pt 2...
When the Spitfire came into firing range, I made a quick, controlled roll, stamping heavily on my rudder bar. My fighter slid heavily sideways, and I continued with a hard level turn of about 90 degrees. The enemy couldn't keep me in his gunsight, and at the end of the maneuver he was so close that he actually slid past me. I quickly turned back to my original heading and the Spitfire was in front of me, pulling up to the right. My speed was gone, but the range was short, about 70 yards. I aimed carefully and squeezed the trigger. The tracers hit the target like a whip, and the plane started to smoke heavily. Almost vertically and slightly inverted, it crashed into the sea. Then, almost immediately, another Spitfire arrived to avenge his comrade. I pushed the throttle open and the engine stopped! It was a really nasty feeling. The enemy plane came in above and behind at high speed, so I made a tight turn under its nose. The Spitfire couldn't turn with me and after a failed attack, continued its dive toward Lavansaari. I turned my plane toward the Estonian coast, intending to make an emergency landing. Then I noticed that when I didn't put the throttle in a full-power setting, the engine would cough back to life. I had again begun to climb toward my flight when a MiG attacked me at an impossible deflection angle. There was no need to even dodge. Then I saw a MiG-1 dive steeply toward the water, but it pulled up at the last moment. Now it was my turn to do the attacking. The MiG didn't seem to notice me at all and pulled up right in front of me. I had only to change my nose position slightly to line up the target, then I squeezed the trigger. The plane rolled over and went into the sea. When I again began my climb, I found our pilots controlling the area, and I joined them.
MH: Did you have any general impressions of the Soviet airmen?
Juutilainen: There were very good Soviet pilots, and then there were those who were not so good. They usually handled their airplanes quite well, but I think their shooting accuracy was not as good as ours. Maybe they didn't emphasize individual pilot skills as much as we did, counting more on numbers.
MH: What about their aircraft, including Western Allied Lend-Lease planes like the Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire or Curtiss Tomahawk?
Juutilainen: The I-16 was in the same category as the B-239. The Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 was faster but not very agile. The Lavochkin La-5 and Yakolev Yak-9 were clearly better than the Brewster. The Hurricane was a rather easy opponent to deal with, especially at low level. No problems with the Tomahawk, either. The Spitfire, of course, was superior to the Brewster.
MH: Didn't you also shoot down a captured Heinkel He-111 that the Soviets tried to use for a clandestine mission?
Juutilainen: The He-111 incident happened on October 20, 1942. I was chasing a Pe-2 into a cloud over the Gulf of Finland when I suddenly came up behind a Heinkel. Of course, at first I thought it was a German plane, and I decided to let him be, but when the rear gunner began to fire at me, I decided to shoot back. It was then that I noticed there were no national emblems anywhere on the plane. After shooting the rear gunner I set both of its engines on fire. Three men bailed out of the plane's belly, but they all died in the cold water of the Gulf of Finland.
MH: When did your unit receive Messerschmitt Me-109Gs?
Juutilainen: On February 8, 1943, I joined the newly formed LeLv 34, and on February 10 we flew to Germany to get our new Me-109G-2 fighters (see Messerschmitt Me-109s to Finland). We flew familiarization flights in the German fighter school at Werneuchen. The Germans had prepared a rather extensive course for us, but our leaders told them that we had come to pick up our fighters and not to learn how to fly. I flew once in an Me-109E and two flights in the Me-109G, testing its performance and maneuverability. I would say that whereas the Brewster was a gentleman's airplane, the Messerschmitt was a killing machine.
MH: On August 31, 1943, you downed your first La-5. Was the appearance of that new Soviet fighter disturbing to you and your colleagues?
Juutilainen: The La-5 was more agile than the Me-109G but otherwise in the same category. We Messerschmitt pilots had no special problems with La-5s, but Brewster pilots had to use tactics in which they flew in several divisions - one above the other, with a great height difference - to cover each other. I often used one tactical trick against the La-5 that worked every time. When a La-5 pilot got behind me, I started a climbing turn, so that the enemy pilot would point his guns at me but could not take the proper deflection. Usually he fired and, of course, missed. I gradually tightened my turn, and the enemy pilot tried to pull more and more deflection. If we started at low level, it took me some 13,000 feet before the enemy began to lose his speed and turned down. Then I just rolled after him and shot him down.
