Further British assistance with the supply of War Materials and Armaments
Further British assistance with the supply of War Materials and Armaments
Despite the pre-war buildup and the emergency programs of 1938 and 1939, now that war with the Soviet Union was a fact, the Finnish Defence Forces were finding that munitions were being used up at a rate that surpassed the most generous estimates. And aside from munitions and explosives, the most pressing need was for aircraft, both fighters and bombers, mines, grenades, fuel and specialist military equipment that Finnish industry could not supply in sufficient quantity. Additional problems were being experienced as a result of the call-up of manpower – Finnish war-planning had made provision for retaining industrial personnel critical to the wear effort in the factories and mines, but even with women and teenagers taking over many of the jobs, there were still major manpower shortages and gaps.
The acquisition of materials was of great concern to the Finns, and when the Finnish Lieutenant-General Enckell arrived to petition the British government on this point at the start of February 1940, Gibson and the Finnish Aid Committee also made their own appeals to the War Cabinet. Lord Davies and Harold MacMillan went on a fact-finding mission to Finland soon after this, and reported back to the Committee on the “dire situation” there (the Finns deliberately understated their manufacturing capabilities in an attempt to leverage as much aid as possible from both Britain and France). Gibson used this report as leverage to write to the Prime Minister, requesting that “every effort should be made to supply the material which is now asked for”. Gibson also discussed the situation with the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress Sir Walter Citrine – who had been part of a Labour delegation recently returned from Finland – to whom he “urged that the Labour Party should do all that they could to secure for Finland the guns and planes which would make all the difference between victory and defeat”.
According to a report from Gibson, satisfactory progress had been made on fulfilling a number of the Finnish request at the end of February 1940. In addition to the ANZAC Volunteer Battalion and the raising of the Atholl Highlanders, artillery and munitions had already been sent (the 60 QF 18pdrs and 240,000 shells shipped to Finland with the ANZAC Battalion) together with a shipload of gas masks, hand grenades, both anti-tank mines and naval mines and additional artillery shells for the 18pdr Field Guns, more of which had been promised. In addition, a “substantial” number of aircraft had been, or were in the process of being, dispatched to Finland. Altogether, 22 Blenheim Bombers, 12 Hurricane Fighters, 28 Gloster Gauntlets, 20 Gloster Gladiators, 33 Blackburn Roc “fighters”, 17 Lysander observation aircraft and 80 Hawker Henley’s (of the 200 the RAF had in service) had already been sent, or were in the process of being sent, to Finland. In addition, the RNZAF had dispatched a squadron of 30 Vickers Wellington bombers together with all necessary personnel and the RAF was putting together a volunteer Squadron of 24 Hurricane Fighters which would arrive in Finland in March.
In January 1940 the British would dispatch a sizable Volunteer Ambulance Unit, a Volunteer Fire-Fighting unit would be sent to Helsinki, some 6,600 industrial personnel would be recruited from among the refugees in Britain to be sent to Finland to work in Finnish industry. Britian would be instrumental in arranging for some 2,000 Canadian loggers to be recruited and shipped to Finland to help keep the Finnish lumber industry in business (numbers of Loggers from the USA would travel to Canada to enroll in this scheme also). New Zealand and Australia would send eleven sizable cargo ships loaded to capacity with tinned meat, frozen mutton and grain (these ships in the end would form part of the Helsinki Convoy – incidentally joined by 2 shiploads of tinned beef donated from Argentina and Uruguay together with a shipload of coffee similarly donated from Brazil) which were donated to Finland by their respective governments, people, or a combination of both. Aid was sent by other smaller countries as well – on 14 March 1940 a shipment of aid sent by Portugal and carried on the SS Greta included 19,902 crates of sardines, 956 crates of onions, 157 crates of canned fish, 27 crates of pineapples, a crate of rubber hot water bottles, a crate of wool sweaters and strangely enough a crate of skis. Also shipped would be numbers of the “Boys” Anti Tank Rifle, 20 million rounds of 7.62-mm rifle ammution and 10 million 9-mm rounds for pistols and submachineguns. After the fall of France, large volumes of rifle, 9mm and machinegun ammunition together with artillery shells would start arriving from the USA.
A List of Material sent in one shipment from Britain (23 January 1940) includes a range of items, eg. Light Machine Guns (Lewis), 3 inch Mortars, Anti-Tank Rifles, Very Pistols, Field Telephones, Bell Tents, Small Arms Ammunitions, Mortar Rounds, Anti-Aircraft Ammunition, Field Stoves, Anti-Gas Capes, Saddles and Horse Blankets, etc. A request for a transit license made to Sweden from the Finnish embassy in Stockholm lists 600 mines with an ETA of January 2 1940 to Bergen, Norway, ransiting Charlottenberg - Haparanda (in the same shipment, 12 x 114mm Howitzers are also listed). One shipment included a railroad wagon dispatched from Bergen express (as part of a passenger train) directly to Col.Reginald Sutton-Pratt, British Military Attache in Stockholm (this may have been the Boys guns, which had been urgently requested). (Col. Sutton-Pratt was appointed Military Attache in Stockholm on 2nd January 1939, when he was promoted from Major to Temp. Lt.Col “whilst so employed”.)
Photo sourced from: http://www.generals.dk/content/portrait ... ginald.jpg
Brigadier Reginald Sutton-Pratt (1898-1962, Royal Signals, retired as Brigadier in 1947). In 1938, he was with the British Legation in Czechoslovakia, from 1939-1947 he was British Military Attache to Sweden (from 1939-1940, he was also British Military Attache to Denmark and Norway). Over the early part of the Winter War, he was the key person in arranging transit of British military supplies through Sweden and Norway.
Between January and May 1940, Finland also received a total of 60,000 British Anti-Tank mines called initially "Hyökkäysvaunumiina m/40 (engl.)" and later "Panssarimiina m/40 (engl.)" of which 5, 000 had already arrived in January 1940. (These were the mines accompanied by Malcolm Munthe, mentioned earlier in the writeup on the Atholl Highlanders.
The following two lists are from a list dated 3 January 3 1940 and are part of a document sent to Sahlin (Swedish Minister in Helsinki) from Bagge (Foreign office)
Sourced from: download/file.php?id=167187
List of military equipment being sent to Finland from Britain through Sweden, January 1940. Note Demolition gear, Mines and four boxes containing tanks – possibly some of the Vickers 6-ton tanks that were sent to Finland at the last moment!
Sourced from: download/file.php?id=167189
Another list. “Kolly” = Crate, so as you can see there where a fair number of crates of grenades and mines.
Sourced from: download/file.php?id=167188
The 100 Brandt mortars, 5,000 LMG's and 10M cartridges for them came from France.
British Ordnance QF 18 Pounder ("84 K/18" in Finnish service)
As has been mentioned in relationship to the ANZAC Battalion, the New Zealand and Australian governments had paid for 60 British 18 pdr Field Gun’s, the Mk II along with 240,000 rounds of ammunition for the guns, these had been donated to Finland and were transported to Lyngenfjiord on the MS Batory together with the ANZAC Battalion. The guns were the model 1918 with pneumatic tires and had been all equipped for motorised towing (which is how they were towed in Finland). With a range of 6.5-10.7 kms and capable of firing ten to twelve 8.16-8.40 kg HE rounds per minute, they were an effective artillery piece. Some 216 18pdrs had been sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force and of the 126 that remained in the UK, 60 were sent to Finland. They were designated the "84 K/18" in Finnish service and 30 were assigned to Field Artillery Regiment 8, 17th Division. The remaining 30 were assigned to a Field Artillery Regiment of the “International Volunteer Division”, of which the ANZAC Battalion was a component unit.
The British Ordnance QF 18 Pounder: This gun was the standard British Army field gun of the World War I era and formed the backbone of the Royal Field Artillery during the war. It was produced in large numbers and calibre (84 mm) and hence shell weight was greater than those of the equivalent field guns in French (75 mm) and German (77 mm) service. It was generally horse drawn until mechanisation in the 1930s. The first versions were introduced in 1904 and later versions remained in service with British forces until early 1942. This is the updated version with pneumatic tires and equipped for motorised towing as supplied to Finland.
OTL Note: The Finns received 30 of these from Britain. They arrived in March 1940, too late to be of use in the Winter War, but they did see use in the Continuation War. The 30 guns received were assigned to Field Artillery Regiment 8, 17th Division.
The Friends Volunteer Ambulance Unit in Finland
Please note that the information below is by and large sourced from http://www.ourstory.info/library/4-ww2/ ... 01.html#1b – with some modifications as required for this ATL.
The Friends Volunteer Ambulance Unit was a British Quaker Volunteer unit that was dispatched to Finland shortly after the Winter War broke out. The unit had its antecedents in WW1, first as the Anglo-Belgian Ambulance Unit and later as the Friends Ambulance Unit. Trained at Jordans, quiet Buckinghamshire village, it worked on ambulance convoys and ambulance trains with the French and British armies. It numbered over a thousand men in France and Belgium. In 1919 it had broken up but had reemerged between the Munich crisis and September 1939 as the clouds were gathering over Europe. On 22nd October 1938, soon after Munich, members of the old Unit had held their reunion at Friends House and their discussions had included the possibilities of war and their responsibility, should it come, to those of the new generation who would not take up arms. The result was that small committee was set up which would become in due course the nucleus of the Council of the new Unit. In May 1939 the Military Training Act came into force in the UK, providing for compulsory service for young men between the ages of twenty and twenty-one. The administration of the Act was in the hands of the Ministry of Labour--a significant departure from the First World War, when the whole field of military service was handled by the War Office. The Act provided for the recognition of conscientious objection, and the Ministry was given power to set up Local and Appellate Tribunals.
Conscription meant that from the Society of Friends (Quakers) and others of like mind would be conscientious objectors. In July 1939, Paul S. Cadbury, a member of the old WW1 Ambulance Unit and Chairman of the new committee, wrote his first letter to the Ministry of Labour exploring alternatives for a voluntary scheme or schemes." On 28th July he and John W. Harvey, also a member of the committee and Chairman of the already existing International Voluntary Service for Peace, saw Mr. G. H. (later Sir Godfrey) Ince. In the Quaker weekly journal, The Friend, for 1st September 1939, appeared a letter signed by Paul Cadbury and John Harvey. It was a long letter, putting forward details of procedure. It read in part: “We are concerned that young Friends and others who wish to undertake civilian service at the present time shall be able to do so. Meeting for Sufferings has decided that the Society as such shall not organize a scheme for this purpose. It is probably right that no action should be taken by the Society's Executive Committee which might appear to identify it with any special form of service. There are, however, an unknown number of our members of military age who wish to give positive proof that, although they register as conscientious objectors, they have no wish to be exempt from a period of constructive labour as a result of their convictions. If, however, there is a real demand, we believe that it may be right for a group of individuals acting on their own responsibility to start a scheme of work which would be approved by the Minister of Labour as meeting the requirements of this Sub-Section of the Act . . . . If war comes such a scheme could be rapidly developed to train men for relief and ambulance work."
Days later, Britain was at war. The following week 300 applications had been received to join a Friends Ambulance Unit. It was agreed that membership of the First Camp (as the training course was named) should be confined, with few exceptions, to members and attenders of the Society or those who had been at Friends' schools. Preference would be given to men between twenty and thirty years of age. By 12th September six pioneers had arrived at Manor Farm (which had been made available to the Unit) to convert farm buildings into a camp. On Wednesday, 27th September, fifty-eight men began their training. The name adopted was the old name from WW1, the Friends Ambulance Unit. In the early days of the war some tribunals showed a tendency to direct men into the F.A.U. and to use it as a lever when the cases of some conscientious objectors presented difficulties. As soon as it was obvious that at least one tribunal was specifying the Unit as the only alternative service which a conscientious objector might undertake, the Unit itself represented to the authorities that it could not accept members merely because a tribunal gave an applicant no further alternative. The Ministry of Labour gave an assurance that their representative at each tribunal would in future object to any such close definition.
