Finnish Navy Of WWI

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Did the German navy helped formed the navy of independent Finland during WWI by sending her personal to man the organization? What were the name of the German naval officers that trained the Finnish naval personal?

Edward L. Hsiao

[Seppo Koivisto]

Korvettenkapitän Reuter served as an adviser to the commander of the Finnish navy from September 1918. There were probably many German officers and NCO's in training duties, but they all left after the German armistice.

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Thank you for your prompt answer. Little was known about the role that the Germans did in training the personal of the new created Finnish Navy. For the Germans,their time of training the Finns was short. The Finnish Navy's combat actions during WWI were not much known. Plenty of research is needed.

Edward L. Hsiao

[Seppo Koivisto]

Here is a photo of Korvettenkapitän Alfred Reuter. He was a naval attaché in May 1918 and in September chief of admirality staff of the Finnish navy. The original picture is from the Swedish edition of the multi volume history of the Finnish Civil War, that was published soon after the war.

https://gmic.co.uk/topic/61113-picture- ... ent=576041
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der ... s#Finnland

[Edward L. Hsiao]

I understand that the newly created Finnish Navy had ships from the Russian Navy during WWI. Is that correct?

Edward L. Hsiao

[Seppo Koivisto]

Russia evacuated their fleet from Helsinki in March-April 1918, leaving behind only vessels that were not able to make the voyage over the ice covered sea. Germany allowed some disarmed ships to leave also in May-June. All that was left was smaller vessels or that were docked in Finnish ports or being built in Finnish ship yards. In 1920 Finland returned some of these vessels to the Soviet Union after the Treaty of Tartu, but received two Finnish built gun boats from Germany, that had been captured in Tallinn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_N ... nt_Finland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_gunboat_Turunmaa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_gunboat_Karjala
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-class_torpedo_boat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_minelayer_Louhi