Thread: Ilmari Juutilainen - Finland's Ace of Aces

Great post Higge and welcome to the forum. Some very cool pics on that site, particularly of the Brewsters (Kyt'll love 'em!) which I haven't seen before. A good read as well of a side of the war that we don't hear enough of.

Thanks Andy, mr. Juutilainen was a true hero as well as many others and there is lots of books about that topic also, unfortunately in Finnish only as far as I know...

Its time that Finnish heros were given the publicity that they so richly deserve.

Thank you higgie. As Andy has mentioned I love the Buffalo. And the Finns really showed what it could do in the right hands.

My favourite (and the best) site on the Buff:

Annals of the Brewster Buffalo

It has some excellent information on the Finnish use. However, as you say, most information is in Finnish. I look forward to your future contributions as it will be great to have a "native" who knows more about it So keep those posts coming.

I have story I heard from my friend's dad who was a pilot in ww2.

He was flying in Lappland during time when we were forced to fight against german, we call it "Lappland War", after peace with Soviets. Anyway, he was doing some patrolling and they had some contact with germans what led to dogfight. He was hit very bad and he was forced to jump, he fell in unknown territory with no map. He broke his leg and was hiding five days in rocks somewhere. After gaining some "power" he decided to go ahead to west, not knowing if there's Finns or Germans. He was luckily to get to Finns and survived but after that they went to find a plane, it found far in Soviet territory, and where he was hiding was 30 kilometers in Soviet land. He had walked 55 kilometers with broken leg!!!

R.I.P Seppo Sartjärvi

You Finns are tough!

Originally Posted by Andy in West Oz

You Finns are tough!

Too right - amazing guys. And they knew how to pick a fight Russians - Russians again - and then the Germans!!

Hey!

Whats worth fighting with tiny countries