Urho Lehtovaara in Two Exciting Combats. (Finland)
Written by Ossi Juntunen .
Battle of Moranes
It was the 9th of August 1941 in Eastern Carelia, Olonez. Early in the morning 8 about 06.00) four MS-406 fighters of FAF HLeLv 28 were covering the advancing Finnish troops. The division was led by Sr.Sgt. Urho Lehtovaara flying the MS-304.
The Finnish pilots saw an approaching formation of 18 I-16 fighters: Lehtovaara gave order to attack the enemy. A "furball" ensued. The Soviet pilots were disturbed by their own numeric superiority, they were constantly in danger of colliding with each other, thus they had to watch each other as much as the Moranes. Also they were tempted to open fire at a long range in competition for targets.
The Finnish pilots knew what to do: they kept curving in one direction only and fired upon opportunity at a close range. Lehtovaara scored the first victory, but immediately a section of three I-16 managed to get behind his tail. But the stiff three-plane formation prevented the enemy wingmen making use of their superiority, the wing planes fired in the thin air as the leader fired at the Morane. After a while Lehtovaara managed to out-turn the three I-16 and he fired in the engine of the leader. The I-16 engine began to smoke, the fighter stalled and dived, the pilot bailed out.
Lehtovaara disengaged from the leaderless wingmen and checked the general situation. The other three Moranes were each fighting three to four enemies, without apparent problem.
Then Lehtovaara saw one I-16 that tried to disengage and dived after him. Lehtovaara fired, but the salvo hit the enemy armour, just alerting the pilot. The two fighters entered into dogfight, trying to out-curve each other. The I-16 pilot was very skillful, Lehtovaara begin to consider disengaging. None of his hits had had any effect on the rear armour of the enemy. Then the I-16 pilot for some reason pulled a slow vertical roll, exposing the vulnerable belly of his fighter. Lehtovaara was prepared and his salvo hit the enemy's engine. The enemy fighter caught an explosive fire and nosedived to the ground with its pilot.
Now Lehtovaara called his scattered pilots and ordered an assembly. All three responded. Their total score was seven I-16, three of which claimed by Lehtovaara. This battle was exceptionally successful for Moranes, planes often considered inferior due to its weak armament.
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Memorable battle
In 1946 Jorma Karhunen, a fellow pilot and Knight of the Mannerheim Cross, met Urho Lehtovaara and asked him what had been the most memorable of his air battles. Lehtovaara declined to answer at first, but as Karhunen told that he was collecting history, not personal glorification of anyone, "Jatti" told about the 6th of March 1943 at Kotka.
The Kymi air base had been made inoperational by a snowstorm on the 4th March and it took two days to clear the snow completely from the runway. The 3rd flight of the Squadron 34 had nine Bf 109 of which five were airworthy.
On the 5th March a ship convoy had arrived through the ice in Kotka harbour and it was spotted there early next day by a reconnoitring Soviet Pe-2 before two Me's chased her away. Next day, in the afternoon of the 6th the enemy sent 27 Pe-2 escorted by 12 La-5 fighters to destroy the ships in the harbour.
The available Messerschmitts were scrambled at 14:00 hrs. Major Luukkanen took off first, after him Sgt.Maj. Tani, then Flight Mstr. Lehtonen. Sgt.Maj. Lehtovaara (he flew the MT-235) and Sgt. Lyly could start only a couple of minutes later since their fighters were not prepared for immediate take off.
Luukkanen and Lehtonen intercepted the first wave of nine Pe-2 and shot down two before the escorting La-5's intervened. The defensive AA guns fired indiscriminately at the aircraft, and the Soviet bombers released hastily their loads and turned away. Tani received one wave of the returning bombers heads-on and fired at each one he passed. He once was so close that saw how exploding 20mm shells ripped holes in the fuselage of a Pe-2. Tani damaged five and shot down one. Lehtovaara chased the bombers that had been scattered by the defence, and shot down two stragglers at Someri Island before retuning back to base to avoid contact with La-5's. The total score for the five pilots was five Pe-2 and three La-5. Major Luukkanen's MT-201 had been badly damaged in the fuselage by a La-5. There were no other losses. No ships were hit.
