Continuing with their great Finnish Air Force Histories, this one is on two of the lesser types used during the war, the Hawker Hurricane and Gloster Gladiator. Both of these types came into service as a result of the need for fighters at the start of the Winter War. Both were pulled from stocks and sent over to Finland so they would be able to participate in the battles. As is often the case, they did not all arrive in time to be of a lot of help. Interestingly, it was the Gladiator that made the most lasting impression on pilots and these saw greater use than the Hurricane, for a variety of reasons.

The Hurricanes were the more modern of the two types and Finland eventually flew 13 of the type. Though of a higher performance than the Gladiator, the Hurricane was fraught with accidents and a lack of spare parts. This latter situation caused the grounding of aircraft on a number of occasions. The result is that they had minimal impact on the war effort aside from giving pilots some experience.

It was the Gladiator that was of the greatest use. 30 were purchased and all arrived by Feb 1940, in time to have some effect in the war. They were used by a number of squadrons during both the Winter War and Continuation War. Their high maneuverability made them particularly popular as tactical recce aircraft and they were able to handle many of the Soviet fighters that they met as well. The book also covers the Swedish Volunteers from J19 who assisted in the Winter War against the Soviets in a separate chapter.

Overall, this is much like the other books in the series. It is dual Finnish and English, with the English section fairly well translated. There are some sentence structure differences in the translation, but none of it impacts in the ability to read it. All of the superb photographs are dual  annotated as well. The only place you find no English translation is in the individual aircraft history section, though much of that can be easily deciphered.

Each section contains a brief history of the aircraft, the performance specifications, how they were procured by the Finnish AF, a section on camouflage, and then a brief history of the type in combat.

What makes this series great are the outstanding photographs. The Finnish AF took a lot of high quality images of their aircraft and men in action and you can see these in this book. There are also super color profiles on the inside and back covers of the book.

Overall, a superb reference on the types and one that you really should consider for your library.

December 2005

Review book courtesy of  Kari Stenman Publishing, where you can order your copy of this and several other superb books on the Finnish AF.

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