the strange
looking bombers. After crossing the front lines the Soviet planes turned
their navigation lights on, with the Finns following the example. When
the bombers arrived to their home field the Finnish pilots kept their
place in the landing circuit, circling the Soviet field in middle of the
Soviet squadrons, letting the Soviet planes land first. When it was
their turn to land the lights of the target airfield shined brightly
ahead but instead landing the Finnish planes instead opened their bomb
bays, throttled up and filled the field with 80 shrapnel bombs.

Keskinen-Stenman:
"Encouraged by the successes, all regiment squadrons were ordered on
March 2nd to participate on large scale attack against Leningrad area
airfields.

The opportunity came on March 9th when ADD bombers returned from the
bombardment of Tallinn, Estonian's capital. Nineteen Finnish bombers
from all four squadrons joined several formations between Seiskari and
Kronstadt and followed ADD aircraft to Gorskaya, Levashovo and Kasimovo
airfields."

After the huge success of the four bombers the whole bomber regiment was
ordered to readiness. It took until March 9th until the weather and
other conditions made new attack possible. The four bomber squadrons of
Flying Regiment 4 send total of 19 bombers (or 21, depending on source).
10 Blenheims, 5 Dornier Do 17s and 6 Junkers Ju 88s took off.

Once again the bombers infiltrated the Soviet bomber formations. The
Blenheims of PLeLv 42 (bomber squadron 42) followed ADD from north of
Seiskari.

PLeLv 44 joined the Soviet bombers near Kronstadt fortress island with
five Ju-88s.

PLeLv 46 joined the Soviet bombers near Kronstadt with five Dorniers.

And PLeLv 48s Blenheims followed the Soviet bombers from Kronstadt.

Tactics were similar to the previous mission. Either the bombers joined
the Soviet formation and flew alongside them, with landing lights on and
joining the landing pattern, or the Finns followed slightly behind.
Surprise was total both ways, bombs started to rain on the Soviet
airfields when the last bombers were still landing or taxiing on the
field. Bombs and the shrapnel struck without warning, and the Soviet
losses on material and personnel were high, as nobody was sheltered.

Paavo Alava, a Blenheim pilot from Bomber Squadron 42, was on the BL-151
on the attack at March 9th. He describes the mission:
"Our five planes took off with bellies filled with shrapnel- and
firebombs. The tension rose in the cockpit when we were over the Gulf of
Finland looking for a suitable enemy formation. There they come! Several
planes flying at 500 meters east of Seiskari island, flying eastwards.
Quick turn and then as silent, as unnoticeably as we can...
I could see clearly how the neighbor's boy sat in his turret, carefree.
A small light was on, he must have already dreamed of the coffee waiting
on the ground. There they go! Li-2s and so close that I could shoot them
with my machinegun. Sure hit! But I must restrain myself - the mission
would fail if they recognize us. Another Soviet bomber formation comes
towards us from east - they're going to bomb Tallinn...
Here we were - red stars over Gulf of Finland, with blue swastikas in
middle of them.
We are over Kronstadt, when the Ruskie planes start flashing signals
with red and white lights. We see responding signals from ground. I
guess this is permission to come in and land...
The planes turn north towards Gorskaja. It was interesting situation -
Soviet lead bomber navigates the formation to their home field, which
would soon be bombed by enemy bombers flying in the same formation.
There is the field - all lights on. Large number of planes are in
landing pattern and more in ground, when our four Blenheims dropped the
bombers from 1200 meters. Best regards from the people of Helsinki, were
the bombardiers thinking. I can see the explosions in the rows of
bombers and plane shelters. A huge explosion - fuel storage tanks go up
in flames and planes are burning on the ground.
This was one of the most successful and cunning missions in the history
of our squadron, as everything worked perfectly from the beginning to
the end."

Keskinen-Stenman:
"At around 2130 they released the bombs on landing airplanes, parked
aircraft and runways, causing huge explosions and numerous fires on all
airfields. The attacks came as total surprises and only at Levashovo
airfield the AA was on alert, though did not inflict any damage.

The airfield strikes continued on April 4th, when 34 bombers attacked
Kähy airfield north-east from Leningrad, where aerial reconnaissance had
observed 57 aircraft. Bombs were dropped at 2030 causing huge
explosions. 23 large fires were counted by the retreating bombers.
Further strikes were flown during May."