MH: Your score includes seven Ilyushin Il-2s. How did you manage to bring down those armored ground-attack planes?
Juutilainen: The Il-2 had really tough armor, and from directly behind you could only eliminate the rear gunner. There were three separate armor plates behind the pilot and the engine. The aircraft flew usually at low level, so the only approach was from above. We attacked their formations from both sides to disperse their defensive fire. From the side and above, one could shoot at a place in the armpit of the Il-2's wing, which normally caught fire.
MH: You are also credited with a Lockheed P-38 Lightning on July 10, 1943 - along with two I-153s. What was a P-38 doing over Finland at that time?
Juutilainen: Our squadron's intelligence officer identified it only after I described it to him. Our radio intelligence guys told us later that the enemies we met that day were ferrying new fighters to Lavansaari and bringing old planes out. Maybe the Lightning's visit had something to do with that exchange. We didn't see them later.
MH: Another unusual plane on your victory list is the North American P-51 Mustang of which the Soviets received only 10. Could you describe your two encounters with the Mustangs?
Juutilainen: The only time we saw Mustangs was during the peak of the Soviet summer offensive of 1944. The Mustangs we met were older models, with Allison engines. On June 26 we had just been escorting Bristol Blenheim bombers and were returning over the front line when I saw a Mustang approaching me from my right side in a right turn with his belly toward me. I yanked the throttle to idle to let it slide past me. The Mustang pilot, however, recovered his turn and then saw me. He also pulled his throttle back, and I saw long flames backfiring from his exhaust pipes. He also kicked his rudder to slow down, but I was doing the same thing, and because I had started sooner than he, the Mustang slid right out in front of me. The Mustang pilot then went to full power and tried to shake me off his tail with a climbing turn. In so doing he made his last mistake and flew directly in front of my gunsight. I fired, and soon the Mustang was burning in the forest near Tammisuo. Two days later my section was returning from a reconnaissance mission and made the usual detour to have an aerial engagement before returning to base. Soon we saw an Il-2 formation coming toward us escorted by three Mustangs. One of them pulled left and the other two went into a dive. In a tight diving turn I went after the airplane that had broken left, firing short bursts to break the pilot's mental backbone. It worked, for he apparently got nervous and went into a dive. The pilot kicked his rudder, but much too rapidly, only causing the tail to waggle while his plane stayed rather comfortably in the middle of my sight. The target was at an altitude of about 150 feet when it caught fire and crashed into the tall pine trees.
****side note. it has been verified later that there were no 51s in finland at that time. it is a case of misidentification by 2 fin pilots who had claims of 51s. these kills were infact yaks. the p38 was probably a fw 189. bobby
http://www.sci.fi/~ambush/faf/juutilainen.html
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MH: On June 30, 1944 you tied Jorma Sarvanto's one-mission record of six victories. Was yours also in a single mission?
Juutilainen: It was during one mission, but in three separate engagements. The first started when our four sections met about the same number of Bell P-39 Airacobras, during which I shot down two in the Viipuri area. Next I thought there was a dark cloud in the eastern sky, then looked again and realized that it was an enormous formation of enemy planes heading for Tali. We regrouped, climbed and called more fighters to the scene, then we attacked. In that battle I shot down two Yak-9s over Juustila. When the fight was over, we continued our patrol, and the next enemy formation came from the direction of Viipuri, including Pe-2 dive-bombers, Il-2 ground-attack planes and La-5 fighters. We attacked, and I first shot down an Il-2 between Juustila and Tali and then got an La-5 near Viipuri. My fuel-level warning light had been blinking for quite a while, and I called the other guys to break off. Only during the flight home did I realize that I had shot down six enemy planes. After landing our fuel was practically gone. Also, all of the ammunition was gone.
MH: What were the circumstances of you last confirmed victory?
Juutilainen: On September 3, 1944, my section was on a reconnaissance mission, and I was flying at 1,600 feet when a Yak dashed toward me from directly ahead. I shot in his face and he dove under me. I turned around but couldn't see him anymore. After a while, I noticed a twin-engine airplane in front of me. I identified it as a Douglas DC-3 transport, having the Soviet designation Lisunov Li-2. I looked around suspiciously while I sneaked up behind it. I fired first at the fuselage, then at an engine, which started to burn. Then I fired again at the fuselage. The plane crashed in a field near Nurmijärvi.
MH: Where there any other combats in the Continuation War that particularly stand out in your mind?
