Finnish field radios

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Nenonen
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#16

Post by Nenonen » 20 Apr 2005, 11:41

Harri wrote:Finnish field artillery trained their own signals personnel for signals duties.
And for a good reason. My father tells a story from RUK (Reserve Officer School): He had, for some reason, a signal corps private on duty by the radio at night, when everybody was at sleep. A message came in in the middle of the night and as a reliable and responsible signal man the private wrote it down on a piece of paper. In the morning the private showed the piece of paper to my father, who was the battery leader. The writing on the paper said "tulikomentoja" ("fire commands")! A rather significant little piece of information... 8)

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#17

Post by Tuco » 21 Apr 2005, 04:59

Nenonen wrote:
Harri wrote:Finnish field artillery trained their own signals personnel for signals duties.
And for a good reason. My father tells a story from RUK (Reserve Officer School): He had, for some reason, a signal corps private on duty by the radio at night, when everybody was at sleep. A message came in in the middle of the night and as a reliable and responsible signal man the private wrote it down on a piece of paper. In the morning the private showed the piece of paper to my father, who was the battery leader. The writing on the paper said "tulikomentoja" ("fire commands")! A rather significant little piece of information... 8)
:D Yes I would say some important information... :idea:


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Re: Finnish field radios & Signals

#18

Post by CanKiwi2 » 11 Oct 2011, 17:20

If nobody minds, I'll perform some necromancy and resurrect this thread, then broaden the scope to cover Signals and Radios in general. The general idea being to xlate some of the material on Finnish signals thats available online in Finnish into English. It's a bit of an esoteric subject at best, and there's very little available in English online or off - and yet again, some of my translations are going to be waaaaay incorrect - so corrections are welcome.

Why? Well, my What If is delving into Signals and before I go inventing anything, I want to make sure the underlying information is accurate. And besides that, its an interesting subject without much info available in any detail in English. I hope this kind of corrects that - at least at a relatively high level.

.............Nigel
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Suomen Maavoimat Signals units in the 1920’s

#19

Post by CanKiwi2 » 11 Oct 2011, 17:51

(This is all taken from wikipedia.fi and xlated)

Within the Suomen Maavoimat, Signals units largely originated from the experience of the Finnish Jaeger movement within the German Army, as the Tsarist Russian Army allowed only infantry units for the military of the Grand Duchy of Finland, with no technical branches authorised. Consequently, there was no passing down of the Russian military expertise and experience with military communications, such as it was, into the Army of the nacent Finnish Republic on its formation. On independance from the Russian Empire, the ex-Tsarist Army Finnish officers largely came from the Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery branches only, while the Maavoimat’s technical branches were largely established by former Jaegers based on their German training and knowledge. Suomen Maavoimat Signals units were as a consequence primarily based on the experience and training of the Communications Section of the Finnish 27th Jaeger Battalion of the WWI German Army. The Jaegers returned to Finland in February 1918 and formed the Jaeger Kenttälennätinpataljoona (Field Telegraph Battalion) to meet Finnish Civil War needs. Initially, a significant part of their activities consisted of establish Field Telegraph stations (Kenttälennätinasemat) and running cables to connect field telephones.

Image
The Communication Section of the 27th Jaeger Battalion, commanded by Lars Homén and Eric Heimbürger.

Eric Alexander Amandus Heimbürger (Espoo, June 16, 1888 - February 1, 1954) was a Finnish Jaeger Colonel. His parents were the ownera of a manor, Nicolai Heimbürger and Therese von Jessen. Heimbürger completed matriculation at the Nya Svenska Läroverket in Helsinki in 1908 and then joined the Uusimaa Students' Association. He studied at the University Law Faculty in 1908-1909 and then at the University of Technology mechanical engineering department from 1909-1912, followed by a further year at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Heimbürger joined one of the first groups of volunteers whose goal was to go to Germany for military training purposes and then fight for Finnish independance. He enrolled on 25 March 1915 and trained in northern Germany in the Lockstedter Lager training area. Initially he was placed in 1 Komppaniaan of the Prussian Jaeger Battalion 2. On 2 October 1917, he was transferred from the 1st Komppaniaan, together with 53 other men, to the battalion's Signals unit, where he served as the Finnish unit commander. He took part in a number of battles on the German Eastern Front, including Misse River, the Gulf of Riga and the Aa River. In the Spring of 1917, Heimbürger ran courses at Libau on Signals and was later moved to Commander of the Battalion’s Radio unit.