For the Unit would not accept men under direction. It insisted on retaining its freedom to accept or reject applicants, after interview, according to their convictions and suitability for membership. In fact, of the 65,000 conscientious objectors of the war, 5,000 enquired about membership at some time or other, and 1,300 actually joined. The men who joined the Unit were not prepared to refuse to do the work which they felt it right for them to do; but they were anxious that their work should not be used to prejudice their fellow pacifists who felt that they were called to a different type of work and witness. Manor Farm became the training location of the Unit, with some twenty successive training camps being run. There were converted cow-sheds and stables for bunkhouses, and a large barn for lectures ; there were fields and woods, a stream and lake, ideally placed by nature for awkward manoeuvres with stretchers and mock casualties. The First Camp set the pattern.
Photo sourced from: http://www.ourstory.info/library/4-ww2/ ... /fau03.jpg
“Training in First Aid”
There was a Commandant, Richard Early from Witney, and a Quartermaster, Peter Hume from York. Later camps introduced a Training Officer. There were six sections, each with its appointed leader and its own stable or cowhouse. Members were unpaid, and so they would remain throughout their Unit service, receiving from the Unit only the essentials of life. From a special Mutual Assistance Fund, organized at the First Camp among the members themselves, those who required it received a small allowance of pocket money. There were lectures in first-aid from a Dr. Rutter, who served the Unit to the end and showed more briskness in retirement than most men do in their working lives, while Sister Gibbs from Bournville, combining charm and unembarrassed firmness, taught many an awkward youth the intricacies of envelope corners on the beds, of Nelson inhalers and roller bandages. There were lectures from members of the old Unit; there were route marches and P.T. and runs and manoeuvres and tea with local Friends on Sunday. In the evenings, silent devotionals after the manner of the Friends helped to bring spiritual cohesion.
Photo sourced from: http://www.ourstory.info/library/4-ww2/ ... /fau02.jpg
Dr Rutter at Manor Farm
It was assumed that by the time the camp was over work abroad would be there. But work abroad was elusive. There were discussions with the War Office, with the joint War Organization of the Red Cross and St. John; there were plans and ideas but no definite task. There were, of course, difficulties. Sixty pacifists in camp together would discuss everything in heaven and earth. There were conflicting ideas on discipline, on how military the Unit should be in its organization. These were questions which dogged the Unit throughout its existence but they rarely interfered with the work that had to be done. Training came to an end and there was no sign of work in France due to the nature of the “Phoney war”. On 13th November the personnel from the First Camp moved to London. On the 15th the Second Camp moved in. In London, the Unit found a home in the evacuated Ophthalmic Wards of the London Hospital. The members divided into six sections, working in six hospitals---the London Hospital and the L.C.C. hospitals of Bethnal Green, Mile End, Hackney, St. Leonard's and St. Peter's. "We had no beds, only mattresses on the floor, and sixty of us slept in the two Ophthalmic Wards in what we thought then was absolute luxury for wartime. Our hospital work developed very gradually. At first the time on duty dragged out slowly, and we did our best tidying beds, shifting screens, and endeavouring to explain to uncomprehending nurses just who we were. Gradually, however, we wormed our way into hospital life.
First one hospital, then another, began to allow us into the operating theatre to watch operations. We were still anxious to make sure that we could stand the sight of bad wounds, quite apart from the added interest of seeing a case go through the hospital from the beginning. The training was excellent, and all of us got plenty of practice in all types of nursing. In the meantime we were looking for other spheres of service which we could undertake when off hospital duty. East End children were supposed to have been evacuated, and the schools were closed. Some of our professional teachers therefore were able to work in keeping these youngsters off the streets. Others helped in boys' clubs, teaching life-saving, plaster modelling, or perhaps even their newly-acquired knowledge of first aid. Gradually, as the need became very apparent, a few were taken off hospital work and put on full time social work."
Whitechapel brought useful work and excellent training, but it was a disappointment too. Always round the corner was that work overseas, much talked of but never to be found. Meanwhile applications for membership were pouring in. No one knew who first suggested it, but after being discussed at supper one evening in Whitechapel the suggestion became assumption. The Unit was going to Finland. There were speeches about it at the Second Camp. It filled the minutes of the Council. On 1st December 1939 hostilities had broken out between Russia and Finland. Much later in the war, when office arrangements, contacts with officials, and all the preparations for an expedition overseas became matters of routine, the Unit found it hard to realize what obstacles had to be surmounted in those days when a group of young conscientious objectors wanted to go and help in someone else's war. Money had to be raised, ambulances bought, equipment provided and all in a race against time.
The first step was to visit the Georgian mansions of Grosvenor Crescent and talk with that august body, The Joint War Organization of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. The Joint War Organization had been approached before the First Camp began, for in the war of 1914-1918 the Unit was affiliated to it, the men wore its uniform and carried its Geneva Convention cards and brassards. Otherwise as civilians they could not enter fighting zones for ambulance work. Over the next few days interviews abounded in Birmingham and London. At last a further interview with Sir John Kennedy, Vice-Chairman of the Joint War Organization, and Madame Peggy de Gripenberg, wife of the Finnish Minister in London and herself in charge of the Finnish Red Cross in London, produced a cable for the Finnish Red Cross: "WOULD YOU ACCEPT VOLUNTARY MALE QUAKER AMBULANCE UNIT CONSISTING FIFTY TRAINED PERSONNEL TWENTY AMBULANCES ONE OR TWO DOCTORS STOP UNIT WOULD REQUIRE NO PAYMENT STOP WOULD YOU PROVIDE FOOD LIVING QUARTERS AND PETROL STOP WOULD GO OUT UNDER BRITISH RED CROSS BUT WOULD WORK WITH FINNISH RED CROSS CABLE REPLY IMMEDIATELY."
More meetings followed. The Foreign Office, the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Economic Warfare, all had a finger in the pie. The Joint War Organization had been helpful and encouraging and had approved members of the Unit wearing the Red Cross uniform and working under their general sponsorship, but on their own responsibility. They could give no financial support since Britain was not itself directly involved in the Russo-Finnish War. It was also mentioned that as no war had officially been declared, it was doubtful how much allegiance to the Geneva Convention could be expected from the combatants. A letter in The Times appealed for money; through it and many other ways £10,000 of an estimated cost of £14,000 had soon been. Meanwhile Lord Phillimore was organizing a general Finland Fund, promised funding and the separate Unit appeal was withdrawn.
December 1939 passed and there was no reply to the telegram sent to Finland. The men became impatient. How could the Finns be so long in accepting the proffered help? At long last, early in January 1940 came a reply by cable: "WE REGRET NOT FOR SERVICE WITH THE ARMY BUT THE GOVERNMENT MEDICAL BOARD AND OUR RED CROSS PLEASED RECEIVE THEM FOR HELPING THE CIVILIAN POPULATION."
Plans had gone ahead in the meantine; officers had been appointed – with Richard Early as Commandant; twenty Ford ambulances, a kitchen-car and a repairs car ordered; the Swedish railways and a steamship company had promised to take the equipment free of charge and personnel at half cost. On 6th January 1940 Alan Dickinson, the Adjutant, and Michael Mounsey left by air for Finland, to make advance arrangements. Within three days of leaving England Alan Dickinson and Michael Mounsey were in Vaasa on the west coast of Finland, now the headquarters of the Finnish Red Cross. They made their first acquaintance with modern war: crowds moved in and out of the city, Russian planes roared overhead. They saw the Finnish Red Cross Chairman, Baron Wrede. Contrary to the cable which had been sent to London, they were now told that work under army direction at the front was assured. With preparations made, they returned to Oslo to await the arrival of the main party. In Oslo they first met Harold Delphin, an old friend of Alan's; he appears and reappears throughout the party's records, giving the help which experience and knowledge can give to the strange and ignorant. He helped them in the buying of skis and ski boots, windproof jackets and all that was needed to combat the northern cold. From Oslo they moved to Bergen and there waited.
Meanwhile back in the UK, the main body of the Unit had assembled, with a further medical and fitness training program being undertaken. On the 18th of January ten white ambulances, a repairs lorry, stores lorry and two staff cars with twenty-seven men, the first half of the Unit, drove north from London. In a violent snowstorm on the Great North Road they drove to York and the next day reached Newcastle. Leaving their vehicles to be shipped later, they boarded the S.S. Iris. On 22nd January they landed in Bergen and met Dickinson and Mounsey. The ambulances arrived three weeks later and while in Oslo they bought equipment; they learnt to ski; they indulged in Finnish saunas, a kind of steambath produced by pitching buckets of water on enclosed stoves with proceedings ending with a roll in the snow. An additional refinement was the whipping up of the circulation by self-inflicted chastisement with bundles of green twigs. A lorry was borrowed for driving practice for the less experienced drivers.
Photo sourced from: http://www.ourstory.info/library/4-ww2/ ... /fau04.jpg
Ready for Departure: The Finland Party
On 8th February two ships arrived in Bergen with four of the vehicles; A third transport with the rest was expected at Oslo in two days but became stuck in the ice off Kristiansand. The party divided; Richard Early with the Doctor, John Gillespie, and six others, moved off with two ambulances and the stores lorry. They reached Stockholm on the 14th of February. Their route lay north along the east coast of Sweden for 630 miles to Haparanda, the last point in the country at the northern end of the Gulf of Bothnia. The journey took four days on glassy roads, on which, although the wheels wore chains, skids were frequent and inevitable, particularly as the ambulances, of a normal English type, were too light on the road for such conditions. Here they were joined by Nils Hahl, their interpreter and liaison officer. He was to prove himself of great value to the Unit, for he spoke Finnish, Swedish, English and French, and stayed with them to the end. A soldier and a Finn, he became a close friend; he developed a warm sympathy with pacifists and more than most could see their point of view.
Photo sourced from: http://yle.fi/teema/sininenlaulu/kuvat/ ... v_2334.jpg
Nils-Gustav Hahl: Helsinki, August 7, 1904 - September 3, 1941 Bromarv) was a Finnish-Swedish art historian and critic. Hahl's parents were Professor Carl Hahl and Karin Maria Emilia Åkerman. He graduated from the Helsinki Swedish School in 1922 and graduated with Master of Arts degree from the University of Helsinki in 1929, majoring in art history. Hahl wrote articles and reviews in Finnish and Swedish newspapers from 1928. Hahl was involved in the Finnish-Swedish cultural group who were interested in modernism, art, architecture and literature. He was involved in organizing international art exhibitions in Finland, as well as presentations of Finnish art abroad, including at the Brussels World's Fair of 1935 and in Stockholm in 1936.
In 1935, Hahl co-founded the famous design company Artek together with architect Alvar Aalto, his wife Aino Aalto, and visual arts promoter Maire Gullichsen. The founders chose a non-Finnish name, the neologism Artek was meant to manifest the desire to combine art and technology. This echoed the main idea of the International Style movement, especially the Bauhaus school of design, to emphasize technical expertise in production and quality of materials, instead of historically-based, eclectic or frivolous ornamentation. As Artek's first general manager, Hahl aimed to follow the example of the Swedes and develop sensible and reasonably-priced furnishings for a broad spectrum of the public. However, as a result of pressure from the Aaltos the firm's range became exclusive in relation to the average Finnish standard of living and concentrated on furniture and glassware designed by the couple; this resulted in quarrels with the idealistic Hahl.
When the Winter War broke out, Hahl volunteered as a Medical Orderly and was appointed volunteer liaison with the British Quaker Ambulance Unit. He would later die in action, his death bringing the dispute with the Aalto’s to a dramatic end. Hahl's conduct underlined the relative indifference of the Aaltos towards social ideals, especially when his quiet heroism was set alongside Aalto's almost hysterical concern for his own safety and his shirking of wartime military assignments.
