(*) Armour piercing and incendiary bulleted ammunition was rarely used machine guns belonging to infantry of Finnish Army.

Maxim machine guns had already been used against targets also during World War 1. But, as aircraft played very small role in Finnish Civil War of 1918 Finnish Armed Forces did not invest to their use as anti-aircraft weapons during first few years of Finnish independence. When Finnish military got interested about antiaircraft-warfare in mid 1920's this changed fast and Maxim machine gun became integral part of Finnish antiaircraft weaponry. Maxim machine gun was the first Finnish anti-aircraft weapon for which troops were trained to use when Air Defence Draft of Kapitulantti School established in 1^st of July 1925 got Maxim M/09 machine guns as their first antiaircraft weaponry. Mounts used with these first few Maxim AA-machine guns had been found among miscellaneous metal junk left behind by Russians to Suomenlinna fortress. However, as number of these found anti-aircraft mounts was very little and they were not exactly ideal for the purpose some development was needed.

PICTURE: Maxim M/09-09 in anti-aircraft configuration in Civil Guard excercises in year 1932. These machine guns have Sokolov mounts which been equipped with anti-aircraft adapter and the guns themselves seem to have butts attached in end of receiver and purpose-built anti-aircraft front sights. Photo crop due to damage in photograph. Photograph part of series taken by Aarne Pietinen. Location seems to be Vallisaari Island with buildings of Suomenlinna appearing in background. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (208 KB).

These were more or less in form of the original Russian Maxim-machine gun. For their main use against ground targets they were equipped with original wheeled Sokolov-mounts. For anti-aircraft use the Sokolov-mount could be equipped with anti-aircraft adapter, which basically was just long bar with attachments and raised the machine gun to suitable height. When the machine gun was also equipped with anti-aircraft sights and shoulder piece the combination formed working, but not terribly effective weapon for anti-aircraft work. But, as there was not anything better available, these had to be good enough. Suojeluskunta ordered several dozen of these anti-aircraft equipment packages for their Maxim M/09 machine guns from Sako 1931 and around the same time Army tested several designs. Some of the anti-aircraft machine gun mount designs tested by Army were to be used with Sokolov-mount, while other mounts had been designed to be used with tree stump or tree trunk. All of these designs were made only in small test-series and none of them ever become standard. During World War 2 Finnish military used these mounts and machine guns as anti-aircraft machine guns in the home front and also some somewhat improvised mounts were introduced for them. Especially during Winter War these machine guns had their own important role in low-level air-defence, as there were shortage of purpose build antiaircraft-machine guns. So about during Winter War Finnish Anti-Aircraft Troops used about 70 of these machine guns as replacement of purpose-build anti-aircraft machine guns.

At 1920's also the Soviets decided that they wanted Maxim machine guns of their infantry to have also antiaircraft capability. However, instead of adding anti aircraft adapter to existing Sokolov-mount like the Finns did, they decided to introduce totally new tripod-type antiaircraft mount. This new antiaircraft tripod for Maxim machine guns was m/1928 designed by Mikhail Kondakov. With m/1928 anti-aircraft tripod they also introduced m/1929 anti-aircraft sights. When each machine gun intended to both roles now demanded both m/1928 AA-tripod weighting about 16 kg and also ordinary Sokolov-mount (another 36 kg) this hardly was ideal long-term solution, so Soviets did not stop searching better one. For time being the Soviets typically issued m/1928 anti-aircraft tripods only for one Platoon in each machine gun Company (of Infantry Battalion). That better solution came with m/1931 (Vladimirov) Universal mount, which could also be opened as antiaircraft-machine gun tripod. Few years later the Soviets also introduced improved anti-aircraft sight called m/1936 and yet another one called m/1941 during World War 2. Soviet Maxim machine guns, which the Finns captured often had also anti-aircraft equipment with them, so these ended up to Finnish use. Finnish military used these machine guns with antiaircraft equipment in AA-use quite similarly as domestic M/32-33. In other words: While these captured Maxim machine guns were mainly used against surface targets, but also anti-aircraft capability could be used if needed.

PICTURE: Soviet Maxim M/09-09 (variation M/1910) equipped with (Vladimirov) Universal-mount (aka M/1931 mount) readied for anti-aircraft use. The weapon is missing its anti-aircraft sight. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (126 KB).