Image
Eric Alexander Amandus Heimbürger (1888 - 1954)
(below taken from http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Heimb%C3%BCrger and reordered a bit)

Heimbürger arrived in Finland (Vaasa), with the main group of Jaeger troops and was promoted to the rank of Senior Lieutenant on 25 February 1918. During the Civil War, he was assigned asvcommander of the 15th Jaeger Battalion 1st Company, after which he was transferred on 6 April 1918 to Headquarters as the Signals Commander. On 5 June 1918 he was moved to the General Staff and appointed Signals Force Commander. He worked as the supervisor of Signals courses, which in July 1918 were implemented in Helsinki. He taught Officer courses in 1920 and was a teacher on Signals at the Cadet School from 1919 to 1926. On 22 March 1920 he was transferred to military forces headquarters and placed in charge of Signals and on 8 December 1920 he was made Inspector of Technical Staff.

Heimbürger was the armed forces representative on the Telegraph Committee in 1919 and was a member of the Radio Committee in 1920 and also a member of the Committee responsible for planning the number and strength of bicycle troops in 1922. In 1923 he was a member of the Committee which drew up the proposals for the strength of the Telephone / Signals Troops and was Signals Troops honor court chairman in 1921. He was married in 1924, to Aune Emilia-Rekolan In addition, he completed the General Staff course over 1927-1929. In April 1927 he was the Senio Staff teacher for Signals at the Military Academy. On 31 October 1927 he was appointed head of the Separate Signals Company (kenttälennätin komppanian?) later the Independent Signals Battalion), where he was again siirettiin? From 1 July 1933 to Army Corps headquarters, and appointed Pioneer and Signals Commander. He was the Force Commander for Technical tasks for short periods between 1921 and 1924 as well as carrying out Chief of Staff duties in 1925. Heimbürger was also posted to Lithuania in the 1924 period.

Heimbürger the Winter War and during the armistice 1 and 2 Post Commander of the Army Corps and the Continuation War broke out he was appointed to the Headquarters Post Title 2 of the head, during which time the hane carried out several postings trips abroad. A position he had until the end of the war, when he resigned from active service. After the war he left the military, but re-entered service in 1945 in the Armed Forces General Headquarters, where he was placed in the trophy???? Department as Caommander, where he served until 1947, when he transferred to electrical service inspection method engineer??? in Helsinki. He is buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery, Helsinki

The establishment of the Light Field Radio Department

In April 1918 a Field Radio Department was established and took over the radio stations in Helsinki and Suomenlinna from the Russian garrison troops. The unit also restored the former Santahamina fixed radio station which had been used by the Russian Baltic Fleet. The radio-type taken over from the Russians was a Telefunken with a 10W power level and a range which stretched from the Baltic Sea region to as far as Austria. Also during the Finnish Civil War, Suojeluskuntas Signals units were setup at Santahamina where radio stations were assembled. Their first commander was Jaeger Lieutenant Karl Edvard Nyström who in June 1918 formed the Field Radio Department (which later that year was changed to Field Radio Division).

Karl Edvard Nyström (born July 8 1894, Kokkola - March 1, 1964, Helsinki) was the child of copper smith Solomon Fredrik Nyström, and Edla Amanda Sandstrom. He received his early education at the Swedish School in Kokkola, then worked as a Telegrapher before travelling to Germany and joining the Finnish 27th Jaeger Battalion (2 Company). In December 1915 he was transferred to the Battalion’s Signals unit, going on to take part in battles on the Misse River , the Gulf of Riga and the Aa River over 1916, where he had his baptism of fire. In 1917 he organized special courses at Libau, before returning to Finland in December 1917 on the second trip of the S/S Equity, which carried many of the members of Jääkäripataljoona 27 from Germany back to Finland. On arrival in Finland, he traveled to Vaasa, where he trained Suojeluskuntas men from the the local and surrounding area in Signals work.

