> Behalf Of Alberto Monteiro
> >
> AFAIK, Finland was at war with Germany as soon as WW2 began. They
> switched sides when they were forced to do it: either become an ally
> of Nazi Germany or become a satrapy of Stalinist USSR.
>
Finland was neutral, along with the rest of Scandinavia, until it was
attacked by the USSR. They were not fighting Germany or anyone else. Russia
was trying to protect Leningrad by getting as much of a buffer around the
city as it could. Also wanted access to the Baltic sea.
Britain and France both supplied aircraft and other weapons to the Finns for
use against the USSR. The Brits were contemplating sending troops in, even
if they had to violate Swedish neutrality to get them there. Luckily, they
didn't.
The Finnish Air Force in 1939/40 included:
1. British aircraft
* Gloster Gladiator fighters
* Bristol Blenheim bombers (plus the license for Finland to build their
own)
* Hawker Hurricanes
These were all newly introduced front line British aircraft. The Gladiator
was being replaced but was still front line in both the RAF and Royal Navy.
2. French aircraft
* Morane Saulnier MS-406 fighters
* Caudron 710
These were also new, front line French Air Force aircraft.
3. US aircraft
* Brewster Buffalo (just introduced into USN)
* Curtiss 75 Hawk (only just introduced into USAAF but quickly replaced by
P40)
4. Dutch aircraft
* Fokker D XXI fighter (latest fighter in Nederlands Air Force)
This explains why you'll see pictures of US Curtiss fighters and British
Blenheims wearing a light blue swastika, which had been the Finnish ID mark
for the 20 year existence of its air force, even though the Finns were not
then allied to Germany. The swastika was replaced in 1943 with a white/light
blue/white roundel - as currently used - when Finland joined the allies
following Russia's advances through the Baltic.
Check out http://www.sci.fi/~ambush/faf/faf.html#faflist for a more
extensive listing.
Although Finland allied with the Germans against Russia after June 1941,
they restricted themselves to essentially the territory they'd lost to
Russia in 1939/40. The Finns refused to expand much further into Russian
territory, such as to Murmansk, which was a major reason why Leningrad
survived the siege.
> >Spain, although neutral, provided one division (at least) of
> volunteers for
> >the Russian front.
> >to
> Good ridance! Franco send the naziest of his followers to certain
> death.
>
Actually, I meant to put quotes on "volunteers". Chances are, most of the
troops were conscripts or whatever, and not Fascists*, and probably not
volunteers. The officers, however were probably all fascists. If anyone does
know, I'd love to hear whether all the Spanish fighting in Russia were
actually fascists.
* Here's another unknown. Was Franco and his movement officially a fascist
movement or just very closely aligned? Ie, the Nazis were very closely
politically aligned to the Italian Fascists but weren't actually fascists -
they were Nazi. (I think my brain hurts ;-) )
Brett
