Q&A · 2:09:21-2:10:11

Sea Hurricanes instead of Blackburn Rocs for Finland

The fighter substitution would improve Finnish combat performance and let personnel train as additional pilots rather than turret gunners.

Question

If Sea Hurricane Mk IAs rather than Blackburn Rocs went to Finland, how much more trouble would that cause the Soviets?

Short answer

The Hurricanes would perform better, and converting turret-gunner manpower into pilots could increase the effective Finnish fighter force further.

Notes

The answer expects Sea Hurricanes to outperform Blackburn Rocs in Finnish service, although it notes that the Roc's real record was not quite as poor as its paper reputation suggests. A single-seat fighter also changes the personnel calculation because each aircraft no longer requires an air gunner. Those men could instead be trained as pilots and help put more fighters into the air. The operational gain would therefore come from both aircraft performance and the way scarce trained personnel were allocated.