Juutilainen: Well, there was one combat during which I didn't fire a shot. On March 8, 1944, I was returning from a reconnaissance mission and approaching Suulajärvi when our control center reported four enemy fighters very near our base at an altitude of 13,000 feet. I began to climb, hoping ardently that the enemy would wait for me, because it was a rare opportunity to fight this deep in our own territory. I was already at 12,500 feet when I saw four La-5s in a nice formation about 1,500 feet below me, between Perkjärvi railway station and our base. As I approached from behind and above, I found myself admiring their sleek forms and beautiful camouflage paint job. I got the leader in my sight, sure of achieving surprise. I was just about to press the trigger when, like an explosion, they broke away in different directions and tried to climb above me. They had seen my approach and waited for just the right moment. That was no wonder, for my radio intelligence controller informed me that the leader of my adversaries was an ace named Medvetjev (probably colonel Aleksandr A. Matveyev, the commander of the 275th Fighter Division, who would survive the war with 15 victories).
I had more speed than my adversaries, so I pulled off and above them. They kept on climbing, and whenever I tried to turn into one of them, he would dive and the rest would pile in behind me. At the very moment the battle began, my fuel warning light blinked on. That meant I still had enough fuel for 20 minutes of cruise power. Unfortunately, it was much less time if I had to stay at maximum power, which was now the case. Our radio intelligence controller told me that Medvetjev had requested more fighters into the battle, so during every turn I squinted toward the sun from where the additional force would surely come. Our altitude was then about 20,000 feet and I had not yet put on my oxygen mask. I grabbed it from my side, turned the valve open and without time to properly snap it on to my helmet, jammed it on to my face gripping the middle rib of the mask with my teeth.
There was a nasty consequence to that makeshift arrangement. I was breathing heavily, and my humid breath was escaping out of the side of the mask and frosting up the inside of the canopy, except for the bulletproof windshield directly in front. Then the first reinforcement arrived, another La-5 whose cannon flashes I could see from long range. I pulled steeply under his nose and immediately after that pulled my plane up into a tight climbing turn, simultaneously using my thumbnail to scrape a small area of frost off the panel on the side where the enemy ought to be. Just as I had expected, there was the nose of an enemy fighter visible through the peephole. It was firing and the burst passed so close underneath my plane that I was tempted to rise up in my seat. It was very hard to keep all five of my opponents in sight especially when some started climbing to attack me from above and behind while the others were forcing me to turn. I caught a brief glimpse of swirling snow at our base 26,000 feet below, indicating that our fighters were taking off to help me. It was a comforting sight! I only wished I could hold those wolves for the time it would take them to climb to our altitude. The radio intelligence controller told me that a sixth fighter had joined Medvetjev's group. We had been dogfighting for 15 minutes, and I was soaked with sweat. I dodged another attack by pushing under the enemy's nose, turned into another plane attacking from above, then got the enemy in front of me in turn and had an opportunity to shoot. I frantically scraped another peephole and was following the enemy tightly when my engine coughed and quit from fuel starvation.
I made a diving turn under another enemy fighter that was firing at me, continuing in a vertical dive. It was now my only salvation. I knew that the La-5 had the same diving speed limit as the Messerschmitt - 513 knots - so I let my Me-109 fall vertically for 20,000 feet, and the speed rose to 595 knots. The controls seemed to be fixed in cement, and my ears were buzzing like telephone lines. At 6,500 feet, I started a slow pullout and turned the trim wheel. The nose began to rise slowly, but the ground was rushing up at me. Anytime now, I expected the wings to break off. As speed began to decrease, my elevator response increased and I was able to apply more and more back stick. The airplane achieved level flight at a height of 500 feet and my speed was down to 485 knots. The danger was over. I converted my speed to altitude and circled the base preparatory to an engine-off landing, lowering my gear and flaps and making and otherwise uneventful recovery. Our base personnel told me that two enemy planes followed me down, but broke off their pursuit after descending about 5,000 feet.
MH: How did you react to the second armistice on September 4, 1944?
