A resident of the Olonets district discovered fragments of an unknown aircraft in the forest and reported the find to the search unit “Vidlichsky Frontier.”

Specialists identified the wreckage as an American Curtiss P-36 Hawk fighter (export name Curtiss Hawk 75). These aircraft were used by the Finnish Air Force in 1941–1944 in battles against Soviet aviation.

In total, the Finns received 44 American-made aircraft. They did not get them directly from the United States, but as trophies. After the occupation of France and Norway, the Germans captured several dozen of these aircraft as spoils of war and in 1941 sold them to their Finnish allies.

Karelia was one of the main directions of Finnish military operations during World War II. The territory remained under Finnish military administration from the end of 1941 until the Red Army offensive in 1944.

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The plaque shown above was found on the plane’s generator. This is a data plate from an Eclipse Aviation Generator (Type E314, Model 11), manufactured by Eclipse Aviation, a division of Bendix Aviation Corporation, Bendix, NJ, USA. Rated at 50 amps, with an RPM range of 2,600–4,000, it powered the electrical systems of the aircraft it served.