Development
The VMV boats were designed by dipl.eng. Jaakko Rahola of the Finnish Navy. The design was good, giving the boats excellent seagoing qualities, fast speed and a light construction, and thanks to their wooden hull, resistance to magnetic mines. The boats only weighed about 30 tons, their length were between 20 and 25 metres (65 ft 7 in and 82 ft 0 in). The standard armament consisted of one 20 mm automatic cannon, although they could be armed with wide variety of weapons depending on the requirements. The first boat was ordered in December 1929 from U. Suortin Veneveistämö in Helsinki. However, construction of this boat was delayed, and two boats that had been ordered from Germany were ready before the first Finnish one. The following two boats were ordered in January 1931 from Uudenkaupungin Veneveistämö and they were ready by December, the same year. Another order was then placed for one boat from Turun Veneveistämö and it was ready by 1932. A further ten boats were ordered in 1934 from Turun Veneveistämö. These were ready by 1935.
VMV-1–VMV-7 were equipped with gasoline engines, and VMV-8–VMV-17 had diesel engines. VMV-3 and VMV-7 were destroyed before the war, the former due to an engine fire in 1931, and the latter due to an explosion in 1933.
The only remaining VMV boat, VMV-11, is today preserved at the Kotka Maritime Museum in its original outfit of the 1930s.
Operational service
At the outbreak of the Winter War, the VMV boat armament was improved by fitting machine guns, depth charges and smoke dischargers. During the Continuation War, the extra armament varied depending on the mission; for example, they could be fitted with four or five naval mines or two 450 mm (18 in) torpedoes. Some VMV boats were also used as gunboats, and were fitted with a 40 mm Bofors gun and multiple 20 mm guns. Some were used as submarine hunters, and were equipped with a 20 mm gun and depth charges. Limited to patrol coastal waters, the VMV boats did not participate in any major action during the Winter War. During the Continuation War, their primary tasks were anti-submarine warfare and escort duty, although several boats participated in battles for control of islands on the Gulf of Finland.
Five VMV boats were lost during the war, all in 1944. Two were sunk during air raids in Helsinki, one was lost to Soviet aircraft near Koivisto and two were lost when the Germans attacked Hogland during the Lapland War.
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Finnish Navy 