Finnish-designed and manufactured tripod M/21 proved about equally difficult to get working as anti-aircraft machine gun purposes, since it was far from from suitable on its own. M/21 tripod was normally connected to machine gun by with steel band placed around machine gun's water jacket, but the steel band did not offer good attachment point of balance for anti-aircraft purposes. Old attachment point (traverse hole through lower corner of front receiver) for Sokolov machine gun mount was much better suisted for this purpose, but did not exist in all Maxim M/09 machine guns used by Finnish military. To be more specific the attachment point was a standard feature for Russian manufactured Maxim M/09 (m/1910) machine guns, but the feature had been omitted from receivers manufactured for Maxim M/09 in Finland. Hence using the anti-aircraft adapter was possible with those Maxim M/09, which had Russian-made receivers, but impossible with any that had been built with Finnish-made receivers. So even at best the anti-aircraft adapter for tripod M/21 offered only a partial solution for the problem. The adapter used was long bar with attachment kind of system quite similar to ones used with M/09-09, which may have provided starting point for development of this adapter. Other anti-aircraft equipment (anti-aircraft sights and shoulder piece of wire structure) were also not very different from those issued earlier with M/09-09 machine guns. If the anti-aircraft equipment was not available or did not fit (in other words: the machine gun had Finnish made receiver) and machine gun was still needed to be used for anti-aircraft role, the only remaining solution was to use the machine gun with improvised mount of some sort. From these improvised mounts used with M/09-21 the "cart wheel under tripod" version seems to have been at least somewhat common, since it appears every now and then in pre-war and wartime photographs. Finnish military issued these machine guns to frontline infantry units, so typically their anti-aircraft use was only a sometimes needed plus. Still - neither system was obviously satisfactory in any real degree.

PICTURE: Maxim M/09 with tripod M/21, which has been equipped with anti-aircraft adapter. Notice also a purpose-built anti-aircraft front sight and butt of wire structure. The solution or lack thereof for the feed system does not seem too reliable. The soldier seen in this photo is wearing Finnish coastal artillery uniform M/22. Photographer unknown. Original photo part of Jaeger Platoon Website photo collection. Unlicensed use of photograph prohibited. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (117 KB).

PICTURE: 7,62-mm Maxim M/09-21 with improvised "tripod and cart-wheel" arrangement. (Photo taken in Ilmatorjuntamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (126 KB).

Tripod M/33 used in these machine guns was designed also for anti-aircraft use from the start. The tripod no longer had extra adapter, but its third longest leg was pointed upwards and carried the machine gun. The extra leg carried among weapons equipment was attached to tripod to replace the longest leg now pointing upwards and system usually used as machine guns support made the whole arrangement rigid. Other AA-equipment (shoulder piece, sights, rest arches and flash hider) were also made for the machine gun. Soon after their introduction some of these equipment proved badly designed, but luckily they were replaced with better ones before Winter War. The replacing process included replacing rest arches with balancing spring, turning bar of AA-sight other way and replacing shoulder piece one that was better shaped. Feeding ammunition all the way from the ground level proved somewhat problematic, so one another piece of equipment added were attachment point and frame that carried ammunition belt box next to machine guns receiver.

PICTURE: 7.62-mm Maxim M/32-33 being used as anti-aircraft machine gun. For this purpose the tripod has been equipped with additional leg, folded into anti-aircraft position and the weapon has been equipped with anti-aircraft sight. However arrangement is missing shoulder piece intended for anti-aircraft use and frame which would hold ammunition box in side of the receiver to improve reliability of feeding ammunition belt. Photo taken by Staff Sergeant Arvo Häkönen on frozen Lake Laatokka / Ladoga in April of 1942. (SA-kuva photo archive, photo number 83275). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (168 KB).

Attachment point to machine gun used with tripod folded to AA-position was the one originally intended for Sokolov mount. Just like with M/09-21 these machine guns were also issued to frontline infantry units, so they were almost totally used only against ground targets. For units issued with them the AA-capability was just a bonus that could be used if needed.

PICTURE: 7,62 mm M/31 VKT anti-aircraft machine gun in use in Vuosalmi December of 1939. Notice cone-shaped mount (covered with white cloth for camoflage) and sights. (SA-kuva photo archive, photo number a_109). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (119 KB).

