Author Topic: Women Warriors in Winter  (Read 3542 times)

Offline apophenia

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Women Warriors in Winter
« on: April 11, 2021, 02:03:19 AM »
Naiset sotureita ilman - Finnish Female Fighter Units

Under the interim terms of Finland's 1944 surrender to the Soviet Union, all paramilitary organizations were to be disbanded. As a result, the Finnish armed forces' volunteer female auxiliary - the Lotta Svärd - was reorganized. The bulk of the Lotta Svärd's support role was taken over by the civilian Suomen Naisten Huoltosäätiö (Finnish Women's Welfare Foundation). What remained of the Lotta Svärd became components of the revised Puolustusvoimat (Finnish Defence Forces). Within the Finnish air force, Lotta Svärd units were designated LS-Ilmavoimat.

Following the example of the victorious VVS, combat squadrons were formed from female LS-Ilmavoimat personnel. The first was Hyökkäyslaivue (Attack Squadron) 60 flying armed VL Tuisku II biplane trainers as single-seaters. HyLe.Lv 61 was to fly converted VL Pyry monoplanes but this plan was dropped. Instead, HyLe.Lv 61 and HyLe.Lv 62 were equipped with the powerful 'Mersu' - mainly early-model BF 109G-2s - armed with ground-attack weapons.

Top A Bf 109G-6 of HyLe.Lv 61 while operating from the airfield at Ivalo. Piloted by yliluutnantti (Senior Lt.) Eevi Männikkö, the 'G-6 - something of a rare bird for LS-Ilmavoimat units - was used to fly top-cover for the squadron's fighter-bombers. This aircraft would be written-off when HyLe.Lv 61 moved up to Storslett on the Norwegian side of the border. Fortunately, ylil. Männikkö walked away from the wreckage, ending her war with the rank of kapteeni.

The scheme is standard wartime Luftwaffe paintwork. The post-September 1944 'swastika-less' Finnish roundel marks six locations and white identification bands wrap both nose and tail. On the rudder is HyLe.Lv 61's blue-and-white 'Tilkkutyö ('Patchwork') emblem. All previous yellow Ostfront recognition panels have been overpainted.

Bottom A Bf 109G-2 of HyLe.Lv 62 armed with a German 250 kg bomb on an ETC 500 belly rack. This aircraft was flown out of the crude airstrip at Enontekio by vänrikki (2nd Lt.) Annikki Viljanen. On 01 January 1946 - mere days before the final German collapse in Norway - this 'Mersu' was hit by German flak above the Norwegian village of Kåfjord in Troms og Finnmark county. The aircraft came down in the deep waters of the Kåfjorden and vänr. Viljanen's body was never recovered.

Again, a standard Luftwaffe scheme is worn, heavily over-coated with water-based 'Lumikki' ('Snow White') temporary paint - including blotching along the fuselage sides. On the tail is HyLe.Lv 61's usual Finnish flag motif - although that Lippu looked a little anaemic on MT-237. Note that the individual aircraft number on the cowling has been partially obscured by 'Lumikki' overpainting and that '7' lacked its white fuselage ID band.

__________________________________________

BTW: This was prompted by a suggestion of female combat units by Sport25ing[/i].

The 'MT-435' sideview was modified from a 'Mersu' profile by Karolina Hołda. 'MT-237' was another Google Image find ... but anonymous.
« Last Edit: April 11, 2021, 02:05:39 AM by apophenia »
Froglord: "... amphibious doom descends ... approach the alter and swear your allegiance to the swamp."

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Women Warriors in Winter
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2021, 02:14:03 AM »
And here I was expecting something like this based on the thread title... ;)

All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Women Warriors in Winter
« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2021, 02:14:14 AM »
 :smiley:
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline apophenia

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Re: Women Warriors in Winter
« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2021, 02:23:40 AM »
And here I was expecting something like this based on the thread title... ;)

 ;D ;D

Or maybe Skade from The Last Kingdom?
Froglord: "... amphibious doom descends ... approach the alter and swear your allegiance to the swamp."

