Group of Finnish soldiers during the Winter War. Uomaa, Ladoga Karelia. February 26, 1940.

Winter War

VL Humu, the Finnish copy of Brewster Buffalo. 

At the beginning of Continuation War the Finnish Airforce only had 44 Brewsters and the request for building licence had been denied in May 1940, so a series of 90 copies was planned to be build. The order was cancelled because it was clearly becoming weaker aircraft than the B-239 and Soviets were bringing better planes to the Finnish front. Only this one prototype of VL Humu was complited. It only flew 19 hours and 50 minutes and never saw action. Today the VL Humu has been fully restored and is displayed in the Aviation Museum of Central Finland.

Specifications:

Crew: One
Length: 8.03 m (26 ft 4 in)
Wingspan: 10.67 m (35 ft 0 in)
Height: 3.66 m (12 ft 0 in)
Wing area: 19.40 m² (208.8 ft²)
Max takeoff weight: 2,895 kg (6,380 lbs)
Powerplant: 1× Shvetsov M-63 9-cyl., 746 kW (1,000 hp)
Maximum speed: 430 km/h (267 mi/h)
Service ceiling: 8,000 m (26,250 ft)
Rate of climb: 13.3 m/s (43.6 ft/s)
Armament: 2× 12,7 mm LKK/42 machine guns

VL Humu

Heimo Lampi (1920–1998) 13.5 kills

When the Continuation War begun, Lampi was young sergeant just graduated from the Air Force Academy. His first aerial battle occurred at the first day of the war, on June 25, 1941. His squadron LeLv 24 was alerted to intercept a bomber squadron approaching city of Heinola. Lampi was one of the first pilots to take off and downed 2 bombers and shared one kill with SSgt.Kinnunen. They were first pilots to score kills with the Brewsters. Lampi served the whole war in the LeLv 24 which became the most successful Finnish Airforce squadron of WWII. Personally he achieved 13.5 aerial victories in 268 sorties (from which 100 in June - September 1944) and reached the rank of 2nd lieutenant.

After the war he began to study law and in this career eventually became President of the Eastern Finland's Court of Appeal. He wrote several books of fiction, and memoirs of the Continuation War in which Lampi gives a vivid picture in the day to day life of FAF fighter pilots during World War 2. He was also the person who started the project to locate and lift the BW-372 from the lake where Lauri Pekuri crash landed it. Heimo Lampi never got to see the last Brewster as he died on June 1, 1998, just couple of months before the aircraft was lifted from the lake.

More about Heimo Lampi:
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/lampi/lampi.htm