At Haparanda the Ambulance Unit learnt where their work was to be. The map of Finland shows north-east of Lake Ladoga a tissue of straggling lakes, indicated in an atlas by bright blue patches which suggest sunlit lagoons rather than sheets of solid ice swept by winter blizzards. They were to cross this region and work at the front near Lake Ladoga. Anxious to begin their task, they crossed the long bridge from Haparanda to Tornio, and found themselves in Finland. At Tornio they loaded their vehicles on to the train and had some sleep ; two stayed up all night to start the engines at regular intervals to stop them freezing. Next day they set off themselves by train in a passenger coach of great antiquity heated by a wooden stove, the replenishment of which was happily entrusted to the passengers. They passed through the important junction of Iisalmi to Kuopio, where they unloaded the cars and drove them south. As they came nearer to the front, lights could not be used. Snowdrifts concealed the ditches, which were dug deep to carry away the melting snows when the thaw came but were now completely hidden, so that cars would slither gently into them, coming to rest at an angle of 45°. They soon became adept at the use of a block and tackle to retrieve the vehicles from their resting places.
At Joroinen they found the road impassable; so the trucks and cars were loaded on to a train again, and they reached Savonlinna, where they were billeted in a lake steamer frozen into the ice on Lake Hanki. They met Major Wegelius, the doctor in charge of foreign ambulance units from Sweden, and received instructions; they were to go a hundred miles farther on to Sortavala on Lake Ladoga. They passed on and reached the lake. John Gillespie, the doctor, stayed at Sortavala to work in the hospital, while the rest went on to the north-east and eventually reached their destination, Leppasyrja. They reported to Divisional Headquarters. The journey from Britain to their destination in Finland had taken them five weeks.
Meanwhile, the Main Party, under the Transport Officer, Oswald Dick, had been left at Oslo, waiting for the S.S. Ek which had been frozen into the ice off Kristiansand. The boat could not reach Oslo, but at last put in at Kristiansand, and the ambulances arrived by train. On the 15th of February this party drove off: sixteen men with eight ambulances, repairs lorry and a staff car, with Harold Delphin as interpreter. With only one ditching they reached Stockholm and, on the 18th, followed the previous party's route to Haparanda. In temperatures of -35° centigrade, engines had to be kept running all night. They talked on the telephone with Richard Early and cabled England for two more men who were to be left behind as liaison officers, since it was thought that cable communication from the Ladoga front to England would be impossible. In fact this proved untrue, and when the two arrived they were absorbed into the main party. Six days later, after a wait at Luleå for overhauls, they crossed the frontier at Tornio, and there entrained. They reached Savonlinna by a different route. Two days later the train bringing their ambulances arrived, and they found their first job in unloading an ambulance train newly arrived from the front. Despite the Finnish Air Force’s dominance of the air war, they came in for a heavy air raid, with further raids along the way, but on 2nd March 1940 they joined up with the advance party at Leppasyrja. The Finnish Major Jokela arrived to inspect them and consult about their work.
The plan was that the party should be divided into three groups for work on the Ladoga front. Based at headquarters was Richard Early with fourteen others. Ralph Smith took three men and an English speaking Swedish-Finn to Soanlahti. Alan Dickinson, with five and Nils Hahl, moved off to a base some distance north. For the first group at headquarters a steady job developed. They set to work transporting wounded, visiting P.S.P.s and J.S.P.s, the Finnish equivalent of Casualty Clearing Stations and Regimental Aid Posts. They drove along narrow roads with deep ditches, generally in the dead of night. They met convoys of sledges carrying dead. They drove up to the J.S.P.s, returned their patients to the P.S.P.s and thence to base hospitals. At night headlamps had to be dimmed or extinguished altogether; by day they were on a constant look out for Soviet aircraft. Two members had an uncomfortable experience early on. The Finnish tents were like bell tents but had a wood-burning stove in the middle, with the iron chimney serving as a tent-pole. "For once the Finns had left the fire smoking when dawn broke. The tent, well camouflaged and hidden by the wood itself, was noticed by a Russian aeroplane on account of the smoke, and the inmates were woken by machine-gun bullets passing through the upper part of the tent and hitting the chimney." Towards the end of their time the tempo of the work increased. All ambulances were out at once all night. Bombs dropped so near their headquarters that they began to wonder if the Russians had located it.
The second party found less work to do. There were few wounded to be transported where they were. Their records speak mostly of their relations with the Finns, especially with the doctor, Captain Flo, a melancholy gentleman whose pastime was to have them read portions of the New Testament to him. “We have had one or two snowstorms recently, but not heavy ones. The weather is not very cold, but I fancy we are getting used to it, as it is about -15° Centigrade most of the time. But it does not seem unpleasantly cold. A fine day or a bright night is greeted with apprehension and a cloudy day or night is welcomed, especially if it is snowing, as it means less chance of air activity." One of their constant difficulties was to find the well-camouflaged P.S.P.s. On one occasion two ambulances missed one by mistake and were turned back by horrified sentries three hundred yards from the Russian lines. It was the third section that had the busiest time. Their two ambulances, in the next few days, travelled 1,000 miles, which meant hard work and long hours under those conditions. Their driving too was done mostly at night for safety. Overhauling had to be done by day, so that sleep was a problem.
Photo sourced from: http://www.ourstory.info/library/4-ww2/ ... /fau06.jpg
"Pit and Graham collected blankets from the ambulance and, fortified by tea flavoured by paraffin and miscellaneous throat pastilles" (the Finns had a habit of handing throat pastilles round like cigarettes) "followed a Finn down the path into a long low wooden building half sunk in snow. They were shown a shelf on which to sleep. About 8.30 a.m. a Finn prodded Pit's leg and indicated that coffee was served on a log table beneath them. After drinking more than was good for them, the problem arose, what was there to do cooped up in a shack with a lot of lorry drivers who spoke no English; luckily Graham had brought a pack of greasy cards along with him, so they played German whist until the magic word “Soppa” told them that food was ready. Soviet aircraft came roaring overhead every, few minutes, but thinking themselves secure in their hut, they went on discussing personalities in the Unit, until even that topic was worn out."
Returning now to England, Brandon Cadbury and twenty-four members of the Unit had stayed behind at Buckhurst Hill to await the second group of ambulances. They were there until 19th February. At last they set off: they too had ten ambulances, a kitchen-car and a Ford Utility. In the north there were further delays. Then they embarked at Newcastle on 6th March 1940 in company with survivors from a Norwegian ship and some Belgian volunteers for Finland. They arrived at Oslo on the 12th and in two days they reached the Swedish capital. Here the Finnish Red Cross urged them on and they followed the same route north. When they reached Umeå, more than halfway up the east coast of Sweden to Haparanda, they were disappointed to find that the ice in the Gulf of Bothnia made it impossible to drive straight across to Vaasa on the ice-road. There had been a blizzard raging for four days, and the road across the ice was a foot deep in water and three lorries were already stranded in the middle. So they made for the north, and, on the evening of the 25th, met Oswald Dick and Nils Hahl in Tornio. They drove south and reached Kuopio. Here they waited for consultation with Richard Early, who had meanwhile gone to Helsinki to confirm that work with the Army was the most useful function that the Unit could perform.
The Unit now joined the Main Party. Their quarters consisted of what had been a shooting lodge belonging to the Civil Guard. Two large Swedish Army tents, bought in Stockholm but not previously used, were also pitched, and a thick layer of spruce tops laid to serve as a communal mattress in each tent. Furniture was made---folding chairs and tables which could be packed away in the ambulances and taken elsewhere. On 3rd April the whole Unit transferred bodily to the new quarters, except for a group of seven which remained at Tohmajärvi for another fortnight. The party settled down once more to the routine of Unit life. They soon fell into the routine of travelling to the frontline P.S.P.s and J.S.P.s to evacuate soldiers, although there was one awkward moment when they were pressed to use their ambulances for the transport of uninjured soldiers, a use of the ambulances which the Geneva Convention would not allow. But there were so many civilians and soldiers convalescent after hospital to be moved that the problem solved itself. Over the next twelve days a Unit transport service worked to a rota with a round trip of twenty hours between the front and the Field Hospital they were based at. 35,000 miles were covered, and 2,500 casualties were moved. The figures in terms of British mileage, on tarmacadam roads, are not impressive, but the cars were constantly on the roads - roads which had been like ice-rinks, but now resembled mud baths. The mechanics worked night and day; there was something wrong with the brakes, or the plugs, or the lights, or the clutch, every time a truck came in. The normal apparatus of Unit life began to appear. Orderly and leave rotas were drawn up. There was a nightly devotional, with a longer meeting for worship every Sunday.
Food became more satisfactory. The Unit had its own cooks, who stayed up half the night to provide food and hot drinks for the returning drivers. There were so many varieties of hard and soft bread that one member started a bread museum which he intended to bring back with him. But it became difficult to prevent members eating the museum if it was more readily accessible than the general supply. Members made progress with Finnish; their inability to speak the language had been a severe handicap, but earlier it had been impossible through lack of time. And then there was the ramp. The ramp necessitated much tree-felling and sweated labour. No doubt the ramp still stands, an object of astonishment and reverence to the Finns who wonder of giants could have raised so vast a pile. It was intended to make it easy to work beneath the cars. Unfortunately, the gradient was too steep, so that the cars could not mount the length of it. Moreover, it was unhappily made to the measurements of Paul Roake and not of Sam Evans, so that even if one of the vehicles had succeeded in mounting it, any mechanic except Paul himself would have had to stand on a chair to reach it. At the same time vast quantities of snow had to be cleared away to make a park for twenty-six cars.
“Vast quantities of snow had to be cleared away.”
And so it went on. There was amazing stillness in the heart of the Arctic forests as their ambulances plied to and fro. They learnt the bumps on the road by heart and tried not to throw the patients off their stretchers, a difficult job on a road with ruts which fitted the gauge of the Finnish vehicles but not the British. The frontline rapidly moved deeper and deeper into the Soviet Union and the units moved forwards with the front, until eventually they found themselves near the Syvari River. The sound of Soviet and Finnish artillery was a constant background noise and when it grew to a crescendo, there was more work, more casualties to be evacuated and now these were not just Finnish. They found themselves carrying casualties from some of the foreign volunteer units that were fighting now with the Finnish Army. The spring thaw made conditions worse than in winter. Deep mud made movement slow. Corduroy roads that Finnish Engineering units seemed to construct in mere days made it even more difficult not to throw the patients off their stretchers. The constant wear on the vehicles lead to more and more breakdowns. Conditions were easier in Summer, although the fighting itself intensified as the battles along the frontline raged.
For the Ambulance Unit, this was the job they had volunteered for and all the work justified the laborious and hectic preparations and the long journey to this northern front. In early September 1940 came the news of the Ilmavoimat’s raid on Baku, the consequences of which were not known until much later, and then only days later came the momentous bombing raid on Moscow and all Finland held their breath as the news of Stalin’s death, along with much of the Soviet leadership. Then, on the last day of September, came the announcement of the Peace Treaty and the end of the war. "At breakfast time we heard that there was great likelihood of peace, but the only foundation seemed to be that someone couldn't hear the guns, which might have been because the wind had changed. Then our interpreter came in and said, “It is peace,” but added, “It is nothing to rejoice about.” We found out that many of the Finns we served alongside were upset that much of the areas they had captured from the Russians, that they considered part of Finland, were being given back to the USSR as part of the Peace. However, the Karelians that lived there were going to be permitted to move to Finland if that was what they wanted. And many of them did so."
