Finnish Forces

Flight Regiment 19 (Swedish volunteers)

Fighter pilots of Swedish volunteer unit Flygflottilj 19 in northern Finland during the Winter War. January-March 1940. F 19 was equipped with 12 Gloster Gladiators, 4 Hawker Harts and some transport/liason aircrafts. The unit destroyed 14 Soviet aircraft (10 in air, 4 on ground), and lost 1 Gladiator and 1 Hart to enemy action, and 2 Gladiators and 2 Harts to accidents. Three men were killed (John Sjöqvist, Åke Hildinger, Anders Zachau) and two were captured by Soviets (Arne Jung & Per Sterner). The captives were returned to Sweden in May 1940, after having spent four months in Soviet captivity. In picture from left to right: Martin Wennerström, Åke Nettelbladt-Hollsten, Ian Iacobi (1 kill), Roland Martin (1 kill), Hans Olof Palme, Per-Johan Salwén (3 kills) and Gideon Karlsson (1 kill). Sitting in the snow: Arne Frykholm (2 shared kills) and Carl-Olof Steninger (2 shared kills).