He participated in the civil war as Column Deputy Director for the seizing of Vaasa. After the takeover of Vaasa, he was assigned to the Vaasa Radio and Telegraph station on 7 February 1918. On 24 April 1918, he was transferred to Headquarters at Mikkeli. From Mikkeli, he was transferred to Viipuri as the station manager on 2 May 1918. In the post-Civil War period Nyström continued to serve as the Viipuri station manager, until 1 August 1918 when he was appointed Signals Company Commander, and then on 1 September 1921 temporary commander of the Signals Battalion. He was married in 1924 to Sigrid Maria Adelia Johanssonin and went on to complete further military educational courses in 1925. Nyström resigned from the army on 28 May 1926, having reached the rank of Major.

After leaving the Army, Nyström worked for Reko Ltd from 1927 to 1928. He later worked in a number of positions, including as a warehouse manager (from 1934 to 1935). During the Winter War, Nyström served in IV Corps Headquarters, later moving to Coastal Battalion 4 and then to a position as deputy CO of the Signals School. Following the Winter War, he served as an officer in the home office staff of the Army and was released from military service in 1942, after which he worked at a Machinery company and then as a businessman in Helsinki. He died in 1964 and was buried in Helsinki.

And a question: does anybody have a photo of Nyström they could post?
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Military Radio Systems and Electronic Warfare in Finland

#20

Post by CanKiwi2 » 31 Oct 2011, 18:29

For those of us who don’t have access to the Finnish books, here’s what seems to be quite a good high-level overview on…..

The Story Behind the Finnish Telecommunications Industry: Military Radio Systems and Electronic Warfare in Finland during World War I1 (1939-1945) by Pekka Eskelinen, Ph.D., Kotka Institute of Technology

ABSTRACT

The growth of the Finnish telecommunications industry is not only based on the common Nordic need of talking to each other nor is it only dependent on themgenerally superior technical skills achieved through education but also has its tradition, which dates back to the years of WW 11, when Finland was alone at the most critical moments of the nation’s history and had to develop procedures and technologies to survive. From post-war documents, a connecting link can be found between key persons and organizations, which were once designing military electronics, but later adopted their know-how to the needs of public communications.

INTRODUCTION

Finland already had, before the Second World War, one of the most advanced public telecommunication networks (PSTN). Perhaps due to the inherited characteristics of the individual citizens, some 160,000 phones were in use for roughly 4 million people. The network was fairly dense, and many towns had automated exchanges, which is noteworthy, as Finland covers more than 300,000 square kilometers, and the vertical distances exceed 1,000 km. The Finnish broadcasting company had been operating for over a decade and a number of radio amateurs were active.

Despite this, the Finnish Army was caught in the Pan-European turbulences with minimal communication resources, as the Soviet troops attacked Finland the last of November, 1939. To be honest, the situation was all over; the military preparations were roughly the same. Many of the recruits were given only a leather belt as a “sign” of belonging to the troops, because nothing else was available in needed volumes. The separate branch of telecom forces had existed only for a couple of months [l], having been previously a part of the common engineering division and the official prewar documents mention signaling flags, birds and dogs as suitable battlefield communication methods [2]. The only technical device, which was theoretically usable in required quantities was the field phone, but as it turned out, the Soviet artillery broke the lines quickly and much too often.

During the next five years, Finland experienced a rapid growth in military strength, partly because of huge financial efforts, which gave the army some 70% of the yearly state budget [3] and partly because of both home-made and foreign, mainly German, technology which became available in 1941. Radio equipment and associated procedures came to military use. All of this was necessary, because, at that time, the nation was forced into a game of survival against
a 100-fold bigger opponent.