Aarno Ylennysmäki was bombardier in PLeLv 48's Blenheims and flew a
mission in 3rd May against yet another Soviet airfield. He describes the
mission:
"Vector 270 degrees, five minutes to target, I heard on headphones.
The pilot turned and matched altitude to ordered 2900 meters. Then he
pushed throttles forward and accelerated to over 300 km/h. At that speed
they'd stay shorter time at the target area at AA fire.
We would be the 2nd last wave. Behind us follows only the big Stukas,
Ju-88s, with their 1000 kg bombs. Now I saw the first bomb explosions
ahead, from the first bomber wave. I took them as my target and then
continued to give more exact commands to the pilot as we approached.
Two degrees left, straight, one right, here we go, straight ahead. I
could see a plane row in the light from the other burning planes and the
row was running straight on the aiming line of the mechanical bombsight.
Then the line, aiming dot and the beginning of the plane row connected
and I released the bombs.
The plane wavered as it got lighter and the signal lights came on
showing all the bombs had been released successfully. Only now I had
time to watch out and noticed the anti-aircraft fire cloudlets around
our plane.
Aki, in his turret behind us, was watching downwards when he noticed
that a searchlight was trying to find us. He called suddenly "DIVE!".
The pilot pushed his stick almost to the instrument panel and the plane
dropped quickly almost thousand meters lower. Then he pulled back and
leveled the plane at 1500 meters. The G forces pushed us to our chairs
at almost three times our normal weight.
A moment later Aki called that a night fighter had flashed past us, just
lower. We kept sharp lookout but didn't see it anymore.
The whole regiment returned without losses and also the planes from
Onttola base had landed to Immola. The chatter of almost 30 pilots
filled the field and it was found out, that an enemy night fighter had
followed the bombers to almost Immola. Next day the Commander of the Air
Force arrived to the base and awarded number of men"

Mr. Torsten Sannamo was radio operator / gunner at Bomber Squadron 42 in
the time of these attacks. He participated in the bombing of Kähy
airfield May 3rd 1944. Mr. Sannamo describes his attack:
"Our squadron was the first to arrive to the target. Our bombing
altitude was 3100 meters. The enemy AA fire did not reach our altitude,
at least on my case, and my pilot Akke dropped the bomb load on the
barracks of the enemy base. From my turret I saw several fires coming up.
Our squadron had two groups, both with five planes. Any attacking
fighter would have been met with machine gun fire from five guns, but we
didn't see any fighters and we landed to our base Värtsilä at 2200."

Photo: Mr. Kauko Aho, Blenheim pilot (left) and mr. Torsten Sannamo,
gunner & radio operator (right), participated in the attack to Kähy, 3rd
May. The gentlemen are photographed at a meeting of Finnish Virtual
Pilots Association 2003.

http://www.virtualpilots.fi/hist/kuv...-sannamo4t.jpg

Summary

Especially the first attacks at Soviet bomber bases were surprisingly
successful. The inventive tactic of joining the formation of the enemy
night bombers was unheard of, and the Finnish bombers were not
recognized in any mission. The bombers flew in same formation, behind or
in middle of enemy bombers, even with the navigational lights on, and at
times joined their landing pattern. This allowed the bombers to aim at
will and made sure the targets are visible - and plentiful. Good
intelligence on Soviet numbers and plane positions on the fields helped
much.

Soon after the initial missions the aerial reconnaissance noticed, that
the Soviet long range bombers, ADD, are moving away from the front
fields, either further to the rear or completely disappearing. If ADD
was planning further strikes against Finnish targets they never
materialized. Perhaps this resulted, at least partly, from the
destruction of ADD bombers in their home bases and the possibility of
further attacks.

Whatever the results were in larger strategic scale, on tactical level
the Finnish bombers performed very well in the missions. The disciplined
aircrews from all four Finnish bomber squadrons managed to perform
mission, which is quite unique even in the scale of World War II, and
definitely the most daring in the history of Finnish bomber command
during the war.

Sources used:
Keskinen-Stenman: Suomen Ilmavoimien historia 4 - LeR4
Torsten A. Sannamo: Kundina hesassa flygaajana krigussa
Jukka Piipponen: Onttolan punaiset pirut
P. Hirvonen: Raskaan sarjan laivueet

Three different types of bombers participated in the missions, flown by
all 4 Finnish bomber squadrons: Blenheims, Dornier Do 17s and Junkers Ju
88s.

