Hurricanes to Finland by Jussi Räty Finnish Hurricane Mk.1, HC-452. Photo O. Riekki. Notice the old Finnish Air Force national insignia, the blue swastika, which dates back to 1918, when Swedish count Eric von Rosen donated the first aircraft for the Finnish Air Force. The blue swastika was the old Hindu lucky sign that the Rosen family used and had nothing to do with the later Nazi swastika. Detachment Räty goes to Britain Finnish government purchased 12 Hurricane fighters from Britain in early 1940. The Finnish aircraft were from the first Gloster Hurricane series of 500 aircraft. They had the Merlin III engine and a Hamilton or a Rotol propeller. On the 29th of January 1940 the Finnish pilots selected to fly the fighters to Finland met at Finnish Air Force HQ in Helsinki. The detachment leader was Lt. Jussi Räty, for which the det was to be called "Detachment Räty". The other pilots were ensigns Aarne Alitalo, Heikki Kaukovaara, Eino Mesinen, Erkki Mustonen, Paavo Myllylä, Aarne Nissinen and Tapio Taskinen, sergeants Paavo Aikala and Uuno Karhumäki, also Sgt. Martti Laitinen and Pekka Vassinen. Lt. Räty was assigned from LeLv 26 (Air Squadron 26), which was in the process of converting to the new Gloster Gladiators. The other pilots came from the replacement regiment at Parola. The group took a commercial Aero flight to Stockholm and proceeded to London via Copenhagen and Amsterdam. From London they proceeded to RAF base St. Athan on the 5th of February 1940. The training squadron where the Finns were to be trained was No.11 Group Fighting School commanded by Squadron Leader Tom Pinkham. The squadron was divided into three flights: A Flight commanded by Flight Lieutenant Adye, B Flight commanded by F/L Robinson and C Flight commanded by F/L Cox. Squadron Leader Pinkham told the Finns that he had been ordered to speed up the training and that they would fly few flights in the Link Trainers and Harwards and then 10 - 12 hrs with the Hurricanes prior to ferry flight to Finland. The British pilots were required to fly 40 hrs with the Link Trainers and 30 hrs with the Hurricanes and they normally had some 250 hrs solo time before the training. The squadron had a fully equipped Hurricane cockpit for ground training. Meeting the King and the Queen On the 9th of February 1940 King George VI and Queen Elisabeth visited St. Athan. The King had expressed his wish to meet the Finnish pilots and so Lt. Räty joined the group in the officers mess for lunch. After the lunch the King asked if the Finns had enjoyed their time in the RAF and if they had already flown. The King expressed the sympathy of Great Britain towards Finland and that it was a pleasure that Great Britain could help Finland in its fight for independence. He wished luck for the ferry flights. N:o 11 Group Air Fighting School, C Flight instructors, students and the maintenance personnel. In the middle Flight Commander F/L Cox and instructors Pilot Officer Dowborn and Wahalmoot. Students on both sides of the propeller: from the left Laitinen, Karhumäki, Mustonen and Mertio. The weather stayed poor at St. Athan and the flight training was postponed until February 9, 1940. The days were used for extra Link Trainer training and studying the Hurricane fighter. Lt. Räty translated the pilots manual and made sure that all the Finns had rehearsed all the procedures in the squadron's Hurricane cockpit. This, combined to Finnish pilot training, resulted in the Finns having no mishaps during the Hurricane conversion training. The flight training in the Harwards started on the 9th of February and the training proceeded so well that already on the 20th the Finnish group could start to plan for the ferry flight to Finland. Squadron Leader Pinkham had been in touch with the Gloster Aviation Company and had received information to send some of the Finns to the Gloster's Brockworth factory on 21st of February to receive their aircraft. The first three Hurricanes (HU-451, HU-452 and HU-455) were delivered on the 21st of February at Brockworth. The next three (HU-454, HU-458 and HU-459) were delivered two days later. The Finns flew the Hurricanes to St. Athan, where they were rechecked and prepared for the ferry flight. The radios were tested, the machine guns were aligned and armed. Every Finn flew an acceptance test flight and tested the machine guns over the bay of Bristol. The wire grid covering the engine air intake was removed to prevent icing problems during the ferry flight. Ferry flights to Finland begin When it was obvious that it would take more than a week to get all the 12 aircraft into ferry flight configuration, Lt. Räty decided to divide the group into two. The first group would consist of: Lt. Räty (HU-451), ensigns Nissinen (HU-452), Kaukovaara (HU-455), Mesinen (HU-458), sergeant Aikala (HU-459) and Sgt. Vassinen (HU-454). The British Air Ministry sent an escort plane, a long-nosed Blenheim to St. Athan on the 23rd of February with Squadron Leader Bushell as the pilot in command. The ferry flight started on the 25th. The first leg took the group over Wales, west of Liverpool and 2,5 hrs later to Grangemouth airfield 10 km (6 mi.) northwest of Edinburgh. After refuel the aircraft headed to Wick in Scotland, where they stayed the night. The base commander, a Group Captain told that the weather forecast for Stavanger, Norway looked good for the next day and the plan was to take off 11.15 hrs local time. There were two Lockheed Hudson bombers and a Sunderland flying boat to escort the Finnish Hurricanes over the North Sea. The Sunderland was to pick up the pilots from the sea, if anyone had to ditch. The group took of from Wick and flew over the North Sea. First the weather was according to the forecast, but then it went worse in the middle part of the leg. They had to fly at 15 - 20 m (50 - 70 ft) over the waves for 15 - 20 min. The Sunderland wouldn't have been much help in that weather, is someone had ditched. There were problems in keeping in contact with the lead Lockheed Hudson, but the group still maintained formation even though they didn't see more than the aircraft directly in front of them. When the group approached the coast of Norway the weather got better. The cruising speed was as low as 15 kts (240 km/h) because of the flying boat. After 2,5 hrs the crossed the coast close to Stavanger. It took two hours to cross the North Sea. When the lead Hudson didn't give the disengagement signal (wing rock) and kept flying back and forth south and north of Stavanger, the group disengaged themselves and landed at Sola airfield. They had been ordered to keep strict radio silence when leaving from Wick. The radio was to be used only during emergencies. The weather got worse at Stavanger and in the mountains so that the Finnish group had to wait until February 29 to continue to Västerås, Sweden. They left before noon, but when they got over Oslo Sgt. Aikala said that he wouldn't have enough fuel to make it to Västerås. The group made a refueling stop at Forneby and continued an hour later. After one hour they were over Västerås. The runways were covered with hard ice and landing was no problem. During taxi ensign Kaukovaara's Hurricane (HU-455) hit a soft spot and nosed over and the propeller was bent. There were no spare parts and because there were a lot of Finnish pilots and technical personnel at Västerås assembling the Italian Fiat G.50 fighters, the Hurricane group decided to stay there for a week. During that time the Hurricanes were modified with an engine carburetor heater. The group would fly to Finland on the 7th of March and by that time the second Hurricane group would be there with them. See Hurricanes to Finland, page 2 if everything went as planned.. Home Latest Topic | Air Warfare | Conferences/Air Shows | Fighter Tactics | Fighter Aircraft | Missiles | Fighter Aviation Topic | Fighter History | Warbirds | Magazines | Current News | Links | Physiology | Photo Gallery | Bibliography | SIIVET - Wings | What's New J Lindberg. Copyright © 1997-2006 Fighter Tactics Academy. All rights reserved. Revised: tammikuu 02, 2006.