The unit produced seven Mannerheim Cross winners, including Ilmari Juutilainen and Hans Wind, the two top-scoring aces.

Today it is part of the Karelian Wing, flying F-18 Hornets and still sporting the "Supersonic Lynx" as its emblem.

As a result of a political decision, more aircraft bases were built and new units were formed.

24 Sqn, which was located to Utti, north of Kotka and close to the Karelian Isthmus.

24 Sqn was equipped with British Gloster Gamecock III fighters, that had been license-manufactured in Finland.

The first unit commander, Richard Lorenz, developed a new fighter tactic, based on aircraft pairs, instead of the three-aircraft groups that were standard of the day.

The unit was still equipped with Fokker D.XXIs when the Soviet Union attacked Finland on November 30, 1939.

Violent bomb raids on Helsinki claimed more than 300 lives on the very first day of the war.

The first loss was attributed a blue-on-blue incident, when the Finnish anti-aircraft defences downed a fighter.

Bad weather stopped air operations several times during the war, but the squadron downed 12 enemy aircraft on December 19, including two I-16 fighters.

A new Soviet land offensive was set in motion on February 1, with the goal to breach the Mannerheim line on the Karelian Isthmus.

During March, the weight of the ground operations was moved to the Bay of Vyborg, where the Red Army tried to cross the ice to southern Finland.

The situation between the Soviet Union and Finland was very tense and many believed that it was only a matter of time until the war erupted again.

A ground-based early-warning system was developed and introduced to give warning of enemy aircraft at an earlier stage.

Soviet reconnaissance discovered the Finnish troop concentrations and began a series of attacks on these on July 8.

The Finnish Air Force total tally was 356 enemy aircraft downed and 84 lost in battle and in accidents.

After the Finnish Army had reached its operational goals by the end of December 1941, the war changed.

At the same time, the Soviet Air Force was being re-equipped with new fighters, many coming as lend-lease from the United Kingdom.

Fighters such as Hawker Hurricane IIA and IIB began appearing over the Finnish front.

14 Sqn, which was equipped with Fokker D.XXIs, and who was located in northern Karelia faced increasing difficulties against the more modern Soviet fighters.

During the remainder of the year, the unit provided air defence from the Gulf of Finland up to northern Karelia.

24 Sqn participated among other in the defence of the Gulf of Finland, where they met the aircraft of the Soviet Baltic Fleet, who recently had mounted an offensive.

Captain Hans Wind received the Mannerheim Cross on July 31, when he reached 31 victories.

The unit was fully re-equipped by May 1944 and operated 14 Bf 109Gs when the Soviet Great Offensive started.

The Soviet land, air and naval forces launched a coordinated attack on Finland on June 9, 1944.

The No.24 Sqn was first tasked with reconnaissance, trying to find out how far the Soviet forces had advanced into Finnish territory.