(plane drawings Jouni Rönkkö. Dornier photo from Yrjö Perttula's
Collection)
http://www.sci.fi/~ambush/faf/bl201.jpg
http://www.sci.fi/~ambush/faf/dn52_mv.jpg
http://www.sci.fi/~ambush/faf/jk256.jpg

So much history that one does not know...

Thanks !
Ole


"Jukka O. Kauppinen" skrev i
melding ...
Night of the bombers - the most daring special mission of Finnish
bombers in WW2


I thougth this might be of interest, as it is quite precisely 60 years
from these missions, so I hastily wrote a little article combining
material from a few sources.
- Grendel

In February 1944 the long range Soviet bomber command ADD performed
three massive air raid on the Finnish capital Helsinki. The enemy
bombers came from airfields in the vicinity of Leningrad, where the
aerial reconnaissance flights had observed and photographed dozens of
aircraft in each field. During the take offs and landings the runways
were fully lit and thus offered an excellent bombing target.

Helsinki was well protected against the enemy bombers and the defenses
had been very successful against the three major ADD bombing attacks.
ADD flew over 2100 sorties and dropped 20 000 bombs against Helsinki,
but only 338 bombs (3 %) hit the city area. This was result from the
heavy and skillful anti aircraft artillery. Helsinki was actually the
heaviest protected capital at Europe, with largest number of heavy AA
guns per protected square kilometer. With good radar targeting and
special AA tactics most of the Soviet bombers were forced to drop their
bomb loads and turn away before reaching target area.

Pictu Third ADD attack 26-27th February 44. Helsinki area is marked
on the map with black. Notice how almost all of the Soviet bomber waves
turn back before reaching the target.

http://www.ilmatorjuntaupseeriyhdist...entokartta.gif

This was not enough, though. Finland had no night fighters and no way to
intercept the Soviet bombers before they were almost at the gates. The
initiative was completely in the Russian hands. Something different was
needed to protect Helsinki and other Finnish towns against the night
bombers.

There was something Finland had, though. Bombers, four squadrons of
bombers, with experienced pilots. Revenge attacks were out of question -
Finnish bombers had been forbidden to fly over Leningrad for the whole
duration of the war on account of not attacking civilian targets and
provoking Soviets. But what about attacking Soviet bombers on their own
bases?

Finnish reconnaissance had learned what fields the ADD used, listened
the Soviet radio communications and had spied how the Soviet bombers
operated. Therefore Finnish intelligence was fully aware on the Soviet
tactics.

Keskinen-Stenman:
"On 25th February the air force CO ordered bomber squadrons PLeLv 42 and
46 to attack these bases under suitable conditions. The Russians were to
be mislead by the Finnish bombers joining the formations at night over
the Gulf of Finland, when returning, say from a mission to Helsinki.

Bomber squadron 46 tested the new tactics on the night of 29th February.
Four Dornier Do 17 bombers too off and joined a returning Russian bomber
stream over the Gulf of Finland. The bombers flew to Levashovo airfield
and invidually bombed the lit airfield at 2230. The bomb rows hit parked
aircraft and shelters. Several fires were built up and a strong
explosion shook the airfield. The flak opened fire when the Finns were
already on their way home."

Each Dornier was equipped with 20 x 50 kg bombs with 0,08 second delay.
When the bombers took off and flew towards the Gulf of Finland own AA
artillery gave them a goodbye greeting, as they didn't seem to know the
identity of the bombers flying in middle of the night.

After joining the Soviet formation it took a lot of skill and nerves to
stay in the formation, as the Soviet pilots might recognize the strange
looking bombers. After crossing the front lines the Soviet planes turned
their navigation lights on, with the Finns following the example. When
the bombers arrived to their home field the Finnish pilots kept their
place in the landing circuit, circling the Soviet field in middle of the
Soviet squadrons, letting the Soviet planes land first. When it was
their turn to land the lights of the target airfield shined brightly
ahead but instead landing the Finnish planes instead opened their bomb
bays, throttled up and filled the field with 80 shrapnel bombs.

Keskinen-Stenman:
"Encouraged by the successes, all regiment squadrons were ordered on
March 2nd to participate on large scale attack against Leningrad area
airfields.

