More than the polished parts and hard to find pieces, the special interest vehicles people collect embody the character of each owner. “Cars We Love & Who We Are” profiles individual special interest vehicles and the proud owner committed to its preservation.
Cars We Love & Who We Are #58
February 1940 saw the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty that ended the Winter War between the Soviets and Finland. However, unlike the war, Finland’s punishing unrelenting bitter winter continued unabated. An uneasy peace hung in the frigid Baltic air. Fueling a blanketing dread, a great gathering storm malevolently churned on the horizon. The near future seemed explosively ripe and ready to unleash what seemed an inevitable whirlwind of death and destruction. All knew peace stood no chance. None more so than two freedom fighters revered in Finland but foreign to that frozen land. Brothers in arms, both keenly sensed the rapidly shrinking window available for their escape from an ever tightening Nazi/Soviet vice.
Neither yet 21-years old, Estonian Mihkel Oja and American Ed Sikes, possessed many friends but no roots in the gallant Finnish land for which they had fought. Like the jagged bitter cold that pierced their flesh, the prospects of the coming apocalypse shredded their sense of well being. Neither possessed a sliver of doubt as to their future. Their only hope would reside in fleeing the forests of Finland, NOW!
In Search of the Lost 7th Royale Part 2 (Episode 10 – Harrowing Escape into an Unknown Future)
FINLAND 1940
With the changing political climate and boiling clouds of war, every minute Mihkel and Ed remained in Finland hardened their shared ominous sense of imminent doom. Neither could dispel haunting thoughts of a tightening noose about to choke off any means of escape. Tomorrow they would be gone. As they stood together overlooking a map of the Scandinavian countries, Mihkel’s finger pointed to a town in the north of neutral Sweden. “Kiruna,” said Mihkel. He had pinned their hopes on reaching a Swedish mining town in the Arctic Circle.
Mihkel believed escaping to Sweden offered the best opportunity to avoid capture by the Soviets and most likely death. And in all honesty Sweden presented the only apparent opportunity offering any chance of success. In its favor, Sweden had declared itself neutral in the blossoming global conflict. As well, by being a willing trading partner with Germany, Sweden lessened its attractiveness to the Nazi’s as a subject of occupation. Mihkel also took heart in Sweden’s treatment of Allied air crews forced to land crippled aircraft in Sweden. Crewmen while not permitted to leave Sweden had free reign to explore the country and interact with the Swedish people. To the delight of downed airmen that included Swedish women. Other positive things factored in to brighten Mihkel’s outlook as well. During Finland’s Winter War with the Soviets, Sweden contributed thousands of army and air force volunteers to support the Finnish war effort. Unknown to Mihkel his “Arctic Fox” reputation returned home with the Swedish volunteers as did that of Ed “Wonderfalk” Sikes, the “Peregrine Falcon” known by Soviet pilots as “death from above.
ESTONIA 1940
Back in Estonia young Soviet Lieutenant Yuri Petrov had many free moments. For him, too many. Eastern Estonia bored him horribly. It consisted of little more than a few farmers, loggers and dense forest, dense, dense forest. Yes, he had discovered a strange abandoned warehouse with some Bugatti parts but it amounted to nothing. Desperate for excitement, he had fantasized that it had held a “Super Auto.” He found race cars fascinating, especially the German grand prix cars. Of course, while Petrov loved fast cars, he could only dream of owning one.
So fast and powerful and dominating, the sleek yet brutish supercharged 500-horsepower V16 Silver Arrows of the Nazi backed German Grand Prix teams had ignited a passion for “Super Autos” in the heart of young Petrov. Starving for excitement in the Estonian woods he did his best to stay current with the German Siler Arrows. “These magnificent mechanical beasts,” as Petrov viewed them, crushed all competitors foolish enough to mount a challenge. Even while he served the needs of the Soviet people in the “God awful” forests of Estonia in 1939, he reveled in Auto Union’s great victory in the 1939 Belgrade Grand prix. That same day, September 3rd 1939, Germany invaded Poland and the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany. In confident reflection, Petrov assured himself that the Soviets could build comparable Super Autos…but, of course, “Iron” Joe Stalin had to first focus on serving the needs of the Soviet people. Often before going to sleep at night young Petrov would allow himself to dream of a time when the people’s work back home would be done and he could own a great car maybe even a Silver Arrow.
FINLAND 1940
Mihkel’s team of sled dogs, in possessing no sense of political realities or apparently any fear, energetically pranced in place eager to face whatever adventure lay ahead. Intelligent and keenly aware, the dog team took its cues from Mihkel. On this dark bitter winter morning he had prepared the sled exhibiting extra care. The dogs sensed importance. Mihkel knew the challenge of the additional passenger would test the dogs. The dogs themselves seemed nonplussed by the added burden. As a group, the dogs displayed an eager intent to devour whatever challenge awaited them like a good reindeer stew. Vapor boiled off and swirled about the excited sled dogs.
Mihkel, barely able to sleep the night before, had spent tortured hours exhaustively modeling every detail that, if mishandled, could diminish their chances of survival much less success. At best, he knew that at least a week traversing a frozen snow-blanketed hell stood between Ed, him and any hope of surviving as free men.
Mihkel allowed himself a moment of reflection, the skilled woodsman and warrior understood what awaited. Before him loomed a frozen and desolate expansive wilderness of barely penetrable evergreen forest mixed with barren glacial scrubbed fells (highlands). There, temperatures above zero would qualify as a heat wave. Traveling in near darkness through the Arctic Circle they would face temperatures capable of plunging to a potentially deadly -45°F. On a good day his team could cover 85 miles. A bad day with bad terrain might be a reach to hope for 20 miles. Of course, all bets would be off if, as could happen at any moment, they encountered heavily armed scout teams from the massive Soviet army that he and his overmatched Finnish army comrades had just fought to a standstill.
ESTONIA 1940
Typical of Estonian winter, a howling wind piled drifting snow against the large sturdy barn across the barnyard from Jaak Oja’s equally sturdy home. Alive with the sounds of creaking beams withstanding the winter fury and comfortably ensconced well fed farm animals, the barn’s very existence represented a monument to Jaak’s determination and animal husbandry skills. Incongruously a spectacular custom one-of-a-kind Bugatti Royale hid in dark silent seclusion behind the barn’s skillfully crafted false rear wall. It represented a breathtaking anomaly: valuable beyond estimation, yet, unknown to an otherwise covetous world that would claim it. This historic and priceless king of Olympian vehicles, instead, served as a silent tribute to Jaak Oja’s stubborn determination to defy Estonia’s oppressive political order. In an otherwise somber and repressive political landscape the sequestered Royale represented Jaak’s one man defiance of a political culture for which he could only express his total disdain in silence. Even in this bitter cold grey world the Bugatti’s existence warmed his heart. Jaak called it his inside joke. Jaak’s “subversive” joy made his wife Ann smile.
FINLAND 1940
With the first pale rays of light bleeding into the bitter March morning sky Mihkel with stern resolve set his beloved team to task. Like hunting dogs on point each team member focused on the job at hand. No barking, no wasted energy, the Fox and Hounds with passenger Ed Wonderfalk made their move. With Kiruna as a destination and stealth worthy of a stalking cat, the team moved out betrayed only by a faint whisper of compressing snow easily mistaken for a light breeze in the surrounding pines.
Early on Mihkel chose to avoid the logging trails. Though these trails would afford the dog team the best opportunity to make good time, logging roads served as a magnet attracting Soviet troops. Being ill equipped and poorly trained for fighting in the dense frozen forest, Soviet scouting parties found the cleared trails very much to their liking. As the nearby town of Salla had seen fierce fighting, and with the Soviets now claiming Finish land, Mihkel welcomed the forest as an ally. He skillfully wove his energetic dog team through the pine scented landscape. Suddenly Mihkel’s caution paid dividends. A Soviet scouting party came into view. Slumping soldiers in dark wool coats heading east moved from left to right across Mihkel’s field of vision. With Ed and Mihkel nearly invisible in their white winter warrior uniforms and the battle wizened sled dogs silent and alert, the enemy soldiers moved unknowingly off into the distance.
In heading west away from Salla and deeper into Lapland the threat of enemy troops lessened as the danger posed by nature itself grew ever greater. Ed felt awe struck by the simultaneous beauty and terror that increasingly consumed his every thought. Alone the two men and twelve dogs had chosen to challenge an arctic landscape of frozen lakes, towering peaks, glacial scrubbed highlands and frozen forests readily capable of eloquently communicating how beauty and pain could share the same canvas.
By the second day Ed felt compelled to express his admiration for how well and wisely Mihkel had packed and how much Mihkel loved the dogs. Stopping to eat meant the dogs ate first. Stopping for the night meant unhooking the dogs first, feeding the dogs first and every dog got a blanket before attention turned to the humans. The first night, feeling safe from Soviet troops, a camp fire warmed everyone’s food and the men. When it came to sleeping, each dog burrowed a hole in the snow and each got covered with a blanket. While experienced thick furred sled dogs can sleep comfortably without a blanket in frozen climes, Mihkel by bringing each dog a blanket seemed to make them all rest better.

Sami people
Good fortune travelled with the team. Uncharacteristically only one day brought harsh weather and fortunately Mihkel had found a hunter’s cabin to ride out the storm. The days rest did everyone, man and beast alike well. By the sixth day out, though, food supplies needed to be replenished. Again good fortune brought the team into contact with a gathering of the indigenous people of Lapland, the Sami Nomads. A friendly and hospitable people, the Sami, known primarily as reindeer herders welcomed Mihkel, Ed and the dogs. Valiant defenders of their Lapland home during the “Winter War” some of the Sami men had heard of Mihkel the “Arctic Fox.” Fortified by a rest day of warmth, good food and navigational guidance the restocked team set out with Kiruna in their sites.
Mihkel had just hooked up the last of the dog team. Then he heard it. With a start, his eyes shot skyward. He saw nothing, but he recognized the sputtering cough right away. Then low in the sky he saw it. A British twin engine Bristol Blenheim bomber, all shot to hell. It disappeared over the rugged white horizon.
Kiruna would have to wait.