Book on Finnish-Russo air war.

[Rich46yo]

Im trying to get a leg up on this conflict. Can anyone recommend a good book in English on it?

Hopefully one with lots of input from pilots on both sides. Thanks.

[Wmaker]

For Winter War, Red Stars 7 is by far the best one stop book on Winter War air war. I haven't looked thoroughly through it yet myself but knowing the caliber of Mr.Geust as a historian and his previous works, I pretty much know it is unmatched and based on the latest research. I have Red Stars 5 which handles Soviet Baltic Fleet's Air Force's part in the Winter War and the book is unmatched regarding the subject.

Red Stars 5 is bi-lingual (Finnish/English) and I'm 99,5% sure the Red Stars 7 is as well.

Red Stars 5: http://www.apali.fi/kauppa/product_details.php?p=293
Red Stars 7: http://www.apali.fi/kauppa/product_details.php?p=315

Regarding Finnish Air Force in the war, most of the stuff published is sold here: http://www.kolumbus.fi/kari.stenman/

...The problem these is the fact that they are in Finnish but they do have English summaries and photo captions.

[Rich46yo]

Thanks. I'll check it out.

[GScholz]

http://www.amazon.com/Finnish-Aces-World-Osprey-Aircraft/dp/185532783X/ref=la_B004LRX1O0_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380890631&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/FINLANDS-WAR-CHOICE-Troubled-German-Finnish/dp/1935149482/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380890609&sr=1-2

Liked these two.

[Rich46yo]

I want a book where I can hear from the Horses mouth exactly how they defeated the vastly larger Soviet AF.

I mean its a great story aint it? Have any movies been made about it?

[Wmaker]

I want a book where I can hear from the Horses mouth exactly how they defeated the vastly larger Soviet AF.

I mean its a great story aint it? Have any movies been made about it?

I think it would be misleading to say that FiAF out right defeated Soviet air forces. Considering the numbers, they overall performed a lot better though, that's for sure.

No movies I'm afraid, would be great if there were.

The two personal accounts translated to English that I can recommend reading are Ilmari Juutilainen's (highest scoring finnish ace) Double Fighter Knight and Eino Luukkanen's (3rd highest scoring finnish ace) Fighter over Finland which might be hard to come by.

Double Fighter Knight:

http://www.apali.fi/kauppa/product_details.php?p=279


Not books but Finnish Virtual Pilot's Association has interviewed many Finnish air force veterans and the interviews can be found as articles here: http://www.virtualpilots.fi/en/hist/

If you don't want to wait until you get any of the books mentioned, here's an excellent link on the Finnish thinking/tactics in general written from the Brewster pilot's point of view:

Captain H. Wind's Lectures on Fighter Tactics were written in 1943 to be used in training of new pilots. Afterwards, the lecture series was used in the Finnish Air Force for several decades. The lectures have been transferred into digital format in as original and accurate a form as possible - the way they were written in 1943. The author, Hans Wind, was the second highest scoring Finnish pilot of World War II and our highest scoring Brewster ace.
To our knowledge Wind's lectures have never been available in public before, and this is the first time it is fully translated to English.
http://www.virtualpilots.fi/en/hist/WW2History-CaptainWindsAirCombatTacticsLecture.html

[Rich46yo]

Thanks for the links. I will get to them when Im able.

As for "winning"? What were the odds ya think, in autumn 1939, that little Finland would survive the war with its Independence? Or at least a large degree of it? Or that it would find a way to protect its air space and inflict such heavy casualties on the enemy?

[pipz]

This is also a good one.

http://www.amazon.com/Fighter-over-Finland-Memoirs-Pilot/dp/0809496208/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381019280&sr=8-1&keywords=fighters+over+finland

[Acidrain]

I want a book where I can hear from the Horses mouth exactly how they defeated the vastly larger Soviet AF.

The Brewster....duh.

[Gman]

Here is a copy of the Finnish Aces book by Osprey for the OP to download, anyone else can grab it as well if they like.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/ulx837rfx8phx8f/(Aviation)_(Osprey)_(AotA_23)_Finnish_Aces_of_WWII.pdf

You'll need a decent PDF viewer, as you'll need to zoom in on it in order to read it properly, but there is a lot of good information in here for only a 50 page booklet.