Kari Stenman

Though I'm handing out 4 stars to this book, it is to be admitted that this is a somewhat esoteric topic, even if you are interested in the Finnish air arm. What Stenman makes clear is that even if the Finnish geography seemed to favor seaplanes, the reality is that you couldn't operate such machines on a year-round basis, once the coasts and lakes froze up, so that the float planes Finland operated became an ever more marginal element of the force structure. As for the German aircraft show more examined, that is largely a case of Helsinki actually leasing aircraft from Germany during those times of year when seaplanes were viable; often to support Finnish guerrilla operations. show less

If you're familiar at all with the MMP/Stratus publications you know the drill; excellent color profiles, very good pictures, very good details, good tactical history, okay general context. This work is no different. Reading between the lines, what does stand out is it appears that the Finnish bomber and army co-operation flyers had a rather hard war, as opposed to the popular narrative of how the Finnish fighter force over-performed and managed to consistently punch above their weight.

Had I been able to get a copy of the second volume of Stenman's MMP/Stratus work on Finnish fighter planes in World War II, I might have been less motivated to get this work. Having taken the plunge though, you basically have two works here. The first half is a biographical dictionary of Finnish fighter aces which, had it no other value, makes the effort to make a final accounting of documenting their actual "kills" during 1939-1944. The second half is a narrative history of the major show more fighter units of the Finnish air force. This is all liberally filled out with photos and color profiles. Looking at the bibliography, which leans heavily on Stenman's own publications over the year, this is very much a capstone to a long and fruitful career. show less

You buy this book for the color art, the photographs and for the tabular listings of the machines covered. While there is some coverage of operations this book does not represent a comprehensive operational study of the Finnish fighter force; this is not a shock considering the publisher but it does indicate a need that could be filled and there's no reason I know of why Stenman couldn't fulfill it.