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War diary of BW-372's last flight

War diary of BW-372 last flight
Here's a page from the war diary of Lentolaivue 22, which was privileged to fly the new Brewster 239 fighters that arrived from the US in the late winter of 1940. It describes BW-372's last flight, as translated by Martti Kujansuu. The full discussion, a broader photo, and the Finnish-language entry can be seen on this website's message board. What follows was written by Martti, to whom a tip of the virtual hat.

About the pilot: Lt. Ohukainen's name translates to 'skinny', which happened to be the Finnish nickname for Stan Laurel of the Laurel and Hardy comic film series--to wit, ' Skinny and Fatso'. The young officer figured that his future in the Finnish Air Force would be limited by that association, so he decided to change his name to Pekuri.... And for that information, the hat tip goes to Pentti Manninen. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford


The Finnish National Archives Service has really started to digitize their more rare material to the Net. The material now online includes day by day "war diaries" of Lentolaivue 24 and also monthly reports. Flight or lentue is the smallest unit with daily war diaries. Naturally these all are in Finnish but those who can read them can get much out of the text or help others.

In fact the entry starts from the previous page. The entry is from 2./LeLv. 24's official war diary (SPK 17886 at the Finnish National Archive) without exact information of individual flights, they are at the squadron's logbook; here is the text in whole; feel free to correct my humble translation from Finnish to suit your taste. The text is written by an unknown individual probably after Ohukainen's/Pekuri's account.

* * * *

25th of June. Broken clouds. Six planes in order.

12.25-2.15 PM. Alarm mission with 4 BWs [Brewsters] led by Lt. Ohukainen. According to the air surveillance messages five fighters were circling at 7000 meters near Rukajärvi [1]. While pursuing them our flight met "Eino Ilmari" [2] with his flight. Together they waited west of Sekehe [3] and saw Russkies starting up [their planes]. "Eino Ilmari's" pulja [4] was used as some kind of top cover c. 500 meters above us. Lone HC [Hurricane] separated from the formations and then MiG and HCs started to appear like tapeworms. SSgt. Korhonen was harassed by a HC and a MIG but survived from the situation by shooting down the rocket launching MIG. As he had called for help at the beginning of the battle Lt. Alvesalo hurried to help [him] but he was too late since Korhonen's nickel had done the job. Also the Hurricane flew away.

Lt. Ohukainen followed the situation with Sgt. Anttila from above but after receiving information that a large number of Russkies are at the NE end of Seesjärvi [5] he went there with Sgt. Anttila in shallow dive. Somewhere above five Hurricanes surprised them so that one of them got behind Sgt. Anttila and was able to fire. Lt. Ohukainen hurried to help and shot down the tormentor of Anttila but immediately got into battle with the four remaining Hurricanes. As an experienced pilot he survived from the life-threatening situation. He did not see Sgt. Anttila after that.

After a moment Lt. Ohukainen saw tracers flashing by, a Hurricane had surprised from below the Brewster, now flying at 200 meters. The other tank caught fire slowly, the back armor shook by the nickel fired, and the instrument panel shattered. Regardless of this Lt. Ohukainen maneuvered for some time and sent the tormentor (a Hurricane) to an element not intended for an aeroplane. After that he tried to make crash landing on a small lake N of Seesjärvi. Now some other Hurricane shot the other tank to fire when the Brewster was flying at c. 10 meters above the lake. Lt. Ohukainen ejected the canopy, crash landed, and the plane turned over while the flames almost reached the cockpit. He left the cockpit and rose surface of the "burning water", redived, rose again to the surface and after receiving mouthful of water swam to the shore 200 meters away.

Boots had to be left on the lake since he could swim without them. Now [he] started twenty kilometres walk through the wilderness with only socks and flies and mosquitos with him. Even without a compass the lieutenant orienteered well - through minefield - to his own side.

6.45 PM. One could guess what kind of yell of joy he received at the [aero]field when a call informed our prized commander was feeling well!! The fate of Sgt. Anttila is still unknown.

[1] Finnish name for Rugozero.
[2] Eino Ilmari Juutilainen, commander of 3./LeLv. 24
[3] Finnish name for Segezha.
[4] Best translation for this Finnish slang word ("mixed gang" or something like this) in this context would be unknown sized part of Flight.
[5] Finnish name for Segozero.

Question? Comment? Newsletter? Send me an email. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford