page_title: Bombing of Helsinki in World War II
section_title: The third great raid: 26–27 February
hierarchical_section_title: Bombing of Helsinki in World War II / Continuation War / The great raids of February 1944 / The third great raid: 26–27 February
caption_attribution_description: English: Helsinki University main building after the bombing.
context_page_description: The capital of Finland, Helsinki was bombed repeatedly during World War II. Between 1939–1944 Finland was subjected to a number of bombing campaigns by the Soviet Union. The largest raids were three raids in February 1944, which have been called The Great Raids Against Helsinki.
context_section_description: On the evening of 26 February, a single Soviet reconnaissance aircraft was spotted over the city. It was a sign of the coming attack. The weather was clear, which helped the attackers. Again Finnish Radio Intelligence intercepted messages of the forthcoming raid, this time 1 hour and 28 minutes before the bombing commenced - although the Soviets tried to maintain radio silence.
  Five minutes later, the air surveillance grid, manned by Lotta Svärd auxiliaries, reported approaching bombers. A silent alarm was sounded in the city in good time before the raid. Street lights were turned off, trams and trains were stopped and radio transmissions ended. In this manner, the enemy had more difficulty finding their target. All citizens knew that they had to take cover.
  The first bombers were picked up by Finnish radar at approximately 18:30, 25 minutes before they arrived. A few minutes later, the night fighters took off and flew to their predesignated positions. The AA-artillery had also been alerted. The air raid warning was sounded at 18:45. AA-batteries opened up fire at 18:53. At 19:07 the first bombs fell.
  This last great raid differed from the two previous ones. The battle lasted for some 11 hours and was divided into three different phases. The first one was in the evening and lasted for four hours and concentrated the attacks against the city. The second one was mainly focused on the defending AA artillery, but to little success. The last wave hoped to finally flatten the city, but the majority of the aircraft turned away when met with fierce anti-aircraft barrages and night fighters. The all clear signal was finally sounded at about 6:30 in the morning of 27 February.
  Despite that this had been the most massive raid, the damages were again quite limited: 21 people were killed and 35 wounded; 59 buildings were destroyed and 135 damaged.
  The heavy AA artillery fired 14,240 shots and the light AA artillery 4,432 shots. Nine Soviet bombers were downed.
  This time 896 bombers participated in the raid on Helsinki. They dropped 5,182 bombs of which only 290 fell on the city itself.
caption: University of Helsinki main building after the third raid.
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