Helsinki

To represent Helsinki in our album of places mentioned by Lorna in her Diary of the war (blipped between 2019 and 2021), here is a shot of one of the most popular attractions on the island Suomenlinna, located in the approach to Helsinki harbour. The dock area of Suomenlinna was the base for Finnish submarines during World War II.

This is an interior shot of the submarine Vesikko. It gives a real sense of the claustrophobic environment endured by submariners. 

Vesikko operated in the Gulf of Finland in convoy, safety and patrol duties during hostilities between Finland and the Soviet Union - first in the Winter war between 1939-40, and then in the Continuation war from 1941-44. 

Lorna  reports on the Winter war in her diary entries for:

November 30th 1939
December 3rd 1939
January 7th 1940
January 29th 1940
March 13th 1940
March 15th 1940

These all fall into Episode 4 of our podcast series in which Lorna Lloyd (aged 25 in 1939) is played by her actress great-great niece Bethany Ray (aged 25 in 2022).

Many thanks to iaint for supplying the photograph and providing the details about the submarine.

Can you help your fellow blippers?

We're still seeking photographs of the locations listed below to add to this journal. Please send any that you think suitable from your own archive (preferably not blipped before) to h.hall@napier.ac.uk. Thank you!

ENGLAND: CITIES AND LARGE TOWNS
Birmingham
Bolton
Bristol - we'd love a shot of Lorna's grandfather's shop, still in business at 81 Henleaze Road
Cheltenham
Coventry
Gloucester
Ilford
Sheffield
Southampton
Swindon
Worcester

ENGLAND: SMALLER LOCATIONS
Aust, Gloucestershire
Leigh, Gloucestershire
Sand Bay, Somerset
Shrivenham, Oxfordshire
Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire
 
ENGLAND: VERY SPECIFIC LOCATIONS
Callow End, Malvern 
Caxton Hall, London

EUROPE - SPECIFIC PLACES
Albania: Durrës (Durazzo)
Czech Republic: Bohemia
France: Bailleul, Boulogne, Dunkirk, Forest of Compiegne, Maginot Line, Marne Roncesvalles, Wimereux
Finland: Hanko (Hangoe), Mannerheim Line, Petsamo, Viipuri
Germany: Elbe (river), Heligoland, Munich, Siegfried Line
Greece: Thermopylae
Italy: Romagna, Taranto
Netherlands: The Hague
Poland: Silesia, Warsaw, Westerplatte
Russia: Karelian Isthmus, St Petersburg (Leningrad)
Spain: Guernica

REST OF THE WORLD - SPECIFIC PLACES
Argentina: Buenos Aires, River Plate
Epypt: Sidi Barrani
Iraq: Babylon (Hillah)
Cameroon/Chad/Niger/Nigeria: Lake Chad
Senegal: Dakar
South Africa: Mafeking (Mafekeng)
Uruguay: Montevideo

REST OF THE WORLD - GENERAL
Belgium
Canada
Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic)
Finland
France
French Equatorial Africa (now Chad, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon)
Germany
Greece
Italy
Libya
Luxembourg
Middle East
Norway
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
South Africa
Sweden
Uruguay