"The Terror of Soviet Bombers" - The True Story of the Finnish Ace Oiva Tuominen
Vložit
- čas přidán 30. 05. 2024
- From the skies of the Winter War, to the last days of the Continuation War - Oiva Tuominen proved himself as one of the most capable and competent Finnish pilots of the FAF, and even of the entire war. Earning massive distinctions in his Gloster Gladiator and later Fiat G.50, he would become Finland's highest scoring ace in both designs.
Consider supporting us on Patreon: / aviationdeepdive
Join our Discord community: / discord
0:00 - 2:00 Introduction
2:01 - 11:08 Winter War and Aftermath
11:09 - 16:37 Continuation War
16:38 - 17:28 Conclusion
Sources:
(Sourced from surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/finlan...)
All aces of Stalin 1936-1953 - Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Double Fighter Knight - Ilmari Juutilainen, 1996 Apali Oy, Tampere, ISBN 952-5026-04-03
Englantilaiset Hävittäjät - Kalevi Keskinen, Kari Stenman and Klaus Niska
Finnish Air Force 1939-1945 - Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman, 1998
Hurricane & Gladiator - Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman, 2005, ISBN 952-99432-0-2
Hävittäjä-Ässät (Finnish Fighter Aces) - Kalevi Keskinen, Kari Stenman and Klaus Niska, 1994 Apali, Tampere, ISBN 952-5026-00-0
Ilmavoitot, osa 1 - Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman, ISBN 952-99432-8-8
Ilmavoitot, osa 2 - Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman, ISBN 952-99432-8-8
LeR 2 - Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman, 2001, ISBN 951-98751-0-7
Oiva ”Oippa” Tuominen - from mechanic to Knight (WWII Ace Stories) - Ossi Juntunen, 1999
Red Stars 7 - Talvisota Ilmassa - The Winter War In the Air - Carl-Fredrik Geust, 2011 Apali Oy, Tampere, ISBN 978-952-5877-04-5
Soviet Aces 1936-1953
Soviet Fighter Pilots 1936-1953 - Mikhail Bykov
Suomen Ilmavoimat part II - 1928-40 - Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman, 2006, ISBN 952-99743-0-2
Suomen Ilmavoimat part III - 1941 - Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman, 2007, ISBN 978-952-99743-1-3
Suomen Ilmavoimat part IV - 1942 - Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman, 2007, ISBN 978-952-99743-2-0
Suomen Ilmavoimat part V - 1943 - Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman, 2007, ISBN 978-952-99743-3-7
Suomen Ilmavoimat part VI - 1944 - Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman, 2008, ISBN 978-952-99743-5-1
Additional information kindly provided by Alexey Andreev, Göran Bruun, Carl-Fredrik Geust, Pekka Holopainen, Sari Lehmuskallio and Pentti Perttula. - Krátké a kreslené filmy
Feel free to join our Discord community! - discord.gg/WCevgcufwJ
Consider supporting us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/AviationDeepDive
Tuominen's Fiat G.50 camouflage made by the user Renta352: www.youtube.com/@Renta352
I NOTICE that German markings were used through the VIDEO on Finish aircraft
No, that's wrong. The hakaristi was on Finnish aircraft before Nazi Germany ever existed. @@frankkpowersjr8357
Not gernan markings, finnish markings. Germans used black and white cross, not swastika
its a sanskrit symbol that finland used before the nazis existed
@@frankkpowersjr8357
As a Finn I have to say that your pronunciation of the Finnish names is on point. That is a rare thing for a foreigner to do.
To every commenter shaking over swastika on Finnish planes, read history of Finnish airforce before commenting.
Finnish planes used Swastika already when Hitler was not even started his political career yet.
Love seeing content on Finnish aviation. Often overlooked, they had amazing pilots that just simply "made due" with what they had.
For sure!
Whoever it was in Finland who had the task of purchasing aircraft from people who didn't have many aircraft to sell also deserves respect. Either they got lucky or Finland had some crazily skilled pilots, because even unpromising types like the Brewster Buffalo and the Fokker 21 ended up being wonder weapons.
The person who was responsible for purchasing new aircraft to the Finnish air force was it's commander LtGen Jarl Lundqvist. He did pretty good job...
I did not know that. Either way, I hope he was recognised.
