Lentolaivue 32

Model 75A of Lentolaivue 32 in the later scheme of olive green and black over light blue

For those who have interest in the Continuation War, you probably know of the exploits of Lentolaivue 24 and their amazing successes while using the Brewster Model 239 against the numerically superior Soviets. However, the Finns fielded other squadrons that also delivered impressive kill ratios from mid-1941 until the Finns signed an armistice with the Soviets in mid-1944. One of those squadrons, flying another outmoded American fighter, was Lentolaivue 32. This squadron, which started the war flying Fokker XXIs, supported by a flight of Hawker Hurricanes, transitioned to the Curtiss Model 75A a few weeks into the war. The Sussu (Sweetheart), as the Model 75 was known in Finnish service, served in LLv 32 for three years and chalked up an impressive kill ratio over their Soviet counterparts. I have covered the Curtiss in Finnish service previously (found HERE) so I will not rehash those details. This post focuses on Lentolaivue 32 and its impressive string of victories, even when flying against advance Soviet fighters later in the war.

The squadron received its first victory on June 25, 1941 when Veikko Evinen, flying a Fokker XXI, shot down a pair of Tupolev SB-2. Evinen would obtain four victories in LLv 32, all in 1941. He would later transfer to LLv 34 and obtain ace status before being killed. LLv 32 would obtain 7.5 victories while flying the Fokker. LLv 32's first aces would be Paavo Berg and Kyösti Karhila, both obtaining their fifth kill on September 19, 1941, both victorious over MiG-3s.

A schwarm of Sussus

The following list shows the claims of the squadron, most of the claims verified against Russian archival sources. Note: FR = Fokker XXI, HC = Hurricane, CU = Curtiss, and MT - Messerschmitt.

Let's look at Lentolaivue 32 by the overall numbers. The squadron racked up 206 victories against nineteen losses for a ratio of nearly 11:1. Of the losses, six planes were lost due to anti-aircraft fire, three were lost due to Soviet airstrikes on Finnish airfields, while only ten were lost in combat, yielding a ratio of almost 21:1 when only counting combat losses. Ten LLv 32 pilots were killed, two wounded, and one was made a prisoner of war. Sixty-three of the squadron's pilots had at least a half kill and sixteen pilots made ace status. These numbers are even more impressive when taking into consideration that the squadron was rarely anywhere near full strength.

As seen on the following chart, the squadron was very successful against early war Soviet fighters, but also racked up numerous kills against the superior LaGG-3s and La-5s, again demonstrating the quality edge the Finnish pilots possessed as late as mid-1944.

I will discuss my final thoughts on rating the Finns in a future entry as a follow up to my previous post on Finnish aircrew quality.

Encounter Over the Baltic

This cool looking Swedish design, the FFVS J 22, first flew in September, 1942 and was introduced in October the following year.

So, how many Check Your 6! gamers have the FFVS J 22 in their collections? I am guessing not many, mostly because it was a design created by a neutral country and not used in combat. But should that stop us from fielding a few of these diminutive fighters for some what-if encounters? Of course not!

I have a 1950s Jet Age scenario that features East Germans vs. Swedes, a completely hypothetical engagement, and it would not be much of a stretch to go back a decade or so and do something similar against a World War II backdrop. Why? Because I want to be able to use the sweet looking Swedish FFVS J 22, a radial engine fighter that, when flying mock combat against the P-51, could hold its own under 13,000 feet. The J 22 was available by late fall 1943, so German opponents (from a fighter perspective) could be the Messerschmitt Me 109G and the Focke-Wulf Fw 190A models. Now, I have not really delved into having very many German aircraft in my collection, but creating another what-if scenario might push me to obtain some mid to late war German fighters, which of course would find more historical uses.

Ratings for the J 22 might look something like this (very speculative and I am open to opinions to flesh out the stats):

Image from Table Top Flights

Okay, as stats are sort of worked out, where can one find the J 22 in miniature? Look no further than the detailed 3D prints offered by Table Top Flights. The J 22 is also offered in metal by Heroics & Ros, but the quality of the present-day 3D prints leaves the venerable H&R line in the dust.

Now, to create a scenario! Oh wait, I just did. Check it out on the Downloads page, called Encounter Over the Baltic.

The What If War

Yep, I have a hankering! 

