Tags
Language
Tags
March 2024
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
25 26 27 28 29 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 1 2 3 4 5 6

Squadron/Signal Publications 6073: Finnish Air Force 1939-1945 (Repost)

Posted By: Oleksandr74
Squadron/Signal Publications 6073: Finnish Air Force 1939-1945 (Repost)

Kalevi Keskinen, Kari Stenman - Finnish Air Force 1939-1945
Squadron/Signal Publications | 1998 | ISBN: 0897473876 | English | 68 pages | PDF | 18.06 MB
Squadron/Signal Publications 6073

As a resull of both the First World War and the Russian revolution. Finland declared its independence from Czarist Russia on 6 December 1917. Believing a Bolshevik uprising in Finland would bring the coun­try back to the Soviet Union, the revolutionary government in Russia supported the declaration. However, Finland went through a short civil war in early 1918 with government troops, the "White Army." support­ed by a number of German units, fighting the insurgent "Red Army" supported by a number of Russian units. The fighting ended victoriously for the White Army in May of 1918. The Treaty of Dorpat, signed with the Russians in 1920. formally recognized Finland as a sovereign nation.
During the civil war. on 6 March 1918. the Swedish Count Eric von Rosen donated the first aircraft to the White Army, a French designed Morane-Saulnier Type L Parasol. The Rosen family emblem of good luck, a blue swastika, was painted on the wings. This marking became the national insignia carried on all aircraft of the Finnish Air Force. This hlue swastika had nothing to do with the later Nazi swastika, which became official in Germany only after Adolf Hitler took power in 1933. some fifteen years after the introduction of the Finnish insignia.
Throughout the civil war the Finnish Air Force had only a handful of aircraft. Using types like the Parasol, the German designed Albatros B. II and D.F.W. C.V. and French built Nieuport 10s and 23s. the Finnish Air Force flew only some 70 missions, mainly scouting and aerial pho­tography, However, the value of aircraft was quickly realized and the ground work was laid for the systematic development of an air force, albeit, restricted for many years by a lack of funds…