A Short Story About the Finnish Swastika
Tuomas Viljanen
its origin and its use, and finally it has reached the old national emblem
of the FinnAF. To clear all doubts and mists here is a short story of the
origin and usage of the FinnAF swastika emblem (named Hakaristi (ha-kar-is-tee)
The Finnish Air Force, the third oldest still existing air force, today, was
founded 6th March 1918, as the Swedish Count Erich von Rosen presented the
White Army its first airplane, a Thulin (Morane-Saulnier L) Parasol fighter
aircraft, to be used against the Reds in the Finnish Civil War.
von Rosen, a notable expeditor, had arms of Arg, a fylfot Az, due to his
expeditions in the Orient, and had his arms painted in four positions
on the aircraft presented (on both wings' upper and lower surfaces). As
the wings were of natural linen, the swastika was seen as on white back-
ground. As the Civil War ended in White victory, the Blue swastika on
White was adopted as the emblem of the embryo Finnish Air Force.
Notes: - the swatika was the arms of the Swedish count Erich von Rosen
- he had it painted on the presentation aircraft wings
- thus the blue swastika became the emblem of the FinnAF, May 1918.
The colour of the swastika was defined to be just "blue". As the heraldry
does not recognize shades, but real life does, the colour of the emblem
was for long time uncertain, but finally an Ultramarine shade was adopted.
The proportions of the swastika were to be an outline of a square, the
cross to be centered and the thickness of the cross and the "branches" to
be 1/8th of the width of the square side. On camouflaged aircraft the
swastika was to be painted onto a White round background, on silver doped
and natural aluminium aircraft it was to be painted straightforwardly
onto the plane.
The practise and the regulaitons, howewer, differ always everywhere, and the
Finnish swastika made no exception. White background became soon standard
onto 'silver' aircraft too, and variations of the swastika theme were also
seen: sometimes the swastika was added clockwise onto the port and counter-
clockwise onto the starboard wings, like mirror images with the centerline.
1936 the colour of the swastika was changed, this time into a lighter shade,
something like Revell #50 (~FS35092 or like). This colour, a middle-blue,
remained until 1945.
Notes: -at first shade uncertain, then ultramarine, later middle blue
-rectangular, proportions 1:7 (branch width/rest of the side)
-exceptions not uncommon
As the Winter War broke, the FinnAF had swastika as a recognized national
emblem. Orders came to shade the gloss white roundel over with light grey
for lesser visiblilty, but this was carried out. The swastika remained as
usual the national emblem of the FinnAF.
Meanwhile in the Germany, the Nazis, under a certain Austrian corporal named
A. Hitler rose from gutters into power and took the Aryan Swastika as their
emblem 1933. The Aryan Swastika was black, counterclockwise in 45 deg angle
on white background on red, and it was probably due the Nazi meddlings with
the Nietzschean ideology of the Aryan race and Zarathustrianism (Zorotastrian-
ism). It had nothing in common with the arms of the count von Rosen, and
the FinnAF had adopted the swastika some 15 years before the Nazis.
Nazi Germany was in secret cahoots with the Commie Russia and tried to sabotage
the war efforts of Finland as much as the Nazis only could, f. eg. by seizing
the arms and grain shipments to Finland (about sixty combat aircraft was
thus seized in Germany and did not reach Finland until the very late stages of
the war.
The Winter War ended, Finland was battered but made it through with flying
colours, and if the Finns had somewhat distrusted the treacheous Soviets before
thewar, it now turned into an open hatred and vengeance lust. The enemy of your
enemy is your friend, the Finns thought, and enfriended with the Germans, who
were no longer in so good terms with the Soviets. As Soviet AF bombed Finnish
targets 25th May 1941, the Finns considered this to be an open war declaration
and the Continuation War had began.
The blue swastika of the FinnAF remained unchanged until March 1944, when its
white background was ordered to be overpainted with light blue-gray DN-Colour
(RLM 65), the very first low visibility insignia ever (?). As war ended 1944,
the gray background remained until the Lapland War, in which the Finns drove
the Germans, former brothers-in-arms, off Lapland. The yellow Eastern Front
markings of nose, wing tip undersides and fuselages were overpainted.
The Germans were driven off from Finnish soil, the atrocities of the Nazis
were revealed and Finland was no longer in war. Although the swastika emblem
was popular in Finland, the swastika as a heraldic charge had gotten a very
bad reputation (for obvious reasons) internationally, and in May 1945 it was
ordered to be changed into the current white-blue-white roundel by an order
of the Finnish government. Thus ended the swastika era of the FinnAF, but
it still remains in Air Force flags and arms and Armed Forces' decorations
as a charge and as an ordinary; it was not dumped altogether.
Last year there was an initiative in the Parliament to re-adopt the blue
swastika as the FinnAF national emblem. Although it was not crushed straight-
forwardly, it did not proceed; the Nazis had spoiled the reputation of the
ancient heraldic charge altogether. But what would a FinnAF F-18C Hornet
look like with low-visibility swastika insignia ? IMHO the current roundel
insignia is quite boring, the swastika is IMHO more beautiful, but it un-
fortunately has a very gloomy reputation.
Notes: -Winter War was fought with normal swastika insignia
-light blue-gray replaced the white background in March 1944
-the swastika was replaced by the current roundel insignia in May 1945
-the chance was ordered by the Finnish Govt. due to the Nazi swastika
and its bad reputation, which had also ruined the very reputation of
the swastika altogether.
++ Tuomas Viljanen ++ For a battle like Crecy, you do ++
++ Lahderanta 20 A 19 ++ not need a military genius like ++
++ SF-02720 Espoo 72 FINLAND ++ Edward III. All you need is an ++
++ 358-0-592175 or c34...@saha.hut.fi ++ idiot like the Duke of Alencon. ++