@@mtlb2674 His subordinate, Gustaf "Eka" Magnusson, would've done a better job had he been allowed to select the Heinkel He 112, as he wanted to, instead of the Fokker D.XXI. The Heinkel's heavier cannon armament would've made short shrift of Soviet bombers.
The Finnish Air Force motto is Qualitas Potentia Nostra
(English: "Quality is our Strength")
"Sir! The enemy outnumbers us 3 to 1!"
Touminen: "Good. Then we're evenly matched..."
Finland in WW2 was the definition of quality over quantity!
Admiring not only Finnish aces, but all the people who contributed to the successful defence against Russians in the terrible First winer war. All the world was wondering how a small nation can hold out agains so poweful enemy. It resembles the brave fight of the Ukrainians today.
Greetings from Czech republic (we've "enjoyed" Russian "liberation" to...)
I love Czechia so much. First off I love your cities, your hockey players, your cars, your bars you name it. But a lot of Finns love Estonia because they managed to rise out of the ashes much like Czechia. My top 3 visited countries are Estonia, Italy and Czechia. Please never change who you are.
Czechs make great guns. I have a CZ P10 and it is an excellent pistol.
But unlike Sweden: Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland etc. are immensely helpful allies, while Finland bordered a nation that was so neutral, it consistently failed to do the right thing
Very well done about our Finnish flying aces.
I live in Tammisaari, (in Swedish Ekenäs)were one of Finland's best flying aces lived his name was Hans ''Hasse'' Wind.
He had 75 confirmed air combat victories
And he became 2 time Mannerheim cross adwarded.
The town of Tammisaari / Ekenäs is a Swedish-speaking town, Hasse was a Swedish speaking Finn.
I've met flying ace Kosti Keski-Nummi who was Hans Winds wingman in his last sortie. Both got shot down, unfortunately Hasse was injured so badly he couldn't fly anymore but Kosti went back for more after 3 weeks.
www.is.fi/suomi100/art-2000005376707.html
Here's an interview of Kosti for the interested where he talks a bit about the experience. In finnish obviously so translate.google.com/
I'm so impressed, both with the actual history and with your retelling of it. The choice of photographs, the reenactment flight scenes, the custom-made plane liveries, the voiceovers, and the writing. An ace video in both senses!
Thanks so much! :)
@@aviationdeepdive Although the mountaneous terrain (say at 13:40 during the MBR downing) is a FAR cry from the terrain in Finland/Karelia... ;)
Pretty darn flat, plenty of lakes and the rest more or less covered by forest would be most accurate.
But all this is just nitpicking...
I love hearing about the Finns kicking the Soviets’ butts . . . in both wars.
That must be propaganda.
Well done video! The Finns are so over looked at the accomplishments they achieved. They were tough and fearless. The Germans were always glad to have the Finns fighting with them.
Until we had our fight with them. :)
1944-1945 the Russians forced us to have a brief war with Germany, otherwise the Russians would have invaded Finland again.
I like how the Finnish race was considered sub-human by the Germans due to perceived Mongolian origin, but after the winter war Finland gained so much respect (and political value) in Hitlers eyes that the not only was he willing to ally but also arranged a visit to Finland in 1942 for Mannerheims birthday.
@@EneTheGeneHitler once said that he thought that Germans are the best fighters in the world but it seems Finnish people are even better. Later someone visiting Hitler noticed on the wall nations evaluated according to their military accomplishments. Germany was first and Finland second.
@@miikapaananen1363 He became a bit of a fanboy :D
Noil vehkeillä ja niitä ketkä ne toimi !! SUURI KUNNIOITUS 💪👍🇫🇮
I hear you took great care to pronounce the names correctly which is pretty hard to do. Finnish war aviators are not a topic you hear much about, but were essential in protecting stratetic and civilian targets during the war. With a small and somewhat outdated airforce, Finland and it's pilots did their damnest to stop the soviet bombings and possibly saved thousands of civilians in the process.
Fun Fact: The blue upright swastikas in finnish planes and tanks predates the german swastika by almost two decades, and originates from a swedish lord Eric von Rosen who was a keen aviator and donated the first plane to newly independent Finland's airforce in 1918. He had painted his personal symbol for good luck on the wings, which happened to be an upright blue swastika. You can still see the swastika in some of the Airforce's unit's insignia, but for obvious reasons not on the planes itself.
Thank you for the video!
