To continue to add more to our military playlist on Finland
We look at the Finnish Navy and although they may be smaller than other navies around the world
They do make up a major part of the defence of the Scandinavian countries
And with that mind we're gonna dive as far as we can into this
Particular unit and learn as much as we can about its history its current status and what it's all about. Hey everybody
How's it going? Dave Walpole here and welcome to FTD facts the channel
Well, I mean all you guys who are returning you already know
I took my people cultures and places from all around the world
But that's really just for the new people who are coming here for the first time and like what is this channel all about?
With that being said if you like learning about countries cultures and militaries you want to hit that subscribe button because that's what we do
So for me, I'm pretty excited about this because first of all
We've done a lot of videos talking about the military branches of Finland
We've talked about the Jaeger regiment we've talked about the army as a matter of fact, we've put it all into playlist
I'll talk about that later. But just so you know, we've been talking about the military and we just haven't done
Well, I haven't done the Navy yet and I'm like yo, what is this Navy all about so with that man guys?
Let's get started and let's look at the history because that's kind of the important part
Let's understand where the Navy came from and how it grew to become what it is today
So to start all off when it comes to its history the more modern-day version of Finland
Well, its Navy began and was formed in 1918
This was obviously after Finland had basically said yo see you later, Russia. We're gonna go and do our own thing
Because yeah, we don't like to be owned by you. We're no longer gonna be a Duchy. We're gonna be our own
independent nation
Yeah
but truth be told we cannot talk just about
Finland's naval forces from this date because there's so much history from way before so going way back in time one thing
That was a very important thing about Finland is that it was a home to many naval bases and supplied a lot of sailors
for the Swedish Navy
now these groups were part of a very famous group known as the archipelago fleet in which this fleet existed anywhere between
1756 to roughly about
1823 and one of the first major battles that caused this fleet to grow was after the Russians destroyed the Swedish fleet at the Battle
of gangue gute
This happened in 1714 and it was in the midst of the great northern war and that battle took place in Hanko
Which is the southern region of finland now?
Of course as the years progressed the fleet had seen combat in also the Seven Years War as well
there's a lot of historical evidence and mentions of a Finnish squadron which existed in
1756 in which the entire archipelago group around this time was under the command of general
Augustine Erin's vard and also they say during that time that that fleet only consisted of two major squadrons
And that was the Finnish squadron
and of course the Swedish squadron should also mention that during this time the
Archipelago group took part in what is known as the rush Oh Swedish war which ranged from 1788 to?
1790 in which after that in 1793 a second Finnish squadron was added in a bow
Also, I want to mention that during this time
There were two major battles that happened in Finland and these battles were the 1st and 2nd Battle of svensk
and which first happened in August of
1789 and the second one happening in
1790 and in today's world to give you an idea of where this took place
it happened around what is now known as Kotka Finland now during the time of the archipelago fleet this
Particular unit actually had two different headquarters and although one of them was located in Stockholm
Sphere org was also considered a major defense point of Finland in which the speak borg
fortress is now located in Helsinki, which is in Finland, but however
Let's fast forward and let's get into the eighteen hundred's because this is where things got a little interesting
because by 1808 the Finnish Navy had seen combat in what is known as they finished Civil War and
unfortunately in the early days of the war the Finnish squadrons along with these fee board fortress was lost to the Russian forces and by
The end of the war Sweden had lost its grip on Finland thus resulting it being lost to Russia
After this finland became known as the Duchy of Finland
Which was pretty much under kind of Russian control and influence
however
it was during the time of 1830 that the military of the Grand Duchy of Finland became known as
Sooman medica Posse and of course this particular armed horses had formed a navy consisting of around
1,000 men and several ships
I also want to mention two of these ships in particular and that is the Rorick and the calve alle
Both were actually one of the first steam and propeller based ships within the country as well
The rear ik was designed by Johann Everhard von shunts who was a Finnish born man who served as a military officer?
for the Russian Navy and now because Finland was majorly
Influenced by Russia the Navy of Finland saw combat in the Crimea war which took place from 1853 to?
1856 and of course influenced from Russia affected the Navy until the country got its own independence in
1917 now by 1918 which was pretty much the first year of the Finland's own
Independent Navy a lot of the ships were pretty much passed down from the old Russian Empire and during the early years of the 1900s
Finland had only a few gunboats and approximately fourteen torpedo boats and several mine warfare vessels now
Okay, guys, we're gonna get into more of the modern aspect of the Finland Navy
But before I do I just want to let you guys know I did talked earlier about
playlists now if you guys are really liking learning about the military of Finland because most of you are probably from you know,
Finland and wanted to learn about your own country. You guys can just hit this little box right up here
Also, I'm gonna put it at the end of the video. So if you want to stay here, that's totally cool
It's also gonna be in the description box below but on top of that
I've also done videos just talking about Finland itself and how great the country is and some cool aspects around it
So that cards gonna be here and of course that's gonna be at the end of the video as well
But let's get back and continue even more
So now this next upcoming fact, okay?
