LeLv30 in Tikkakoski on July 30th 2005
LeLv30 is a virtual fighter squadron fighting in IL-2 Forgotten Battles combat flight simulation. A real fighter squadron of the same name fought in Continuation war of 1941-1944 between Finland and the Soviet Union. We bear the name in the memory of the war-time squadron to honour everyone who fought in its ranks and especially its heroes who were killed in the war.
Except for the real squadron's history page (here), material on this web site is unrelated to the real fighter squadron.
Squadron's photo-gallery is here, pilot profiles (with photographs and contact information) are here and file downloads here.
LeLv30 fights on the side of the Axis countries (Finland, Germany, Hungary and Rumania in the game). We can be found in Hyperlobby daily past 18.00 hours GMT+2 time.
In the past we have fought in Virtual Online War (VOW), Virtual Eastern Front 2 (VEF2), Czechwar (CZE) and Europe in Flames (EIF). At the moment we are fighting in Combate Aereo Dinamico (CAD).
When mission specifications allow, we prefer planes flown by LeLv30 during Continuation War of 1941-1944: British Hawker Hurricane, Italian Fiat G.50 and German Messerschmitt Bf 109.
The virtual skies of IL-2 Forgotten Battles are populated by a number of distinguished Finnish squadrons. Our purpose is to maintain the high level of marksmanship by means of historical tactics as well as flying and communications practicies. We practise formation flying, wingman and swarm tactics, radio communications and discipline. Highly functional teamwork and success as a squadron are kept in high regard while individual acts of bravery are secondary.
The purpose of all this, however, is to have fun! The above is our way of doing it.
Finland in World War 2
Superbus' crash course for the historically challenged
IL2 Forgotten Battles offers new campaigns, as its name indicates, in certain sectors that have been rather neglected in comparison to the major skirmishes of the war. First of all, two new nationalities, the Finns and the Hungarians, enter the scene. The Finns entered the war in November 1939, after their country was invaded by the Soviets. The USSR's main military interest was probably strengthening the defence of Leningrad, though discoveries from recently opened Soviet archives prove what Finns had known all along: Stalin was going to to occupy all of Finland.
After a heroic resistance, Finns were forced to accept armistice conditions dictated by the Soviet Union and lost 10% of their territory. When the USSR was invaded by Nazi-Germany, Finland re-entered the fight claiming to fight "a separate war alongside Germany" and made a point of not sharing the Nazi war goals. This "Continuation War" of 1941-1944 is the one reproduced in Forgotten Battles. Finland's alleged separate war goals were later realized by the refusal to complete the siege of Leningrad despite Hitler's demands.
After continuation war, Finland entered yet another "forgotten battle", this time against their former allies, the German mountain corps which had been fighting the Soviets from northern Finland. Resulting bitter "War in Lapland" (1944-1945) left sparsely populated northern Finland's few towns demolished and ridden by countless landmines.
Today Finns take pride in the fact they were the only country fighting in WW2 which avoided occupation in continental Europe. They are also eager to remind they were the only ones to pay full war reparations to the Allied.
Post-war Finland
After the war Finland never received so called Marshall aid from the USA; instead its leadership developed close personal ties with the post-war Soviet leaders and signed a bilateral trade and cooperation treaty while successfully dodging the question of military cooperation. Finland was to be defended by Finns.
Even today Finland prefers to stay out of NATO. It has, however, sent troops to practically every UN and NATO peacekeeping mission in existence all over the world since the 1950's and can thus boast of posessing perhaps the most experienced peacekeepers in any country.
Von Rosen's cross
Widely misunderstood insignia of the FAF
When IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles was released, the World War 2 -era Finnish Air Force insignia was left out of the game. Finnish aviation enthusiasts were hardly surprised, yet it was unfortunate, because it may have served to strengthen a popular misunderstanding that the blue-white FAF cross would have something to do with the German National Socialist Party insignia.
It does not, however.
The Finnish Ilmavoimat, founded in 1918, is the second oldest standing airforce in existence, outdating the British RAF by one month. (The oldest? Mexico.) In the midst of the Finnish Civil War of 1918, Ilmavoimat received its first aircraft as a gift from Count Erich von Rosen. In March 1918 von Rosen's family shield was made the official insignia of the newly founded air forces. A cross not unlike the airforce insignia was later used on Finnish armoured vehicles. The cross-shape is a very old symbol of the sun and good fortune originating possibly from ancient Indian cultures. It can be found in e.g. the paintings of Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865 - 1931), who later designed among other things medals, flags and uniforms for the newborn nation. Some of these works also contain the familiar cross-shape of von Rosen's family shield.
For comparision, German nazis - perhaps unfortunately for today's aviation buffs - adopted their tip pointed, black "swastika" insiginia as late as in 1933.
Those interested in historically accurate insignias can download a simple utility which restores all historically accurate war-time markings to the game. (Be adviced that it also displays war-time markings on German airplanes.) LeLv30 has got von Rosen's crosses painted directly on our own customized squadron skins, though we also keep unmarked versions of our skins in case the game host wants everyone to use built-in game markings in multiplayer games.
When it comes to flying German airplanes, we aren't quite as crazy about getting "historically accurate", because we recognize that the nazi swastika may offend some virtual aviators - more so, apparently, than the symbols of Stalin's terror regime which Ubisoft included in IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles.
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