One of my favorite Finnish Aces I have built three models of his fighters. The fokker, Fiat, and his gladiator with skis.
The only flying Gladiator in the world is at my home city and it flies demonstration flights every summer...
You know, I'm an elder millennial that has been obsessed with aviation literally since he was 2, and I have to call out how supremely excellent you are at finding airplanes and stories that I may not have heard of or have only seen snippets of.
I subscribe to a number of WWII Aviation channels and you and Rex's Hangar are of particular note in your ability to do this. I just have to really let you know that I appreciate the amount of work you must do to find these things, and then, moreover, to find out enough to fill out a meaningful video with stuff about them.
That's very kind of you, I appreciate that!
What is it with the Fins, they excell at so many things military ! perhaps their geographic proximity plays a role....don't know it baffles me!
We got so little people here so one have to do little bit more.
@@KA-jm2cz In otherways, quality has a quantity all its own.
We Finns love our country deeply"Finland is good country.
It is best country for us.
It is country worth defend for.
And it's only defender is Finnish people".
Also we use sisu
May the sisu be with you!
We have two options with neighboring Russians: either being very brave and skillful and prepared, the other option is genocide. The Russians have invaded Finland about fifty times past thousand years
Just imagine if the finnish Aces had contemporary equipment.
Well maybe then the pilots would have left to the missions in a different mentality.. In the Finnish Defense Forces in general we have three assumptions: we're always out-manned, out-gunned and we do not have air superiority. Adapt and overcome.
During the start of the Continuation War Brwesters were certainly the best aircraft in the theatre!
Winter War is my favourite episode of air combat, glad to see yet another video about it, a great one too :)
Oh hey Smigol! I'm a fan of your content, nice to see you here and thanks for the kind words!
Determination when failure is not an option because you’re fighting for your homeland. Any plane will shine with a highly determined pilot in the cockpit.
Sure enough we Finns were "Glad" enough about those old birds.
Thank you from Finland on making this. We have many great pilots and stories worth to tell!
Excellent video! I've been flying the G 50 in Cliffs of Dover Blitz and wanted to learn more about it. This is the most interesting video I've seen on the subject. Had no idea the Finns used it.
Yoo this is awesome, im so glad i could help
Finland got first me 109 G2:s (Oivas plane) 1943 and G6:s 1944. G2 armament is two MG 17s machineguns (7.92mm) and one 20mm cannon not 13mm heavy machine guns and 20mm cannon.
Suomalaiset lentäjät parhaita.❤
Good document. Important war historian 🎬🇫🇮
Yep, excellent video. Very well done, films that actually matched the subject! Imagine that.
Glad you enjoyed it!
17:29 Russia still being a pain in the ass.
Yes, but fortunately not as strong as back then.
Hyvin tehty animaatio. Well done animation. Kiitos paljon.
Just one minor thing Finnish Air Force didn’t have yellow markings during winter war. Only during 1941-44. During Lapland war against German. Finns had white and blue roundels, no yellow markings or swastikas.
During the Lapland war Finnish air force still used the blue swastika until 1.4.1945 when it was changed to the blue/white roundel.
Sotalentäjien merkki oli käytössä 1918-1945. Hakaristi lähti vuonna 1945 ja olet oikeassa keltaisista merkinnöistä jotka tuli aseveljeyden myötä. Tässäkin videossa monta kuvaa talvisodan ajoilta joissa näkyy hakaristit siivissä sekä perässä.
God bless all of rhem who fought against bolshevism and communism !
The fight goes on...
2:16 Is that Fokker D.XXI just had been modified to have a retractable landing gear? 😯 I think this is new for me yet I already saw a lot of things about aviation!😲
Enegene, our Finnish expert looked into it and here's what he had to say: Two were made to have retractable gear. FR-117 had it installed in spring 1941 as it was being repaired. The plane turned out SLOWER than the regular D.21s. Fifteen kilometers per hour slower to be specific. It was modified to be more aerodynamic and the engine was switched to a fresh one but the speed didn't improve. The gear broke on landing at Tampere on 20th of 7th 1941. When being repaired it was switched back to the regular gear.
