War blazes in Europe. Scandinavia quakes under threats of Nazi invasion. Soviet armies march into Finland. Seeking to escape the deadly whirlwind stirred by Soviet troops to the east and Nazi forces to the west, Estonian freedom fighter Mihkel “Arctic Fox” Oja and American pilot Ed “Wonderfalk” Sikes must flee the frozen battlefield. Both had volunteered to fight for Finland against the Soviets in the Winter War. Now they must retreat from the onrushing and victorious Soviet forces. Powered by Mihkel’s team of strong willed sled dogs they will brave the frozen hell of the Arctic Circle in a last ditch effort to reach neutral Sweden and avoid certain capture and, most assuredly, death. Then, in making their escape a downed allied bomber would change their lives.

With survival dominating his thoughts, Mihkel harbors no recollection of his father’s, tale of a dead Romanian playboy’s Bugatti abandoned at the Oja farm in rural Estonia.

In Search of the Lost 7^th Royale Part 2 (Episode 12 – Two Heroes’ Dramatic and Divergent Paths to Freedom)

Balto Alaska rescue mission

KIRUNA, SWEDEN 1940

The fateful events surrounding the rescue of the allied Bristol Bomber air crew triggered startlingly unforeseen and profound opportunities for both Ed and Mihkel.

In their brief time together at the frozen airfield in Kiruna Sweden, Ed and Arctic flying legend Bernt Balchen had developed a bond that would last a lifetime. Ed had accepted Balchen’s invitation to join his team that supported the early British war effort by ferrying airplanes to England. Then, in the summer of 1941, Balchen joined the United States Army Air Force as a colonel and accepted the responsibility of overseeing construction of a major Air Force base in Greenland. At Col. Balchen’s urging and with the colonel’s personal recommendation Ed enlisted in the USAAF and in a few months become the youngest American pilot in the European theater. When America went to war Col. Balchen included Ed in the rescue air team responsible for a litany of dramatic, high risk rescue missions of allied fliers downed in the frozen arctic wilderness. Through the war years Ed flew fighters, bombers and PBY Catalina rescue sea planes. He served as one of the first pilots to test helicopters in battle conditions. Ed “Wonderfalk” served his country and its allies for decades. By way of his unflinching courage, brilliant […]

Secreted away in his family’s barn in rural Estonia, the priceless Bugatti had not even crossed Mihkel Oja’s mind since he fled the pre-WWII turmoil gripping his Estonian homeland. It would remain a forgotten fact, now, as he fled from victorious Soviet occupation forces overrunning eastern Finland. With the Soviet/Finnish Winter War ended and Soviet power in ascendancy the prospects for he and fellow teenage warrior Ed Sikes loomed as dark and foreboding at best. Both had volunteered to fight for Finland against the, now victorious, Soviets. At this point, their only hope, in the bitter winter of 1940, resided in the ability of Mihkel’s 12 iron willed sled dogs to deliver the two young but hardened warriors to safety in neutral Sweden.

In Search of the Lost 7^th Royale  (Part 2, Episode 11 – A Wounded Bird Points the Way)

Wounded Bristol Blenheim bomber

LAPLAND, FINLAND 1940

Even as the dark smoke from the wounded British Bristol Blenheim bomber’s starboard engine hung in the frozen arctic air Mihkel knew his plan to reach Kiruna, Sweden had been profoundly altered. What Mihkel could not know was how this single event would impact his life’s path for all his years to come.

Just as he had felt compelled to rescue “Wonderfalk” when learning of Ed’s downing in the Finnish wilderness; so too Mihkel could not bear to turn away knowing that one or more of the wounded bomber’s air crew might have survived. Stranded and ill-equipped in a frozen wilderness and subject to Lapland’s deadly winter, anyone still alive stood little chance if not located quickly. Mihkel understood immediately what he had to do. He also knew he would have to do it alone. He tasked Ed with continuing on to Kiruna to rally more support. Ed’s success in his mission would come to play a vital role; one that that would shape his own future as well.

Andres Turi

Mihkel and Ed had quickly devised a rescue plan. With the sled already outfitted with provisions for the intended run to Kiruna, Mihkel, the master woodsman and musher, could turn his team north without delay. Ed, with the willing support of Andres Turi a Sami veteran of the Winter War, would continue the journey towards Kiruna via Andres’ reindeer sled. As soon as possible Ed would […]

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 7^th 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 […]