1918-1945 Finnish Air Force Symbol

[Britchot]

During my interwebz wanderings I found some interesting information.  Klaiber may or may not have been aware of this already. 

 

I always assumed the Finnish Air Force adopted the use of the hakenkreuz because of their allegiance with WWII Germany.  It turns out it was the lucky charm of a Swedish count, von Rosen, who had it painted on the aircraft he gave the Finns on 6 March 1918.  On 18 March 1918, the Finns adapted the Hakaristi as their official symbol, certainly pre-dating the NSDAP.  The white circle background is interesting because it was created out of the necessity to cover up the advertisement of a flying school.  

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Air_Force

[Klaiber]

I was basically aware, but didn't remember the details until you just posted.

 

Unfortuantely, while von Rosen's Hakaristi didn't have anything to do with the Nazi symbol (which was adopted by the NSDAP in 1920), von Rosen himself eventually became a supporter of the Nazi movement during the 1930s.

 

As a result, even though there isn't a direct connection between the Nazi symbol and the Finnish hakaristi, there is an indirect link, as well as an obvious visual similarity.  And that's one of the reasons why Finland abandoned the symbol in 1944 after the Finns sued for peace.  It was seen by the Allies as being pro-Hitler and pro-fascist.

[Pragr]

You can find more details about the Finnish swastika here 

 

http://www.virtualpilots.fi/feature/articles/honorable_swastika/

 

The origin of the Finnish Air Force insignia could be seen there:

 

It's the first plane of the new FiAF bought by vor Rosen. 

[Klaiber]

That's a great picture!

[Britchot]

That is an awesome picture. I love old photos of obscure (relatively obscure in the US) items!