The other plane was FR-167 (in your photo btw). This one was the final plane in VL's series four and the gear was installed already on the production line. The plane was completed on the 2nd of 3rd 1941. Perhaps the gear was better installed on this example because the speed did increase, 15-37km/h depending on the altitude. Warrant officer Siltavuori rated the plane as perfectly servicable and the plane was give to täydennyslentolaivue 35 in the summer where it saw service. It was returned to the basic gear in 1944.
As a whole the retractable gear D.21 was abandoned in 1942. The gains were too small for the complexity of the gear mechanism. It was also dubious if the gear was strong enough, seeing as it broke on FR-117. FR-117 might have been tested in terms of speed only with skis, which may explain why the retractable system only slowed the plane. FR-117 also had to have a modification done to the exhaust which may have increased drag.
Info from Lentäjän näkökulma 2 and Suomen ilmailuhistoriallisen lehden erikoisnumero 4.
@@aviationdeepdive That's... mind-boggling. So I guess the engineers knew what they were up to, back then.
I own a photo album that once belonged to a Finnish aircrew member. In it is a photo of Tuominen's G.50, FA-26.
Russian wingman: There are 4 Fokkers on our tail!
Proceeds to get butt Fokked
also check out my first comment
Brownings firing through the prop had to be synchronised which meant that the main advantage of the weapon (its high cyclic rate) was negated. Makes the shoot down even more impressive.
Good quality animation and nice presentation of finnish flying ace. Laadukas animation ja hieno video suomalaisesta lentäjä ässästä.
The first time, i think, where Fiat G50 is named outside italian tubes for its capabilities. Makes It look like something much better than what It really was
Or makes it look as good as it really was.
@@danhubert-hx4ss It had a lot of mechanical issues though. Atleast here in Finland.
The engines wore out fast but the airframe was very robust according to Finnish sources@@EneTheGene
They were heavily modified and MG:s were changed to working ones.
@@topivaltanen4432 Where have you read this? Jukka Raunio's publications about the Fiat seem to imply that the original guns were kept.
Great job! The first I've seen that has paid attention to the pronunciation of the Finnish names, well researched too!
Thanks, appreciate that!
Excellent video. Liked and subbed.👍
Thank you very much!
Amazing quality and story telling! did know we had some aces never looked in to it, i found it funny that the Russian honored him.
great video 👍 br from Finland
Love your videos man . Watched all of your videos in a time span of an hour . Will you cover jet ages . Pr just the world war parts . Your simulations are well beyond the limit . Good luck man .
Remember one markable thing: after war, when those kills has proved Finns pilots results has coming more, even that Russians try to hide it. Others like Germany and Britannia numbers has smelted lower.
Finland didn't loose any bomber if Messerschmitt was protecting. Even that numbers was 20 against 250?!?!
Thats a myth, unfortunately.
@@petrinygren9965 No it isnt.Soviet count planes lost only if they did crash in enemys territory.If they crashed in Soviet territory they were officially marked out of service temporary even they wouldnt ever fly again.That way numbers they have to show to Stalin didnt look so bad.
Hello, good presentation. If i remember correctly, Tuominen was a taxi driver after the war. EA.
Perkele!
great video crack I was wondering if in the next video you could talk about the shiden kai and the japanese naval air squadron 343 ?
Thanks for this nice video of one more Finnish WWII ace pilot. Well, soon we seem to have WWIII in our hands and there will be no more aces - maybe no more people at all since this will be a thermonuclear war with no survivors.
It just sounds crazy. droppin 50+ planes being just fifth. people dont realize odds
A Finn who was 'rather stubborn'? Perish the thought.
Where'd you get the audio for the pilot dialogue? The pronounciation is on point, so I'd be tempted to say you got a native speaker to do the voice acting, if it weren't for the delivery, which, while professional, includes some word choices that seem really odd with the perfectly calm and professional delivery.
Yep I got multiple Finnish voice actors to help out
The 109G-2 did not have 13mm, but 7,92mm machine guns with the 20mm.
is there a il 2 tgb mod ofr the winter war or is this made with il 2 46?
This was made with War Thunder
oh@@aviationdeepdive
What a champ ♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤
What about a biopic on Shouty Louderman?
Hey! That's me!
What's the story with the insignia that resembles a swastika? I've seen the same insignia on some WWI planes.
