Greetings gentlemen.
Just informing you that I have added several articles lately to Virtual Pilots Finland / VLeLv Icebreakers WW2 aviation history site at
http://www.compart.fi/icebreakers/WW2History.html The new articles include:
Recollections by Eino and Edvald Estama
"Estama brothers from Oulu, Eino and Edvald "Valte" Estama, both flew in the Air Force during the war. Eino flew the Blenheim and Junkers 88-bombers, Valte flew the Morane Saulnier 406 ja Messerchmitt 109 fighters. The brothers visited virtual pilots in January 2001."
"We looked at them and they at us, then they did a barrel-roll around us and soared away. They didn't shoot, so we didn't bother to shoot either. They went away, and that was the only time I saw Mustangs flying during the war."
Messerchmitt 109 G-2/G-6 manuals
English and Finnish language versions of Messerchmitt 109 G-2 / G-6 fighter plane technical and pilot's manuals.
Väinö Pokela - Brewster and Messerchmitt pilot in hostile skies
"Väinö Pokela flew Brewster and Messerschmitt 109 fighter in Fighter Squadron 30 & 24 in the Continuation War. He acted also as a Messerchmitt trainer and trained remarkable number of the Air Force MT-pilots. In this article mr. Pokela tells for example about the last flight of Me 109 G-2 "MT-208", his war flights and about ferrying new Messerchmitts from war time Germany."
"There I was at right, and saw a Yak coming from left. I had no choice but fire across his nose so he sees he's being fired upon."
Erich Hartmann
Article about the ace of aces of all time.
In Finnish language there is also article about the Blenheim bomber pilot Kauko Aho and
about the meeting where the virtual pilots played host to a group of five AF WW2 veterans in march 2001.
Right now there are translations coming of the discussions with Kauko Aho and maybe the most interesting article so far - discussions & interview with mr. Olli Sarantola, who flew Fiat G.50 and Brewster fighters during 1943-1944 - and was selected as one of the 20 Finnish pilots to night fighter training in Germany, June 1944. Great material!
Below you'll find some quotes from teh new articles. I hope you'll enjoy them.
Valte Estama's encounter with Mustangs
Valte Estama was flying with his wingman, when suddenly some Mustangs climbed to their side. "They rose there like ELEVATORS. First we thought they were Airacobras, but then realized they didn't really look like them... When I got to the Fighter Squadron 24 we got no briefing of the enemy planes, they just said that we'd know the enemy when we met them. That's how it was. We looked at them and they at us, then they did a barrel-roll around us and soared away. They didn't shoot, so we didn't bother to shoot either. They went away, and that was the only time I saw Mustangs flying during the war."
Estama had wondered when the plane wasn't slender like the Airacobra, but "it had that bump in the bottom, the air intake. It looked longer to me."
"It took only two cannon shots from my Morane to shatter the (enemy) plane... I didn't need to fly through the junk, I could have gone under. But I had all the time in my mind that there were four of them around and two of us, so they'll go after Jaska, and since he was the leader he had to make it to the base. And I was thinking of going to help. And it (an enemy plane) is in my sights, 300-400 meters away, I was supposed to fire at it. It was a sitting duck, but I misjudged the deflection and the shot went under...
The Morane cannon was really accurate, you could hit at 400-500 meters with half a meter accuracy."
Man was like a wet rag
(According to Modo/VLeLv Icebreakers)
The gentleman that later worked as bank manager was flying a Brewster, and father of a friend of mine was the mechanic. Said friend told a story, when his father had been waiting for the plane to return from mission. A long wait, no sight of the plane. Finally he sees a spot far in the sky and sound of an engine starts to sound. The plane flies wobbly, he wasn't sure if it could stay in the air until landing. Plane makes rough landing and taxi's. The mechanic runs after, jumps on wing and pulls the canopy open - and sees the pilot sleeping. He had been flying so long he couldn't stay awake any more. The mechanic nudges the pilot, "get out of there so I can fix the plane, you gotta go soon." The pilot replies, "I'm too tired, I can't fly." "You must, there's nobody else," came the order and the pilot had no choice. It was such a stage of war that there could be no rest, the men had to fly all the time.
Valte Estama: "that's true, it doesn't take many hours flying when you tire. You're like a wet rag, sweaty all over. And all straps are tight. You feel like you can do absolutely nothing." He guessed the pilot of the story was a man called Perämaa.
