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FIGHTER OVER FINLAND the Memoirs of a Fighter Pilot

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FIGHTER OVER FINLAND the Memoirs of a Fighter Pilot FIGHTER OVER FINLAND The Memoirs of a Fighter Pilot EINO LUUKKANEN Translated from the Finnish by Mauno A. Salo Edited by William Green MACDONALD : LONDON "The Fatherland is not just the native soil upon which we tread, nor the water that rinses our shores, but is also the rippling air above us." MANNERHEIM FOREWORD A Finnish writer has compared the deeds of human beings to stones thrown into water. They splash mightily and the ripples widen, but as the stones disappear the surface of the water once more becomes smooth. Time is like water. The deeds of man raise splashes and ripples on time's surface, but eventually both men and deeds are forgotten. Twenty-three long years have passed since that fateful thirteenth day of March 1940 when our so-called "Winter War" came to an end. They were stirring days for we fighter pilots pitted against overwhelming odds, but with the passage of nearly a quarter of a century, memories of their events are already fading from the minds of those who participated in them and survived. To rescue something of these memories before they kally fade into the limbo, I have written about one man's war-my war! It is an account of the activities of the fighter units in which I served, but I believe my experiences to have been typical of those of many Finnish pilots who fought the Soviet Union in two conflicts, and I offer this account as a tribute to all those who fought for their Fatherland; not only fighter pilots, but the crews of bombers, reconnaissance machines and transports, and particularly the mechanics, armourers and other ground personnel whose praises are rarely sung but without whom we would never have got into the air. The names and dates mentioned in this narrative are entirely correct, and in most cases I have used the nicknames or radio- call names of the pilots rather than their christian names which we rarely if ever employed. While writing this account of Finland's two wars, I had looked forward to describing the ha1 furious battles fought out in the skies during the summer of 1944. In my mind I had envisaged these as forming the climax of my story, but when I reached that part of the narrative I discovered, to my surprise, that such actions had made far less impression upon me than xi xii FIGHTER OVER FINLAND those first aerial struggles of the "Winter War" in which we, a tiny nation, stood alone. By that last summer the end was already a foregone conclusion; we were fighting bitterly to survive. We asked and gave no quarter. Each fresh battle was just that-a battle. It aroused none of the deep emotion that we all experienced during the conflict of 193940. Having survived both wars, I am only too well aware of the tremendous sacrifices made by those who so readily gave their lives in the defence of their country. May this account help to keep their memories alive. Oulu, Finland. EINO LUUKKANEN INTRODUCTION The general concept of Finland rarely goes beyond timber and sawmills, sauna baths and the composer Sibelius. Finland is a land of unending forests, a thousand lakes and the midnight sun. Bordered in the north by Norway and in the east by the Soviet Union, Finland possesses an area of 130,085 square miles, approximately one-third more than that of Great Britain and Northern Ireland combined, and a population of some four- and-a-half millions. Although relatively one of Europe's newer nations, having declared her independence on December 6, 1917, Finland's history dates back to the Finno-Ugors of the Ural Altaic region, forming a part of the Kingdom of Sweden from 1154 until 1809 when she became an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire. Civil war followed the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and it was during this period that the first steps were taken to organize an air arm. In 1938 the Russians made their first overtures to the Finns, requesting permission to build both air and naval bases on Finnish soil. Russian requests became progressively demands, and in return for strategic areas of Finland which would have enabled the Soviet Union to turn the Gulf of Finland into a Russian "lake", they offered worthless swampland. The Russians then began to meddle in Finnish internal affairs, and relations between the two countries became increasingly strained until, in the autumn of 1939, the Finnish government ordered mobilization, this action being prompted by the Russian occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Finally, the Russians brought about the infamous "Mainila Incident", claiming that Finnish border guards had fired across the border, killing a Russian N.C.O. and several troops, and Russian forces began an assault on Finland which was to become known to the Finns as the "Winter War". The Russians encountered unexpectedly fierce