Aerial warfare in the Winter War

The material damage by bomber attacks was slight, as Finland did not offer many valuable targets for strategic bombing.

The rail tracks were cut thousands of times but were easily repaired, and the Finns usually had trains running in a matter of hours.

However the Soviet air force learned from its early mistakes, and by late February they instituted more effective tactics.

At noon on that day 40 I-16 and I-153 fighters struck the base, destroying three aircraft on the ground and another three (two Gladiators and one Fokker) for the loss of only one I-16.

[2] Finland's capital city, Helsinki, was bombed on the first day of the war; a number of buildings were destroyed and some 200 people were killed.

[12] The Finnish Air Force had also revised its tactics; In air combat, the Finns used the more flexible "finger four" formation (four planes split into two pairs, one flying low and the other high, with each plane fighting independently of the others, yet supporting its wingman in combat), which was superior to the Soviet tactic of three fighters flying in a Vic formation.

[14] On one occasion, the Finnish ace Jorma Kalevi Sarvanto encountered a formation of seven DB-3 bombers on 6 January 1940 and shot down six in just 4 minutes.

Owing to this reinforcement, the Finnish Air Force had a greater strength at the end of the conflict than at the beginning; however they were seldom able to field more than 100 aircraft at any one time against an expanding VVS commitment.

A Finnish forward air base often consisted of only a frozen lake, a windsock, a telephone set and some tents.