The Soviet Air Forces

in the Winter War

Picture source: "Talvisodan Historia 4", p.72

• The Start
      The most widely used Soviet plane types

• The war begins
      The bombing attacks on the Finnish Home Front in the first 2 weeks of the war (map)
          The Molotov's breadbasket

• The new Northwestern Front

• February
      The bombing attacks on the Finnish Home Front in the last 2 weeks of the war (map)

• The war ends
      The number of Soviet planes, deployed against Finland, at the end of the war
      A table of the most heavily attacked towns or localities in the Winter War

The Start

At the start of the Winter War, the Soviet Air Forces had probably nearly 800 planes ready to be used against Finland.

- On the "Gulf of Finland"-area, around 200 planes
- On the Karelian Isthmus, some 300 planes
- Ladoga Karelia (east and north of Lake Ladoga) , around 100 planes
- Near Murmansk, on the arctic front, 170 planes

From this number, some 60 % were fighters, 30 % bombers and 10 % recon and utility planes. Compared to the Finnish Air Force, the Red Air Force was superior in numbers and had planes with better performances. Also many of the Soviet pilots had gained combat experience in the short war with Japan.

The commander of the Air Forces in the Leningrad Military District was J.Puthin. The commander of the Baltic Fleet air units was V.Jermatsenkov. The commander of the Air Forces in Ladoga Karelia was I.Kopets and in the Salla - Petsamo area S.Krasovskij with the help of A.Kuznetsov who commanded the air units of the Arctic Fleet.

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The most widely used Soviet plane types in the Winter War

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The war begins

At 09.15 hrs the warning sirens began to scream in Helsinki.

On 30 November 1939, the Finnish HQ of Air Defense received a report of a Soviet bombing attack against a seaplane base in Santahamina, Helsinki. Hits were scored on some wooden storage buildings, but both hangars and the planes were unharmed.

The aerial war had begun, and 15 other localities, besides Helsinki were bombed by the Soviet Air Forces on the first day of the war. The formations were small and caused only little damage, except in Helsinki, where a formation of 9 bombers attacked the Finnish Capital taking the inhabitants by surprise. Ironically, the biggest loss of civilian lives was sustained in that first small surprise attack on Helsinki, when 91 were killed, 36 seriously and some 200 slightly wounded. The total number of bomber flights into the Finnish Home Front, in the first day, was some 140.

 

On the next day, 1 December, the Soviet bombers attacked Helsinki and several other localities again, totaling around 250 flights, causing only superficial damage. Now the Soviet Air Forces were active also on the fronts, where fighters made strafing attacks, with little success.

The weather was generally bad in the first days of December to mid-December, restricting the number of Soviet sorties.

 

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The bombing attacks on the Finnish Home Front during the first 2 weeks of the war

The red markings indicate the number of attacks: The red dot indicates one - two/three aerial attacks The red circle indicates a small - a medium number of aerial attacks The red circle with a red dot inside indicates relatively heavy aerial attacks Source: "Talvisodan Historia 4", p.65

After the weather improved from 19 December onwards, the Red Army had been stopped in the Isthmus, the Soviet Air Force launched a new series of aerial attacks using larger formations, but still inflicting only small damage. On 29 December, an attack of some 50 planes against Käkisalmi was the first effective attack which caused considerable material damage in the city center and airfield (you can find Käkisalmi in the above map, it's the red dot on the western shore of lake Ladoga) . The area around Sortavala was bombed almost daily with small formations of 5 - 9 planes.

While the weather changed almost daily, the number of Soviet attacks fluctuated also. Some successful attacks were made in Elisenvaara on December 20th when a evacuation train was hit and 16 were killed and on December 26th when 26 were killed.
    In northern Finland many localities were bombed with little effect.

In addition to many scattered attacks, many concentrated attacks on successive days were launched especially against towns along the railroad network, but again with little success, except in Jyväskylä on 31 December, when 21 were killed and 27 wounded by an attack of 35 planes.

The Soviet bomber formations were usually flying without fighter cover, and therefore even obsolete Finnish fighters could claim victories if they could catch the faster Soviet bombers. The Soviet fighters were mostly controlling the skies near the frontlines but they didn't accompany Soviet bombers far behind Finnish lines.

 

Until further notice, the image will be unavailable for viewing. Picture and background information courtesy of Jouni Rönkkö  "Finnish Air Force  -almost in service-  1935-1945" This Iljushin DB-3 was one of the "six", that the Finnish fighter ace Lt. J.Sarvanto downed within 4 minutes near Utti (near Kouvola) with a Fokker D.XXI  fighter on January 6th 1940.

 

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"The Molotov's bread basket"
RRAB = "rotativno-rasseivajuschtschaja aviabomba"

On the right is a picture of a Soviet aerial bomb, intended to be used against urban areas and the civilian population. The bomb was basically a large cylinder with some 200 small 2,5 kg incendiary bomblets inside. The tailwings made the cylinder to spin and the centrifugal force threw the bomblets out in a wide area. This weapon was not very effective, since the small fires created by the bomblets were easy to put out by the civilians, and because of the snow covering the terrain. But still, Molotov's denials of Soviet bombings of the civilian population earned it the nickname "Molotov's bread basket".   Picture source: "Kun Suomi Taisteli", Reader's Digest, p.87

 

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The new Northwestern Front

 

In January, the newly formed Northwestern front was strengthened by 15 extra Air Regiments, some 900 planes, and the air units of the Baltic Fleet sent their planes to bomb targets in the Isthmus and southern Finland. Also the air strength in Ladoga Karelia was increased.