I just got to say it's it's a I found it really really cool because the truth be told
The truth of the whole thing didn't actually come two years later and that was in
1930 Finland and the Finnish Navy had a bit of an alliance with Estonia and
Finland broke its neutrality rule and fought against the Russians
Now this was known as the Finnish Estonian defense cooperation
Which didn't become public knowledge until the Russians secret files became public information sometime in the 90s
Basically despite Finland's policy to be a neutral country the two countries, Finland and Estonia work together to prevent
Russians from taking control of the Baltic States and sea and as a matter of fact Finland and Estonian navies teamed up together
Having submarines and mine placed in the regional sea and of course coastal batteries with a hundred and five millimeter cannons
which cover the areas between makka luto finland and
Nasarah Soniya shortly after this of course world war ii broke out
Finland had approximately five submarines to coastal defence ships eight mine sweepers one mined lair
four gunboats and many torpedo boats
however for Finland one of the big things was during the winter war which unfortunately
Finland didn't provide much defence against Russia and this wasn't really due to the fact of Finland's fault
this was due to the fact that in December of
1939 things got so cold that the ships couldn't even move because there was so much ice and throughout most of the Winter War they
Were pretty much stationary
Of course after this ships of the Finnish Navy were heavily involved in the continuation war and the Lapland war as well
I should mention one of the worst maritime war disasters for Finland was the destruction of the
Ilmarinen which was a coastal defence ship that went down on September 13
1941 after being struck by a mine and as a result
271 sailors lost their lives in the sea that day and also on a side note the Ilmarinen ship was found in
1990 at a depth of 70 metres as well
It was found extremely close anywhere between fifteen to thirty kilometers away from the wreck of the Estonia
Which is considered one of the worst maritime disasters in the 20th century. It's pretty nuts
I also should mention that during the entire war
It's been reported that the Finland Navy had laid approximately 6,000 382 mines and of course
I'm not going to get into it but clearing those mines
After the war was a bit of a problem and there were even some accidents
however, after the end of the war because of all the peace talks of Finland was restricted to a navy of only
4,500 men and a total tonnage equaling about
10,000 which also meant that this country couldn't have any mines
It couldn't have any missiles and it couldn't have any submarines and to this day
Finland doesn't have any submarines believe it or not
But however, in today's world many of these rules have changed due to the fall of the Soviet Union and in the present day
Although it is a very small fleet. We should take a look at what's interesting about it
First of all when the 90s came around Finland created what is known as squadron?
2000 the original plan for this squad was to have two missile boats and a few hovercrafts
however
due to some tactical differences the hovercrafts were put aside and
Instead they built the four Hamina class missile boats side note when it comes to the hovercraft
They also did built the thule class hovercraft, unfortunately because they didn't really want it and nobody wanted to buy it
They scrapped the whole thing in
2013 now it's been said that some of the parts are actually on the amina class ships
But I think that's just more heads missiles and all that sort of stuff as well when it comes to the Finland Navy they are
Now focusing on replacing old mind prevention ships and in 2012
They invested thirty four million euros for the new GU attack transport boats overall
The Navy of Finland has four Jimena class missile boats five mine layer vessels. They also have three mine countermeasure vessels
There's also nine mine sweepers
And of course twelve J who attacked transport boats just a little bit of a side note when it comes to these twelve attacked
Transports, I'm not sure if they currently have all 12 of them
I know in 2014, they first started operation of this particular craft as well
there's also a major plan to eventually add more ships to the fleet and
Replace older mine sweepers and missile boats that are already retired
Now this is known as squadron
2020 the Navy plans to build four of these new Corvette type ships in which they set to build them anywhere between
2019 to
2024 costing approximately 1.2 billion euros and being capable of participating in international
Cooperation operations and lastly let's just look at the Navy itself
It is actually broken up into four different regiments and one headquarters
And for these four units, you have the coastal fleet be coastal brigade which acts as naval Special Operations
You also have the Niland brigade
Which is the only training regimen that speaks in a Swedish tongue and last but not least the Naval Academy
But either way guys, there we go. That is a look at the Navy from its history and to today's standards
So let me know your thoughts on this. Would this be a force that you guys would like to join?
Other than that, my name is Dave waffle
Thank you for tuning in and learning a lot
and like I said before you guys get out of here down in the description box below and at the end of the video there's
Gonna be boom at that military playlist on Finland only Finland stuff that you guys can check out
We try to organize it for you guys because we know a lot of people from Finland are watching our Finland themed videos
Also, if you want to just learn about the country, I've also just got you know a playlist about Finland itself
It's really awesome to learn about that place and country because Matt's got some cool things going for it, but that's enough for me
I'm gonna get out of here. I'll see you guys in the next one. Oh, yeah, don't forget that
Don't forget to hit the subscribe button
Yeah, talk too fast. Anyways, bye
Alright so guys here you go. Here's those playlists
I was telling you about you got your military Finland playlist and you got your country playlist right here choose
Whatever one you want. Other than that, we'll see you in the next one. Okay. Bye
You