City Museum

WINTER WAR SKY

On Thursday, January 12.1.2023, 29.2.1940, the Imatra City Museum will open the exhibition Winter War Sky, which presents the air battle of Ruokolahti that took place on February 29th 1940.

The exhibition tells about the battle fought in the airspace of Ruokolahti and Imatra with texts, pictures and objects, which was the most significant of the winter war considering the number of aircraft lost.

Towards the end of the Winter War, at the end of February 1940, fighters from Flight Squadron 24 and Flight Squadron 26 were stationed at the Air Force Ice Base located on the ice of Haapavesi near Rasila in Ruokolahti. On the morning of the escape day, the Finnish fighters returning to their base had been followed by a Soviet fighter patrol, which found out the location of the Ruokolahti ice base. On the same day, after 12:23, the Imatra Air Defense Area Center issued an air warning after receiving information about an enemy formation heading towards the ice base. Due to the delay in the announcement, the 23rd Soviet fighter strike unit was able to launch a surprise attack against the Finnish fighters that were taking off from the ice base.

During the battle, a total of 19 Finnish fighters and 23 Soviet fighters were in the air. The Finns and the Soviet allies came into combat contact at around 12:14. During the fierce battle, three Finnish pilots were killed, and a total of seven of the base's fighter planes were destroyed. Three Soviet planes were destroyed, two of whose pilots were killed and one was captured by the Finns.

The exhibits in the exhibition have been collected for the most part from the results of the wreck research work of the Karelian Aviation Museum's search for plane wrecks. The exhibition has been designed in collaboration by Jouni Särkioja, a wreck research expert at the Karelian Aviation Museum, and Kalle Pakarinen, a museum assistant at the Imatra City Museum.