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Fighter History
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F19, Swedish volunteer unit in Finland during the Winter War
by Mauno A. Salo
The Swedish volunteer unit, F19 operated in northern Finland for 62 days during the Winter War. The Finnish and Swedish pilots had made several squadron visits between the two countries prior to the war so there were already very good ties between the air forces.
F19 Gloster Gladiator Mk.1 in Finland, February 1940.
With the money that was collected in Sweden Gloster Gladiator Mk.1 (J.8) and Hawker Hart (B.4) aircraft were bought. The latter ones were license-manufactured in Sweden (ASJA and CVM). The Gladiators were built in Britain during 1937-38. An old Raab-Kazenstein 26 (Sk.10) trainer was acquired as a liaison aircraft and Junkers F.13 as a transport plane.
Raab-Katzenstein (Sk.10) trainer
Junkers F.13 transport plane
The 12 Gladiators represented 1/3 of the Swedish Air Force fighter inventory. The Swedes had already ordered more modern aircraft from the USA and they were partly on their way to Sweden - 120 Republic EP-106s, which were the export version of the Seversky P-35. Only 60 of the ordered aircraft arrived in Sweden and they were designated J.9.
The project to assist Finland with a Swedish unit progressed: Capt. Bjuggren (later the executive officer for F19) traveled to Finland on the 13th of December 1939. He flew in a Junkers Ju-52 transport plane to Turku (Åbo). The Junkers was loaded full with the ammunition for the fighters. A government car took Bjuggren from Turku to Helsinki for discussions with the Finnish Air Force HQ. Talks progressed so that already on the 15th of December it was decided that the Swedes would take part in the Winter War.
On the afternoon of the 15th Bjuggren met the Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish defence forces, Marshall Mannerheim and Mannerheim suggested that the Swedish unit would operate in northern Finland where there were too few Finnish units. It was decided that the Swedish troops would be ready for operations on the 10th of January 1940. The flying units would support the Swedish-Norwegian volunteers on the ground in their operating area.
After Capt. Bjuggren returned to Sweden things developed fast. The new volunteer unit was formed already on the 19th of December. Major Hugo Beckhammar was selected to be the commander of the unit. Capt. Björn Bjuggren was the executive officer and the commander's aide was Lt. Gregor Falk. Major Beckhammar gave his first orders to the new Flygregemente 101 unit on the 22nd of December.
Maj. Beckhammar
The new unit consisted mainly of air force volunteers from:
General staff: 5
F.4 (Jämtland Wing): 84
F.8 (Svea, Barkaby): 104
F.1, -2, -3 and -6 maintenance personnel
Civilian drivers and cooks
The structure of the F19 regiment:
Headquarters: staff department, radio, account, transport and hospital departments
Fighter Squadron: Commander Capt. Söderberg, 11 pilots, 12 aircraft
Bomber Squadron: Commander Lt. Sterner (until Jan 12, 1940), three other pilots, five navigators, four aircraft
Transport squadron: two pilots, two aircraft, one liaison aircraft
Base company: 110 men
On the 25th of December Lt. Swartz and ensign Rissler traveled as base officers to meet Gen. Wallenius to discuss the basing issues. They contacted Hamilton, whom the Finns had already sent to northern Finland to prepare the arrival of the Swedish squadron. Three days later the squadron commander and his staff traveled to Finland. The rest of the personnel traveled on the next day.
Four Hawker Hart B.4 light bombers. Identification letters R, Z, Y and X. Later M as the fifth bomber
The pilots were waiting at Barkaby with the aircraft, which received green camouflage paint and a large yellow identification letter on the rudder. The engines were checked, radios adjusted and the machine guns aligned.
On the last day of December Capt. Bjuggren traveled again to Finland to get the final orders. He visited the Finnish LLv 10 (Squadron 10) on the 2nd of January 1940. The squadron flew Fokker C.X dive bombers and Capt. Bjuggren wanted to study the tactics before he returned to northern Finland.
The ground personnel arrived in the Kemi area in early January. Kemi became the main base for the squadron. The first air raid alert was on the 3rd of January and gave foretaste for the Swedish unit of what they were about to experience - this was no exercise.
The aircraft were ready for ferry flights on the 1st of January, but the weather delayed the flights. When the ground personnel arrived, the new unit was renamed LentoR 5 (Flight Regiment 5), which was changed by the FAF HQ on the 9th of January to F19 (Flygflottiljen 19). The liaison officer for the Swedish unit was Lt. Wartiovaara.
Base OSCAR was established 15 km (9 mi) northeast of Rovaniemi on a frozen lake surface. Gen. Wallenius requested for assistance on the 10th of January, but the weather prohibited the ferry flights from Sweden. At 13.25 hrs local time there was a phone call that the aircraft had taken off from Barkaby even though the ceiling was at 50 m (170 ft) and the tops of the chimneys were in cloud.
At 14.15 hrs aircraft noise was heard at Kemi and 14.30 hrs one group flew over Kemi towards east. There was more noise and soon 13 aircaft - 12 Gladiators and one Hart had landed. 15 min after the first group two more Harts arrived (the ones that had flown over first). An hour later came a report that two aircraft had landed at Tornio (Torneå).
The Finnish General Staff had ordered F19 to be responsible for the aispace north of Oulu (Uleåborg) - Hossa - Kärkjärvi. The unit was to co-ordinate reconnaissance with Gen. Wallenius.
Go to F19 in Finland, page 2
F19 Hawker Hart (B.4) with the identification letter "M"
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Revised: tammikuu 01, 2006.