In the areas that were to be returned to the USSR, soon the contents of the houses were to be seen piled up at the sides of the road waiting to be removed to the new and slightly larger Finland. Houses were set on fire; cattle were slaughtered to be taken away. There followed scenes such as later became all too familiar to the Unit on many roads in Europe; Karelians leaving their homes, picking up what belongings they could take with them, making for the unknown refuge of Finland. "Yesterday we left the area of Karelia being returned to the USSR, twelve hours before the Russians reached the small village at which we had been staying. The roads are naturally in a bad state, owing to the vast amount of material passing over them. One journey we made was 35 miles in length and took us seven and a half hours to cover. All the time we were passing the withdrawing Finnish Army - hundreds and hundreds of horse-drawn wagons, large heavy lorries full of equipment or towing large guns, cavalry on horses, troops marching along the side of the road on foot. Our ambulances made the journey slowly. I was very struck with the efficiency of the Finns during the last few days. Convoy upon convoy of trucks, each convoy consisting of about seventy trucks, have been making journeys into Finland, taking with them every movable household article and piece of furniture and then returning for more. The roads are lined with these household goods wherever a house is in sight. Everything possible is being taken and nothing left to the Russians. None of the Karelians in this formerly Soviet area are staying in their homes. Apart from ourselves and twenty other Finnish ambulance men, the countryside is deserted."
For five weeks the Unit, now with its headquarters back at Joensuu and still responsible to the Finnish Army, remained to help with the transport of Karelian civilians towards the safety of Finland as well as carrying wounded soldiers evacuated from the front. Through November and December they worked on, now assisting with the movement of trainload after trainload of Karelian and Ingrian deportees who, as part of the Peace Treaty, had been freed from the Soviet Prison Camps in Central Asia and Siberia and were carried by train to the Finnish border, where they were summarily unloaded and forced across the border. None of them had any idea of what was happening or where they were being sent. Deported from Ingria and Karelia in the purges of the late 1930’s which decimated much of the original Finnish population of Ingria and Karelia, they had been rounded up and packed into the trains again, rather better fed this time than the last but still with no idea what was happening or where they were being sent. The reactions as many of them realized they were being sent to Finland were mixed, some were overjoyed, some were angry, some were fearful (particularly those who were from Finland originally and who had fled to the USSR after the Finnish Civil War) and some displayed no emotions at all. In all, some 150,000 Karelians and Ingrians were sent to Finland in this way, in addition to the many thousands of Karelians from the areas captured by the Finns who had chosen to move to Finland when the war came to an end. The Unit assisted with the movement of thousands of these refugees over the two months they spent on this task. Their resettlement and absorbtion into Finnish Society was a major post-war task in Finland, and one that we will look at in detail in a subsequent post.
By January 1941, it was decided that the Unit was no longer required in Finland and the question then became how best to return to Britain. With regular convoys now being run from Petsamo in the north of Finland as well as from Lyngenfjiord in the Finnish-occupied northern Norway, the best route seemed to be from one of these ports to the USA and from the USA to Britain. Travel was arranged and the vehicles and such equipment as was still in working order was presented to the Finnish Red Cross. However, in the meantime the British Red Cross Commissioner in Cairo had requested additional personnel and a considerable number of the Unit volunteered for this posting. As a result, the Unit split in two, with some members travelling by ship to the USA and thence to Britain, while the remainder, travelled to Leningrad from where they went by train to Moscow and thence by train to Odessa, by boat to Istanbul, on the Taurus Express to Aleppo, thence to Tripoli, Beirut and Haifa and finally to Cairo, where they arrived on the 21st of March 1941.
Something was achieved. Lives were saved and people helped; and that was after all what they had gone for. No doubt the Unit was not as well trained as later it became. Many who were expected to drive large vehicles under Arctic conditions had previously driven nothing larger than the family four-seater. They took their job seriously, but always, at least in retrospect, there was about Finland a gaiety and light-heartedness not always present later when the war became a grim struggle and teeth were set. It brought them into contact with men of other nations and other ways of thought. They experienced the friendliness and comradeship which overcame the barriers of language and different nationalities. They came across some of the difficulties, too, which were inevitable whenever pacifists worked alongside the fighting forces, but were rarely unsurmountable if bigotry and arrogance were not allowed to get the better of human understanding.
The Friends Ambulance Unit in WW2 was in many ways different to its WW1 predeccessor. No doubt those who came together at Manor Farm in 1939 and early 1940 thought that they would largely repeat the pattern of the previous war, but that was not to be. Finland fired the Unit's imagination at the time and gave it confidence. For the Unit in general it did two things. It established a tradition and made the Unit better known. The Unit was more likely to be asked to do other work in future, and, not unimportant for a voluntary society, it would make easier the raising of funds for further enterprises. For those who came later the Winter War Ambulance Unit attained a special status, a special place in the affections, which the first and pioneering effort always enjoys. Those who came back were heroes who livened an evening in camp or hospital with wonderful tales of Joensuu and Tohmajärvi, of brilliant Northern Lights and hazardous Journeys deep in the forests of Karelia. Meanwhile, France fell, and the war spread to the ends of the earth. To the ends of the earth the Unit took its work. Gradually, 1941 and onwards, it gathered strength and confidence and built up work which took in all over eight hundred of its members to see service in twenty-five different countries in Europe, Africa and Asia.
For an interesting book which covers the Friends Ambulance Unit and has a quite comprehensive section on the Unit’s activities in Finland, see
Photo sourced from: http://www.sofo.org.uk/dyn/large_weaver ... ar_525.jpg
Weavers and War: a True Story by Richard E Early (CO of the FAU in Finland)
0.55 Inch “Boys” Anti Tank Rifle Mark 1, / 14 mm pst kiv/37 (14 mm antitank rifle M/37)
The Rifle, Anti-Tank, 0.55in, Boys commonly known as the "Boys Anti-tank Rifle" was a British anti-tank rifle in use during World War II. Some 400 of these Rifles were delivered to Finland early in the Winter War (in January 1940, amongst the first foreign aid to arrive) and were issued to front-line units, mostly to the Foreign Volunteer Units as the Maavoimat Regiments were generally already up to their TOE with the Lahti 20mm Anti-Tank Rifles on the outbreak of the Winter War. The Boys Anti-Tank Rifles were withdrawn from frontline use at the end of the Winter War, after which they were placed in storage. The Boys AT-Rifles didn't impress the Finnish soldiers that used them, their armour penetrating capability proved in general to be inadequate and their performance as a high-powered sniper rifle was not too remarkable either. In practical terms, when used against tanks their penetration capability was so poor that bullets had to be aimed at the crew members of the targeted tank as they could not penetrate the armour. Losses of these weapons was remarkably low in the Winter War as in the winter of 1940, some 336 of the original 400 were recorded as being placed in storage. After WW2 they remained warehoused until being sold in the United States in 1956.
Photo sourced from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... jpg/800px-
Boys_Mk_I_AT_Rifle.jpg
Boys Anti-Tank Rifle: A bolt action rifle fed from a five-shot magazine, the weapon was large and heavy with a bipod at the front and a separate grip below the padded butt. In order to combat the recoil caused by the large 0.55 inch (13.9 mm) round, the barrel was mounted on a slide, and a shock absorber was fitted to the bipod along with a muzzle brake on the barrel. The Boys had been designed with numerous small narrow-slotted screws of soft steel set very tightly into the body of the weapon, and its repair and maintenance proved a nightmare for ordnance repair crews. The rate of fire for this at-rifle varied at around 5 - 7 shots/minute. An empty magazine weighed 450-grams, while a fully loaded magazine weighed 1.2 kg. The rear sight was a diopter-type with settings to 300 and 500 yards/meters. Equipment included a magazine box, which contained 8 magazines. As typical to weapons of its class this antitank rifle had both a bipod and a muzzle brake. But even with the muzzle brake the muzzle flash was visible enough for Finnish military manuals to especially warn of this. Manuals also contain warning informing that the bolt didn't close on top of the empty magazine and replacing the magazine demanded first pulling bolt as far back as it goes.
The eponymous creator of this firearm was Captain H C Boys (the Assistant Superintendent of Design) who was a member of the British Small Arms Committee and a designer at the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield. It was initially called Stanchion but was renamed after Captain Boys as a mark of respect when he died a few days before the rifle was approved for service in November 1937. There were three main versions of the Boys, an early model (Mark I) which had a circular muzzle brake and T shaped monopod, built primarily at BSA in England, a later model (Mk I*) built primarily at Jonathan Inglis in Toronto Canada, that had a square muzzle brake and a V shaped bipod, and a third model made for airborne forces with a 30-inch barrel and no muzzle brake (the shortened version was issued in 1942 for issue to airborne forces and saw use in Tunisia, where it proved completely ineffective because of the reduced velocity caused by the shortened barrel). There were also different cartridges, with a later version offering better penetration. The cartridge was an adaptation of the .50 BMG, with a belt added, firing a 47.6 gram bullet. At its introduction, the weapon was effective in penetrating light armour (23.2 mm thick) at 100 yards (91 m) although the range from which this armour penetration could be achieved also varied according to the quality of the armour plate.
There were two main service loads used during the Second World War, the W Mark 1 (60 g AP at 747 m/s) and the W Mark 2 ammunition (47.6 g AP projectile at 884 m/s). The W Mark 1 could penetrate 23.2 mm of armour at 100 yards, about the thickness used on the frontal armour of a half-track or armoured car, or the side or rear armour of a light tank. Later in the conflict, a more effective round was developed, the W Mark 2, which fired a tungsten-cored projectile at 945 m/s. The Boys effective range against unarmoured targets (for example, infantry), was much greater. According to "Finnish Military Cartridges 1918 - 1944" the ammunition delivered to Finland seems to have all been the Mk I rounds. The Mk I ammunition was a 60.3-gram (930-grain) bullet with a steel jacket covered with cupro-nickel. The core of the bullet was of special steel with a thin layer of lead applied between the core and jacket. The muzzle velocity was around 745 - 760 metres/second. From 5 to 7 rounds per minute could theoretically be fired. However, despite its recoil slide and the cushioned buttpad, the recoil of the weapon (along with the noise and muzzle blast) was said to be terrific, frequently causing neck strain and bruised shoulders. Consequently, the Boys was almost never fired as a free weapon (that is, not affixed to a support) except in emergencies. This tended to reduce its effectiveness in a mobile battle considerably.
The Boys anti-tank -rifle was first issued to the British Army in 1937 and was used both by British Armed Forces and by Commonwealth troops during the early part of World War 2. Although adequate against lightly armoured tanks such as the Russian T-26 and the German Panzer I, Panzer II and early models of Panzer III, in the early part of the war, the Boys was ineffective against heavier armour and was phased out by the British Army in favour of the PIAT by mid-war. Around year 1942 the British delivered numbers of these anti-tank rifles to the Soviet Union, but the Soviets were so unimpressed by their poor armour penetration capabilities that they never bothered to even issue them. The Boys was so unpopular within the British and Commonwealth Armies that the Canadian government commissioned a Disney training film, “Stop That Tank”, to counter the rifle's poor reputation. In other roles the Boys saw some use against bunkers, machine gun nests and light-skinned vehicles but was rapidly replaced in British and Commonwealth service by the U.S. .50 BMG calibre M2 Browning machine gun as quantities of the latter weapon became available. Using armour-piercing (AP), armour-piercing incendiary (API), and armour-piercing incendiary tracer (APIT) ammunition, the .50 Browning was just as capable in armour penetration and more devastating when igniting thin-skinned vehicles using incendiary rounds than the Boys, but the Browning could also serve as an effective anti-aircraft weapon.
Within the Maavoimat, the Tampere-manufactured Hispano-Suiza 20mm cannon filled the same role as the Browning did in the US, British and Commonwealth services. At the time of the Winter War, almost all Maavoimat armoured vehicles and a considerable number of non-armoured vehicles were fitted with the vehicle-mounted version of the HS-404/20mm and in the fighting that was to come, it would prove a lethally effective weapon. By early 1944, at the time Finland re-entered WW2 against the Germans, the HS-404/20mm was as ubiquitous in the Maavoimat as the 0.50 Browning was elsewhere.
