Hurricanes to Finland, page 2 by Jussi Räty Finnish Hurricane, HU-460 after acceptance at St. Athan. The ferry flight to Finland is about to begin. The pilot is sergeant Uuno Karhumäki. The second group over the North Sea The second group was ready at St. Athan. The pilots were: ensigns Taskinen (HU-461), Alitalo (HU-457), Myllylä (HU-456), Mustonen (HU-453), sergeant Karhumäki (HU-460) and Sgt. Laitinen (HU-42). Lt. Räty had ordered ensign Taskinen to be the leader of the second group and sergeant Karhumäki to be the backup since he already had years of flying experience. The second group went to Gloster's Brockworth factory on the 26th of February. The fighters were being painted when they arrived. HU-460 was getting the blue Finnish Air Force swastika (Swedish count Eric von Rosen's lucky sign, not the Nazi swastika). Late that day the fighters were flown to St. Athan. During the next two days the aircraft were checked with the RAF maintainers, the machine guns aligned, radios tested and everything prepared for the ferry flight. The same Blenheim escorted the second group of Finnish Hurricanes from St. Athan on the 29th of February. The group flew to Prestwick in poor weather conditions. From there they flew to Wick via Grangemouth. During landing at Wick the right main gear of ensign Taskinen's HU-461 collapsed and he had to stay at Wick till the armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union. The weather was reported to be good on the way to Stavanger in the morning of the 1st of March 1940. Two Lockheed Hudsons with long-range navigation gear were escorting the Hurricanes with the Sunderland flying boat. The weather forecast tuned out to be totally wrong, when the cloud base started to drop after some 30 min flight time. The group descended to 50 - 100 m (170 - 300 ft)over the waves in the February rain over North Sea. Half way to Norway the weather continued to get worse and the aircraft were only a few meters over the waves. The trailing Sunderland had been lost in the rain a while ago together with the other Hudson. The Hurricanes followed the lead Hudson and tightened the formation. After two hours of flying they spotted some islands and crossed the coastline. The Hudson kept a southerly heading between the islands and then turned north. When it did this twice the Hurricane leader realized that they were lost. Since the Hurricanes were getting low on fuel they disengaged from the Hudson and flew between the islands finally finding Sola airfield. The cloud base was at 30 m (100ft) and the only way to get to Sola was between two mountains. In a couple of minutes the Hurricanes flew through the mountain pass to the airfield and landed almost simultaneously on the crossing runways. During landing they realized that they were missing one Hurricane, Sgt. Laitinen's HU-462.. The lost Hurricane, HU-462 The flight from Wick to Stavanger had taken 3 h 10 min (45 min more than the first group's flight). The cruising speed was slow due to the flying boat. When the innermost aircraft in the formation had to reduce speed even further during turns Sgt. Laitinen had lost visibility to the group flying furthest to the right in the extremely poor weather. He had entered the cloud without nobody noticing it. Only two hours after the landing at Stavanger did the group hear that an aircraft had crashed on the island of Eigeroy 60 km (45 mi.) south of Stavanger. The pilot had been taken unconscious to the nearby Egersund hospital. Sgt. Laitinen's Hurricane, HU-462 at Eigeroy island 60 km south of Stavanger The rest of the group traveled to Egersund on the next day. The pilot was recovering in the hospital. The Hurricane was destroyed. The group returned to Stavanger, where some RAF pilots were trying to land three Finnish Air Force Westland Lysanders in poor weather. They didn't make it to Sola and landed on rocky fields close to the airfield. One Lysander (LY-124) was destroyed during landing at Buoy Island. A destroyed Finnish Air Force Westland Lysander LY-124 on the island of Buoy, close to Stavanger. Mr. A. F. Anderson didn't make it to Sola airfield. The remaining two RAF pilots suggested that they would join the Finnish Hurricane group on their way to Västerås, Sweden. The Lysander pilots preferred to circle the mountains to Oslo, but the Finns planned to cross the mountains and cut the leg by a third. Finally the Lysander pilots agreed and they decided to join the formation. The combined group took off on the 6th of