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33-575: It is responsible for maintaining the prerequisites for operation in Southern Finland for the Finnish Air Force. It studies and develops air combat procedures and equipment. It operates from bases in Southern Finland, also supporting Finnish Army troops. The Satakunta Wing was founded on 26 June 1918 in Sortavala and was moved to Suur-Merijoki, near Viipuri in 1938. The unit was disbanded after

66-500: A specific wartime unit. After the end of training, the conscripts are demobilised into reserve. During regular refresher exercises and in case of a crisis, the reserve unit will be activated and deployed in the formation it trained in during conscription. Thus, the peacetime structure of the Army does not give any meaningful information about the mobilised structure or about the areas where the units would be used. Between 1809 and 1917 Finland

99-543: Is 31.77 inhabitants per square kilometre (82.3/sq mi). The population of the central town is approximately 10,000. The municipal language of Hamina is Finnish . Highway 7 ( E18 ) is the town's road connection to Helsinki, after it was upgraded to a continuous motorway in September 2014. Hamina is also the base of one of the most important harbors of Finland, the Port of Hamina-Kotka . The port specializes in forest products and

132-564: Is divided into six branches: the infantry (which includes armoured units), field artillery , anti-aircraft artillery, engineers , signals , and materiel troops. The commander of the Finnish Army since 1 January 2022 is Lieutenant General Pasi Välimäki . The duties of the Finnish Army are threefold. They are: In addition to these tasks, the Army is responsible for conscription and personnel management of reserve. Because Finland

165-451: Is located approximately 145 km (90 mi) east of the country's capital Helsinki , in the Kymenlaakso region , and formerly the province of Southern Finland . The municipality's population is 19,375 (as of 31 October 2024) and covers an area of 1,155.14 square kilometres (446.00 sq mi), of which 545.66 km (210.68 sq mi) is water. The population density

198-415: Is not under direct military threat, the current Army is, as it has been since the end of Second World War , in peacetime training formation. This means that its brigades (Finnish: joukko-osasto ) are not meant to be operational combat units but training formations. According to the "troop production" doctrine (Finnish: joukkotuotanto ), peacetime units will train each batch of conscripts they receive for

231-473: Is the wartime organisation of the Finnish army from 1.1.2008 Operative forces: Territorial forces: Major weapon systems used by the army include: Hamina Hamina ( Finnish pronunciation: [ˈhɑminɑ] ; Swedish : Fredrikshamn , Finland Swedish: [freːdriksˈhɑmn] , Sweden Swedish: [freːdrɪksˈhamːn] ) is a town and a municipality of Finland . It

264-522: The 21st and 23rd Divisions and sent to the front on 19 December. The 2nd Replacement Division was deployed as individual regiments to Northern Finland. Finland ceded 9% of its territory via the Moscow Peace Treaty , but prevented the Soviets from annexing the whole country. Four delaying groups, named for their location, were stationed immediately by the border on the isthmus. The Army of Karelia

297-731: The Karelian Isthmus , most importantly Viipuri , a major city, and was forced to retreat from Eastern Karelia. However, in the decisive Battle of Tali-Ihantala , the Soviet advance was halted. The Soviet Union concentrated its forces on the battles in Central Europe, and Finland made a separate peace in September 1944. The Lapland War (Finnish: Lapin sota ) was the hostilities between Finland and Nazi Germany between September 1944 and April 1945, fought in Finland's northernmost Lapland Province. While

330-507: The Russo–Swedish War, 1741–1743 , and the town of Loviisa was the next Swedish candidate for an Eastern-Finnish trade center. Hamina became a Russian frontier town, for which a fortress was desirable. The Treaty of Fredrikshamn (1809), by which Sweden ceded Finland, including parts of the province of Lappland and Åland , was signed in Hamina. Thus Sweden was split, and the eastern half

363-612: The Soviet Navy . The Army is organised into eight Peacetime brigades. Two of these brigades, the Army Academy and the Utti Jaeger Regiment do not have subordinate regional offices. The six other brigades have one or more subordinate regional offices and a deputy commander. During a crisis, the regional offices form provincial local battalions and the brigade headquarters form the regional command level. During normal operation,