This air-cooled two-barrel anti-aircraft weapon based to Maxim machine gun designed by Aimo Lahti and manufactured by VKT (State Rifle Factory). The whole weapon has pair of two air-cooled machine guns attached side-by-side on the same platform and used as a single weapon. Both machine guns are fed with ammunition from disintegrating belts of 250 rounds, which are placed in belt boxes situated on both sides of this machine gun-pair. Also under each machine gun is shell-box for empty cartridge cases and parts of disintegrating ammunition belt. Barrel jacket design used in this machine gun reminds the one, which Lahti had already earlier used in Lahti-Saloranta light machine gun. This barrel jacket design has 24 cooling holes longitudinal to the barrel. Both machine guns of ItKk M/31 VKT have their own grips, which are mix between while original shovel-handle type most used in Maxim machine guns and the traditional pistol-grip type: They are shaped to provide pistol-grip like ergonomics and each have a separate trigger, which is operated with forefinger. The receivers of these machine guns are pretty much along the lines of traditional Maxim machine gun design, but with Lahti's improvements. These improvements, including new accelerator, feeding mechanism and ammunition belt gave this weapon a remarkable theoretical fire-rate of 900 rounds/minute/barrel (and 1800 rounds/min for whole weapon). Although this also required use of recent Finnish-manufactured ammunition, which had improved cartridge case bottom design. Tips of the barrels are equipped with cone-shaped flash hiders.

machine gun-mount used with this anti-aircraft machine gun was cone-shaped, about 135 cm high and quite heavy, but also somewhat versatile and allowed the weapon to be installed to just about any kind of fire position or vehicle - including ships, trains and trucks. However this design had also its limitations. While the cone-shaped machine gun-mount worked, it was more suitable to static positions than to needs of Finnish Field Army, which found need for more mobile antiaircraft machine gun, which could be more easily moved from one position to another. Each weapon was issued in wooden crates with multitude of equipment, which included ten 250-round belts, ten belt boxes, spare barrels, spare bolts, springs and tool set.

PICTURE: 7,62 mm M/31 VKT AAMG. Notice cone-shaped mount and sights. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (68 KB).

First prototype of ItKk/31 was completed in year 1931 and first order made in year 1933. That first order was for 130 weapons and resulted the weapon entering to mass-production in that year. By late year 1937 the first production run of 130 weapons was completed. July of 1938 Finnish Armed Forces did the their second and last order for ItKk/31 - this time it was only for 10 weapons to be delivered without machine gun-mounts. But due to Winter War delivery of those 10 weapons did not happen until autumn of 1940. Also Civil Guard (Suojeluskunta) had several dozen ItKk/31 anti-aircraft machine guns loaned from Armed Forces in its training use in circa 1934 - 1938. Last of the ItKk/31 got returned from Civil Guard to Armed Forces After in mobilisation for Winter War in year 1939. Total production of ItKk/31 was only about 140 - 150 weapons with each pair of machine guns used for each ItKk/31 at least originally having consecutive serial numbers. The largest known serial number is apparently around 295 - 314. The earlier mentioned mobility issue caused by cone-mount combined with some other issues noted with some other issues already noted before World War 2, resulted into development of improved version in 1939 - 1940. Year 1940 ItKk/31 was replaced in production with that improved version simply named ItKk/31-40. During Winter War (1939 - 1940) ItKk/31 was the main standard issue anti-aircraft machine gun type in Finnish use, but this was to change during Continuation War.

PICTURE: Closer look to 7,62 mm M/31 VKT anti-aircraft machine gun. Notice sights. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (90 KB).

These machine guns remained in hard use until end of World War 2. As the spare-parts in general were made for ItKk/31-40 VKT during that time, large number of ItKk/31 VKT got modified with these spare-parts to such degree, that ultimately they got re-categorised as ItKk/31-40. The actual combat losses were very small, but because of wearing down and being re-categorised their total number kept dropping smaller both during the war and after it. The post World War 2 fate of this anti-aircraft machine gun was the same one as the one of more numerous ItKk/31-40 VKT.

7.62 mm Maxim M/09-31 (tank) machine gun:

This was a special application of the right hand and left hand side machine guns used in 7.62 ItKk/31 VKT anti-aircraft machine gun. Finnish Army used them in machine gun-version of Renault FT-17 tanks in 1937 - 1943 and as a coaxial turret machine gun in Vickers 6-ton tanks in 1939 - 1940. They used similar disintegrating steel ammunition belts as ItKk/31 VKT anti-aircraft machine gun. The version used in Renault FT 17 was with right side feed, while the one used with Vickers 6-ton tanks was fed from the left side. But since the side from which the individual machine gun was fed with ammunition belts could be changed from one side to another in seconds by simply replacing the feed block of the machine gun, there was not much practical difference between the two versions. One would suspect that the high rate of fire (900 rounds/minute) combined with air-cooling might have caused some problems with overheating, but apparently these were not reported during their short service career. Instead a notably reported problem was unreliability of ammunition belt feed when used in Vickers 6-ton tanks - this seems to have been at least partly due to too long distance between ammunition belt box (attached to left side wall of the tank turret) and the machine gun. When Finnish Army equipped remaining Vickers 6-ton tanks with captured Soviet weapons around 1940 - 1941, all 762 Maxim M/09-31 tank machine guns were replaced with Soviet 7.62-mm DT machine guns.