British Ordnance QF 4.5 inch Howitzer Mk 2 (“114 H/18” in Finnish service)
The British Ordnance QF 4.5 inch Howitzer Mk 2 fired a 35lb shell with a range of 5.6–7.5kms and a maximum rate of fire of 6-8 rounds per minute. The Mk 1 version of this howitzer was designed at Coventry Ordnance Works and accepted to use of British Army in March of 1909. It proved quite effective during WW1, but battle-use also revealed some problems with the design. As a result the breech structure was reinforced and the earlier increasing twist rifling was replaced with universal twist rifling (in which the rifling twist continued the same for the entire length of the barrel). Reinforcing the breech supposedly made it stronger, while a change in rifling was introduced to make the manufacturing of the howitzer barrels easier. A version with all of these improvements was designed by the Royal Ordnance Factory and was introduced into production in the last year of World War 1 as the Mk 2. By the end of 1918 over 3,300 had been manufactured and after the war they were sold to several countries, including New Zealand, Canada and Australia. Large numbers of these howitzers were still either in service or in storage at the start of WW2. One of the first requests Finland made to Britain was for 80 of these howitzers together with large amounts of ammunition for them to be shipped to Finland. Great Britain’s initial response was to sell 24 howitzers together with 25,000 shells to Finland. These arrived in January 1940, while a further 30 howitzers arrived in March 1940 from Spain together with the Spanish Volunteer Division, the División Azul.
Photo sourced from http://nigelef.tripod.com/45howPfr.jpg
The "Q.F. 4,5 inch Howitzer Mk 2" had a box trail with a hole in the middle to allow for parts retreating on recoil. The howitzer also had a vertical sliding block breech, a gun shield with foldable upper section and a hole for aiming direct fire. The British had replaced the original wooden wheels with steel hoops with new wheels with pneumatic tires for a large number of these howitzers. The wheels also had mechanical brakes. The recoil system had a combination of a hydraulic buffer and a spring recuperator located below the barrel. The sight used was the typical dial sight and the ammunition was the cartridge-seated type with 4 or 5 propellant charge sizes (varies depending sources). The original wooden wheeled howitzer was horse-towed with a recommended maximum speed of only 8 km/hour. Limbers used with the howitzer in Finland came in two versions, which had different ammunition capacity: The Spanish version carried 16 shots while British version carried 18. Maximum rate of fire was around 6 - 8 shots/minute.
The "Q.F. 4.5 inch Howitzer Mk 2" remained the main light howitzer for British Army until early World War 2. During WW2 the howitzer saw use with British and Commonwealth troops in Northern France in 1939-1940, in Eritrea and in the Western Desert around 1941 - 1942. After this the howitzer still remained in training use with Commonwealth units until being declared obsolete in September of 1944. Some of the howitzers were used in the Spanish Civil War. During WW2 the Germans captured numbers of these howitzers from Poland, from British troops in France and from the Soviet Union (some had been delivered to Russia during WW1 and the Soviets had captured some more when they occupied the Baltic countries). Britain sold a further 24 of these Howitzers together with 150,000 shells in March 1940 (these guns and the much-needed shells arrived in conjunction with the 5th Battalion, Scots Guards). In addition, Canada, which had retired a number of these guns and placed them in storage in 1938, donated a further 12. A further 36 guns arrived in March 1940 as part of the New Zealand Army’s 4 Field Regiment, which the New Zealand Government sent by ship in early February 1940 (some of the guns were from the New Zealand Army, some from the Australian Army, all had been extensively used but were in good condition). Without the impetus given by the presence of New Zealand, Australian and Canadian volunteers in Finland, it is unlikely that the guns from these sources would have been forthcoming, given the dire shortage of equipment their respective militaries faced on the outset of WW2. It says much for these countries that even with their own limited supplies of military equipment, that they were willing to donate this much to the Finnish cause.
All told, Finland acquired 125 of the QF 4.5 inch (114mm) Mk 2 Howitzers from the sources listed above, together with 175,000 shells. More shells would be ordered supplied from US manufacturers over the course of the war.
76 mm ItK/16 V, Vickers (76 mm Antiaircraft Gun M/16 Vickers / British Ordnance QF 3in 20cwt QF Mk 3 AA-gun)
Despite the increases in military spending through the 1930’s and the emergency defence program of late 1938 and 1939, there were many areas in which the Finnish defence forces lacked sufficient weapons or equipment. One significant gap was in AA defences. Priority had gone largely to equipping the Maavoimat with weapons and equipment, and to the Ilmavoimat for aircraft. AA Defences for military bases, airfields and industrial buildings, particularly those of importance to the war effort, had by and large taken second place. That said, there had been an ongoing effort to put in place AA defences that had started in 1935, with fund-raised efforts conducted by the Lotta-Svard organisation. The bombing of Guernica in April 1937 (as part of the Spanish Civil War) had raised public awareness of the threat posed by bombing from the air and had resulted in additional funds for AA defences being raised.
The net result through 1936-1939 had been the purchase of a variety of AA guns, primarily Bofors 76mm and Bofors 40mm AA guns, but also approximately 50 of the British Vickers-manufactured British Ordnance QF 3in 20cwt QF Mk 3 AA-gun’s, known as the 76 mm ItK/16 V, Vickers in Finnish service. These guns had been 100% financed through public fund-raised and had been allocated to the defence of key industrial installations.
The gun was based on a pre-WW1 Vickers naval 3-inch (76 mm) QF gun with modifications specified by the War Office in 1914. These (Mk I) included the introduction of a vertical sliding breech-block to allow semi-automatic operation. When the gun recoiled and ran forward after firing, the motion also opened the breech, ejected the empty cartridge and held the breech open ready to reload, with the striker cocked. When the gunner loaded the next round, the block closed and the gun fired. Like all countries in beginning of World War 1, the British had no real anti-aircraft weaponry when the war begun. With the bombing threat to London posed by the German zeppelins in WW1, Churchill had arranged the guns to be transferred from the Royal Navy to the air-defence of London. Several versions of the gun were developed, as were several mount types: The first and most basic was a simple fixed mount for bolting the gun to ship, concrete floor or steel bed, later ones included two and four wheeled carriages and even installation on trucks. By the end of World War 1 the British had manufactured 541 of these guns.
A US Army report on anti-aircraft guns of April 1917 reported that this gun's semi-automatic loading system was discontinued because of difficulties of operation at higher angles of elevation, and replaced by "the standard Vickers-type straight-pull breech mechanism", reducing rate of fire from 22 to 20 rds/minute. In the context of the 16 pounder shell of 1916 a rate of fire of 16-18 rounds per minute would appear to have been the effective rate of fire found to be sustainable in action. Beginning in 1930, a new towed 4-wheeled sprung trailer platform was introduced to replace the obsolete lorries still used as mounts from World War I, together with modern new barrels, and equipment to connect the guns to the new Vickers No. 1 Predictor. Some 8 more Mks followed between the World Wars. By 1934 the rocking-bar deflection sights had been replaced by Magslip receiver dials which received input from the Predictor, with the layers matching pointers instead of tracking the target. Predictor No. 1 was supplemented from 1937 by Predictor No. 2, based on a US Sperry AAA Computer M3A3. This was faster and could track targets at 400 mph (640 km/h) at heights of 25,000 ft (7,600 m). Both Predictors received height data, generally from the Barr & Stroud UB 7 (9 feet base) instrument.
During the early part of World War 2 they were used by several countries. In 1939, Britain possessed approximately 500 of these guns. Initially most were in the heavy anti-aircraft (HAA) role until replaced by the new 3.7 inch gun. Some deployed as light anti-aircraft guns (LAA) for airfield defence, being transferred to the RAF Regiment when this was formed in 1942, until more 40mm Bofors guns arrived. However, it was discovered on mobilization that the 233 guns in the HAA reserve were missing various parts and were without Predictor instruments. Some 120 were sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force in November 1939, along with 48 of the modern QF 3.7 inch AA gun. (In the UK in 1941, 100 of the obsolete guns were converted to become the 3 inch 16 cwt anti-tank gun, firing a 12.5 lb (5.7 kg) armour-piercing shell. They appear to have been mainly deployed in home defence). The British military didn't declare them obsolete until 1946. The Germans also captured these guns from several countries and called them 7.5 cm Flak Vickers (e).
Photo sourced from: http://www.jaegerplatoon.net/76ItK16_1.jpg
The 76-mm Vickers M/16 AA-gun. (Photo taken in Ilmatorjuntamuseo and courtesy of http://www.jaegerplatoon.net). The gun weighed 6,040 kg, had a maximum effective range of 4,000m and a fire-rate of 5-6 rounds per minute firing HE-incendiary or AA-shrapnel-tracer. Maximum vertical ceiling was 7,160 m.
Early in the Winter War, Britain donated 24 of these guns and a plentiful supply of ammunition to Finland. The guns were accompanied by 7 Vickers M/34 (Sub-versions Va and Vb) mechanical fire control computers, which were used with these guns for the duration of WW2. The guns, ammunition and Predictors arrived in Finland in March 1940 and saw heavy use in the defence of industrial plants against sporadic Soviet air raids through the remainder of the Winter War. All 50 of the guns purchased earlier, together with the 24 donated by Britain, were assigned to heavy AA-batteries serving on the home front. All guns were the fixed versions, rather than the mobile versions. The guns would remain in service to the end of WW2. The screw-breech and the old-fashioned ammunition which had arrived with the guns limited the rate-of-fire and caused large dispersions in the detonation times of the shells. With the end of WW2, the use of these guns as anti-aircraft weapons in Finland also ended. They were then assigned to the Coastal Artillery as they were still perfectly capable of shooting surface targests. The last of them remained in use with the Finnish Coastal Artillery into the late 1980's.
The Finnish military used two ammunition types with these guns, both types were British-made. The 76 itftkrv 51/61-199E was a high explosive incendiary (HE-incendiary) shell loaded with TNT (trotyl), but also containing 60g of white phosphorus. Its projectile weighed 6.15 kg and had a muzzle velocity of 633 m/sec. The 76 itsrv Vj8 - 51/61-199E was an anti-aircraft shrapnel shell with an 8 second tracer. Its projectile weighed 6.15 kg and had a muzzle velocity of 637 m/sec. The whole concept of using shrapnel-like ammunition (shell containing metal balls which burst outside it when the shell exploded and did the damage) for anti-aircraft use was rather typical during World War 1, but was seriously outdated by World War 2, the guns provided an effective AA defence against Soviet air raids over the course of the Winter War for a number of key factories. In the later Continuation War, where Finland fought Germany from early 1944 to the end of WW2, Ilmavoimat air superiority ensured that while the AA guns remained in service, they were very infrequently required as bomber attacks on Finland were rather low of the Luftwaffe’s list of priorities at that stage.
Acknowledgement: All (real) information on the Vickers 76mm AA gun in Finnish service is courtesy of
http://www.jaegerplatoon.net – thx once again Jarkko! All ATL “history” and any mistakes are mine.
The RAF’s #263 Squadron dispatched to Finland
With the news reports from Finland filled with the successes being achieved by the Finnish Army against the Soviet Union, and favourable reports being received from Squadron Leader Bigglesworth regarding air combat against the Soviet Air Force, the British War Cabinet decided that a second Volunteer Squadron from the RAF should accompany the 5th Battalion, Scots Guards to Finland (more on this Battalion shortly). The Squadron earmarked for this role was RAF Squadron 263, which was permanently stationed at Filton and equipped with Gloster Gladiators. British sources mention that the Finns considered the armament and performance of the Gladiator as insufficient in combat against the armoured I-153 and I-16 aircraft. The British sources also remark about the squadron lacking arctic equipment. Nevertheless the decision was made and in mid-March 1940, the Squadron was instructed to prepare for a move to Finland.