Image
Fig. 1. The Grandfather and the Grandson: A Wartime “Mobile Phone,” The “Kyyne1”-Transceiver for Finnish Guerilla Troops Together With a Present-Day Nokia GSM-Portable - Photographed at the Signal Museum, Riihimaki, Finland

RADIO EQUIPMENT FOR GUERILLA TROOPS

One of the most advanced local war-time electronic developments in Finland was the small portable transmitter called “Kyynel” (“Tear”) and the later-added receiver “Topo” (“Stub”) [4]. They were solely designed and manufactured for the use of guerilla troops, which were sent behind Soviet lines to gather information and destroy military targets and transportation infrastructure. Naturally, a base station network was created to support the communications.
The “Kyynel” transmitter was constructed in an aluminum alloy box. One of the most demanding tasks was the attempt to make the unit watertight, because the operator must have access to the switches and tuning knobs inside the cover. The tubes, which were from the DII-series and other electronic components were mounted side-by-side - no circuit boards were available at that time - and this proved to be advantageous both because of short interconnections and, thus, minimal stray capacitance or series inductance, but also because the whole unit was very stable and could sustain a drop from several meters - also with a parachute. Depending on version, the weight of the transmitter was 5.6-7.4 kg, with batteries. One of the “Kyynel” versions is shown photographed at the Signal Museum (Riihimaki Garrison, Finland) in Figure 1; together with its grandson, the Nokia GSM-Portable

A V-dipole was chosen as the wire antenna, but later so models also had a ladder-feed system in order to stabilize the impedance. The antenna tuner in the transmitter had a bulb which was automatically connected to the circuit, if one of the dipole leads was pulled slightly out. The brightness of the light told the operator about the tuning status. Also, the key and headphones were constructed locally. The anode voltage was supplied from a 120 V Hellesens dry-cell, which, particular in wintertime, had capacity problems. The transmitting frequency was originally, up to model adjusted by a small tuning capacitor between 3 and 5 MHz (free-running oscillator!). A variometer was tested, but found too unstable. Finally, crystal oscillators were installed in models lox, 10 XB and 11, but the availability of quartz uni was a problem as, in the whole country, only one person was qualified for this job. The name of the transmitter has two explanations. A typical operating position of the unit was somewhere in the deep forest under big trees -which, in peace-time Finland, would have been an ideal place for an illegal brandy factory (in Finnish: “korpikuusen kyynel”). Another, perhaps more technical translation, comes from the received audio of the unit, which to some ears sounded like a crying child - and was highly annoying to the chief designer, Eng. Lautkari.

Image
Fig. 2. The Base Station Network for “Kyyne1”-Transceivers was made of fairly powerful Units like this, Manufactured by Helvar, Finland. The Output Power was about 300 W, but the Equipment was Really Heavy and Needed Frequent Maintenance

Image
Fig. 3. Separate Receivers with a Code Name V407, Locally Manufactured by ASA Radio,
were used throughout the Armed Forces up to the 1970’s. The sensitivity was satisfactory, but frequency stability only moderate to poor.


The “Topo” receiver operated at the frequency of the Lahti broadcasting station, 166 kHz. It was constructed in a small cardboard tube, 180 mm long. Same battery types were used so that they could be changed to the transmitter, if necessary. Later, from code number 10 onward, the receiver and transmitter were integrated. All the equipment was packed in a green cardboard box, where more technically-oriented operators also had a soldering iron (fireplace model) and some components for field repairs!

The base station network used 300 W transmitters with both ground and sky wave. A typical unit, manufactured by Helvar, Finland, is shown in Figure 2 (see on previous page) installed in a shock-absorbing rack. As the numerical methods for predicting sky wave propagation were too time-consuming at that time, but generally the attenuation was acceptable, several stations were also established in central Finland. The receivers were originally type National NClOOXA from the USA, but later a replica, which can be seen in Figure 3, was constructed locally by ASA Radio. This type, under the code name V407, was still in use in the 1970’s, when the author served as a young engineer at Riihimaki Base.

AIR FORCE SYSTEMS

One of the very first military radio systems in Finland was constructed for the Air Force by the Electric Workshop of the Army [5]. Initially, a home-made project was started around 1930, which, unfortunately, was not very promising. Vibration was an obvious problem in an aircraft and also the use of conventional microphones was impossible due to the loud noise. An improved model, P-12-15, had more power and was designed to be mechanically more stable, but the reconfigured throat-type microphone became so hot during flight, that it burned the pilot’s skin. The following prototype, later manufactured by Fenno Radio, had even more power - up to 30 W. It was actually too powerful and not only caught fire, but also caused a number of complete fighters to go up in flames.