The opportunity came on March 9th when ADD bombers returned from the
bombardment of Tallinn, Estonian's capital. Nineteen Finnish bombers
from all four squadrons joined several formations between Seiskari and
Kronstadt and followed ADD aircraft to Gorskaya, Levashovo and Kasimovo
airfields."

After the huge success of the four bombers the whole bomber regiment was
ordered to readiness. It took until March 9th until the weather and
other conditions made new attack possible. The four bomber squadrons of
Flying Regiment 4 send total of 19 bombers (or 21, depending on source).
10 Blenheims, 5 Dornier Do 17s and 6 Junkers Ju 88s took off.

Once again the bombers infiltrated the Soviet bomber formations. The
Blenheims of PLeLv 42 (bomber squadron 42) followed ADD from north of
Seiskari.

PLeLv 44 joined the Soviet bombers near Kronstadt fortress island with
five Ju-88s.

PLeLv 46 joined the Soviet bombers near Kronstadt with five Dorniers.

And PLeLv 48s Blenheims followed the Soviet bombers from Kronstadt.

Tactics were similar to the previous mission. Either the bombers joined
the Soviet formation and flew alongside them, with landing lights on and
joining the landing pattern, or the Finns followed slightly behind.
Surprise was total both ways, bombs started to rain on the Soviet
airfields when the last bombers were still landing or taxiing on the
field. Bombs and the shrapnel struck without warning, and the Soviet
losses on material and personnel were high, as nobody was sheltered.

Paavo Alava, a Blenheim pilot from Bomber Squadron 42, was on the BL-151
on the attack at March 9th. He describes the mission:
"Our five planes took off with bellies filled with shrapnel- and
firebombs. The tension rose in the cockpit when we were over the Gulf of
Finland looking for a suitable enemy formation. There they come! Several
planes flying at 500 meters east of Seiskari island, flying eastwards.
Quick turn and then as silent, as unnoticeably as we can...
I could see clearly how the neighbor's boy sat in his turret, carefree.
A small light was on, he must have already dreamed of the coffee waiting
on the ground. There they go! Li-2s and so close that I could shoot them
with my machinegun. Sure hit! But I must restrain myself - the mission
would fail if they recognize us. Another Soviet bomber formation comes
towards us from east - they're going to bomb Tallinn...
Here we were - red stars over Gulf of Finland, with blue swastikas in
middle of them.
We are over Kronstadt, when the Ruskie planes start flashing signals
with red and white lights. We see responding signals from ground. I
guess this is permission to come in and land...
The planes turn north towards Gorskaja. It was interesting situation -
Soviet lead bomber navigates the formation to their home field, which
would soon be bombed by enemy bombers flying in the same formation.
There is the field - all lights on. Large number of planes are in
landing pattern and more in ground, when our four Blenheims dropped the
bombers from 1200 meters. Best regards from the people of Helsinki, were
the bombardiers thinking. I can see the explosions in the rows of
bombers and plane shelters. A huge explosion - fuel storage tanks go up
in flames and planes are burning on the ground.
This was one of the most successful and cunning missions in the history
of our squadron, as everything worked perfectly from the beginning to
the end."

Keskinen-Stenman:
"At around 2130 they released the bombs on landing airplanes, parked
aircraft and runways, causing huge explosions and numerous fires on all
airfields. The attacks came as total surprises and only at Levashovo
airfield the AA was on alert, though did not inflict any damage.

The airfield strikes continued on April 4th, when 34 bombers attacked
Kähy airfield north-east from Leningrad, where aerial reconnaissance had
observed 57 aircraft. Bombs were dropped at 2030 causing huge
explosions. 23 large fires were counted by the retreating bombers.
Further strikes were flown during May."