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396-504: The Winter War , but reinstated in Aunus in 1942. In 1944 the unit was moved to Pori Airport and it was equipped with Messerschmitt Bf 109s . It was the first unit of the Finnish Air Force to be equipped with jet aircraft, when it received its De Havilland Vampires . It was later to receive Folland Gnats and MiG-21s . The unit was renamed into the "Satakunta Wing" in 1957 and the headquarters

429-776: The Young Guard Battalion, the Finnish Guards . During the Crimean War , 1854, Finland set up nine sharpshooter battalions based on a rota system. Conscription was introduced in Finland in 1878. The Finnish Guard took part in fighting to suppress the 1830 November Uprising in Poland and participated in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) , after which it gained the status of Old Guard of the Russian Emperor. The Finnish army

462-526: The Finnish people, especially during the strikes during and after the Russo-Japanese War. There were socialist Red Guards and conservative, anti-socialist Protection Guards (or White Guards). Also, during the First World War activists secretly travelled to Germany to receive military training and to be trained as Jäger troops (Finnish: jääkärit , Swedish: jägare ). After independence and

495-634: The Finns saw this as a separate conflict much like the Continuation War, German forces considered their actions to be part of the Second World War. A peculiarity of the war was that the Finnish army was forced to demobilise their forces while at the same time fighting to force the German army to leave Finland. The German forces retreated to Norway, and Finland was, therefore, able to uphold its armistice promise to

528-638: The Grand Duchy. As a result, officer benefits of the allotment system became practically pensions, as payment was based on passive availability, not on actual service. During the Napoleonic Wars three 1200-man regiments were formed in Finland and Topographic Corps in Hamina . In 1821 the Topographic Corps was transformed into the cadet officers school. In 1829 one of the training battalions was transformed into

561-505: The Soviet Union. During the Cold War, Finland was neutral but maintained close ties to the Soviet Union. The Finnish Army was in a difficult situation as it bordered the Soviet Union. Porkkala was a Soviet naval base taken from Finland in 1944. Construction for it finished in 1945 and became a naval base. It was handed back to Finland in 1956, for Kaliningrad had become a better place for

594-472: The White Guards, which became a voluntary organization , and the Finnish army, which was a cadre army based on conscription. However, Jägers gained important positions in the army, and German tactics and military principles were adopted. The Finnish Army consisted of 9 field divisions, 4 brigades and a number of small independent battalions and companies at the beginning of the Winter War in 1939. The Army

627-633: The areas lost to the Soviet Union in the Winter War and pushed deep into Soviet territory in Eastern Karelia . In winter 1942, the Finnish political leadership ended offensive action and the front stagnated for over two years. The relatively inactive period of stationary war ended abruptly in June 1944, as the Soviet Union started its Fourth Strategic Offensive . As a result, the Finnish Army lost large areas of

660-784: The beginning of the Finnish Civil War the White government declared the White Guards as government troops, and the war was fought between the Red Guards , assisted by Communist Russians, and White Guards added with the Jägers and assisted by the German Empire. After the war in 1919, the Protection Guards became a separate organization. Therefore, strictly speaking, there is no continuity between

693-546: The municipal center had always been inside the town borders. Vehkalahti and Hamina were consolidated in 2003, and the old coat of arms was replaced with Vehkalahti's coat of arms. The old coat of arms was readopted in January 2013. Results of the 2021 Finnish municipal elections , resulted in The Finns Party being the largest group on Hamina council, in Hamina. The pesäpallo club Haminan Palloilijat fields teams in both

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726-478: The name of the town to Hamina. The reconstruction of the town was completed between 1722 and 1724. The star-shaped fortress and the circular town plan, designed by Axel Löwen , were based on Central European and Italian Renaissance concepts from the 16th century. Fortress towns with a circular street plan like this are quite rare; one example is Palmanova in Italy. In 1743, Hamina was surrendered to Russia, after

759-409: The regional offices are responsible for conscription, organising voluntary national defence work and planning crisis-time activities. The brigades are: Army logistics is part of the joint Finnish Defence Forces Logistics Command. During war time the army is organised operative forces which consists of approximately 61 000 men and territorial forces which consist of 176 000 men. The following list