The frequency range was selected, for some unknown reason, between 3-5 MHz and new units were ordered from the local workshop in 1934. The transceiver worked quite well, but only occasionally. Vibration was, again, a major cause of faults; especially the operating frequency drift before take-off. The pilot had no possibility to change the channel but it was adjusted by screwdriver before the mission. The inverter unit had a relay box on the floor, and needed a sharp kick every now and then. For British-made BristoI Blenheim Bombers, a new radio type, P-12-14, was designed. It had direction-finding capabilities, but operated on a different frequency band from all of our other transceivers. This caused severe problems during the 1939-1940 period. Besides, original ideas did not include complete transceivers for each fighter plane, but the suggested relative percentage was 4 TXI17RX within a squadron.

During the stable period of 1940-1941, several new types of fighter planes entered service from all over the world, including the US Air Cobra, Mustang, Italian Fiat G50 and British Hurricane. Most of them had unique radio equipment. More than 11 different radio types were flying simultaneously. German types FuG7, FuGlO and FuG16 (20W, 40 MHz) were the most popular. The latest of these, the FuG16ZE was a fairly modern design. It included an extendible antenna, which was necessary due to the tail-dragger design of the Mel09G-fighter. For prolonged operations in high altitudes, the transceiver electronics had an electric heating system. The airborne system had the possibility for active homing together with suitable ground installations [6]. The lack of spare units, frequent mechanical problems and equipment destruction during less successful missions, required immediate and thorough servicing of the radios. This servicing was performed outside in the field under inhuman conditions; as the temperature stayed below -40” C for weeks, The more severe troubles were solved at the Army Electronic Workshop.

RADAR

Radar came to Finland in the Spring of 1943 from Germany, in the form of two Freya surveillance systems and four Wurzburg-D tracking radars for AA-batteries. The first two towns effectively protected by these were Helsinki and Kotka. Later on, some fighter and night fighter units and a couple of IFF equipments were received, but these were not used for real missions. The key technical person connected to war-time radar in Finland was Eng. Lieutenant J. Pohjanpalo, who after the war, became a professor and the Director General of the State Telecommunications Laboratory for several decades. During the war, he was responsible for the applications and redevelopment of the German units at the State Electrical Workshop.

The air defense system of Helsinki utilized four automatic AA-batteries equipped with radar and S8 mm guns. The rest of the guns were operated manually. Two Freya radars searched for incoming Soviet bombers and the situation was displayed on a mapboard, where metal pointers turned through telemetry signals directly received from radars showing the present directions of attack. Originally, the Freya-radar was developed for the German Navy in 1938. The operating frequency was about 125 MHz. Two separate antenna assemblies, each consisting of 12 dipoles in two rows were used. The output power was 8 kW and the PRF was approximately 1,000 Hz. power was 8 kW and the PRF was approximately 1,000 Hz. Individual bombers, flying at an altitude of 5,000 m were detectable at up to a distance of 70 km, the figure going down to 40 km at 2,000 meters, and for bigger formations (the type Soviets generally used) to 130 km. The distance uncertainty was 150 meters and the angular resolution 5 degrees [7].

The Wurzburg radar was introduced in 1939 and volume production started in Germany in 1940. The system was installed on a four-wheel trailer and used a 3 meter paraboloid antenna. The operating frequency was originally 565 MHz and the pulse power 8 kW with a PRF of 3,750 Hz. The theoretical distance limit was thus 40 km, but receiver sensitivity of 250 kTo lowered this limit. The angular resolution was 0.5 degrees and error in distance 25 meters. The improvement of angle measuring performance was achieved with a rotating feed dipole in front of the paraboloid. However, the rotary joint added to the complexity of the system.

JAMMING

The Soviet forces had the capability to jam many of the Finnish military radio networks. Either normal transmitters operating at the required frequency or special high power units were utilized. The use of voice modulation was notably high, which obviously gave an alert immediately. However, due to the modest use of radio systems on the Finnish side and the high qualifications of staff, 16% of which were women, the effects of Soviet jamming were not severe [8]. A special occasion, originally described in [9] happened in 1942 on the shore of Lake Ozero, when the Finnish railway radio network was interfered by - as it was initially thought - our own AM broadcasts. Later on, it turned out that Soviet COMINT units on the opposite shore of the same lake received the Finnish public AM transmission, demodulated it and further retransmitted the original baseband signal at the railway frequency. Quite soon, the Air Force attacked the jammer; the position of which was found with recently installed German DF-devices with terminating results.