Sourced from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... _crest.png
Official Squadron Badge Crest of No. 263 Squadron RAF: Moto – “Ex ungue leone” ("One knows the lion by his claws")
No 263 Squadron was a Royal Air Force fighter squadron which had first been formed in Italy on 27 September 1918 from flights of the Royal Naval Air Service after that service's amalgamation with the Royal Flying Corps to form the RAF. . It flew Sopwith Babys and Felixstowe F3s from Otranto reconnoitring for submarines escaping from the Adriatic Sea into the Mediterranean Sea. The squadron was disbanded on 16 May 1919. The squadron reformed as a fighter squadron at RAF Filton near Bristol on 20 October 1939, taking over some of 605 Squadron's biplane Gloster Gladiator Mk.Is. It became operational towards the end of the year and scrambled for the first time on 12 January 1940. Around this time the squadron received 22 Gloster Gladiator Mk.IIs to replace the Mk.Is. The Gladiator looked like a First World War aircraft, but while it had considerably better performance than its WW1 ancestors, as a fighter it did not compare well with the type of enemy aircraft it might expect to meet in Finland. With a maximum speed of 253mph, it was slower than the aircraft it would soon meet in combat over the skies of Scandinavia, the Tupolev SB-2 Bomber with its maximum speed of 283mph, the Polikarpov I-153 Biplane Fighter with its maximum speed of 280mph and the Polikarpov I-16 low-wing monoplane Fighter with its maximum speed of 326mph. It was a lesson the RAF Pilots would learn all too soon. On 20 March 1940, the aircraft were flown, via RAF Sealand, to Scapa Flow, Scotland where Fleet Air Arm pilots landed them on the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and 18 Gladiators sailed for Norway. On 22 March, after one days sailing, the Squadron flew its aircraft off the carrier to a landing strip in southern Norway, from where they flew to Sweden and then on to Finland.
Picture sourced from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... de_DFC.jpg
Artist's impression (by Seán Pòl Ó Creachmhaoil) of the Gloster Gladiator flown by Bermudian Flying Officer Herman Francis Grant "Baba" Ede, DFC, flying off HMS Glorious, destination - Finland. Ede was the first Bermudian killed in the Second World War, shot down over the Karelian Isthmus on 8 April, 1940. Ede was one of numerous Bermudians who served as aircrew in the Royal Air Force, Fleet Air Arm, and the Royal Canadian Air Force during the war.
With fighting on the Karelian Isthmus heating up as the Finns beat back the final Red Army Offensive of the winter, 263 Squadron was thrown into the battle. Sadly, the RAF Pilots were too learn all tlying Officer o quickly that both their tactical doctrine for air combat and their aircraft were obsolete as they lost almost all their aircraft and half their Pilots in a week of aerial combat. They would be the heaviest losses of any squadron with the Ilmavoimat over the course of the Winter War and after that single week, the Ilmavoimat took the decision to with draw the Squadron from combat until more suitable aircraft could be supplied, either from Britain or from Finnish sources. The RAF pilots meanwhile were put through advanced fighter training by the Ilmavoimat, with a strong emphasis on the application of Ilmavoimat tactical doctrine in aerial combat. The British Air Ministry struggled to arrange for replacement Fighters to be flown to Finland along with Pilots to replace those lost. Initially it was intended that a full squadron of Hurricanes be sent but Fighter Command made very strong representations as to the wisdom of this move when all too many fighter squadrons were already being sent to France, putting the air defence of the UK in jeopardy. Accordingly, it was decided to send only a small number of Hurricanes initially, with eighteen Hurricanes arriving in Finland in late April, flown by RAF Replacement Pilots who had volunteered for service in Finland.
Among these Volunteers were Canadian Pilots Sgt John W. Jenkins, WO J. S. Walker, Lt (Res) John C. McMaster and Capt. Edward Waller, Australian Pilot E. H. Brown, Irish Pilot Peter M. Farragut and RAF Pilots 2Lt’s Kenneth Armstrong, Barrington, D. N. Dalton and Raymond Dixon, Lts. M. P. E. Harrison and M. H. Wellmon, Capt. A. S. Lace and Sgts M. R. Butt and Sgt McKay. Also included were Sgt Richard Welford Aitken-Quack, RAF Volunteer Reserve pilot 2Lt Prince Emanuel Galitzine and last and by no means least a New Zealand Fighter Pilot, Flying Officer E. J. Kain. Following are some brief biographies of the Pilots on whom information (other than their names) exists. Sadly, many have faded into obscurity and little is now known of them.
Flying Officer Prince Emanuel Galitzine (Edward M Graham)
RAF Volunteer Reserve pilot Prince Emanuel Galitzine came to Finland using the assumed name of Edward M. Graham. Among all the upper-class personalities in the wartime RAF, Prince Emanuel Galitzine occupies a place of his own. A Russian emigrant, he was no less than a great-grandson of Emperor Paul I, himself a son of Catherine the Great. His mother was a daughter of Duke George Alexander of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Galitzine was born in the declining tsarist Russia in 1918, but soon the Bolshevik revolution forced his family to escape – under the most dramatic circumstances.
They settled in London, where Emanuel received the best of educations. Having reached the age of 21 at the outbreak of war, Galitzine began to dream of flying with the RAF. Before he made his final decision to enlist, the Soviet attack on Finland in 1940 made him convinced that he must fight the Communists who had dispossessed his family. Having been accepted by the Finnish Air Force, he was just settling in when Mannerheim, the inspirational Finnish leader and an old friend of Galitzine’s father, personally told him that his mother had been killed in the London Blitz. He would join up and fly with 263 Squadron in Finland and fly as a member of the Squadron through to the end of the Winter War, after which he was to return to the UK. Having travelled to Finland originally under an assumed name, his return to England was an odyssey rather more challenging than those of his fellows from the RAF who had been dispatched rather more officially. First sent with a Finnish passport to Boston, he was refused entry to Britain. Then he went to Canada, where he was again refused help. So he signed on as an ordinary seaman with a shipping line across the Atlantic and reached Scotland, where he was promptly arrested on suspicion of being a spy. Not before Galitzine’s father who was working for British intelligence learned about his fate was he cleared. The way was finally clear for him to be commissioned into the RAFVR. He was posted in November 1941 to No. 504 Squadron in Northern Ireland.
Newspaper clipping from the Ottawa Citizen, March 31st 1941: Russian Prince in Ottawa waiting to fight in RAF
In due course, F/O Galitzine was posted to the experimental Special Service Flight in Northolt. Disguised under this name was an experimental unit aimed at countering the threat of German pressurized high-altitude Ju 86P bombers which began to operate over Britain. The available Spitfires Mk. VI had inadequate ceiling to counter the Germans operating at altitudes in excess of 40,000 feet. The improved high-altitude Spitfire Mk. VII was not yet ready for production. This unit received a pair of then-new Spitfires Mk. IX of the batch of Mk. Vc airframes converted to the new mark by Rolls-Royce at Hucknall. These aircraft obviously did not have pressurized cockpits, but the performance of Merlin 61 looked promising, so it was decided to convert them for high-altitude duties. The aircraft were stripped of everything not required for the role of high-level interception, lightening them by 450 lb each. Machine guns were deleted, leaving only cannon armament. The aircraft were repainted with, according to Galitzine, “special light-weight paint”.
On 12 September 1942, BS273 flown by Galitzine successfully intercepted a Ju 86R above Southampton at 41,000 ft. The ensuing battle went up to 43,000 ft and was the highest recorded air combat of the war. Unfortunately, Galitzine could only barely use his armament; his port cannon froze solid and, whenever he fired a burst with the remaining starboard cannon, the aircraft fell out of the sky or became engulfed in an excessive vapour trail of the shells which completely obscured the target. The German bomber escaped safely with just one hit to its port wing, but having proven to be vulnerable to the RAF at high altitudes, the Luftwaffe launched no further high-altitude attacks against England. Galitzine’s career continued and he would fly Spitfires until the end of the war. However, he always recalled the BS273 as the sweetest of them to fly.
Battle in the Stratosphere
Further to the combat report for Pilot Officer Galitzine, here is a further study of the encounter
Shortly before the outbreak of war the German Junkers company had begun work on the Junkers 86P, a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft developed from the obsolescent Ju86 bomber. In fact, the new reconnaissance variant bore little resemblance to the earlier bomber: the open gun positions were faired over; there was a pressure cabin for the two-man crew; extra panels fitted to the outer wings increased the span by just under ten feet to 84 feet and turbochargers fitted to the two Jumo compression-ignition diesel engines improved the aircraft’s high-altitude performance. With these changes the Junkers 86P was able to cruise at altitudes around 40,000ft, beyond the reach of fighters during the early part of the war.
The first Junkers 86P was delivered to the Luftwaffe in the summer of 1940 and during the latter half of the year the type operated at irregular intervals over the British Isles on high-altitude reconnaissance missions. At that time the British radar chain was unable to track such high-flying aircraft once they had crossed the coast and the flights went almost unnoticed by the defences. In the winter of 1940-41 the Ju86P was used in clandestine missions high over the Soviet Union as part of the reconnaissance effort in preparation for the German invasion in June 1941; these flights continued after the campaign began.
In May 1942 a few Junkers 86s were delivered to the 2 Staffel of Long Range Reconnaissance Gruppe 123, based at Kastelli on Crete, from where they flew high-altitude missions over the Cairo and Alexandria areas. These flights continued unhindered until August 24th when Fg Off G Reynolds flying a stripped-down Spitfire Mk V armed with two .50 cal machine guns succeeded in intercepting one of the Ju86s. He scored hits on the starboard engine and set it on fire; the Junkers dived away and he lost it. There is some evidence that this was the action in which the commander of 2 Staffel, Hauptmann Bayer, was shot down into the sea, he and his observer ditched in their Ju86 and were later rescued by seaplane.
Some accounts state that Reynolds had taken his Spitfire Mk V up to 42,000ft to engage the Junkers; others have spoken of later interceptions of Ju86s by Spitfire Vs in the same area at 45,000ft and even 50,000ft. After a careful examination of the available evidence the author is inclined to disregard reports of Spitfire Vs intercepting enemy aircraft at altitudes much above 40,000ft, no matter how many pieces had been taken off the aircraft to lighten it, a Merlin engine with single-stage supercharging would not have developed enough power to enable a Spitfire to manoeuvre at such an altitude, moreover, above 45,000ft a pilot in an unpressurised cabin even breathing pure oxygen would have suffered such severe physiological problems that he could have achieved little. The interceptions of the Junkers did take place but it is probable that the German aircraft were flying at or below 40,000ft. An explanation for the excessive altitudes stated, if they did indeed come from the pilots, could be altimeter errors or mis-readings by pilots suffering from a measure of oxygen starvation.
In the spring of 1942, the R version of the Ju86 appeared. This was a P version modified at the factory to have its wing span further extended, this time by more than 20ft to almost 105ft and with slightly more powerful diesels with nitrous oxide injection to increase the high-altitude performance still further. As a result, these improvements gave the Ju86R altitude performance of over 45,000ft.
Prince Emanual Galitzine's wife died 21 Sept 2011
The death notice has appeared for Princess Gwendoline Galitzine. She died this past Wednesday (21 Sep) at age 91. Born Gwendolene Rhodes, she was the widow of Prince Emmanuel Vladimirovich Galitzine (1918-2002). He was a Romanov descendant as his great-grandmother was Grand Duchess Catharina MIkhailovna, granddaughter of Emperor Paul. She leaves 3 sons, Princes Nicholas, Michael, and Emmanuel Galitzine. The youngest, Emmanuel, is married to the former Penny Allen, granddaughter of Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich (one of Nicholas II's nephews).