PICTURE: 7,62 mm M/31-40 VKT anti-aircraft machine gun with M/PNP sights. Photo taken by Military Official Göte Vainio in Uuksu July of 1944. (SA-kuva photo archive, photo number 157804). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (153 KB).

As noted 7,62 ItKk/31 VKT anti-aircraft machine gun had some room for improvement and this had been noted already before World War 2. There was not much what could be done to weakness of calibre after plans of domestic 13.2 mm machine guns had not lead anywhere, but the muzzle climb and machine gun-mount related problems were totally another matter. The muzzle climb problem was fixed by changes of mounting system attachment giving the weapon a better balance and by directing pressure coming from barrel upwards from tip of barrel (with muzzle-brake). However this created need to reinforce both machine guns barrels and barrel jackets. Hence this weapon got new structurally heavier machine gun barrels and barrel jackets, which had circular cooling holes. Around the same time new better sight (m/PNP) was developed. Live fire tests with the antiaircraft machine gun, which had these improvements were performed in summer of 1939, but then came Winter War and delayed starting of manufacturing. For a change this delay could actually be considered a positive matter, since it allowed also time for development of new collapsing tripod-type machine gun-mount, which was simply named M/40. This new M/40 tripod mount suited better to mobility needs of Finnish Field Army than the earlier cone-shaped machine gun-mount design and become standard mount of ItKk/31-40 machine guns, but can also been seen often in wartime photographs also with older ItKk/31 machine guns. Further improvements introduced during manufacturing of ItKk/31-40 included 2^nd production version of M/40 collapsing tripod-mount, which was about 10-kg lighter than the earlier version. It is worth noting that while official name abbreviation of the weapon changed into 7.62 ItKk/31-40 VKT, the factory still marked their receivers with the same "It.KK/31" marking as before.

PICTURE: Closer look to 7,62 mm M/31-40 VKT anti-aircraft machine gun. Notice M/PNP sight, barrel jackets and muzzle brakes in tips of each barrel. (Photo taken in Jalkaväkimuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (95 KB).

Before the war had ruined existing plans, Finnish Armed Forces had already ordered 32 ItKk/31-40 dual anti-aircraft machine guns in year 1939. When the Winter War ended in March of 1940 State Rifle Factory (VKT) again had manufacturing capacity needed to start filling already made but uncompleted orders. Hence this first production run of 32 weapons was delivered during Interim Peace of 1940 - 1941. March of 1941 Finnish Air Forces made order for 2^nd production run, which included 240 complete weapons with set delivery schedule and additional 82 weapons for which the delivery schedule was to be agreed later. June 1941 Continuation War and again changed the delivery schedule with much of the State Rifle Factory capacity needed for other projects. Hence the factory was unable to follow already set delivery schedule with manufacturing of ItKk/31-40 getting seriously delayed and continuing until autumn of 1944. The total production of ItKk/31-40 was 367 weapons with State Rifle Factory (VKT) as its sole manufacturer. However during the war and years following it the total number of ItKk/31-40 actually got even larger with much of the earlier manufactured ItKk/31 now being fixed with ItKk/31-40 parts and being re-categorised as ItKk/31-40. As with ItKk/31, also the wartime losses of ItKk/31-40 were relatively small. After World War 2 ItKk/31-40 remained to be used as training weapons until 1960's and mothballed for possible wartime mobilisation until year 1986. Last use they presumably had been reserved was as low-level protection of SAM teams whose primary weapons were shoulder-launched Soviet SA-7 surface-to-air missiles. In their mission as antiaircraft machine guns they finally got replaced with Soviet 12.7 mm NSV anti-aircraft machine guns. According inventory made in during procedings about being declared obsolete in year 1986 at that time Finnish Defence Forces still had 435 ItKk/31-40 and 41 ItKk/31. Being withdrawn from use in year 1986 most were scrapped in year 1988 and nowadays only relatively small number still exist in museums and collections.

PICTURE: machine gun-barrel of left side machine gun in 7,62 mm M/31-40 VKT is being changed. While these weapons were routinely issued with equipment package containing spare barrels, spare bolts and springs, changing of barrel was neither fast or easy. Notice that while this weapon is ItKk/31-40, it has older type sights. Photo taken by Lieutenant Tapio Piha in Rukajärvi region in September of 1941. (SA-kuva photo archive, photo number 50051). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (191 KB).