Image
Fig. 4. The Soviet Forces Tried to Destroy the City of Viipuri in 1941 with Radio-Controlled Mines, the RF and Code Units which are shown here. A Couple Weeks of “Sakkijarven Polkka” at the Operating Frequency Prevented the Explosions and Probably Saved the Castle and the City.

The lack of suitable equipment and manpower prevented a widespread intentional jamming of Soviet telecom systems. Occasionally, however, remarkable results could be obtained. Late summer 1941, when the Finnish forces had already done a re-entry to the city of Viipuri, which was lost to Russia in March 1940, a couple of radio-controlled mines, see Figure 4, were found beside a bridge. Also, sudden explosions were heard in areas which should have been under Finnish control. Rapidly, it turned out, that the whole city seemed to be covered with such radio mines and Finnish specialists suggested a jamming action to be carried out on a frequency, which could be defined from the previously found mine. A popular Finnish folk song “Sakkijarven polkka” was played day after day through a powerful conventional AM transmitter
[lo]. The choice of the record was not based on its popularity, but this particular piece of music (actually not a very nice one) happens to be practically continuous with no silent spots. Several triggering attempts by an audio triad could be heard on the band, but the music covered it until the batteries of the mines were exhausted. The action probably not only minimized the destruction of the city but also saved the castle of Viipuri for the coming generations.

RADIO MONITORING SERVICES

The Finnish radio monitoring service, or COMINT, as we call it now, was established by A. Paasonen and R. Hallamaa in 1927. In 1939, at the beginning of WW 11, a total of 75 persons were involved, including secretaries and guards. Naturally, the force grew through the years. After the war, many specialists decided to move to the USA or other western countries, but numerous engineers adopted their knowledge for the local civilian telecom operator's and industry's needs. Generally, the Soviet wireless military communications were fairly easy to follow, because of frequent Soviet operator mistakes and simple encryption algorithms. Tuning of aircraft transmitters connected to the antenna was a common practice, which, particularly in February 1944, gave the Finnish COMINT services the possibility to track Soviet Bombers straight from their start, define their total number and final destination. The massive Soviet bombings, which were planned to destroy Helsinki, had no success as the Finns knew when, where, and how many aircraft were coming and could, thus, focus the AA-activities accordingly. Only 5% of the bombs dropped could hit the built-up areas [ll].

Sometimes the Finnish monitoring people had good luck, as was the case in late summer 1942, when a distant and weak signal was received, in a small village called Sortavala, and later decrypted, giving the exact plans of the Allied Convoy PQl8 to Murmansk [12]. This information was handed over to German forces, who succeeded in causing heavy losses to the convoy.

CONCLUSION

As such, the past wars generally promoted technical development - think about the jet engine, rockets and radar. In Finland, the scenery was in a smaller scale, but World War I1 definitely started the development of theFinnish telecommunications industry. There exists a direct, though long relationship between the Radio Workshop of the Armed Forces, which produced the transmitters for Finnish guerilla troops; the State Electrical Workshop, which was responsible for many Air Force radios; and the present Nokia Telecommunications, the well-known supplier of both microwave equipment, cellular radio systems and - not too astonishingly - modern military communication infrastructure [l]. Also, the huge growth in the number of qualified engineers and technicians with practical skills during wartime has been of major importance.