792-527: The transit of cargo to Russia . One of Google 's five European data centers is situated in Hamina. Vehkalahti was as a municipality first mentioned in 1336. At the proposal of Count Per Brahe , the area surrounding the Vehkalahti church (today St. Mary's Church) received its charter in 1653 through the establishment of Vehkalahden Uusikaupunki (Veckelax Nystad in Swedish , "The New Town of Vehkalahti"). The town

825-432: The units a Field Replacement Brigade (Finnish: Kenttätäydennysprikaati , KT-Pr) of nine battalions was formed. But due to the severity of the Soviet attack the battalions had to be used as combat troops. Also three Replacement Divisions or Home Replacement Divisions (1.Koti.TD – 3.Koti.TD) were formed from the available reservists. As the situation became more alarming the 1st and 3rd Replacement Divisions were reformed into

858-516: Was amalgamated into Satakunta Air Command's Air Combat Centre. In 2023 the English name for Satakunta Air Command was changed to Satakunta Air Wing along with the two other Air Commands. Organization of Satakunta Air Wing is: Finnish Army The Finnish Army ( Finnish : Maavoimat , Swedish : Armén ) is the land forces branch of the Finnish Defence Forces . The Finnish Army

891-669: Was an autonomous state ruled by the Russian Empire as the Grand Duchy of Finland . Between 1881 and 1901 the Grand Duchy had its own army. Before that several other military units had also been formed while Finland belonged to Sweden . The Grand Duchy inherited its allotment system (Swedish: indelningsverket ; Finnish: ruotujakolaitos ) from the Swedish military organization. However, for several decades, Russian rulers did not require military service from Finland; operations and defence were mostly taken care by Russian troops based in

924-541: Was formed into the Grand Duchy of Finland , an autonomous part of the Russian Empire . In 1812, the previously conquered territories known as Old Finland (including Hamina) were joined to the Grand Duchy. Hamina Cadet School was founded in 1819 and was in operation until 1903. In 1920 the Reserve Officer School began in the same facilities. Because the town was founded next to the Vehkalahti Church,

957-642: Was formed on 29 June 1941 soon after the start of the Continuation War . There were seven Finnish corps in the field during the war: the I, II, III , IV, V, VI and VII. During the war the Finnish Army was responsible for the front from the Gulf of Finland to Kainuu . The front in Northern Finland was the responsibility of the German AOK Norwegen . During summer and autumn 1941, the Finnish Army re-conquered

990-728: Was gradually broken up during the " oppression years " just after the turn of the century. As Finnish conscripts refused to serve in the Russian Imperial Army, conscription ended in Finland and it was replaced with a tax paid from the Finnish Senate to the Imperial treasury. At the end of the 19th century the Russian empire was weakening, and this was reflected in a reduced capacity of the Russian troops to keep public order. Voluntary defence organizations disguised as fire brigades were formed by

1023-482: Was later destroyed during the Great Northern War in 1712. As the commercially vibrant city of Vyborg was lost to Russia in 1721, Fredrikshamn (named in 1723 in the honor of King Frederick I of Sweden ) was dedicated to replace it. The town, hitherto a small domestic port with restricted trading privilege's, was granted extensive rights to conduct foreign trade. The Finnish speaking population soon abbreviated

Satakunta Air Wing - Misplaced Pages Continue

1056-601: Was moved to Tampere in 1965. The Fighter Squadron 21 was moved to the Pirkkala Airport in 1985 and it was the first unit to be equipped with F-18 Hornet fighters in 1995. The Fighter Squadron 21 was the operational unit of the wing. It was disbanded in summer 2014, with fighters relocated to Karelian Air Command and Lapland Air Command . At the same time, Satakunta Air Command was given new tasks: transport flights and flight research. The former flight research center in Halli

1089-670: Was organised into three corps. The II and III Corps were organised into the Army of the Isthmus which was located on the Karelian Isthmus , the likely location for the main Soviet attack. The IV Corps defended the area north of Lake Ladoga . The defence of the rest of the border up to Petsamo by the Arctic Ocean was given to the North Finland Group which consisted of a handful of independent battalions. In order to organize replacements for

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