Finnish military used large variety of ammunition in 7.62 mm x 54 R calibre anti-aircraft machine guns. The total number of ammunition types and models listed for it contains 29 ammunition types. Following domestic ammunition types were most commonly used:

PICTURE: 7,62 mm ItKk/09-31 "organ machine gun" in Finnish use. Photo taken in Kiestinki region during Continuation War. Notice water tubing connecting the water jackets. Also note four ammunition belt boxes under the machine guns. Photograph taken by (TK-mies?) U. Laukka. (SA-kuva photo archive, photo number 81178). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (177 KB).

PICTURE: Same 7,62 mm ItKk/09-31 "organ machine gun" as previously seen from another angle. This anti-aircraft machine gun is equipped with Soviet m/36 sight. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (138 KB).

Nikolai Fedorovich Tokarev (son of much better known Fedor Vasilevich Tokarev) designed this quad Maxim antiaircraft-machine gun introduced to Soviet use in year 1931. The Soviets tested several double-, triple- and quadruple-mounts for antiaircraft machine guns in year 1930 and from those tested Tokarev's design proved to be the best. The basic structure of the weapon included four machine guns set side by side on the same mount and had also been introduced by US military already in 1920's, so the basic concept wasn't exactly new. In this Soviet weapon water jackets of machine guns were connected to each other and each machine gun was fed from ammunition belt box of its own. As the calibre and rate-of-fire (1800 shots/minute for the whole weapon) are similar as in Finnish ItKk/31 VKT and ItKk/31-40 VKT machine guns, it is natural to compare them to these Finnish designs and in that comparison Soviet ItKk/31 does poorly. Basic design of ItKk/09-31 had retained water-cooling and rate of fire per machine gun had remained the same, in addition to this because of the four water-cooled machine gun also the mount needed to be stronger to carry that much weight. As consequence this machine gun weighted over 150-kg more than its Finnish competitors and had double the amount of moving parts to break or malfunction. As if this would not have been enough it still used the same old ammunition belts made from fabric as Maxim M/1910, which did not exactly help reliability either.

PICTURE: 7,62 mm ItKk/09-31 "organ machine gun" in Finnish use. Photo taken in Ontroila June of 1944. Notice that the Finns have modified the weapon making it air-cooled by cutting holes to water jackets and removing water tubing. It also seems that each machine gun has been equipped with muzzle-booster to further increase maximum rate of fire. Photograph taken by 2^nd Lieutenant V. Hollming. (SA-kuva photo archive, photo number 151743). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (138 KB).

During World War 2 the Soviets had these anti-aircraft machine guns were in large-scale use, so naturally the Finns ended up capturing quite a large number of them. Finnish military used bit over 80 of the captured ItKk/09-31 anti-aircraft machine guns during World War 2. Finnish military seems to have found them two kind of use. Some of the captured machine guns the Soviets had installed on trucks and the Finnish troops kept some of them in similar kind of use - the weapon was too heavy to been transported easily otherwise anyway. However most of them they were used as static anti-aircraft machine guns - often as close-range air-defence against strafing aircraft in heavy anti-aircraft gun batteries. The ones that were used on trucks seem to have been served with the field army, while the ones used in static role seem to have been used mainly on the home front. Some of the weapons were also modified as air-cooled machine guns by perforating their water jackets, removing water tank and equipment needed for circulating the water. As reliability of this machine gun wasn't as good as with these Finnish AA-machine guns, it wasn't terribly rare for one of the four machine guns to malfunction. This modification was likely made to reduce weight of the weapon. Malfunctioning of just one machine gun was actually more serious problem than it might sound - recoil of the three still working machine guns pullet the aim sideways and made correctly adjusting aim of the fire during shooting practically impossible. After World War 2 the remaining (bit over 70) weapons remained storage for possible wartime use, until declared obsolete in year 1952. After that their mounts were scrapped and the Maxim machine guns used in them moved among the normal Maxim M/09-09 medium machine guns.

PICTURE: 7,62 mm ItKk/09-31 "organ machine gun" on top of a Ford truck also equipped with wood carburator. These weapons were usually used installed to trucks because of their weight. (Photo taken in Maneesi of Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (158 KB).