March and refueled at Oslo. The whole group made it to Västerås the same day and now the Hurricane group was together, only Taskinen and Laitinen were missing. HU-462 was disassembled in Norway and the parts were sent to Finland as spares. When the first group landed at Västerås Hässlö airfield on the 29th of February, three British Hurricane technicians arrived there. They straightened the propeller of HU-455. After this 3/4 of the Hurricanes delivered to the Finnish Air Force were ready at Västerås to be ferried to Finland. The permission for the ferry flight was given only after the spare parts had arrived in Finland. On the 7th of March the green light was given and the first group took off in the morning. They could make it only to north of Stockholm, when the weather turned sour and they had to return to Hässlö airfield. In the afternoon they tried again and this time they succeeded in ferrying the aircraft to the Morane fighter base on a frozen lake at Säkylä. Ensign Kaukovaara's Hurricane HU-455 at at Säkylä lake base after the ferry flight from Västerås on the 7th of March 1940. The first group consisted of Lt. Räty (HU-451), ensigns Nissinen (HU-452), Mesinen (HU-458) and Myllylä (HU-459), sergeant Aikala (HU-454) and Sgt. Vassinen (HU-456). The second group arrived on the next day: ensigns Alitalo (HU-457) and Mustonen (HU-453) and sergeant Karhumäki (HU-460). The two Lysanders came with them. Ensign Kaukovaara flew the repaired HU-455 to Säkylä a couple of days later. (Sergeant Aikala was later lost on the 30th of July 1942 in a dive in HC-455 at Malmi) Detachment Räty's later actions Detachment Räty stayed at Säkylä with Squadron 28 supporting the air defence of Turku (Åbo) with the Morane fighters. The Winter War was about to end soon and no intercept missions were given to the aircraft. At times the Hurricanes were flown to Hollola base, where a new squadron was formed from the Brewsters and Fiat G.50 fighters. The plan was to use the new fighters in combat at the bay of Viipuri, but no war missions were flown with the new fighters. The Hurricanes returned to Säkylä to their original mission to defend Turku on the 10th of March and they were at Säkylä when the Winter War ended on the 13th of March 1940. The three British Hurricane technicians were at Säkylä. Of those Mr. Galpin (on the right at Artukainen airfield at Turku) and Mr. Martin trained the Finnish maintainers to use the Hurricanes and the weapons. The Hurricanes were standing alert until March 23, when they returned to peacetime readiness. On the 27th of March the detachment was ordered to move to Hollola attached to LeLv 24 (Squadron 24) and the flew there on the 30th. The maintenance personnel moved by cars on the same day. Mr. Galpin at Turku Because of the poor runway at Hollola the Hurricane detachment moved to Malmi airport at Helsinki on the 4th of April. Squadron 24 was there with their new Brewsters. Some of the Hurricanes were kept on alert at Helsinki. The Hurricanes and the Moranes moved to Turku on the 15th of May and did alert duties from the Artukainen airfield. Lt. Räty was transferred to Tampere to head the Flight Test Center and he was promoted to the rank of captain. The Detachment Räty was disbanded and attached to LeLv 28 as a flight. When the Continuation War started in 1941 new pilots were trained for the remaining eight Hurricanes and the previous Hurricane pilots were retrained to fly the French Morane Saulnier fighters in the war. In the end Finns had too few Hurricanes and the engines were worn out during the Temporary Peace with Soviet Union 1940 - 41. The aircraft turned out to be less agile in the Continuation War than the Brewsters. The Hurricane flight was attached to LeLv 32 (later LeLv 10) in the Continuation War as Detachment Kalaja. They achieved only 5,5 victories in the war. The engines from the shot down Soviet Hurricanes couldn't be used as spares since they had the Merlin XX engine. One war booty Hurricane (HC-465) was used for target towing in 1943. HC-452: Delivered to Det Räty in UK, LeLv 28 used at Turku May 1940, 30 Aug 1940 to LeLv 30, back to LeLv 28 23 June 1942, later to LeLv 26, damaged during landing at Immola 17 July 1942. Removed from inventory at Parola 16 July 1944. Total flight time in Finland only 208 hrs.   Information combined and translated from: Osasto Räty Hurricane-hävittäjiä hakemassa Englannista, Suomen Siivet 1/1972, 2/1972, 3/1972 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.