Louhi was a Finnish Navy minelayer. The ship was originally constructed for the Imperial Russian Navy but was taken over by the Finns during the Russian Civil War. She had originally been named Voin, but was renamed as M1 (Miinalaiva 1) in Finnish service. In 1936 she was given the more personal name Louhi, following the procedure of all other major ships in the Finnish navy.
The ship was designed as a minelayer but was not particularly good at it due to its slow speed, bad seakeeping qualities and inadequate storage space. During peacetime, Louhi or M1 was used as depot ship with its storage rooms refitted as crew quarters.
Louhi sunk on 12 January 1945, while returning from a mine laying operation. An explosion at the stern of the ship at 12:50 sank the ship in two minutes, with 11 casualties.
From the Russian Navy to the Finnish Navy
The minelayer Voin was built during World War I in Kolomna near Moscow, and it was deployed at the Baltic Sea. It was involved in a few mine laying operations, but when the Russians left Finland, it was left to the Finns and was christened M-1. It was at the time the biggest ship in the Finnish Navy fleet.
Interwar period
From summer of 1919, M1 amongst other Finnish naval vessels was tasked with security and patrol duties the Koivisto region where a British naval detachment was located. The aim was to provide protection to the British vessels. The British were in the area all the way until the Treaty of Tartu in 1920, operating against Russian vessels.
During the 1920s and 1930s, M-1, from 1936 on Louhi, functioned as a navy training vessel and a mother ship to Finnish submarines. On 12 September 1939, Louhi was moved to the Sea of Åland.
Winter War
In 1939, at the start of the Winter War, the ability of the Finnish Navy to lay mines was poor. Louhi was at the time the most efficient Finnish mine layer. The rest of the fleet that could be used in this function consisted of five mine boats of the T class, other surface vessels and submarines, and the civilian vessels commissioned by the Finnish Navy. Only Louhi was able to deploy large mine fields.
The Finnish Navy laid a total of ca. 1 900 sea mines during the Winter War, of which Louhi laid about a third. It was involved most notably in laying mines in the Gulf of Bothnia, preventing the Soviet submarines from entering that area.
Louhi laid mines in seaways at Kökar and Utö on the first night of the war. Louhi laid further mines on 3 December in the seaway near Nyhamn, but in the middle of the operation two mines exploded, and the ship had to abort its operation. laid the missing part of the mines on 4 December, and the minefield was complemented by mines from Louhi on 5 December.
Louhi participated in the laying of the minebarrier to the narrows near Märket by laying mines there on 9 and 14 December 1939. After Soviet submarines were seen to have penetrated the barrier, Louhi on 10 January and auxiliary minelayer Baltic on 12 January laid more mines to the barrier, which was strengthened with a few kilometres of anti-submarine nets laid by the auxiliary minelayer Frej.
On 3 January 1940, the Soviet submarine S-2 was sunk by the mines laid in the strait of Märket. On the whole, the mine laying capacity of the Finnish Navy was poor, but nevertheless it was efficient in curtailing the operations of the enemy. It is known for certainty that at least two Soviet patrol boats, one submarine and one German cargo ship were sunk by Finnish sea mines. At least one Soviet vessel is known to have been sunk by mines laid by Louhi.
The Finnish mine laying operations ceased in January 1940, when the Gulf of Finland froze over. These activities were continued after the end of the Winter War, as soon as the sea ice melted, due to the fear of the Soviets launching an invasion of Southern Finland.
Continuation War
By the start of the Continuation War, the ability of the Finnish Navy to lay mines was improved significantly. In the spring of 1941, two state-of-the-art mine layers had been built, the mine supplies were bigger, and German influence mines of the latest design had been acquired, and Finland was also producing sea mines of its own. During the Continuation War, Finland was, in cooperation with the German Kriegsmarine, able to lay much greater and more efficient mine fields than it had been able in the Winter War.
The mines laid and the submarine nets deployed between Porkkala and Naissaar caused significant losses to the Soviet Navy, and from the late summer of 1943, these devices prevented the Soviets from exiting from the eastern extremities of the Gulf of Finland.