8,00 ItKk/36 (8,00 mm antiaircraft machine gun M/36): This is Swedish anti-aircraft machine gun basically had two water-cooled 8 mm x 63 caliber Browning machine guns set side-by-side on the same tripod-type twin-mount. The Browning machine guns used for the purpose were based on US Browning model 1917, but featured number of Swedish-designed minor improvements. Two machine guns with their equipment weight 54 kg and highly complicated tripod mount weighed 28 kg. The weight is partially explained by both Browning machine gun being in its own recoil-buffering cradle, that reduced recoil of machine guns, making the gun more easily manageable. Swedish 8 mm x 63 was highly powerful for rifle-caliber cartridge and hence provided the gun better range and penetration than what was typical to rifle-caliber machine guns. The guns were originally delivered with both 8 mm x 63 caliber and 6.5 mm x 55 barrels to allow use of both cartridges with also 7.62 x 51 caliber barrels being added to their equipment kit in 1960's. Each barrel option also had three muzzle boosters for fine adjusting the guns. Rate of fire is about 2 x 500 shots/minute and machine guns are fed from 250-round fabric ammunition belts. Handles used are spade-grip type with each gun having its town trigger and safety mechanisms. The pair of guns includes one gun with left-side feed and another with right side feed, with cocking handles being in between the guns and they gave ammunition boxes on both sides of the pair. The gun had the usual kind of antiaircraft-sights, but also ordinary machine gun sight for shooting surface targets on top of left side machine gun.

PICTURE: Swedish 8 mm anti-aircraft machine gun M/36 with its tripod. (Photo taken in Ilmatorjuntamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (156 KB).

Swedish military was the only customer for these machine guns, for which there were two Swedish manufacturers - Carl Gustaf Stads Gevärsfaktori and L.M. Ericsson. From these two manufacturers Carl Gustaf Stads Gevärsfaktori produced 8,025 machine guns, while L.M. Ericsson produced 5,316 machine guns - these included both ground version, single-mounted anti-aircraft version and twin-mounted anti-aircraft version. Large majority of the produced guns were twin-mounted version - in total there were 2,696 twin-mount aa-machine guns produced with 5,392 machine guns mounted in them. During Finnish - Soviet Winter War few of these guns arrived to Finland with Swedish volunteers and served with Swedish-Norwegian Svenska FrivillingKåren (SFK) and in air defense for city of Turku / Åbo. In some Finnish manuals and documents this weapon is listed as 8 ItKk/39 CGG. The CGG in name of the gun likely refers to manufacturer - Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori. Ammunition types used with the gun included HE-tracer and AP.

PICTURE: Closer look to Swedish 8 mm anti-aircraft machine gun M/36. (Photo taken in Ilmatorjuntamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (115 KB).

Lewis anti-aircraft machine guns: Relatively large number of Lewis machine guns had ended to hands of Finnish Air Force before World War 2. During the war these guns were already somewhat outdated as aircraft weaponry, so Finnish Air Force decided to use double barrel Lewis machine guns as anti-aircraft machine guns. With 2 x 550 round/minute theoretical rate-of-fire and 47-round pan magazines these guns were still quite suitable to that role. The machine guns were used in side by side configuration with somewhat improvised machine gun mounts and issued as low-level air-defence weapons of airfields during World War 2. Active career of these guns in Finnish military ended with end of World War 2 and after being mothballed for possible further use, last of these guns were sold to United States and exported at year 1957.

7,62 ItKk/38 ss Shkass (7,62 Täh.Kk.Shkass) (7.62 mm Aviatsinniy skorostrelniy pulemet sistemi Shpitalnogo-Komaritskogo obr. 1932 g.): This Soviet 7,62 mm x 54 R calibre machine gun had highest rate-fire (1,800 shots/minute) of all machine guns used that time. From technical viewpoint it was gas-action full-auto machine gun with revolving feed drum holding ten rounds. It was intended Dfor aircraft use and first prototype was finished in 1930. Name of the machine gun came from last names of its developers - B.G. Shpitalny and I.A. Komoritsky. Year 1932 Shkass machine gun was approved as aircraft weaponry for Soviet military. The weapon was belt-fed gas-action machine gun capable of automatic fire only. As far as rate-of-fire was concerned Shkass machine gun was highly developed for its time. However the extremely high rate of fire came with a price: The machine gun needed to be used with ammunition made especially for it, or otherwise it would not function reliably (special ammunition had thicker cartridge cases and more strongly attached bullets to withstand the rough treatment given by mechanism of this machine gun). While officially approved for Soviet military use already in year 1932, early on the design suffered durability issues and thad to be partially redesigned until improved version passed tests in year 1934. Maybe the most serious issue of early version was that its regular solid recoil spring was unable to stand the pressure until being replaced with woven triple-strand recoil spring design. At least partly because of this delay Shkass machine gun did not become common in Soviet aircraft until year 1936.