Valte Estama continues: "The planes flew continuously from the Lappeenranta base during the toughest battles at Vuosalmi and Vuoksi. You got out of the plane only to piss. Food was brought to the plane. You were rearmed and refueled, and off you took again. Three days without sleep. You took a nap while refueling and the mechanics woke you up when they were done."
Questions from Internet pilots
Valte Estama spent a while at the WarBirds simulator, when people asked questions live via the comms system and he answered with microphone. Here are some of the questions:
Which Messerschmitts did you fly? I began with G-2 and flew the G-6 more, but mostly Morane.
Someone asked of the top speed of the Me. Mr Väinö Pokela told earlier it's 720 km/h, when I interviewed him. Normally we flew the Me at 500 km/h, but at a tough spot we could go some 600 km/h. But the absolute speed limit is found in dive. I had to do some over 900 km/h dives. The speedometer scale ends at 900, and at that you feel the flutter effect in the wings. Guess it was very near the top speed, when the plane felt like falling apart.
Which Russian plane did you fear most, and why? The one that attacked, whatever the type. They were all bad. There in Eastern Carelia there were more beginner pilots, but at the Isthmus, I think the worst was the Yak-Niner. At least one shot me down there. Isn't the worst the one that shoots at you?
Someone here asks which one of the Russians planes worried you the least? It was the U-2 recon plane, you didn't need to fear it. Weird plane. Five cylinder engine, could rattle in the sky for 4-5 hours. It was unarmed, you had to fear it only when it came over the base and they threw hand grenades, little bombs, at you. Otherwise it was a nice little friend. We didn't even care to shoot them. The R-5 was an improved model, it had guns. U-2 had no gun, and not even any gauges in the cockpit. I flew one, it was like it had the motor of a sewing machine. Once I had to pick up a radio from inland. I strayed to Russian side in snowstorm, and even the Russians didn't do anything to us.
Väinö Pokela:
We were alerted from Kymi. And the first combat I got in had 200 bombers and 96 fighters to protect them, and there were four of us. I remember how it squeezed my throat. And of course we split up when attacking. But even if we had been outnumbered hundred to one, only one could have come at a time. Every time we tried to fire at one, there were two or three behind.
The Finns in war time Germany
I was in Germany to get planes at the end of August, when 250 Flying Fortresses came to bombard that airfield. So we ran away and took cover in a field ditch, and hoped they'd be accurate.
Were they?
Yes, we had ten planes there and two remained in flying condition.
During the last training flight, my engine caught fire in the start. So I had to do a forced landing. There was a Finnish bachelor in the German (flying) school. His father had come to Finland in 1918, but hadn't taken Finnish citizenship, so the boy was there doing flight training. His name was Totti Hermus (?). He brought me a radio, and when I was leaving he drove me to the Tempelhof airfield. A couple of days later he went to the west in a J2G6, and was shot down a couple of weeks later. I brought his last greetings to his family in Loviisa.
The reason for the forced landing was that a friend, I don't tell the name, had started it in such a way that the propellor adjustment was on manual and set to half past twelve position. And that position may be used only on automatic. When he had started the engine with this forbidden setting, the revs went too high. There were unconditional orders that if this happens, it had to be reported immediately and the plane may not take off. When the revs were 2800. He didn't do it, he thought it'd be some German to fly it next. Ten years later, after a couple of drinks, he confessed to me. He regretted deeply and I told him to never mind, I'd have done the same.
Memories about Eka Magnusson
There were five of us cadets when we went in August 1941. He told us, "I refer to my officers by first name - but it doesn't mean that younger officers can call me just 'you.' But I will give that permission later, in its time."
My German flight boot hurt my toe so badly that it had to be operated in the Viipuri hospital. After that I was walking at the airfield with a felt boot in one foot and a flight boot in the other. So Magnusson came, looked at me from head to toes and said, "Well, Pokela is available to go as a Messerschmitt training." I said, "But Colonel, sir, I don't have the qualification to be a trainer." He eyed me again and said, "Doesn't Pokela know that in the Air Force, assignment to a job gives qualification to it, too?" So I ended up there.
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Brewster into WB!
VLeLv Icebreakers
Überfinns Perkele
http://www.compart.fi/icebreakers