Aarno Ylennysmäki was bombardier in PLeLv 48's Blenheims and flew a
mission in 3rd May against yet another Soviet airfield. He describes the
mission:
"Vector 270 degrees, five minutes to target, I heard on headphones.
The pilot turned and matched altitude to ordered 2900 meters. Then he
pushed throttles forward and accelerated to over 300 km/h. At that speed
they'd stay shorter time at the target area at AA fire.
We would be the 2nd last wave. Behind us follows only the big Stukas,
Ju-88s, with their 1000 kg bombs. Now I saw the first bomb explosions
ahead, from the first bomber wave. I took them as my target and then
continued to give more exact commands to the pilot as we approached.
Two degrees left, straight, one right, here we go, straight ahead. I
could see a plane row in the light from the other burning planes and the
row was running straight on the aiming line of the mechanical bombsight.
Then the line, aiming dot and the beginning of the plane row connected
and I released the bombs.
The plane wavered as it got lighter and the signal lights came on
showing all the bombs had been released successfully. Only now I had
time to watch out and noticed the anti-aircraft fire cloudlets around
our plane.
Aki, in his turret behind us, was watching downwards when he noticed
that a searchlight was trying to find us. He called suddenly "DIVE!".
The pilot pushed his stick almost to the instrument panel and the plane
dropped quickly almost thousand meters lower. Then he pulled back and
leveled the plane at 1500 meters. The G forces pushed us to our chairs
at almost three times our normal weight.
A moment later Aki called that a night fighter had flashed past us, just
lower. We kept sharp lookout but didn't see it anymore.
The whole regiment returned without losses and also the planes from
Onttola base had landed to Immola. The chatter of almost 30 pilots
filled the field and it was found out, that an enemy night fighter had
followed the bombers to almost Immola. Next day the Commander of the Air
Force arrived to the base and awarded number of men"

Mr. Torsten Sannamo was radio operator / gunner at Bomber Squadron 42 in
the time of these attacks. He participated in the bombing of Kähy
airfield May 3rd 1944. Mr. Sannamo describes his attack:
"Our squadron was the first to arrive to the target. Our bombing
altitude was 3100 meters. The enemy AA fire did not reach our altitude,
at least on my case, and my pilot Akke dropped the bomb load on the
barracks of the enemy base. From my turret I saw several fires coming up.
Our squadron had two groups, both with five planes. Any attacking
fighter would have been met with machine gun fire from five guns, but we
didn't see any fighters and we landed to our base Värtsilä at 2200."

Photo: Mr. Kauko Aho, Blenheim pilot (left) and mr. Torsten Sannamo,
gunner & radio operator (right), participated in the attack to Kähy, 3rd
May. The gentlemen are photographed at a meeting of Finnish Virtual
Pilots Association 2003.

http://www.virtualpilots.fi/hist/kuv...-sannamo4t.jpg

Summary

Especially the first attacks at Soviet bomber bases were surprisingly
successful. The inventive tactic of joining the formation of the enemy
night bombers was unheard of, and the Finnish bombers were not
recognized in any mission. The bombers flew in same formation, behind or
in middle of enemy bombers, even with the navigational lights on, and at
times joined their landing pattern. This allowed the bombers to aim at
will and made sure the targets are visible - and plentiful. Good
intelligence on Soviet numbers and plane positions on the fields helped
much.

Soon after the initial missions the aerial reconnaissance noticed, that
the Soviet long range bombers, ADD, are moving away from the front
fields, either further to the rear or completely disappearing. If ADD
was planning further strikes against Finnish targets they never
materialized. Perhaps this resulted, at least partly, from the
destruction of ADD bombers in their home bases and the possibility of
further attacks.

Whatever the results were in larger strategic scale, on tactical level
the Finnish bombers performed very well in the missions. The disciplined
aircrews from all four Finnish bomber squadrons managed to perform
mission, which is quite unique even in the scale of World War II, and
definitely the most daring in the history of Finnish bomber command
during the war.

Sources used:
Keskinen-Stenman: Suomen Ilmavoimien historia 4 - LeR4
Torsten A. Sannamo: Kundina hesassa flygaajana krigussa
Jukka Piipponen: Onttolan punaiset pirut
P. Hirvonen: Raskaan sarjan laivueet

Three different types of bombers participated in the missions, flown by
all 4 Finnish bomber squadrons: Blenheims, Dornier Do 17s and Junkers Ju
88s.

(plane drawings Jouni Rönkkö. Dornier photo from Yrjö Perttula's
Collection)
http://www.sci.fi/~ambush/faf/bl201.jpg
http://www.sci.fi/~ambush/faf/dn52_mv.jpg
http://www.sci.fi/~ambush/faf/jk256.jpg

Very interesting post. The Finns certainly were superb airmen! Were
there any female combat pilots in the Finnish Air Force? Cheers,

No, women were not in combat duty. They performed very remarkably in the
women's auxiliary corps function, as "lottas", members of Lotta Svärd
organization. In Air Force duty their task was primarily aerial
surveillance.

jok