REFERENCES

[1] Myyrylainen, P., 2/93, "Finnish Military Communications Through 75 Years," Viestimies.
[2] Soila, A., 1/90, "The Nature of Communication Services During the Winter War in Finland 1939-1940," Viestimies.
[3] Mannerheim, G., 1952, "Autobiography of the Finnish Marshall," WSOY.
[4] Pajunen, S., 2/90, "Kyynel and Topo," Viestimies.
[5] Martiala, K., 3/90, "The Air Force Radio Operations in Independent Finland and during WW2,' Viestimies.
[6] Trenkle, F., 1979, "The German Navigation and ATC Principles up to 1945," Motorbuch Verlag.
[7] Trenkle, F., 1979, -'The German Radar up to 1945," Motorbuch Verlag.
[8] Seppanen, S., 1/92, "Finnish Women at Telecommunications Duties During the War 1939-1945," Viestimies.
[9] Toivola, K., 4/91, "Radio Operations of the Headquarters Railway Department," Viestimies.
[10] Makela, J., 1964, "Secret," WSOY.
[ 11] Uro, S., 2/93, "Radar in Finland 50 Years Ago," Viestimies.
[I21 Makela, J., 1965, "During the Secret War," WSOY

The author, Pekka Eskelinen is the Dean of the Electrical Engineering Department and a teacher of electronics and RF systems at the Kotka Institute of Technology, Finland. He received his MScEE (1979) and PhDEE (1992) from the Helsinki University of Technology. He worked for five years at the Technical Research Center of Finland designing subsystems for satellite ground stations and radar equipment. In 1984, he joined the National Board of Aviation where he was chief of the Avionics section. Since 1988, he has been involved in accident investigation and is a technical expert in the Planning Commission for Investigation of Major Accidents. Dr. Eskelinen is also a member of IEEE/AESS and of the Scientific Committee of the European Frequency and Time Forum, Switzerland.

And a question - I keep seeing references to the Railways Radio Network, and the Radio Operations of the Headquarters Railway Department - can anybody provide a wee bit of an explanation on this? Like what was the Railways Radio Network vs the military radio network?

Kiitos.........Nigel
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Signals unit organisation?

#21

Post by CanKiwi2 » 08 Nov 2011, 18:25

Could anyone advise what the compositions of a Divisional Signals Company (Viestikomppania, VK) and Line Contructing Company (Linjanrakennuskomppania, LRak.K) was in the Winter War / Continuation Was period? I know Harri had some info on his old web pages but the pages on this don't seem to be available anymore.
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Re: Signals unit organisation?

#22

Post by JTV » 08 Nov 2011, 21:26

CanKiwi2 wrote:Could anyone advise what the compositions of a Divisional Signals Company (Viestikomppania, VK) and Line Contructing Company (Linjanrakennuskomppania, LRak.K) was in the Winter War / Continuation Was period? I know Harri had some info on his old web pages but the pages on this don't seem to be available anymore.
Geocities might be gone, but luckily the webpages are not:
http://www.oocities.org/finnmilpge/fmp_main.html

However the page doesn't seem to cover signal units used during Winter War.

Luckily much recent acquisition "Sotilasviestitoiminnan historiaa, Vainovalkeasta valokaapeliin" (History of Military Signal Functions, from Signal Fires to Fiber Optic Cables) by Viestisäätiö proves useful. Article "Divisioonan viestitoiminnan vertailu Karjalan kannaksella ja itärajalla talvisodassa" (Comparison of Division's signal functions in Karelian Isthmus and in eastern border during Winter War) by Heikki Nurmi shows basic structure for these units, but unfortunately doesn't go to details. The organisations are in pages 171 - 172.

Divisional Signals Company (Viestikomppania):
- Company Commander
-Telephone Switchboard Platoon (Keskusjoukkue)
- Radio Platoon (Radiojoukkue)
- Telephone Platoon (Puhelinjoukkue)
- Supplies Platoon (Toimitusjoukkue)

Divisional Line Constructing Company (Linjanrakennuskomppania):
- Company Commander
- 3 Telephone Platoons (Puhelinjoukkue)
- Supplies Platoon (Toimitusjoukkue)

According that article Viestikomppania was usually commanded by a Captain (who when needed could be used as substitute for Division Signal Commander, who was alto typically a Captain), while Linjanrakennuskomppania was usually commanded by a Lieutenant.

24th of November 1939 order was issued to replace these two companies with Viestipataljoona (Signal Battalion) in all divisions, however in some units this change wasn't implemented until after the war.

