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One clarification, when I wrote that "I don't think that the airwar was essential" I meant that even if the both airforces had been grounded the endresult would have been the same. In other way, the actions of the FAF and the Finnish AA hindered VVS to the extent that its contribution wasn't crucial. It could not bomb the Finns to submission and could not cut Finnísh Field Army's raillinks of to rear. A part of the credit for the latter achievement must go to railroad repair gangs. FAF could also easy a little bit the pressure on the Field Army by hindering to certain extent the straffing and the use of fire control a/c. Also the FAF recon flights were important and the FAF bombing attacks had some nuissance value. And the straffing and bombing attacks against Red Army troops crossing the Bay of Viipuri/Vyborg had probably more than nuissance value, but they didn't stop the crossing.
Juha
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