PICTURE: Shkass dual machine gun used as improvised anti-aircraft machine gun. Photo taken in Lappeenranta June of 1941. Phograph taken by Military Official Teuvo Tulio. (SA-photo archive, photograph number 20433). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (237 KB).

Soviet industry manufactured Shkass machine guns in three versions - syncronised version (which could be installed to hull of an aircraft and shoot through propeller), wing-version (which could be installed to wings of an aircraft) and gunner's version, which was manually used. During World War 2 Finnish military captured undamaged Shkass machine guns from downed Soviet aircraft and as the downed aircraft were usually damaged beyond repair, while their machine guns far more rarely damaged Finnish Air Force found itself with excess Shkass machine guns. Observer's version of Shkass (weighting about 10,5 kg) could be easily adapted as antiaircraft machine gun with improvised mount, so small number of them were issued to that use. When it came to Finnish troops using these machine guns as more or less improvised anti-aircraft machine guns, Air Force was the main user, but few machine guns may have also seen use with other units stationed at home front.

PICTURE: Closeup of DA-2 anti-aircraft machine gun. Notice how the triggers of both weapons are located in right-side weapon. This particular gun is lacking sight and muzzle brakes. (Photo taken in Ilmatorjuntamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (143 KB).

7,62 ItKk/DA and 7,62 ItKk/DA-2 (Degtyareva Aviatsionniy and Degtyareva Aviatsionniy 2): DA was Soviet machine gun variation of Degtjarev machine gun for use of machine gunners in aircraft. DA-2 was the double-weapon version of this weapon with two DA-machine guns installed side by side. Like Shkass they were captured from with downed Soviet planes. The single weapon version was adopted to Soviet military use in year 1928 and this double-weapon version in year 1930. Finnish Airforce captured small number of these weapons during World War 2 and used them with improvised mounts as antiaircraft machine guns until end of the war. The DA-2 version weighted about 18 kg, it had pistol grips and used same 60-round two-layer pan magazines as DT tank machine gun. The theoretical rate of fire for DA-machine gun was 600 rounds per minute with DA-2 having twice the rate of fire. When it came to DA-2 its right side weapon had two triggers,one for each machine gun, which allowed firing of both weapons by using just right hand for the job. Unlike the single version this weapon also had large muzzle brakes added to reduce recoil of the weapons. With its 2 x 650 shots/minute rate-of-fire the weapon was quite well suited to this kind of use. When World War 2 ended, so did the career of these machine guns with Finnish Armed Forces.

PICTURE: DA-2 anti-aircraft machine gun in use of 106^th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battery. Photo taken in by L. Johnsson in Saari July of 1941. (SA-photo archive, photo number 26890). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (150 KB).

Vickers machine guns as anti-aircraft machine guns: During Winter War (1939 - 1940) Great Britain donated 100 Vickers machine guns in 7.7 mm x 56R (.303 British) calibre to Finland. These were standard issue Mk 1 water-cooled medium machine guns delivered with standard tripod design for infantry use. Due to their somewhat unusual calibre (mainly used by Finnish Air Force, but not Army) during Continuation War (1941 - 1944) these machine guns were issued to Finnish Navy and home front units. Photos indicate that the used some as antiaircraft machine guns with improvised mounts. In addition Finnish Air Force had air-cooled Vickers machine guns (among them 49 machine guns modified for aircraft use in early 1930's), most of which were used as antiaircraft machine guns in the home front during World War 2.

- machine gunner's machine gun L-33: In early 1930's Finnish Air Force had shortage of suitable aircraft weaponry, so Aimo Lahti got the task of designing suitable machine guns. The aircraft machine guns he designed were air-cooled recoil-action weapons, which pretty much shared the same basic structure features About 80 guns had been manufactured in between 1934 - 1936 as machine gunner's machine guns for Finnish Air Force. During World War 2 many of these machine guns were used by Finnish Air Force as antiaircraft machine guns with improvised mounts.



PICTURE: machine gunner's version of L-33 machine gun being used as anti-aircraft machine gun. Soldier with the machine gun is famous Finnish pre-war competition shooter Olavi Elo (1913 - 1979). Elo was multiple time gold medalist in rifle shooting in Olympics and World Championships of 1930's and 1940's. Photo taken during Winter War. (SA-photo archive, photo number 4148). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (116 KB).

 

- Pilots machine gun L-34: This machine gun was to be installed to planes wings or hull, but still it used 75-round pan magazines, so it become outdated and got replaced by foreign designed belt-fed aircraft machine guns already before World War 2. In total only 32 guns were ever made. During Second World War Finnish Air Force used them as antiaircraft-machine guns equipped with improvised machine gun mounts.

