The Finnish Navy
30.11.1939

• Background

• The tasks of the Navy

• Actions at sea

• Most important vessels of the Finnish Navy (table)

• The Finnish submarine "Vesikko"
      Background
      Vesikko in the Winter War

Background

The Finnish navy was purely a coastal navy without "big ships". The pride of the Finnish fleet were the 2 coastal armored vessels, constructed in the early 30's.

When the war started, the navy had in its use (including all auxiliary crafts) 190 ships and 363 motorboats (about 65 % of the required strength). The navy had 3 544 men, not including a new batch of recruits, 295 strong, in training.
    The total manpower committed to sea and coastal defense was 33 200,  including 20 700 men in coastal batteries and coast defense-units, and 8 650 regular infantry.
The CinC was Major General V.Valve.

Although the navy had been under a determined upgrading and modernizing program (for a small country's navy), where the navy was strengthened by submarines and armored coastal vessels. The biggest problem was the old age of the equipment.
   
    For instance:

-The 254mm and 105mm guns on the armored ships (Väinämöinen & Ilmarinen) were the only modern guns in the navy (not including Anti-Aircraft guns).The rest of the guns date back to WW1 and the days when Finland was ruled by the Tzar.

- From the mines, that the navy had (3 500 anchorable seamines), over 50 % were from WW1 with a warhead of only 75 - 100 kg.

- The majority of the torpedoes were 45cm "Whitehead"-model and they were warbooty from 1918. There were enough torpedoes to three reloads for all launchers.

- The navy had only 520 depth charges, from which some 50 % were found to be unreliable.

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The tasks of the navy

The main tasks of the navy was to prevent an amphibious invasion and to secure Finland's vital searoutes to the west.

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Actions at sea

Only small scale actions took place before the Gulf of Finland froze completely up. From these the most notable were:
- 1.12.1939 the soviet capture of Suursaari, defended only by a small 30 men guard detachment.

- 1.12.1939 a short firefight between the Russarö fort (6 * 254mm/50-BS , 6 * 75mm/50-CM) and a soviet Task Force of cruiser Kirov accompanied by two class G destroyers. One of the destroyers was damaged and the soviet forces withdrew.

- 14.12.1939 a short firefight between the Uto fort (4 * 152mm/45-C) and two soviet class G destroyers, which ended when a hit was spotted and the destroyers withdrew behind a smokescreen. Through the smoke explosions were seen and heard , and after the smoke dissipated only one destroyer was afloat.

- on 18. and 19.12.1939, strong soviet Task Forces led by battleships Marat and Oktjabrskaja Revolutsija bombarded the Saarenpaa fort (6 * 254mm/45-D , 2 * 152mm/45-C) with the help of dozens of fighters and bombers. The Oktjabrskaja Revolutsija attacked on December 18th and Marat on the next day. The bombardment on the second day ended at 12.55 am, when a hit was seen on Marat's stern and it stopped firing and withdrew.
The Finnish fort suffered heavy material damage and some personnel casualties, but it was not knocked out.

After the threat of seaborne invasion diminished, the armored coastal vessels were sent to Turku in late January, where their relatively strong anti-aircraft weaponry were warmly welcomed.

- 7.12.1939 the Soviet Union declared a blockade, and threatened to sink every ship within 20nm of the coast of Finland. The effects of the blockade, enforced mainly by soviet subs, where relatively small. After the initial surprise, the merchant ships were assembled into convoys and only one attack on a convoy (on 13.1.1940 by sts-324, north of Market) has been reported. It didn't manage to hit any of the merchants, but a faulty depth charge exploded prematurely and sunk the escort-vessel Aura II and 26 men were lost.

The exceptionally cold winter froze the Gulf of Finland, and this brought a new threat: an attack over the ice.
-  4.-9.3.1940 a soviet brigade or division tried repeatedly on three points (south and southeast of Kotka) to gain a foothold either on the southern coast of Finland or on the islands. They were repulsed each time with heavy casualties by the fire of the Finnish coastal forts.

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Most important vessels of the Finnish navy

(Note:
DP -means Dual Purpose -gun, can be used against both sea and air targets.
AA -means Anti-Aircraft)

(Table source: "Talvisodan Historia 1", WSOY 1991, p.191)

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Finnish submarine "Vesikko"

Picture and background information courtesy of Jouni Rönkkö 
"Finnish Air Force  -almost in service-  1935-1945"

For more and better information about the Finnish Navy, I suggest you to visit the
"The Finnish Navy in World War 2"-website, by Jari Aromaa