J.Puthin was appointed as the commander of the Air Forces of the Northwestern Front.

The attacks in January were much larger in scale and more frequent than before. Almost all Finnish important localities, towns and cities were attacked and the material damages and human losses were considerable.

The fighters made more often trips across the Gulf of Finland to escort bombers to targets in southern Finland, and more of the newer DB-3M type bomber were encountered, which were faster and carried a bigger load than the SB-2. Also more and more night attacks were made.

As the Red Army was preparing it's large offensive, the Soviet Air Forces photographed, and attacked everything in the Finnish rear areas, besides their everyday attacks in the Finnish Home Front.

The bases of the Soviet fighters were moved closer to the front, and they flew more often deep into Finland, making even some strafing attacks on Finnish bases. The Soviet fighters attacked everything they saw, buildings couldn't be heated in the day as the smoke draw immediate attention, and almost all movement had to done after sunset. To the Finnish front-line troops, the Soviet captive balloons proved to be the most annoying, providing the Red Army excellent observation and Artillery observation capability.

The Northwestern Front concentrated it's air power to support the attacks of the 13th and 7th Army. A third of the fighters, a quarter of the bombers and three quarters of the night attack planes were moved to give direct support in the breakthrough areas.

During February, the number of daily combat missions in the Isthmus often exceeded 1 000, and the attacks on the Home front were larger than ever, Tampere was attacked by over 100 bombers on 17 February and 2 March. Now many Soviet fighters with auxiliary fuel tanks were accompanying bombers even to Tampere.

Viipuri was attacked heavily during February. After the weekend of 17 and 18 February, the first 130 bombers attacked. On the next day 100 bombers attacked in the morning and 250 bombers in the afternoon, causing the city substantial damage. In fact the destruction was so extensive that no attempts were made to count the number of buildings destroyed.

 

The bombing attacks on the Finnish Home Front in the last 2 weeks of the war

The number of attacks are displayed like in the previous table, except the extra red ring around the circle indicates very heavy attacks (in Turku and Lappeenranta) . Source: "Talvisodan Historia 4", p.66

The heavy Soviet attacks continued to the end of the war in every part of the country.

 

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The war ends

 

The number of Soviet planes, deployed against Finland, at the end of the war

(the total number of Soviet Flight Regiments, at the end of the war, was 56)

Group	Bombers	Fighters	Recon	Total
Northwestern Front	430	275	-	705
Special Flight Group	179	95	-	274
7th Air Group	260	294	115	669
13th Air Group	200	101	106	407
Baltic Fleet	109	290	149	448
15th Air Group	179	127	78	384
8th Air Group	92	97	83	272
9th Air Group	162	167	33	362
14th Air Group	111	83	10	204
Arctic Fleet	10	30	20	60
Total	1 732	1 559	594	3 885

(Table source: "Talvisodan Pikkujättiläinen", WSOY 1999, p. 623)

 

 

The exact number of combat missions flown by the Soviet Air Forces is still unknown. The estimates are usually around 100 000 or so. In the great battles of February the front-line had a constant carpet of dozens, even hundreds of planes, so the truth is unlikely to be found.

According to a Soviet statistics mentioned in the book by Stepakov and Orehov, the Red Air Force flew 84 307 combat missions, used 23 146 tons of bombs and shot down 362 Finnish planes (!!! well, that's roughly three times the total number of Finnish front line planes during the whole Winter War!!!) , while losing 261 planes and 321 pilots.

On the Home Front, the Finnish statistics show, that a total of 690 localities were attacked with a total of 2 726 aerial attacks. Some 55 000 high-explosive and 41 000 incendiary bombs were dropped. In addition 440 strafing attacks were reported ( by fighters either escorting or in other missions) .

A table of the most heavily attacked towns or localities in the Winter War

One statistic of the damages suffered in the Home front, made after the war (not including the damages in Viipuri) gives a number of 157 stone buildings and 1 764 wooden buildings destroyed and 696 stone buildings and 4 137 wooden buildings damaged.  Lappeenranta was the second hardest hit town after Viipuri. It had 498 buildings either destroyed of damaged.

The Finnish railroads lost 243 locomotives and some 2 000 carriages either destroyed or damaged.

The human losses in the Finnish Home front to Soviet aerial attacks was 892 dead 540 badly and 1 316 slightly wounded.

The Soviet Air Forces lost at least 534 planes (confirmed) , and probably hundreds more, as the Finnish AA-defenses reported some 300 probable and FAF an additional 100. Also the large number of planes deployed increases the number of planes lost in accidents etc.

The Soviet Air Forces shot down 35 Finnish planes (confirmed) .