The enemy made a new surprise attack three hours later with 12 Pe-2 escorted by 17 La-5. The base was alerted by Sr. Sgt. Lansivaara who was on an ice reconnaisance mission. Again four Me's took off to intercept. This time the escort fighters were doing their duty better and prevented the Messerschmitt pilots from getting more than one of the bombers. The Finnish fighters were soon dispersed and each pilot had to fight for himself without help from the others.
Lehtovaara was engaged by a good La-5 pilot, who kept his altitude and speed advantage by doing "pendulum" attacks at the low-flying MT-235. Only the enemy's shooting skill was not equal to his flying skill. The Soviet pilot did not spare ammunition - the La-5 had 200 rounds for each of her 20mm guns against 135 rounds of the single Me cannon. The Soviet pilot fired at a too long range, and Lehtovaara kept evading quite easily. Staying calm and ready for counterstrike the Finnish pilot noticed that the enemy pilot was losing his temper after ten minutes. Finally the enemy failed to pull up with full speed after a firing pass, allowing Lehtovaara to get behind the La-5 in good range. One salvo from the cannon of the Me, and the La-5 dived in flames toward the Baltic ice.
Immediately four more La-5 attacked, and the pilots were equal to the first opponent. Lehtovaara was in great trouble now, because whenever he had dodged one attack, another enemy was already aiming at him. The Finnish pilot could not fly straight long enough to aim and shoot. Slowly the dogfighting fighters took altitude in the course of the battle. Finally three of the enemies retreated, probably due to fuel shortage, but the fourth was hanging behind the tail of Lehtovaara's Me. The altitude was now about 3000 m.
Lehtovaara was getting exhausted and he felt he could not shake the enemy off without doing something unusual. So he half-rolled and nosedived - the La-5 followed. Lehtovaara turned the Me with ailerons so that the setting sun shone him in the face and its glare combined with reflection from the ice impaired his vision. He dived as low as he dared at a final speed of nearly 900 kmh, then pulled out of the dive with two hands on the stick, blacking out.
As the Finnish pilot regained his vision, he was flying a few meters over the rough Baltic ice. He curved and looked back to see the enemy - but all he could see was a column of smoke over the ice. Lehtovaara flew closer to inspect. His adversary had not pulled out of the dive in time, the La-5 had touched the ice three times before the final impact.
Lehtovaara tested his guns - they were jammed. His radio was dead, and he felt great weariness when taking direction to the base. After landing he felt as if he were on a foreign planet, where he had no right to be. But for the mercy of God he and the MT-235 would have been a heap of rubble on the Baltic ice. However, this victory was not credited to him because later the wreck of the La-5 could not be found on the ice - it had been snowed over.
That day the 3rd Flight had scored thirteen proven victories at the cost of two damaged, repairable Me's. Three dead and two living Soviet airmen were found on the ice. The men taken prisoners were Lt. Seraphin Pimenow, 20 years in age and Sgt.Maj. Vladimir Varschidskiy, 23 years, both of the 12. Guards' Dive-bombing Regiment (12.Gv.PBAP). A dozen bombs had hit the town, destroying several houses and killing 6 civilians and five soldiers. The ships in the harbour had not been damaged in either attack.
The same action has been described in the official history of the Aviatsiya VMF (Moskva, 1983). We are told that on 6 March 1944 Kotka harbour was attacked once by 20 Pe-2 escorted by 18 Yak-9. The defence sent six Bf 109 and four FW 190 to intercept. In the ensuing battle the Soviets shot down five Bf 109 and one FW 190. One Pe-2 and three Yak-9 were damaged by defenders. (That is, no actual losses.) Several ships were sunk ...
You may notice some differences between the Soviet and Finnish stories. The Soviet story version of the day might not have been properly researched, and facts from an attack on an harbour defended by Luftwaffe on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland may have been introduced in the story.
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