Juutilainen — the pilot of LeLv 24
, 25, comes from a military family (his brother is an infantry officer, a company commander at Kollaa). A fighter pilot since 1935, he serves in (Squadron 24), equipped with the Fokker D.XXI — a 1936 Dutch fighter, 460 km/h, four machine guns, fixed undercarriage.
Facing him: the Red Air Force — some 3,250 Soviet aircraft (Polikarpov I-15, I-16, I-153, Tupolev SB-2 and Ilyushin DB-3 bombers) against 114 Finnish fighters in all. Ratio of 30 to 1. But the Finnish pilots are better trained, and the air defence is organised into an early-warning network advanced for its time (the Finns have copied and improved the British Chain Home system).
From 19 December 1939 to 13 March 1940 (85 days) Juutilainen patrols over Karelia and the Baltic. He operates singly or as a pair against Soviet formations of 8 to 12 aircraft.
He must choose his air-combat tactics in the face of Soviet numerical superiority.
What air-combat tactics against numerical superiority?
Juutilainen chooses B. Winter War score: 2 confirmed kills plus 4 probables (on the obsolete Fokker D.XXI). But it is during the Continuation War 1941-1944 that he becomes Finland's top ace and the most successful non-German ace of the conflict: 94 confirmed kills (34 on the Brewster B-239 Buffalo and 60 on the Messerschmitt Bf 109G). Twice decorated with the Mannerheim Cross (the only Finn to receive the distinction twice), he came through unscathed (never hit in 437 combat sorties). He refused to serve the Wehrmacht or the Allies after 1944. A farmer after the war, he died in 1999 aged 85. His brother also survived, becoming one of the heroes of Kollaa.
Learn more about this event
Related polls
10
Pajari at Tolvajärvi — 12 December, 04:00
Raate — Vinogradov on the frozen road
Saint-Exupéry — flight of Groupe 2/33
Suomussalmi — Siilasvuo against the 163rd
Svensson on the Kollaa front
Władysław Gnyś — the Dorniers over Olkusz
Häyhä — the marksman of Kollaa
Mitralexis — out of ammunition
Harwood against the Graf Spee
HMS Rawalpindi — Kennedy at 3:47 p.m.
Pajari at Tolvajärvi — 12 December, 04:00
Raate — Vinogradov on the frozen road
Saint-Exupéry — flight of Groupe 2/33
Suomussalmi — Siilasvuo against the 163rd
Svensson on the Kollaa front
Władysław Gnyś — the Dorniers over Olkusz
Häyhä — the marksman of Kollaa
Mitralexis — out of ammunition
Harwood against the Graf Spee