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Concept
Bombing of Helsinki in World War II
Summary
Helsinki, the capital of Finland, was bombed repeatedly during World War II. Between 1939 and 1944, Finland was subjected to a number of bombing campaigns by the Soviet Union. The largest were three raids in February 1944, which have been called The Great Raids Against Helsinki.
In the autumn of 1939, Helsinki was protected by the 1st Anti Aircraft Regiment consisting of four heavy anti-aircraft batteries of three to four guns each, one light AA battery and one AA machine gun company.
The air defence of Helsinki was significantly strengthened from the spring of 1943 onwards under the lead of Colonel Pekka Jokipaltio. During the Continuation War, Germany provided two early warning radars and four gun laying radars to Helsinki, further, 18 very effective German heavy 88 mm AA guns were also placed in Helsinki. The new six-gun batteries were grouped at Lauttasaari, Käpylä and in Santahamina. By February 1944 Helsinki was protected by 13 light and heavy AA-batteries. Air defences included 77 heavy AA-guns, 41 light AA-guns, 36 searchlights, 13 acoustic locators and 6 radars in addition to visual spotters and the Finnish Navy's anti-aircraft units. Germany also provided some night fighter support against the Soviet air raids.
The air defence command system was based on the German system and was quite effective – key personnel had trained in Germany. Manpower shortages made the air defence also use 16-year-old boy volunteers from Suojeluskunta (White Guard) to man the guns and young girls of the Lotta Svärd organization to man searchlights.
The Germans had also based a night fighter unit, consisting of 12 modified Bf 109G-6 night fighters in Helsinki on 12 February 1944 and the German night fighter direction vessel Togo cruised in the Gulf of Finland between Tallinn and Helsinki.
Helsinki's air defences prioritized stopping bombers from reaching the city over the destruction of air targets. In a special type of barrage, several batteries would fire a wall of flak in front of the approaching bombers in an attempt to scare them into dropping their payloads too early and breaking away.
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