It was the personal good luck symbol of the Swedish nobleman who donated the first airplane to the newly established Finnish air force in 1918, so it was painted on the plane. The Finnish air force decided to stick to the symbol, and it spread to other parts of the military as well, in a limited manner. Nobody knows how long the symbol, "hakaristi" in Finnish (literally "hook cross"), has been used to bring good luck or ward against evil in the northern Europe, but at least since the iron age, according to old findings. So, you find it in wood carvings and old textiles, occasionally. It's a pity the Nazis ruined its reputation in the West, as it was nothing special before them, just one old symbol among many.
The normal swastikas are crosses with their tips bent.
The nazi swastikas are rotated so that the middle spines form an "X", a pervertion of the true form of the swastika...
As to why Finns use Me109s, it's because they were fighting against an Allied country (USSR) and they can't purchase planes from UK or US. Meanwhile the Germans are like "the enemy of an enemy is a friend".
Still, I'd support any country that is fighting against an aggressor, which USSR was, whatever weapons the Finns choose to use.
Blue Swastika horisontally, Eric von Rosen🇸🇪later from same family Karin got married with Hermann Göring. Black Swastika now standing on one foot.
@@454FatJackoh you are just a bot. Well now it makes sense 😅
Just a suggestion. The guns aren't M K something. It's an abbreviation of Mark. ie Mark-1, Mark-108, etc.
Actually, no it's not, that's a common misconception. MK in MK 108 or MK 103 is not short for 'mark', it's short for Maschinenkanon", or "machine cannon" in English.
@@aviationdeepdive Then I stand corrected, and apologize. I've just heard so many references in videos to things like the em-kay forty eight torpedo, or the Spitfire em-kay nine from AI or just narrators who don't know what they're talking about. I'm ex-mil, so it's annoying. Your vids, BTW, are very good.
@@paddy1952 No worries, I get that. Thanks for the support anyway
well perkele
Nice video and good pronunciation of finnish names, but can't stop thinking he looks like Steve O 😅
👍👌
Gloster Gladiators also fought Fiat C.42 biplanes in Africa
I always react about clames stating the Fokker D.XXI as being obsolete, a bit, rather bla bla but obsolete.
In 1939, against whom and what?
Except Germany, Italy, England some what as they where still largely depending on the Gloster Gladiator! Was there anybody else better equipped? Yes France but about 75% of their new era modern fighters stod on the ground hampered by technical issues not having been teathed out by proper runs in before put in service.
Holland, yes but wierd prios, a like of the germans and the Blitz took care of that but some Fokker D.XXI did managed to get up and those few gave Me 109D an run for the money so guess what Luftwaffes first task was in entering Denmark?
Locate their Fokkers and take em out!
What did Soviet got? Polikarpov i-15bis i-16 type 5 6 7 10.
1939 the Fokker was an confy Sport Tourer wagon but in war development will pick up an greater speed so ok by 1941 put against i-16 type 18 - and the i-153 well then it started to show some age as not being fast enough but i will think that the finns used it as an fighter up til 1942 and then after a mini Stuka.
Did the Finnish adopt the swastika before the Nazis? (I know the symbol is at least 5000 years old.)
Juutilainen's status as highest ranking Finnish ace is not nearly as impressive as him being the highest ranking non-German ace
a Finn stubborn,,,, oh come on never heard of that
You can tell just by his stance in the pictures, especially the one at 13:21 that he is arrogant AF. Arrogance is a fairly common trait of the best war fighters.
War Thunder Footage :)
Great video, but if you can understand Finnish the voice actors sound really unemotional, like they're just reading it off the page
I think TTS was used.
It absolutely was not, I used voice actors...
That is just how we Finns are. Emotionless unless we win the ice hockey championship! 😂
@@aviationdeepdive I'll tip my hat to you for taking the time and effort, good work, but maybe next time tell them to try to imagine they're in a life or death situation. Just a suggestion.
The finnsonce they rceivedthe me.109they punishedthe red airforceat every encounter.
Count Eric von Rosen 🇸🇪, used 1918 Blue Swastika . He donated first 🇫🇮FAF it’s fighter plane’s. Rosen family had later a connection to Hermann Göring by woman Karin🇸🇪.. now black Swastika standing on one foot..
Your point?
Swedes gave us blue Swastika and Sweden was also one of the first countries to exhume bodies of the Finnish and study about them. Finns were considered inferiot that of Swedish race. Sweden basically made a thing about races and eugenics of which Nazis were so obsessed with.
