Finnish Air Force 1939-45 by Kalevi Keskinen & Kari Stenman
Finnish Air Force 1939 1945 by Kalevi Keskinen &Kari Stenman
This is a short (64 page) book but with the large format, there is a lot of content. It’s short on verbage (a 1 page written introduction that’s a history of aircraft acquisitions – this book assumes that if you’re interested in the Finnish Air Force for this period, then you already have the historical background – and an approx 1 page overview of the Winter War (39-40) – a couple of paragraphs on the truce period (40-41), 4 pages of text on the Continuation War and about a third of a page on the Lapland War (Finland vs the Germans after the truce with the Soviet Union at the end of WW2). The rest of the book is photos and illustrations. And they are great.
Good clear black and white photos on glossy paper of the wide range of aircraft in service with the Finnish Airforce over this period – I counted approx. 150 b&w photos, generally about 3 to the page. All good quality reproductions. The back cover has 4 color photos, the front cover is a painting rather than a photo. In addition, there’s 8 pages of color plates of Finnish Aircraft and a brief 2 page Appendix which includes a list of top scoring Finnish pilots and their kills, along with the order of battle of the Finnish Air Force at 3 different periods during the war years.
What I found most interesting was the range of aircraft operated – the Finns took aircraft where-ever they could acquire them and kept them in service for as long as possible. Bristol Blenheims for example, were bought and built under license to start with, but after the fighting with the Soviet Union resumed in 1941, the Finns just kept on building them. Likewise, they flew captured Russian aircraft – Lavochkin fighters, Petlyakov Pe2 bombers, Tupolev SB-2M bombers, Ilyushin DB-3M bombers, French fighters (Morane 406’s that the French sold them prior to WW3 and of which the Germans later supplied them with captured ones), Warhawks, Brewster Buffaloes, Curtiss Hawks, Hurricanes, Fiat G50s, Gloster Gladiators, Bristol Bulldogs, a DC2, as well as a range of the standard German aircraft of WW2.
All in all, an excellent book. If you want to know what aircraft the Finnish Air Force was flying, this is the book for you. You wont find a history of operations, air-battles, sorties, air strategy or that kind of thing – just a straight-up description of the aircraft flown and when and how they were acquired. And great photos. The text is good, albeit concise.
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