Sad nostalgia

[Reiska]

Some scans from my fathers photo album.

A 203 mm howitzer model 1917 made by Vickers I think. 32 howitzers were bought from USA during the Winter War,
they arrived in summer of 1940 a bit late for a winter war but were used under the Continuation War.



The remains of an encirclement somewhere on the Karelian Isthmus.

[Randy]

The photos are very clear for their age.

[vintageslrs]

Reiska

Great photos!!
Some excellent and important history there!

Thanks very much for posting them.

Bob

[Deleted]

Wonderful photos. Where did you get them?

Oops. Didn't read the first part of your post. Was your father in the military at that time?

Wayne

[Reiska]

I used PS to clean and restore the pictures. Still I am also surprised how good they are for they age. The howitzer photo is dated 31.08. - 41
It is the first blast-of with this gun (in our use) which explains the amount of the spectators. An "ancient" gun even in 1941 but we didn't have any better.
My father was an army chaplain and I don't know if he has shot this picture. My brother and my sister were also at the front. Women didn't wear guns, they served in the dressing stations and service troops.

An other purchase from USA was an old navy fighter Brewster 239. I think, that Finns were the only who were able to use it properly ;-)

www.warbirdforum.com/faf.htm

[Deleted]

The Brewster Buffalo was a disaster as a weapon. Early in the war a commander of an American Brewster squadron wrote that in his opinion, any Buffalo sent into combat shot be considered lost before leaving the ground. I see from your link that the Fins didn't have that version. Didn't know there was a "good" Brewster.

[olroy2044]

Thank you for sharing these pictures! The Finnish military has a well-deserved reputation as fierce fighters in the face of much larger and stronger opponents. Their achievements deserve more notice by military history buffs.

I'm with Wayne. I was not aware that there was another Brewster other than the Buffalo. One thing to remember is that the Buffaloes in service with the US and other Allied services, had the misfortune to be opposed primarily by the Zero. During the early part of the war, there was simply not another aircraft extant which could engage in a turning fight with the Zero with any hope of real success, European aircraft notwithstanding. Proper tactics, and skilled pilots helped, but even properly flown Buffaloes were lucky to even survive, let alone score, against the Zero. Roy

[Andrew]

Interesting pictures Reiska, i think the only person that doesnt have their fingers in their ears must be the photographer

funny how one thing leads to another, after looking up the that link and more about the Brewster i notice that the Finnish AF used a blue swastika, changed after the war to the roundel (the Nazi spoiled it for you!), that symbol apparently has quite a history in Finland (used in all sorts of things, bag making, craft etc etc) and is still used by the President of Finland (Presidential standard) and a few other things

[nikonbob]

Thanks for posting these interesting and historical photos. The posted link was just great to read.

Bob