RAF 601 Squadron, Malta 1953: Front L to R: F/O L. Brett, F/O M. Norman, F/Lt J. Bryant, P/O J. Evans, F/O C.Axford, F/O E. Galitzine, F/Lt P Vanneck, F/Lt P. Edelston, S/Ldr C. McCarthy-Jones, F/Lt G. Farley, F/Lt D. Smerdon, P/O H. Davidson, F/O T. Moulson, P/O D. Shrosbree, P/O F. Winch, P/O J. Spence, F/O D. Norman
Middle L to R: F/Lt J. Merton, F/Lt H. Harmer, F/lt K. Askins, F/Lt A. Button, P/O E. Goss, S/Ldr N. Leyton, F/Lt N. Nicholson, F/Lt T. Lanser, F/Lt F. Triptree
Back Left: Ground Crews, Regulars - Back Right: Ground Crews Auxiliary
Note: CO's Metor WK722 Malta 1953
601 Squadron, Malta 1953: L to R: Harold Harmer, Peter Edelston, Clive Axford, John Hardie, Teddy Lanser, Emanuel Galitzine, Norman Nicholson, Tim McElhaw, Jock Spence, Tom Moulson, ?.
Reequipped with Hurricanes, 263 Squadron would re-enter the air war over Karelia with rather more success.
Second Lieutenant Richard Welford Aitken-Quack
In the list of British Volunteers, Richard Welford Aitken-Quack has his occupation listed as Accountant. Born in 1913, Aitken-Quack received a short service commission as an Acting Pilot Officer on probation with effect from, and with seniority dating from, 23rd December 1935 (London Gazette 7 January 1936). He lost his short service commission in mid-1936 due to unauthorized leave (London Gazette 11th July 1936) after which he went to Spain and flew in the Spanish Civil War – a note in Squadron 609 ORB from 1 December 1943 states “…A veteran of the Spanish Civil War, in which he flew Boeing fighters V. general Francos forces (and possibly did battle against P/O Comte de Grunne, another 609 pilot who was in that war)”. Given that the Republicans only had one Boeing P-26 fighter (a single example was demonstrated in Spain before the civil war, and was requisitioned by the government on the outbreak of war. It was shot down in 1937, after which compensation was paid to the Boeing company) this needs a little more research to verify.
Photo sourced from http://www.airwar.ru/history/aces/ace2w ... aitken.jpg
Richard Welsford Aitken-Quack – a British Pilot with a very colorful biography. He fought as a volunteer Pilot for the Republicans in Spain from the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. He signed a contract with the government to fly for a monthly salary of 200 pound). Of his military operations, very little is known. He himself said that he flew a number of flights in the Boeing P-26.
After the Spanish Civil War, Atitken-Quack had volunteered to fly for Finland in the Winter War as one of the first groups of British Volunteers to leave for Finland. Instead of being sent to Finland, he had been put to work on Ferry Flights over February and March, after which he was assigned as a replacement Pilot to 263 Squadron, flying out one of the replacement Hurricanes. He remained with the Squadron in Finland for the remainder of the Winter War, returning to the UK in late 1940 when it was decided that the RAF pilots and other squadron personnel were no longer necessary.
OTL Note: Atitken-Quack volunteered to fly for Finland in the Winter War, where he was assigned to T-LentoR 2.
After returning from Finland, Richard Aitken-Quack (re)enlisted in the ranks of the RAF as an AC2 but soon became a Sergeant Pilot (F/Sgt. Richard Welsford Aitken-Quack, 1805819) and was posted to No. 609 Squadron on 6th April 1943, as a Sgt, as per the Squadron ORB. The Squadron was flying Typhoons, and, again from the Squadron ORB of 19 November, 1943: “F/Sgt Aitken-Quack today interviewed pending posting to Training Command. He becomes one of 3 (out of about 50) selected as Fighter Controller (Invasion). This automatically implies a commission, previously rejected because he once overstayed leave before the war.”
Aitken-Quack was shot down on 1 December 1943 near Roubaix (south of Valenciennes, northern France) in France whilst flying from Lympne in a Hawker Typhoon 1b (JP924 PR-S). The concluding paragraph of the 609 Squadron ORB entry for 1st December 1943 states: “F/Sgt Aitken-Quack, who was on probably his last operational sortie before leaving the squadron, was one of its more picturesque characters. A veteran of the Spanish Civil War, in which he flew Boeing fighters V. general Francos forces (and possibly did battle against P/O Comte de Grunne, another 609 pilot who was in that war) he had also been in Finland during the Russo-Finnish War. He could thus speak several languages fluently, and it is hoped that these and his general buccaneering experience may get him back to this country before very long.”
Aitken-Quack parachuted from his aircraft, which fell to the ground at Beaudigeis near Valenciennes. On landing, he was picked up by the French Resistance and brought to Guise, where he was probably looked after in the home of the veterinarian, after which he was brought by Marcel Nicolas of Le Quesnoy to his own home on the 13th of December 1943. He left on the 18th of January for Creil where he was handed over to the “JO” repatriation organization. (Excerpted from the notes of Capt. Étienne Dromas. Capt. Dromas was the head of the Chauny Escape Line in the department Aisne). Aitken-Quack initially evaded capture, but was caught in Paris on 5th February 1944 and became a POW for the remainder of the War.
Photo sourced from: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9gsR6ls0-MY/T ... 055165.jpg
Pilots of 609 "West Riding of Yorkshire" Squadron, photographed at Manston ( 22 July 1943 ). Standing, from Left to Right: Sgt Georges Watelet (Belgian), Sgt B.L.J. Foley (Australian), Sgt R.O. Ellis (British), F/O J.R. "Johnny" Baldwin (British), F/O A.S. Ross (American), F/O F.J. Reahill (British), P/O Georges "Poupa" Jaspis (Belgian), F/Sgt H.W. McMann (Canadian), Sgt R.W. Aitken-Quack (British), Sgt J.G. McLaughlin (Australia), Sgt F.J. Bryan (Canadian).
Seated, from Left to Right: F/O W.F. Watts (British), F/Sgt G.K.E. Martin (Australian), F/O J. Niblett (British), F/O E.R.A. Roberts (British), F/Lt L.E. Smith (British), S/Ldr A. Ingle (British),
F/Lt E. Haabjørn (Norwegian), F/Sgt Andrea " le Men " Blanco (Belgian), F/O I.J. Davies (British), W/O R.E. Bavington (Australian), F/O Joseph Renier (Belgian), Sgt Joseph Zegers (Belgian).
Released at the end of the war he remained in the RAF until December 1946, when he left the service with the rank of Warrant Officer. His later years were spent in Papua, New Guinea, and Darwin, Australia. Richard Welford Aitken-Quack died in Australia – his funeral notice was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 3 January 1966, with the funeral taking place on the 4th of January and mentioning that he was “Late of Potts Point.”
Photo sourced from: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5 ... SS500_.jpg
See: “The Flyers: The Untold Story of British and Commonwealth Airmen in the Spanish Civil War and other Wars from 1919 to 1940” by Brian Bridgman, Upton-upon-Severn: Self Publishing Assoc., 1989 - p.184.
Flying Officer Edgar James “Cobber” Kaine
Edgar James Kain, DFC (27 June 1918 – 7 June 1940) was a New Zealand fighter pilot. Nicknamed "Cobber", Flying Officer Kain was the first RAF air ace of WW2, and also the first recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross in the Second World War. He fought in the Winter War and died in a flying accident the day he was to return to the UK.
Kain was born in Hastings, New Zealand the son of Reginald G. Kain and Nellie Kain. He went to Croyden School, Wellington and Christ's College, Canterbury where he studyied under Professor Von Zedlitz. While at school he played rugby, cricket and excelled at athletics. Kain then worked as a clerk in his father's warehousing business. An interest in flying came early, Kain joining the Wellington Aero Club and securing his “A” pilot's licence at Wigram in 1936. After earning a private pilot's licence, he applied for a short-term commission in the Royal Air Force. Upon acceptance by the RAF, Kain arrived in the United Kingdom in November 1936 and, receiving his short-term commission in December, he was enrolled as a pupil pilot at Blackburn, Lancashire. After further training at RAF Sealand and RAF Ternhill, he was posted in November 1937 to No. 73 Fighter Squadron, then equipped with the Gloster Gladiator biplane fighter. In 1938, the squadron converted to the new Hawker Hurricane. Kain was made Flying Officer in 1939.
Before the start of hostilities, No. 73 Squadron RAF was mobilised on 24 August 1939 as part of the Advanced Air Striking Force (AASF). Appointed a section commander Kain flew on 80 fighter and escort operations over Le Havre, Louvres, Rheims, Verdun and other parts of enemy-occupied territory - No. 73 Squadron was one of the first RAF units to engage the Luftwaffe. Four days after war was declared, 73 Squadron’s 16 Hurricane fighters flew across the Channel to France. On 10 September 1939, Kain flew his first operational patrols. His first victory occurred on 8 November 1939 during a defensive patrol. Kain had spotted a Dornier Do 17 from reconnaissance unit 1(F)/123 above and ahead of him. As the Do 17 began to climb to 27,000 ft with Kain in pursuit, he made two attacks but saw no result. With his Hurricane showing signs of strain, he attacked again and the Dornier dived steeply. Kain followed but pulled out when he saw fabric peeling off his wings. The Dornier crashed into the small village of Lubey northwest of Metz, exploding on impact and killing the crew. On 23 November, near Conflans, Kain shot down another Do 17, from 3(F)/22. Due to bad weather there was little flying in December, January and February but on 1 March 1940, Kain fought an action with two Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. His Hurricane was already damaged when he shot the first Bf 109 down in flames. The second Bf109 continued to attack him, stopping the Hurricane’s engine with a cannon shell but then flew off, leaving Kain to glide 30 miles from 20,000 feet to reach French territory. When his engine caught fire, Kain prepared to bail out but had to re-enter the cockpit when he realized his parachute strap was not in position. Fortunately the flames went out and Kain glided on to a forced-landing at Metz aerodrome.
In March 1940, Kain was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for a particularly daring action. While flying on operations, he sighted seven enemy Bf 109 fighters above him at 5,000 ft. Immediately giving chase and while pursuing them back towards the German lines, Kain discovered another enemy fighter on his tail. Attacked from behind, and with his own Hurricane fighter badly damaged, he engaged the enemy fighter and shot it down. With his cockpit full of smoke and oil, he managed to bring his Hurricane down behind the Allied lines. The citation for the award referred to "the magnificent fighting spirit Kain displayed in outmanoeuvring his enemy and destroying him." On 26 March, Kain destroyed a Bf 109 and probably a second Bf 109 of JG 53 but then with his own engine on fire he bailed out, with shell splinters to his left leg, a bullet-grazed left hand and burns to the face. Kain went on leave to England on 2 April and before he returned, his engagement was announced. Back with the squadron he damaged a Messerschmitt Bf 110 on 23 April. From September 1939 to March 1940, Kain shot down five aircraft.
After recovering from his injuries, Kain volunteered to fight in Finland as one of the group of Replacement Pilots being sent to that country with new Hurricane Fighters. Arriving in Finland, and after some familiarisation training with the Ilmavoimat, Kain began combat patrols almost immediately. Over the 10 days from 10 May to 20 May 1940, as Soviet forces attempted a series of counter-attacks on the rapidly advancing Finnish forces on the Isthmus, Kain destroyed five more enemy aircraft including an unusual victory on 15 May where an enemy bomber crew was seen to bale out when Kain had attacked in a head-on pass. He probably destroyed or damaged another five Soviet aircraft. On 25 May he destroyed a Soviet bomber but had to make an emergency landing in his damaged Hurricane. He subsequently destroyed a further Soviet bomber on 26 May and another on 27 May. On 5 June, he shot down a Soviet fighter aircraft. He continued to fly combat patrols but by mid-June the Ilmavoimat’s control of the skies was such that very few Soviet aircraft were encountered and he had no more kills.
