Helsinki's Air Defense
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 defense of Helsinki was significantly strengthened from spring 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 defenses included 77 heavy AA-guns, 41 light AA-guns, 36 search lights, 13 acoustic locators and 6 radars in addition to visual spotters and the Finnish Navy's anti-aircraft. Germany also provided some night fighter support against the Soviet attacks.
The air defense command system was based on the German system and was quite effective – key personnel had trained in Germany. Due to manpower shortages, the air defense also used 16-year-old boy volunteers from Suojeluskunta to man the guns and young girls of the Lotta Svärd organization to man search lights.
The Germans had also based a night fighter unit, consisting of 12 Bf 109G-6 nightfighters 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 defenses prioritized stopping bombs 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. AA shells had been jury-rigged by drilling the fuze-hole larger and filling the extra space with magnesium mixed with aluminium, turning their explosion from a dull red to a searing white.
Read more about this topic: Bombing Of Helsinki In World War II
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