Very tasty video for WW2 aviation history freaks

[Grendel]

I think this will interest many of you, hopefully.

I captured and converted piece of a TV show shown yesterday in Finnish TV YLE1.
 http://www.byterapers.com/~grendel/scan/aviation/pilven_veikot.mpg

VCD-compatible MPEG, 118 MB.

The clip has two Finnish WW2 aces interviewed, and shows cool black/white footage from Finnish Air Force before and during WW2.

The talk is in Finnish of course, but I think you'll be able to enjoy the B/W-footage and check the old gents.

The gentlemen in question are:
(left) Väinö Pokela, Brewster/109 ace, 5 victories.
(right) Kyösti Karhila, Fokker D.XXI / Curtiss Hawk 75 / Messerchmitt 109 ace, 32 victories.

Kyösti Karhila is the unique pilot in FAF, that when the Messerchmitts arrived he insisted to fly with the wing guns installed.

More about Väinö Pokela at: http://www.compart.fi/icebreakers/WW2History.html

Short rundown of the video:
- Gents arrive
- B/W footage from the 30s and during the war
- Gents interviewed
- 5:54 Väinö Pokela at "Warplanes exhibition" at Finnish Aviation Museum. You see mr. Pokela with his "MT-208", Me 109 G-2 that he crashed in training flight accident after the war. Plane is currently under restoration.
- 10:12 LOTS and LOTS of WW2 pilots! The 25 years party of PIlven Veikot, "Chaps of the CLouds", the society of Finnish war time pilots. It was held just some 2 weeks ago. LOTS of fighter and bomber pilots and so on, with their wives. There was also five German Luftwaffe pilots attending.

I'll try to snip a shorter bit from the whole video later but tell me if you downloaded this and liked it  

 
 
 

[ 10-10-2001: Message edited by: Grendel ]

[Staga]

Heh that doll hanging in Do-17's cockpits roof was cool. Kinda like fuzzy-dices  
If you can grab a screenshot from that  

[ 10-10-2001: Message edited by: Staga ]

[Seeker]

Fantastic footage! Thanks for the link; I only wish I could understand what they hell they were saying!

[Staga]

I made fast translation from start of the film to end of black&white part. Too buzy to translate rest of it but if no'one else doesn't do it I'll do it tomorrow.
_____________________________ _______________

Women interviewer Wi
Man interviewer Mi
Väinö Pokela VP
Kyösti Karhila KK
Narrator N

Wi - .....we are introducing two of them.

Mi - "Pilven Veikot" (roughly translated to "Brothers in Clouds" or "Clouds Buddies)
are pilots who fought in WW2 and are still keeping touch to each other via their
guild "Pilven Veikot" which is founded 25 years ago.

Wi -Let's go back to the time when our country's fate was on hands of Vainö Pokela,
Kyösti Karhila and their companions in arms.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Black'n'White film footage begins
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Narrator:
 - When WinterWar begun the material strenght of AirForce was weak.
Finland had about 40 Fokker fighters, 15 Blenheims and about 60 already obsolete recon planes.
There weren't any any planes in storages to cover losses and there weren't any information about
replacement planes.
Soviet Unions numerically superiority was 10 to 1 so in WinterWar
Finns concentrated to interceptor duties and recon flights.

Time 01:00
Specially in beginning of WinterWar the climate was poor for flying.
 Airfields were rare, they were small and built on inferior ground areas.

Time 01:10
When Continuation war started Finland bought planes from Germany which were captured
from French and Russians.
Overall quantity of fighters were 120, bombers 21 and already out dated recon planes 58.

Time 01:34
After war it was calculated that between years 1941-1944 AirForce shot down 1600 enemy planes
and in Lapland War against retreating German forces two planes.

01:46
Flight operations contained another duties too:
Recon, photograph flights in front and inner land for makeing maps, re-supplying groundforces
and evacuation flights.
It is said that small but capable flight-groups had big influence especially in continuation war.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Black'n'White footage ends
-----------------------------------------------------------------

[Staga]

Funniest thing in that film:
Doll hanging from Dorniers roof  

 

[Grendel]

I clipped the black & white footage from this video to its own separate piece:
 http://www.byterapers.com/~grendel/scan/aviation/pilven_veikot_FAF_in_30s_and_ww2_clip.mpeg

20 MB

This shows FAF aircraft first during the 30es and then Dornier Do 17 bombers during the Continuation War.