resistance from the ... Xlll XIV FIGHTER OVER FINLAND Finns who quickly brought the Russian armies to a standstill, but the Soviet Union rapidly strengthened her forces engaged in the attack on Finland until the Finns were finally forced to yield. Fifteen months of peace followed until June 1941 when Finland was once more embroiled in hostilities, Russian bombers again attacking Finnish territory without any formal declaration of war. Finland now became automatically aligned with Germany, and her forces soon recovered the territory ceded to the Russians in 1940. One of the principal aims of the Germano-Finnish campaign was the cutting of the Mur- mansk Railway, the vital lifeline for Cash-and-carry Lend- Lease material. The Finnish and German forces made two separate thrusts in their attempt to achieve this aim; one across the 61st and 62nd parallels and the other across the 66th and 67th parallels. The two thrusts were destined never to link up, and there followed a stalemate lasting nearly one and a half years. The final onslaught came in June 1944, when the Russians unleashed tremendous forces which trampled their way up the narrow Karelian Isthmus, and Finland was once again forced to yield. The narrative that follows tells the story of the two wars with the Russians as seen through the eyes of one pilot, Major Eino Luukkanen, the Finnish Air Force's third-ranking ace with fifty-four kills, who roamed backwards and forwards across the battlegrounds, fighting an air war which, in some respects, was not dissimilar to the Battle of Britain. Mauri Salo CONTENTS Foreword ... ... ... ... xi ... introduction ...... ... ... Xlll I. Gestation of a Fighting Pilot ... 19 2. The Storm Breaks ... ... ... 25 3. The Weather Worsens ... ... 34 4. Two Enemies-Winter and Russians 45 5. Catastrophe ... ... ... ... 60 6. The End of the First Round ... 69 7. Lull Between Storms ... ... 77 8. At War Once More ...... ... 86 9. Over the Border ... ... ... 100 10. Nine Months at Nurmoila ... ... 108 I I. A Nomad's Life ... ... ... 131 12. Au Revoir to Fighters ... ... 144 13. Fighters Once Again ... ... 150 14. A Hectic Pace ... ... ... 160 15. A Close Call ... ... ... ... 176 16. The Last Round ... ... ... 181 Appendix I: Official List of Author's Aerial Victories 189 Appendix II : The Principal Types of Aircraft Employed During the Russo-Finnish Wars by the Combatants 191 ILLUSTRATIONS The author in the cockpit of his Messerschmitt Bf 109G .. ... .. .. .. frontispiece Caudron C.60 and Letov S.218 Smolik at Kauhava ... ... .. ... .. facing page 32 Martinsyde F.4 Buzzard and Hansa-Branden- burg A.22 ... .. .. .. .. Fokker D.XXI ... ... ... .. ... Fokker D.XXI at Värtsilä ... ... ... Blackburn Ripon IIF ... ... .. .. Gloster Gladiator II, the author after pro- motion to captain and personnel of Fighter Group L ... .. ... ... .. Brewster B-239 and ferry pilots at TrollhXtan Aero O/Y Junkers Ju 52/3m "Kaleva" ... Camouflaged Brewster B-239, Nils Katajainen and the emblem of HLeLv 24 .. .. Fiat G.50, Captain Lauri Pekuri, Major Olavi Ehrnrooth, the author, and the Curtiss Hawk 75A ... ... .. .. ... .. B-239 after ground loop. Lieut. Kossi Karhila and Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 ... .. Sergeant Eric Lyly, Sergeant Paavo Tolonen and Flight Master Jitti Lehtovaara ... Tents at Nurmoila, and the author's B-239 burning ... ... .. ... ... B xvii xviii ILLUSTRATIONS Colonel Riku Lorentz, Lieut.-Col. G. E. Mag- nusson, the author, and the transfer of Men- suvaara to the Luftwaffe ... ... .. facing page 128 Korppu Paltila and his Tchaika, and pilots of TLeLv 30 ... ... ... ... ... Yak-7A, SB-2bis and the DC-2 "Hanssin Jukka" ... ... ... ... ... The author's Bf 109G-2 and the Dornier Do 17z/2 ...... ... ... ... ... Flight Master Oippa Tuominen and Lieut. Mikko Pasila ... ... ... ... ... Sergeant Pentti Tilli,Flight Master Eino Juuti- lainen, Joppe Karhunen and Hasse Wind ... Bf 109G-6 at Malmi and one of Karhila's victims, an Il-2 ... ... ... ... Ilyushin DB-3, Tupolev SB-2bis and Blenheim I Lieut. Kale Tervo, Lieut. Pege Saalasti, and Lieut. Lauri Nissinen ... ... ... The author in Bf 109G-6, the emblem of HLeLv 43 , and the Pyry II trainer ...... ... GESTATION OF A FIGHTING PILOT The splendid month of August 1932, with its long, fine days so ideally suited for flying, had given place to September and the first autumnal signs as I clambered shakily into the elderly Caudron C.60 primary training biplane for that eagerly awaited but painfully apprehended event in the life of every pilot-the first solo flight. I fumbled with my seat harness, my fingers feel- ling more like so many thumbs, carefully checking and recheck- ing the instruments and controls, the ancient rotary-type Clerget 9B engine idling and shaking the airframe like a cocktail mixer. As the mechanic whipped away the wheel chocks, I gingerly eased open the throttle a little and slowly taxied from the apron to the edge of the field.
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