[WWI] A new one from Ami Hassinen

[Jan Vihonen]

> Enquiring minds want to know, why is the white background to the 
> swastika straight edged under the port wing, and curved under the 
> starboard? Does this save the pilot from wearing red and green socks?   :)

I'm afraid there is a more mundane explanation. ;-) The white paint was 
used to overpaint the Thulin Flying School logos on the undersides of 
the wings. Which obviously was asymmetrical. So originally it was not 
meant to be part of the marking. Only the blue swastika, good luck charm 
of count von Rosen, the donator of the aircraft, was meant be any kind 
of insignia. The white background was ordered later on to the swastika.

And no, the swastika does not refer to anything nazi-related. There was 
quite a heated public discussion in Finland about the possible nazi 
connections of the insignia, not long ago when there was this scandal in 
England of one of the princes wearing a nazi uniform in a masqurade with 
swastikas etc. parafernalia. The Finnish Jewish community took the 
trouble of declaring that they have no problems with the Finnish Air 
Force swastika insignia being publicly shown, since they are well aware 
of it's history going back to the times before the beginings of the nazism.

Jan