In 1937 Europe was unsettled, to say the least. The rise of Germany was on the near horizon and it was unknown to the other European powers what Germany's impact would be on future events. Austria was still "free" although the Austrian socialists were making strides towards controlling the country (with a little shove called German annexation in March 1938). There were some rumblings of the Germans and Czechs having a bit of a "have at you" as well. Using this unsettled setting as a background, I wanted to create a biplane encounter, using some planes not often seen on the tabletop, and appearing in eye appealing schemes. 

The setting is late 1937 with the Austrians causing some angst among the Czechs by repeated violations of Czechoslovakian air space by the CR.32s of the Austrian Luftstreitkräfte. The Czechs have been hesitant to do more than protest as they have concerns of a larger conflict that would see Germany supporting Austria. However, on a beautiful fall day over the Vltava River the Czechs had had enough and scrambled fighters to intercept the latest Austrian incursion.

Austria - The Austrians had as their main fighter the Fiat CR.32. I just love the Austrian roundel over top a gray or natural metal scheme and have been looking for an excuse to buy a sheet of Austrian decals (which might wind up on some Tunnans as well). As Table Top Flights make the CR.32 in 1/285, grabbing a flight (or two) of these will be a no-brainer. However, does anyone know what constituted an Austrian flight?

Czechoslovakia - And now I can get some double duty from my Slovak-Hungarian War Avia B-534s! Or, it gives me an excuse to order more! I am asking Flight Deck Decals to scale some of these for me in 1/285. I know the Czechs used three-plane formations, so three flights of these will do nicely, thank you very much.

Germany - Okay, I should use an early model of the Bf 109, but I miss the Heinkel He 51s I used to have for the Spanish Civil War (traded them years ago) and want more! And I really like the above scheme, the medium blue speaks to my Bavarian roots. Like the Czechs, the Germans were using three-plane formations, so as a support to the Austrians, I might just grab three of the Heinkels. Again, I am having Flight Deck scale these to 1/285.

The good news is that all three antagonists have paint schemes that I should be able to pull off myself.

I have created a scenario (well, you KNOW I was going to) in which the aggressor (the Austrians) intentionally violate Czech airspace to embarrass the Czechs, with the Czechs unexpectedly responding in force, and with the Germans coming to the Austrians rescue. Check the Downloads page for the Violence over the Vltava scenario.

Why Not the Hellcat?

An attractive scheme graces this F6F-5 Hellcat

The American plane with the most kills claimed in the Pacific Theater is not the Corsair, the P-40, or the P-38. It is the Grumman F6F Hellcat. Granted, the Hellcat came in at the middle point of the war in the Pacific, when Japanese aircrew quality was on the wane. Yet there seems to be not a lot of love for what amounts to be the "super Wildcat." I know have been guilty of not adding any Hellcats to my World War II collection, I think mostly because I like the earlier period of the war or oddball theaters, but I aim to rectify that.

Over the last year or so I picked up a couple of titles on the Hellcat, one being from the old Arco-Aircam series and another title published in 2008 by a Polish company (but written in English). There are of course several titles available on the Hellcat, including an In Action and Walkaround from Squadron/Signal and another I really want from Sprue Brothers, one of the Ginter Books publications, but it is a bit pricey, and even more so on the aftermarket sites. And of course there are a few titles offered by Osprey Publishing which includes one in the Dogfight series and three in the Aces series. I have since acquired Barrett Tillman's Hellcat: The F6F in World War II, Tillman's Hellcat Aces of World War 2, and Bert Kinzey's Detail & Scale offering on the Hellcat. These titles pretty much cover everything one needs to know about the Hellcat's development and war service.

I have taken the scenarios from Battles Above 1, Battles Above 3, and Desperate Measures that feature the Hellcat and have created this chart showing number of aircraft needed for each scenario.

In looking at the Check Your 6! stats for the Hellcat, it is a formidable bird and an marked improvement over its Wildcat predecessor. Taking suggestions made by now departed gamer Tom Michael on the CY6! discussion group, in which he provided details on the improvements made on the -5 model, here is how the Hellcat shakes out in game terms:

Overall, the Hellcat it is a pretty cool plane, with interesting paint schemes, good wartime performance, and going up against a lot of Japanese aircraft that are not nearly as known as the early war  Zeros, Vals, Kates, Oscars, Betties, and Nates. As a result, I will be ordering several Hellcats from Flight Deck Decals and working towards gaming some Hellcat scenarios.