 

- machine gunner's machine gun L-33/36: Few dozen of these machine guns were made between 1936 - 1939. Main use for them during World War 2 was as anti-aircraft machine guns in gunboats and smaller crafts of Finnish Navy. The small crafts they were mainly used were Isku-class (Thornycraft) motor torpedo boats and some of the VMV-patrol boats. Finnish seamen called this machine gun with nickname "Mikkihiiri" (Mickey Mouse). These machine guns were also used as secondary weapons (coaxial turret machine gun + hull machine gun) in Landsverk 182 armoured car of Finnish Army and Sisu armoured car of Finnish Police. This machine gun was a full-auto only weapon with air-cooled barrels and 75-round plate-shaped magazines. Since this machine gun was originally designed to be used against aircraft, it had quite a high theoretical rate of fire - 930 rounds/minute. After the war these machine guns remained warehoused until 1980's.



 

PICTURE: machine gunner's version of L-33/36 machine gun as anti-aircraft machine gun on Finnish Navy patrol boat VMV 5 (Vartiomoottorivene 5). Sailor acting as machine gunner is wearing coveralls, life jacket and either Swedish m/37 or Finnish m/40 steel helmet. Notice shovel grips, pan magazine and design of sights on top of the gun. Photographed by A. Tuhka in July of 1941 somewhere near Hanko / Hango / Gangut Peninsula. (SA-photo archive, photo number 30402). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (116 KB).

- Anti-aircraft machine gun L-33/39: This further development from 3^rd version of L-33/36 observers machine gun was manufactured 1943 - 1944 and about 150 were made in that time. Starting from 1944 they were used in the same small ships of Finnish Navy and Coastal Guard as also L-33/36. Issuing them happened so late 1944 that it is doubtful if they saw real battle use or not. L-33/39 remained in use of Finnish Navy until late 1980's.

12,7 ItKk/Dss: Finnish military captured only very small number of 12.7-mm DShk m/1938 machine guns. During Continuation War Finnish Navy and coastal defence seem to have used a few of them. The weapon could be used also as anti-aircraft machine gun when equipped with its tripod mount. Ammunition types used in captured DShk and Berezin machine gun included AP, AP-incendiary, AP-incendiary tracer and exploding bullets.

12,7 ItKk/Bss: This is captured machine gunner's version of 12.7-mm Berezin aircraft machine gun. During Continuation War Finnish Air Force seems to have used small number of these weapons as antiaircraft machine guns installed to improvised pole/stake-like mounts.

SOURCES:

Raimo Vehviläinen, Ahti Lappi and Markku Palokangas: Itsenäisen Suomen Ilmatorjuntatykit 1917 - 2000 / The Anti-aircraft Guns of Independent Finland 1917 - 2000.

Raimo Vehviläinen: Ilmatorjuntamuseo-opas.

Pentti Palmu: Yön yli päivään, Suomen Ilmatorjunnan vaiheita 1925 - 1990.

Ilmatorjuntajoukot 1925 - 1960 by E. Peura, Niilo A. A. Simojoki, J. Lapinleimu, O. Ranta, V.

Rantalainen and L. Pamppunen.

Ahti Lappi: Ilmatorjunta ilmasodassa 1794 - 1945.

Pekka Kiiskinen and Pasi Wahlman: Itsenäisen Suomen laivaston laivatykit 1918 - 2004.

D.N. Bolotin: Soviet Small-Arms and Ammunition.

Talvisodan historia series, parts 1 and 4.

Jatkosodan historia series, parts 1 and 6.

Markku Palokangas: Sotilaskäsiaseet Suomessa 1918 - 1988.

Military manual: Ilmatorjuntatykistön Ampumatarvikkeet by Ilmavoimien Esikunta, Ilmatorjunta Osasto.

Military manual: Ilmatorjuntamies 1950.

Military manual: It-joukkojen erikoisohjeita (30th of December 1939) by Ilmapuolustuksen Esikunta.

Article: Ilmatorjuntatykistömme 1925 - 45 by Jalmari Lapinleimu in Kansa Taisteli magazine vol. 11/1976.

Antti Honkala: Mikkolanmäki - Uittamo - Ruohonpää, Siamilaistykkipatterit Turussa.

Swedish Kulspruta m/36 Double Browning MGs on Forgotten Weapons channel in Youtube.

Special thanks to Ilmatorjuntamuseo (Finnish Antiaircraft Museum), Tuusula.

Special thanks to Sotamuseo (Finnish Military Museum), Helsinki.

Special thanks to Jalkaväkimuseo (Finnish Infantry Museum), Mikkeli.