Five bloody minutes started the winter war in November 1939 -
Soviet bombers hit Helsinki without a declaration of war and killed 91 civilians.
The first bombings of Helsinki were a clear war crime against civilians 🧵
As the border region became a battleground early in the morning, the citizens of Helsinki started their day oblivious to that war had started.
The first indication they had that anything was amiss was the wail of the siren at 09:20, followed shortly by rumbling of engines.
Many civilians gazed in amazement as the low flying Soviet planes shot overhead. Instead of bombs, they dropped leaflets.
These leaflets addressed the people of Finland, informing them "it was time to shake of the shackles of oppression & overthrow the Imperialist Government"
The stunned inhabitants of the capital chuckled at these propaganda pieces but they soon saw their smiles turned as the darkest day for Helsinki was just beginning.
First wave of bombers missed their target: Busy Helsinki Central Railway Station & luckily only caused superficial damage to downtown Helsinki.
3 civilians were killed & 9 wounded.
After the excitement of the morning, the people of Helsinki were in a state of shock, many civilians were caught in a daze, some grabbed brushes and began to help clear up the damage, others started to pack in order to get out of the capital.
It was in this daze that Helsinki suffered its most devastating raid of not only the day, but of the entire war.
Just after noon, a group of 8 DB-3 bombers took of from Klopitsa airfield. They arrived in Helsinki in altitude of only 400 meters & dropped their bombs.
The resulting swath of destruction carved through the inner city.
The Helsinki University of Technology was essentially erased, the bus station at Kamppi, full of evacuating civilians, was badly hit. Lutheran Church also took hits.
Death toll of the attacks were counted as 91 with another 240 injured.
Witnesses of the attack also reported that rear gunners of the bombers also sprayed the city with their machine guns.
The machine gunning of the streets was recorded by numerous people on that day.
The largest number of victims was caused by the bombs that hit the tall corner house on Abrahaminkatu and Lönnrotinkatu streets. Dozens of dead and wounded were carried out.
The first bombings of Helsinki lasted only five minutes.
From Hietalahti, the planes flew straight towards the bus station and from there turned to the sea to Kruununhaka sideways.
They had dropped their incendiary and explosive bombs mainly on residential blocks in Kamppi.
The bombing of Helsinki continued right away on December 1st, when a few SB planes again fired machine guns at people gathered in open places.
Six people from Helsinki were killed.
Anti-aircraft hit one plane, which crashed into Munkkiniemi.
Foreign journalists reported about the bombing, forcing Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, to make a radio speech declaring that the Soviet Union was not bombing Finland, certainly not killing the poor civilians, but were in fact dropping bread for the starving citizens
Tragedy of Kaleva 🧵
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