Signal Battalion (Viestipataljoona) of 2nd Division:
- Battalion HQ
- Telephone Switchboard Company (Keskuskomppania)
---1st Telephone Switchboard Platoon (Keskusjoukkue)
-----Telephone Switchboard Squad
-----2 Telephone Squads
-----Telegraph Squad
---2nd Telephone Switchboard Platoon (Keskusjoukkue)
------Telephone Switchboard Squad
------Telephone Squad
---Radio Platoon (Radiojoukkue)
------6 Radio Squads
-----"Ilmaviestiryhmä" (what ever that is?)
---Messenger Platoon (Lähettijoukkue)
------Motorcycle messenger Squad
------Bicycle messenger Squad
------Horseriding messenger Squad
---Supplies Platoon (Toimitusjoukkue)
- 2 Telephone Companies (Puhelinkomppania), in each company:
--3 Telephone Platoons (Puhelinjoukkue), in each platoon:
------3 Telephone Squads
---Supplies Platoon (Toimitusjoukkue)
-Signal Equipment Repair Shop (Viestivälinekorjaamo)

Battalion manpower: 19 officers + 29 noncoms + 52 "rj" (?) + 355 men = total 456

Notice apparently the signal battalion orgisation shown above is the official by the book organisation. Article "Talvisodan viestitoiminta viestijoukkojen organisaation ja kaluston osalta" (Winter War Signal Functions for the part of Organisation of Signal Corps and Equipment ) by Captain Simo Hintikka in the same book gives exactly the same details in page 191.

"rj" could be ryhmänjohtaja = squad leader, but typically these were noncoms.

Jarkko

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CanKiwi2
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Re: Signals unit organisation?

#23

Post by CanKiwi2 » 15 Nov 2011, 21:56

JTV wrote:-----"Ilmaviestiryhmä" (what ever that is?)
Just a guess, but would it be a Radio Squad responsible for communications with aircraft? Observation or close air support?
ex Ngāti Tumatauenga ("Tribe of the Maori War God") aka the New Zealand Army

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JTV
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Re: Signals unit organisation?

#24

Post by JTV » 16 Nov 2011, 07:07

CanKiwi2 wrote:
JTV wrote:-----"Ilmaviestiryhmä" (what ever that is?)
Just a guess, but would it be a Radio Squad responsible for communications with aircraft? Observation or close air support?
Never heard or read of such. I would say that the basic problem was that Air Force didn't really have capacity for providing much of a close air support anyway. While the capacity improved during the war even 1944 order (more of a request really) for air support could usually be made only from way high (like Division Commander). Also, what I remember reading even then usually the order specified the target (for example: crossroads X or concentration of armour and troops in map point YZ etc...) and there was no radio contact to ground.

Jarkko

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Re: Finnish field radios

#25

Post by Suomäki » 16 Nov 2011, 12:49

could ilmaviestiryhmä be for transmitting locations of spotted soviet aircraft to IVAK (ilmavalvonta-aluekeskus = air surveillance area central) and AA -batteries

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Re: Finnish field radios

#26

Post by igor_verh » 11 Jan 2012, 19:14

Hi!
One photo: finnish soldier and the field switch
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Финский солдат у полевого коммутатора.jpg

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Re: Finnish field radios

#27

Post by rattinox » 26 May 2012, 02:43

I'm an American Ham Radio operator (KC0BIN)- so I find this information fascinating!! 8-)

After watching Tali Ihantala 1944 (for the 5th time), I heard an Artillery Fire Control Officer/Forward Observer say something which sounded like this:

" all mekkaa ampukka"

What is the translation of this Artillery order?

Thanks to all!!
Kiitos paljon!!
Häftigt!! Tack!!

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Re: Finnish field radios

#28

Post by Seppo Jyrkinen » 26 May 2012, 07:54

I've seen the film too, but only twice. If I remember right, the sentence was "Kumpikin Mekka - ampukaa" which would men "Both Mekka - shoot" or "Both Mekka - open fire".
A word irony is baked into the word history.

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Re: Finnish field radios

#29

Post by Suomäki » 26 May 2012, 07:58

and Mekka is a name given to target area by forward observer...

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Re: Finnish field radios

#30

Post by rattinox » 26 May 2012, 08:21

Thank you! :D

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