Juutilainen: Personally, I was so used to the fighter pilot's life that I really had bittersweet feelings when we stopped combat flying. The Continuation War ended very much like the Winter War. We were able to stop the Soviet offensive, and again our fighter force, thanks to the small losses and continuous deliveries of aircraft, was stronger than it had been at the beginning of the war. During July, we noticed that Soviet pilots began to avoid aerial combat, and at the end of that month, they fled when they saw us. During our reconnaissance missions, we also saw that the Soviets had started to remove troops from the Karelian Front. This had been the only Soviet offensive to fail during their advance westward. On the other hand as in the Winter War, Finland did not have the resources to continue the fight alone when Germany was collapsing. So we gave the Soviet Union some areas that were in our hands when the war ended. Again, the independence of Finland was the most important thing. We had saved it again and thus made one interesting point. Of all the countries in the European theater that participated in World War II, there were only two that were never occupied: Finland and Great Britain. We developed quite civilized relations with the Soviet Union after the war and benefited economically by importing oil and raw materials while exporting industrial equipment and products. But every time they tried some of their political tricks, our leaders firmly said no. And they retreated each time.
MH: Did you fight the Germans after the armistice?
Juutilainen: There was a plan for our squadron to participate in operations against the Germans in Lapland, but it was then canceled.
MH: What decorations did you receive from your government?
Juutilainen: I was one of only four people - two of whom were fighter pilots - to receive Finland's highest medal, the Cross of the Mannerheim Order, twice. (The other was Hans Henrik Wind, the second-ranking Finnish ace with 75 victories.) I got my first Mannerheim Cross on April 26, 1942, and became a "double knight" on June 28, 1944. In addition, I received the Medal of Freedom, the Cross of Freedom 4th Class with Oak Leaves, and the Cross of Freedom 3rd Class with Oak Leaves.
MH: In retrospect, which wartime role did you prefer when you were in the air - lone wolf, team player or leader?
Juutilainen: I guess I was each one of those, depending on the situation. I tried always to carry out my mission completely, so I often chased the enemy long distances and stayed in the arena as long as possible. Therefore, there were many occasions when I found myself alone, although it was not planned to be so. I lost almost 30 kills from my score because of that. In the Ilmavoimat, we had a rule that to confirm a victory, either the wreck of the downed plane had to be found, or some eyewitnesses had to see it fall. Many times I asked for cameras for our fighters, but we didn't get them. Most of the time, I was a team player, since that was the way we had been trained. Quite often I flew as top cover, and it was a respected position in our formations. I was also a leader in section and division formations, and I often was an instructor, too.
MH: Were there any fellow Finnish airmen whom you particularly admired?
Juutilainen: I considered all my colleagues top guys. If I had to pick just one, it would be Oiva Tuominen. He was a brilliant pilot and an exemplary combatant, with 44 victories. When he saw an opponent, which he usually did before anyone else in the flight, he had already formulated a strategy and proceeded to implement it
MH: What of your postwar aviation career?
Juutilainen: I stayed in the Ilmavoimat until May 17, 1947, when I retired. I then continued flying in general and commercial aviation. I also had my own de Havilland Tiger Moth, which I could fly on wheels, pontoons or skis. I have flown only occasionally since the mid-50's.
MH: Have you met any Axis colleagues or former Allied opponents since the war?
Juutilainen: After the war, I met a very interesting old French pilot, Robert LePetit, who had been a squadron commander in World War I. He told many interesting stories about the French ace of aces, René Fonck. I also met a Russian general. He told me that he had heard about me almost every day during the war and now he wanted to meet me. We discussed all kinds of things, and then I offered him a flight in the Messerschmitt. He just smiled - he was already so fat that we would have needed a shoehorn to get him into the tiny cockpit of the Messerschmitt. I also met some Allied airmen. One of them, an American, had been in Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and flew 33 missions over Germany. It was interesting to hear about those operations. In Finland, we have a brotherhood of wartime pilots. We meet once a month and enjoy the friendship that is refined by hard times.
MH: Do you have any additional comments on any aspect of your career in aviation?
Juutilainen: I think that history has shown the value of air power. If a nation wants to be free and independent, it has to invest in the fighter force. In those investments, quality is much more important than quantity. And the quality of the personnel is more important than the quality of the materiel. Well-trained, first-class fighter pilots are a nation's strategic asset, which must be kept in good shape.
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Military History editor Jon Guttman would like to thank Lt. Gen. Heikki Nikunen (Finnish Air Force, ret.) for his help in translating and preparing this interview. Recommended reading: Finnish Fighter Aces, by Kalevi Keskinen, Kari Stenman and Klaus Niska; and Juutilainen's autobiography, Double Fighter Knight.