JUUTILAINEN: Finland's Top Scoring Fighter Pilot.

PART ONE: WINTER WAR

The Top 'Ace' of the Finnish Air Force (Suomi Ilmavoimat) was born EINO ILMARI JUUTILAINEN, in Lieska, Finland (February 21st, 1914); His formative childhood was spent in Sortavala, with his early military service actually as part of the Finland Volunteer Marine Defence Association, tacking up and down the Laatokka Sea, and having nothing less than a "Fine time" as "Illu" himself once described his service time.

According to Juutilainen, his childhood inspiration for flying came from none other than Baron Manfred von Richthofen, after reading a book passed on to him by his older brother....
:"I remember sitting by the upstairs window, dreaming about aerial maneuvers."
What began as childhood fantasy came closer to reality, as National Service began for him as an Assistant Mechanic (1st Seperate Maritime Squadron), in Sortavala (1932-1933). Joining the Ilmavoimat as an NCO, his initial pilot training in the Ilmasotakoulu (Finnish Air Force Academy) was begun in 1935 and into 1936, at Kauhava. He must have been a good flying pupil, for he was then given an...."..opportunity to CHOOSE my first flying assignment!"
By the 4th of February, 1937, Juutilainen, after requesting posting, found himself at Lentolaivue (LeLv) 12, Suur-Merijoki Air Base (near Viipuri).
1938 found him posted to Utti Air Base, for what he says was a :| "Tough year of flying and shooting."
Finally, March of 1939 saw him assigned to LeLv 24, and flying Fokker D.XXI's, a Dutch built fighter, and again at Utti Air Base. Juutilainen describes the tactics used in this period, which reads like a template for his later service......
olice:"The international trend in the 1930's was to use a tight, 3 plane formation, or "vic", as a basic fighter element. The fighter pilots in Finland knew that they could never have large numbers of fighters, and they considered the large, tight formations ineffective. From the studies conducted between 1934 and 1935, (we) developed a loose 2 plane section as the basic fighter element. Divisions (4 fighters) and Flights (8 fighters) were made of those loose sections, but always maintaining the independence of the Section. The distance between fighters in the Section was 150-200 meters, and the distance between Sections in a Division was 300-400 meters. The principle was always to ATTACK, REGARDLESS OF NUMBERS.....that way, the larger enemy formation was broken up and combat became a sequence of duels in which the better pilots always won. Finnish fighter training heavily emphasized the complete handling of the fighter and shooting accuracy. Even basic training at the Air Force Academy (Kauhava) included a lot of aerobatics, with all the basic combat manuevers, and aerial gunnery."
"Illu" was involved in "extra exercises" in October of 1939, responding to massive Soviet provacation and sabre rattling by the Stalin regime. On the 11th of October, 1939, his unit moved from Utti to Immola Air Base, flying combat air patrols and being "careful to stay on our side, so we did not provoke the Soviets."
Describing his Fokker XXI as "our best fighter in 1939......a Fokker could make about 175 knots....lacked armour, but it had good diving characteristics and it was a steady shooting platform. I think our gunnery training made the Fokker such a winner in the Winter War.
By comparison, the Soviets had the Polikarpov I-16 (or Rata as the Soviets referred to it), a faster machine at 215 knots (low level), a machine Juutilainen said could "turn on a dime."
His first day of "real combat" came on December 19th, 1939......;D"I had some trouble starting my engine, so I got a little behind the rest of my flight. When I was close to Antrea, I got a message of three enemy bombers approaching. After about half a minute, I saw 3 Ilyushin DB-3's approaching. I was about 1,500ft above them and started the attack run just like in gunnery camp at Kakisalmi. The DB-3's immediately dropped their bombloads into the forrest and turned back. I shot the three rear gunners, one by one. Then I started to shoot the engines. I followed them a long way and kept on shooting. One of them nosed over and crashed. The two others were holed like cheese-graters and continued in a shallow, smoking descent. I had spent all of my ammunition, so I turned back. There was no special feeling of real combat. Everything went exactly like training."
Soviet bombers in this period often flew without fighter escort. "Illu" shared a 1/6th victory on December 23 (a Tupelov SB-2), but he later "stopped counting those shared victories, and always gave my share to the younger pilot."
Juutilainen's first encounter with an I-16 (December 31st) was a "classic, old time aerial duel..."...initially, I was behind the Red pilot, but he saw me and started a hard left turn. I followed, shooting occasionally, testing his nerves. Our speed decreased as we circled tightly under the cloud, which was as low as 600ft. My opponent's fighter was much more agile.....and he was gradually gaining the advantage, so I decided to pull a tactical trick on him. As he was getting into my rear sector, I pulled up into the cloud, continueing my hard left turn. Once inside it, I rolled right and down, out of the cloud. I had estimated right- I was again behind my opponent. When he next saw me, I had already closed the range of about 100yards. He apparently decided to outrun me, as he had done before. I put the sight on him and squeezed the trigger. My tracers passed a few yards in front of him, and I eased the stick pressure to adjust my aiming point. My next burst struck his engine, which began to belch smoke. I continued firing, letting the tracers walk along the fuselage. Then once more I pulled hard, taking proper deflection and shot again. There was a continuous stream of black smoke as the target pitched over and went into the forest."
Other Finnish Air Force Missions of the Winter War involved reconnaissance in fighters......Juuttilainen continues.......
"Our reconaissance aircraft were obselete, so they had to carry out their missions at night or in bad weather, while we flew many daytime recce missions in our fighters. We also occasionally carried out some ground attack missions until the last days of the (Winter) war, when the enemy tried a flanking offensive over the ice of the Gulf of Finland and Viipuri Bay. Those were decisive operations, but for us fighter pilots they were also the most miserable missions of the war, for the Soviets massed their fighters to cover ground troops. We could achieve suprise by using the weather conditions and coming from different directions every time, quickly attacking over the ice, then fighting our way back to base to re-arm and re-fuel for a new mission. During those missions, I personally fired 25,000 rounds into the Red Army."
The conclusion of the Winter War found Ilmari Juutilainen a dissappointed man........"....our fighter force was stronger than it had been at the beginning of the War. We felt ourselves winners, but now we had to give them some areas that were firmly in our hands. Later, when the economic situation became clearer, the decision was more understandable. Sweden was neutral, Germany was hostile, and support from France and Britain proved to be INADEQUATE. Finland simply did not have enough resources to continue a prolonged campaign alone. Ultimately, the important thing was FINLAND's INDEPENDENCE. We had been fighting to save that, and we had indeed saved it. I think we also taught a lesson to Stalin and company. IF YOU THREATEN FINNS, THEY DO NOT BECOME FRIGHTENED- they become ANGRY......

.............................................................And they NEVER SURRENDER........"



And so, part one of the story of this remarkable pilot comes to an end. This article was adapted from an interview with Ilmari Juutilainen, published in MILITARY HISTORY Magazine (February 1999 issue), and was written for this magazine by JON GUTTMAN. Look for part TWO of his story in the weeks to come, and only HERE on this site, the site that gives you MORE....WORLD WAR TWO TALK......Goodnight, wherever you are in this world!

 

What a great article. This Utti airbase is actually my home airport, just few miles from here

I will delete my post from here when you are ready for second issue