Ilmarinen 1941 – Operation Nordwind and Finland (A lecture that also touches on Hanko)

On Saturday, March 21, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m., the Hankoniemi Frontline Museum, in collaboration with the Hanko Adult Education Center, will host a free historical lecture in the banquet hall of Hanko City Hall. The lecture will be held in Finnish.

The lecturer is Ville Jalovaara, an adjunct professor at the Universities of Helsinki and Turku. Jalovaara is one of Finland’s most widely read scholars of 20th-century history. He has published twelve widely acclaimed works on the history of 20th-century Finland. Helsinki 1944 and Stalin’s Puppets? are among his books.

The lecture is based on Jalovaara’s book *Ilmarinen 1941 – Operation Nordwind and Finland*, which draws on an extremely extensive and, in part, previously unexamined body of archival material from both Finland and abroad. This is the first time a comprehensive study of the Finnish Navy’s flagship, the armored cruiser *Ilmarinen*, has been presented. Ilmarinen sank after striking a mine off the coast of Utö on September 13, 1941. The disaster claimed the lives of 271 men. By order of Marshal Mannerheim, the sinking was kept secret until the fall of 1945.

Hanko plays a significant role in this series of events, including the role of armored ships in the bombing of the Hanko naval base in the fall of 1941.

The lecture will be held in Finnish, and questions may also be asked in Swedish.

Books will be on sale at the event.

The Hankoniemi Frontline Museum will also be on site to showcase its activities and services.

Free admission! No registration is required for this event.