German Brewster

[NormH3]

Might be a stupid question, but how come my Brewster has German markings on it. I don't think the Brits used the Swastika on its aircraft.

[Debrody]

Our Brewster is a Finnish version, and thats why it has a blue swastika on it.

[NormH3]

Thank you..learned something new today

[macleod01]

Although today the Swastika is accounted as a sign of Evil, that is only in the form that the Nazi's used it. It has been rotated on its axis to the look that it is most commonly seen in.

Before the Nazi Party, the Swastika was a sign of good luck. It was used by the finnish Airforce (Hence on the Brewster) and even by at least one US unit. No doubt a big brain of the forum will come along and fill in this blank.

[R 105]

 Finland was an Allie of Germany when it looked like the Germans were going to beat the Russians. Once it was clear to Finland the Russians were going to win. They changed sides and declared war on Germany. The Swastika on Finland's planes had nothing to do with the Nazi party as the Finns were never Nazi's.

[Motherland]

Finland was an Allie of Germany when it looked like the Germans were going to beat the Russians. Once it was clear to Finland the Russians were going to win. They changed sides and declared war on Germany.

That's not exactly what happened...

Finland was a part of the Russian Empire from 1809-1917. During the Bolshevik Revolution and ensuing civil war, many of the areas which had been previously part of the Russian Empire (including Poland, the Baltic states, and Finland) became independent entities.

In Finland this was because the whites defeated the reds... so, although they never were able to install a monarchy, Finland was never incorporated into the Soviet Union and became an independent state for the first time in its history (it had previously been a part of the Swedish Empire).
A contribution to the white victory in Finland was the donation of some aircraft by a Swedish nobleman named von Rosen. Von Rosen's symbol, a blue swastika, therefore served as the roundel of the Finnish Air Force until the end of the Second World War. You can still see the 'von Rosen Cross' in Finnish Air Force insignia even though it's been replaced by a cockade roundel due to the swastika's modern association with the Nazis.

Finland was one of the territories the Soviet Union was looking to 'take back' in the late '30s, along with what it had lost of Poland and the Baltic states. The Soviet Union declared war on Finland on November 30, 1939, but was unable to achieve what it had set out to do (annex Finland) and just made off with some pretty minor territorial gains in the peace treaty signed March 13 1940. This war was known as the Winter War, and it's around this time that Finland purchased 40 some odd Brewsters from the United States (Finland didn't have a domestic aircraft industry (hell, their infantry was using Mosin Nagants left over from the civil war) so they flew whatever obsolete aircraft anyone would sell them the entire war).

Finland thus naturally declared war on the Soviet Union with Germany in 1941. This war was known as the Continuation War (both wars took place during WWII). Finland made peace with the Soviet Union in late 1944 as the war turned against Germany (Finland would have never been able to stand up against a mobilized Soviet Union), under the conditions that they ceded even more territory and revoked Germany's right to use Finnish territory in its continuing war against the Soviet Union. Germany refused to comply with this and Finland had to expel German forces from Finland or else they'd be back at war with the Soviets.

But, Finland remained the only part of the former Russian Empire free from the Soviets after the Second World War.

[LLogann]

"One pound of gold for two pounds of dirt"  

But, Finland remained the only part of the former Russian Empire free from the Soviets after the Second World War.

Not all swastikas are created equally NormH3, it is also still very big on the Asian continent.  Very widespread throughout India.  

[ink]

its actually a very old symbol that dates back to the American Indians, if not further.

[NormH3]

appreciate all the enlightenment. I was aware of its use in American Indian cultures, but never knew about the Finnish. I didn even realize the one on the wings was a different color. Interesting history behind that..

[Babalonian]

Finnland is like Germany, except its was raised on milk from Chuck Norris.

[Tyrannis]

its actually a very old symbol that dates back to the American Indians, if not further.

i thought the swastika was symbol of peace/goodluck for buddhists and hindus?

[Motherland]

The swastika can be found everywhere that there was some sort of civilization.

The ubiquity of the swastika symbol is easily explained by its being a very simple shape that will arise independently in any basket-weaving society. The swastika is a repeating design, created by the edges of the reeds in a square basket-weave. Other theories attempt to establish a connection via cultural diffusion or an explanation along the lines of Carl Jung's collective unconscious.

The earliest consistent use of swastika motifs in the archaeological record date to the Neolithic. The symbol appears in the "Vinca script" of Neolithic Europe (Balkans, 6th to 5th millennium BC). Another early attestation is on a pottery bowl found at Samarra, dated to as early as 4000 BC. Joseph Campbell in an essay on The Neolithic-Paleolithic Contrast cites an ornament on a Late Paleolithic (10,000 BC) mammoth ivory bird figurine found near Kiev as the only known occurrence of such a symbol predating the Neolithic.

[Vudu15]

IIRC the Romans also had them atop their battle standards, a sign of good luck.

[LLogann]

Yes!!! 

i thought the swastika was symbol of peace/goodluck for buddhists and hindus?

[Wildcat1]

the Nazi swastika was actually backwards, the traditional one goes counter-clockwise.

the Finnish Air Force used the blue swastika as a symbol of good luck, and it was completely unrelated to Nazi Germany