It’s reported in the news just recently Sweden has returned skulls that belonged to Finland.
Is this made up?. 💪🇫🇮
Semper Fi to my relative whom I never met,Olli. Semper Fi brother!
Please get rid of that grainy filter. It looks awful.
What the hell is that Finnish? Nobody would speak like that. Especially during combat.
Also, there are no mountains in Finland nor fjords.
Why do all of the Finnish aircraft in the first few minutes of the video have swastikas on their fuselages?
Around three minutes into the video it shows CGI video of his first air battle. In this all of the Finnish fighters have their landing gear down. Sounds like a mistake to me, unless the planes had fixed landing gear of course...
Swastika was used by Finnish air force from 1918. Much earlier than nazis adopted their twisted version of it. Finnish swastika was the good luck symbol of Erik von Rosen, who donated the first aircraft to the new air force. You can still find the old swastikas in many old buildings, because it has been used in Finnish area since iron age and it was a strong magical symbol used i.e. to keep evil away.
@@Vapourized90 Thanks for sharing this with me.
You said that in Finland [the swastika] was a strong magical symbol used i.e. to keep evil away," as opposed to in Nazi Germany where it was a symbol of evil.
@@dinsdalemontypiranha4349 Swastika has been known around the world for thousands of years as a symbol of good luck, life... all kinds of good things. Never as symbol of evil, not even in Nazi-Germany.
This man was a blood thirsty pilot.
He intentionally shot into the cockpit.
These bombers were targeting Finnish cities, killing women and children, and the main way to protect them was by the fighters. It’s not nearly as black/white as you present.
What would've you done in the same place? Incapacitating the pilot is the most sure way to bring any aircraft down.
Seriously, Finnish planes had swastika's on them?
Yes we did, but it wasn't a nazi symbol, as it was used before there was a nazi swastika.
is it also on different direction ?
1918 when Finnish air force was formed, first plane was donated by Sweden and it had a blue swastika painted on it, as a good luck charm. It had nothing to do with 1930's nazi swastika. Finland used this two decades before it became a nazi symbol. And during WWll Finland did remove that and started using regular blue and white roundel instead.
So?
juutalainen means Jewish huh ironic
Juu ti lainen
@@markogronfors3826 aa
first of all. the word in finnish for someone of jewish faith would be juutalainen, not juutilainen. also second of all, why would it be ironic? finland did not send her jewish population to camps, finland did not share the disgusting idelogoy of germany even if the 2 nations fought the same enemy.
Ilmari Juutilainen was the best Finnish ace ever...94 kills...get your facts together...
LITERALLY 24 seconds into this video I say "Ilmari Juutilainen becoming the highest ranking Finnish ace ever have gone down in history."
Kato video eka ennenkuin kommentoit....
exactly, another urban myth!
ποιο είναι το ψέμα στο βίντεο;
Where is the myth?
Legend - not a myth
You choosed just wrong word
Commies when a Finn goes well against them: 😢😥😰🤯🤬😓😱😤😭
Why in the Fk did the Finnish adopt the swastika?!
I can't bear it.
They didn't 'adopt' it, they used this symbol on their aircraft since before Naziism as a political ideology even existed.
It has zero connection to the 'swastika', and it's not even called that. The finnish air force insignia is called the hakaristi
A Swedish Count donated Finland's first aircraft to them while they were fighting for independance from Russia in 1918. The symbol was painted on this aircraft, and Finland decided to use the insignia for their airforce. It has zero connection to, and pre-dated any Nazi usage.
The basic symbol was used very frequently by many nations, including the US. Check out the 45th Infantry Division logo
It's a good luck symbol that predates the Nazis by hundreds of years and occurs a lot in Hindu art and texts.
Vice versa. N.Germany adopted it. Finland used it long before Nazi Germany and it had a different meaning.
Glad others have commented correctly upon this symbol as insignia.
It is ancient and shows up in many cultures. Carl Sagan came up with an amazing, and likely accurate explanation for this. A rotating and out-gassing comet head creates a coma visible as a pinwheel. Chinese records of comets show this image. Over millennia these could have been seen worldwide.
And the Finns are very capable when pushed.
The sovey it's stole Finnish land.
"Sir! The enemy outnumbers us 3 to 1!"
Touminen: "Good. Then we're evenly matched..."