Finnish Navy – Merivoimat: Coastal submarine (1932-1945). The last Finnish submarine deployed in WW2 was another product Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw den Haag which seeked to convince Finland to adopt a successor to the very small Saukko, larger and far more modern. Vesikko became esentially the prototype for the German Type II submarines. Six Type IIA … Read more
Finnish Navy – Merivoimat: Coastal submarine (1930-1945). Saukko was in 1930 the world’s smallest submarine. At first this was another covert German project designed at IVS as Pu110, for a quick mobilization defensive U-Boat but she was too small to be adopted, while the Finnish one was designed for Lake Ladoga which imposed by treaty … Read more
Finnish Navy (Merivoimat): 3 submarines (1931-1950); Vetehinen, Vehiisi, Iku-Turso. The three Vetehinen class were the first Finnish submarines, ordered from the covert IVS design bureau in the Hague. They were partly inspired by the German WWI 1917 UC-III class but had horizontal tubes alongside the hull. Given their size and general design they are often … Read more
Finnish Navy – Merivoimat 2 Coastal Battleships (1929-1945) Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen were both built at the Crichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku, launched in 1931 and 1933 and soon nicknamed in the international press the “Lighthouse Battleships”. Ilmarinen completed her trials and was commissioned on 17 April 1934, joining her sister ship Väinämöinen already in … Read more