Offline Buzzbomb

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Re: Women Warriors in Winter
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2021, 06:46:07 AM »
Both the profiles work very well, nice work

Greg, where do you find this stuff :o

Offline Frank3k

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Re: Women Warriors in Winter
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2021, 07:30:04 AM »
That's Cindy Renne Preto, aka Aria Giovanni

Offline Robomog

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Re: Women Warriors in Winter
« Reply #6 on: April 11, 2021, 07:48:57 AM »
I have to admit I was expecting a figurine  ::)

 ;D ;D

Mog
>^-.-^<
Mostly Harmless...............

Offline apophenia

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Re: Women Warriors in Winter
« Reply #7 on: April 11, 2021, 11:02:39 AM »
Obviously I need to consider my Subject line wording with more care  ::)
Froglord: "... amphibious doom descends ... approach the alter and swear your allegiance to the swamp."

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: Women Warriors in Winter
« Reply #8 on: April 11, 2021, 11:28:03 PM »
Obviously I need to consider my Subject line wording with more care  ::)

 I am not seeing an issue. The profiles and back story are great, and the plan view in Greg's post is terrific too... (Flees, giggling in Swedish)

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Women Warriors in Winter
« Reply #9 on: April 12, 2021, 01:03:29 AM »
Obviously I need to consider my Subject line wording with more care  ::)

 I am not seeing an issue. The profiles and back story are great, and the plan view in Greg's post is terrific too... (Flees, giggling in Swedish)

I think it would only be a 'plan' view if she was doing what's she's more famous for (not that I would know of course ---  ;D)

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Women Warriors in Winter
« Reply #10 on: April 12, 2021, 01:50:11 AM »
Greg, where do you find this stuff :o

Simply a Google search...honest.
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline kim margosein

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Re: Women Warriors in Winter
« Reply #11 on: April 16, 2021, 09:48:47 AM »
Yeah.  I expected a tutorial o how to model the cold weather indicators in 1/35

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Women Warriors in Winter
« Reply #12 on: April 17, 2021, 01:55:33 AM »
Yeah.  I expected a tutorial o how to model the cold weather indicators in 1/35

« Last Edit: April 17, 2021, 01:57:59 AM by GTX_Admin »
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline perttime

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Re: Women Warriors in Winter
« Reply #13 on: April 17, 2021, 02:21:41 PM »
That is cool!

I suspect you may have used Google Translate for the Finnish. "Naiset sotureita ilman" doesn't quite work. Something like "Naiset ilmojen sotureina" (Women as warriors of the air) or "Ilmojen naissoturit" (Woman-warriors of the air) would.

Offline apophenia

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Re: Women Warriors in Winter
« Reply #14 on: April 18, 2021, 03:22:27 AM »
Cheers perttime. My imagined backstory was that the Soviets sat back in Petsamo trying to milk the ceasefire with Finland. The Finns were first obliged to clear northern Finland of German troops. Then Soviet conditions escalated with a demand that Finnish troops also 'help' clear Finnmark.

In theory, the Western Allies were to be accepting the German surrender in Norway but were distracted but the beginnings of the 'Wehrwulf' attacks in Baveria and Ostmark. That Nazi insurgency also encouraged continued German resistance in Northern Norway.

The latter conflict was inadvertently drawn-out by declaring Tromsø an open city. The object was to avoid that city's destruction by German forces withdrawing to their northern redoubt. But an unintended side effect was the prevention of an Allied landing to liberated the town and surrounding region. This left the final liberation of Finnmark to Norwegian Motstandsbevegelsen fighters and the Finns invading from the south-east.

I suspect you may have used Google Translate for the Finnish. "Naiset sotureita ilman" doesn't quite work. Something like "Naiset ilmojen sotureina" (Women as warriors of the air) or "Ilmojen naissoturit" (Woman-warriors of the air) would.

I did indeed use Google Translate ... amazing tool but surprisingly plodding/pedestrian at times too.

Thanks for the alternatives. Both look good to me ... I think I prefer "Ilmojen naissoturit"  :smiley:
Froglord: "... amphibious doom descends ... approach the alter and swear your allegiance to the swamp."