Photo sourced from http://www.mission4today.com/uploads/pr ... 2.6369.jpg
“Cobber” Kain and three fellow RAF Pilots (unknown) from 263 Squadron, Finland, July 1940
With 17 confirmed kills, Kain was the RAF’s top fighter ace and had become a household name back in Britain for his exploits in Finland. Based on his exploits in the air as well as an engaging, friendly manner, "Cobber" (New Zealand slang for "pal") Kain was treated as a popular hero by the RAF as well as in the media. In late July 1940, with what would become known as the Battle of Britain underway, the RAF asked for Kain to be released from duty in Finland and return to the UK. The Finnish Government agreed at once and on 5 August 1940, Kain was informed he would be returning to the UK the next day. The following morning, a group of his squadron mates gathered at the forward airfield here they were based to bid him farewell as he took off in his Hurricane to fly to Immola to collect his kit. Unexpectedly, Kain began a "beat-up" of the airfield, performing a series of low level aerobatics in his Hurricane. Commencing a series of "flick" rolls, on his third roll, he misjudged his altitude and hit the ground heavily in a level attitude. Kain died when he was pitched out of the cockpit, striking the ground 27m in front of the exploding Hurricane. Kain is buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery, Helsinki.
Photo sourced from: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5 ... SL500_.jpg
You can read about Cobber Kain in the biography by Michael Burns
Fairey Battles and additional Hawker Henley’s for the Ilmavoimat
Perhaps the last major shipment of equipment to Finland by the British came on the eve of the Battle of France. With the British War Cabinet anxious to assuage the public desire to visibly and significantly assist Finland without impeding the war effort against Germany, the Air Ministry was instructed to come up with an aircraft type that could be sold to Finland in reasonable numbers without impacting Britain’s air fighting strength significantly. Under heavy political pressure (news of the Battle of Bornholm, where the Merivoimat had escorted a large convoy into the Baltic and north to Helsinki, fighting a successful battle against the Kreigsmarine along the way) had filled the headlines and public support for Finland was at an all-time high. Consequently, the Air Ministry responded in there own inimitable fashion, selling another batch of the more or less unwanted Hawker Henley’s together with a batch of older Fairey Battles, which were available in large numbers, to Finland.
Shipping out Hawker Henley’s to Finland was an easy option. While there were around 120 odd left in service with the RAF after the previous sale of 80 Henley’s to the Finns, the RAF was using them for target tugs, they were fairly easily replaced and the RAF and the Air Ministry, who had no real idea how the Ilmavoimat were using these aircraft, were as pleased to be rid of them and have them replaced with new target tugs as the Ilmavoimat were to acquire them. Consequently, in mid-April 1940, a further 20 Henley’s were hastily crated up and dispatched by fast Finnish cargo ship, escorted by two Finnish Destroyers, to Lyngenfjiord in northern Norway. It was a sale that made both parties happy – the RAF would be getting brand new target tugs paid for by Finland to replace aircraft that were proving not entirely suitable for the task. The Ilmavoimat would be getting 20 aircraft that could quickly be converted into close support aircraft that had more than proved their effectiveness with the Ilmavoimat already
Included in the shipment with the Henley’s were 40 Fairey Battles. This would be the last significant shipment of military equipment from Britain to Finland in the Winter War – the debacle in Norway, the Fall of France and Dunkirk would see to that. And in Ilmavoimat use, the Fairey Battles would prove to be far more effective in combat than they would prove to be with the RAF – an effectiveness which once more would demonstrate the usefulness of a tactical doctrine that was battle-tested and well thought out.
The Fairey Battle
The Fairey Battle was originally designed to Specification P.27/32 as a two-seat day bomber, to replace the ageing Hawker Hart and Hind biplane bombers, and to act as an insurance policy in case heavier bombers were banned by the 1932 Geneva Disarmament Conference. The light bomber that emerged was a single-engined, all-metal, low-wing cantilever monoplane equipped with a retractable tail wheel landing gear. It was powered by the same Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engine that gave contemporary British fighters their high performance. Its clean design with its long and slim fuselage and cockpit for three (pilot, navigator and gunner) seated in tandem with a continuous glazed canopy, was similar to a large fighter rather than a bomber. However, the Battle was weighed down with a three-man crew and a bomb load.
The armament and crew were similar to the Blenheim: three crew, 1,000 lbs standard bombload and two machine guns (1× .303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine gun in starboard wing and 1× .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers K machine gun in rear gunner position), although the Battle was a single-engine bomber, with less horsepower available. The Battle's standard payload of four 250 lb (110 kg) bombs was carried in cells inside the wings - an additional 500 lb (230 kg) of bombs could be carried on underwing racks. As the engine took up the nose area, the bomb aimer's position was under the wing center section, sighted through a sliding panel in the floor of the fuselage using the Mk. VII Course Setting Bomb Sight. Maximum speed was 257mph, range was 1,000 miles and the service ceiling was 25,000 feet. Despite being a great improvement on the aircraft that preceded it, by the time it saw action it was slow, limited in range and highly vulnerable to both anti-aircraft fire and fighters.
Photo sourced from: http://www.binbrook.demon.co.uk/images/battles.jpg
Fairey Battles in formation while training
Designed and initially built by the Fairey Aviation Company, in total, 2,185 Fairey Battles were built during the machine's production life; 1,156 by Fairey and 1,029 by the Austin Motor Company. A further 18 were built under licence by Avions Fairey at Goselies, Belgium for service with the Belgian Air Force. The prototype Battle first flew on 10 March 1936. When the RAF embarked on the pre-war expansion programme, the Battle became a priority production target, with 2,419 ordered and an initial production order placed for 155 Battles built to Specification P.23/35. The first of these aircraft was completed at Hayes, Middlesex in June 1937 but all subsequent aircraft were built at Fairey's new factory at Heaton Chapel, Stockport and tested at their Manchester (Ringway) facility. Subsequently the Austin Motors "Shadow Factory" at Longbridge manufactured 1,029 aircraft to Specification P.32/36. Total production was of 2,185 machines, as production lines were closed in advance of the planned date, in September 1940. Production Battles were powered by the Rolls Royce Merlin I, II, III and V, and took their Mark numbers from the powerplant (for example, a Battle Mk II was powered by a Merlin II).
Photo sourced from: http://www.wwiivehicles.com/unitedkingd ... 938-01.png
Fairey Battles under construction
Photo sourced from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... 938%29.jpg
Fairey Battles under construction in 1938
Replacing the RAF's Hawker Harts and Hinds when it entered service in 1937, the Battle was obsolescent even then as fighter technology had outstripped the modest performance gains that the light bomber possessed over its biplane antecedents. The Battle was armed only with a single Browning .303 machine gun fixed ahead and with a trainable Vickers K in the back; this was desperately inadequate. Moreover it lacked an armoured cockpit and self-sealing fuel tank. The Battle had the distinction of becoming the first operational aircraft to enter service with a Merlin engine, beating the Hawker Hurricane's debut by a few months. The Battle was obsolete by the start of the Second World War, but remained a front-line RAF bomber owing to a lack of a suitable replacement. On 2 September 1939, during the "Phoney War", 10 Battle squadrons were deployed to France to form the vanguard of the Advanced Air Striking Force. In air combat, the Battle was hopelessly outclassed by Luftwaffe fighters, being almost 100 mph (160 km/h) slower than the contemporary Bf 109 at 14,000 ft (4,300 m).
When the Battle of France began, Battles were called upon to perform unescorted, low-level tactical attacks against the advancing German army. This put the aircraft at risk of attack from Luftwaffe fighters and within easy range of light anti-aircraft guns. In the first of two sorties carried out by Battles on 10 May 1940, three out of eight aircraft were lost, while, in the second sortie, a further 10 out of 24 were shot down, giving a total of 13 lost in that day's attacks, with the remainder suffering damage. Despite bombing from as low as 250 ft (76 m), their attacks had little impact on the German columns. By May 1940 Battle squadrons were suffering heavy losses of well over 50% per mission. By the end of 1940 the Battle had been withdrawn from combat service and relegated to training units overseas. Despite its prewar promise, in RAF service the Battle was one of the most disappointing of all RAF aircraft.
Photo sourced from: http://www.stevenheyenart.com/Battles%2 ... %20web.jpg
"Unquestionable Courage": This painting by Steve Heyen depicts a famous raid by Fairey Battles on the bridges over the Albert canal near Maastricht in May 1940. Flying Officer DE Garland and his observer, Sergeant T Gray, in the lead Battle, were posthumously awarded VCs after the attack by aircraft of the RAF’s No 12 Squadron. (http://www.stevenheyenart.com)
By way of contrast, the 40 Fairey Battles sold to Finland proved surprisingly effective in combat, entirely due to doctrinal differences. The Ilmavoimat had gained extensive combat experience in the Spanish Civil War and also in military exercises pre-war, and were well aware of the risks involved in close air support and in low-level bombing missions. Hence, after the Battles entered service with the Ilmavoimat in May 1940, they were used in conditions where Ilmavoimat air superiority reigned and were provided with fighter escorts. With the Ilmavoimat, the Battles were not used in missions where AA fire could be expected, that was better done by other aircraft better equipped to take out AA positions. Their forte became night-bombing and follow-up attacks in targets that had been “prepared”. As time permitted, protective armour for the crew and self-sealing fuel tanks were added. Under such conditions, losses were considerably lighter in combat than with Battle squadrons in the RAF and the Battles remained in use until the end of the Winter War, after which the survivors were relegated to a training and at times a maritime patrol role. Some thought was put into conversion of the aircraft to a torpedo bomber but no actual work was put into this as it was considered that, overall, the Battle just did not have that much flexibility in use built into its design.
In general, Ilmavoimat pilots liked the Battle, praising its maneuverability and sturdiness. Some pilots commented that it was “just too easy” to fly. The cockpit arrangement however was consider to have left something to be desired, the pilot tending to roast while the crew in the back shivered in the drafts blowing through. Also the lack of armour protection for the crew was a sore point, and the lack of speed and defensive firepower was seen as a major weakness. All in all though, an Ilmavoimat Battle aircrew stood a far better chance of survival than did the RAF personnel assigned to Battle squadrons.
P-36 Mohawk’s – the last assistance received from Britain in the Winter War
As you may recall from an earlier Post, in 1937 the Ilmavoimat had ordered 40 Curtiss Hawk Model 75 Fighters, which were delivered to Finland in 1939. On the Fall of France, Britain came into possession of 229 Hawks comprised of shipments diverted from occupied France, aircraft flown to Britain by escaping French pilots and another 10 captured in Persia and still in crates. Obsolete by the standards of the European theatre, 72 Mohawks were planned to be sent to the South African Air Force while the bulk of the remainder were to be sent to Canada to be used as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. With both South Africa and Canada having sizable volunteer contingents in Finland, the South African Government requested that a number of the aircraft intended for South Africa instead be sent to Finland, and Canada made the same request. Consequently, in July 1940, some 25 Curtiss Hawks were shipped to Lyngenfjiord on a fast Finnish cargo ship. Arriving in Finland in early August, they were only just beginning to enter service in late September 1940, shortly before the Winter War came to an end. Nevertheless, they served to replace aircraft lost in aerial combat in the heavy fighting that had taken place over the summer months leading up to the end of the Winter War. Given the crisis that Britain faced over the summer of 1940, the Finnish Government expressed its deep appreciation to Britian for the additional assistance received at a time when Britain itself was fighting alone against Germany and Italy.
And next, we return at last to the second of the two Battalions of Volunteers from Britain, the 5th Battalion (Special Reserve), Scots Guards – “The Snowballers”
