Heimo Lampi - the Pilot and the Writer.

Written by Ossi Juntunen .

The portrait photo of L/Cpr. Heimo Lampi in 1941.

Heimo Lampi was born in Hollola 29. Feb. 1920. Later the Lampi family moved to Sortavala, and it was there the young Heimo was smitten by aviation enthusiasm like many other young men of the town (for example Olli Puhakka, Ilmari Juutilainen ...)

Lampi volunteered for pilot training in autumn 1939 and his training was completed during the Armistice of 1940-1941. He was demobilised with the rank of Lance Corporal.

Lampi and the other reservist pilots were again mobilised in June 1941 as the threat of another war began to materialise. He joined his unit, LeLv 24 at Siikakangas, equipped with Brewster B-239 aircraft. He was posted in the 2nd Flight as the wing man of Flt.Mstr. Yrjö Turkka, a 32 year old veteran of the Winter War who had scored 4 victories. Lt. Jorma Sarvanto was one of the pilots of the 2nd flight whose commander was Capt. Leo Ahola. Training was started: formation flying, aerobatics, use of radio, "dry" firing runs - no shooting to save ammunition! Three pilots of the flight were still lacking their "wings", among them L/Cpl. Lampi.

The Squadron was dispersed into bases closer to the Eastern border in June, on the 21st the 8 Brewsters of the 2nd Flight landed at a/b Selänpää. The base had been built hastily: pine forest had been cut from a patch of sandy soil and the tree stumps bulldozed into big heaps at the perimeter of the two runways. The runways were uncovered, soft and terribly dusty. The fighters were parked in the cover of the trees and the personnell was billeted in Army "half platoon" tents in the forest behind their aircraft. The base could not have been any more primitive. Also there was an unusual large number of cuckoos in the forest, and the birds' noise was disturbing in the night.

The day after the arrival of the 2nd Flight in their new base Germany invaded Soviet Union. Finnish pilots were given strict orders to avoid flying near the border in order not to cause any provocation. There was an uncertainty about the future until the 25th June 1941. At 07.10 hrs the alert phone rang and the flight received scramble order: Soviet bombers were raiding Finnish territory, a large bomber formation was at Inkeroinen, altitude 1500 m, course NW. Lampi ran to his fighter, BW-354, tactical number "white 6". As soon as the engine was running he took off without warming up. He noticed that the other pilots had taken off already.

As Lampi was airborne, he buckled up and loaded his guns - he had never fired them yet. BW-354 had climbed to 1500 m and the pilot began to scan the sky to see the enemy. Suddenly from the haze ahead and to the left at the same altitude emerged a formation of bombers: 27 SB-2s, red stars on fuselage and wings! The young Finnish pilot was thrilled and puzzled - he had not been informed of any declaration of war. As he approached the left wing of the formation, the gunner of the wing bomber fired at him.

Lampi took the salvo for a declaration of war. His evasive manouver had taken him to the right wing of the formation so he took aim at the right wing bomber. At a range of 100 m - too far according to his training - he decided to test his guns. He pressed the trigger of the BW for the first time in earnest. The fighter vibrated with recoil, noise overpowering the engine roar filled the cockpit and the pilot felt the acrid smell of gunpowder. Tracers lashed at the right engine of the SB. The engine of the bomber caught fire, the target lost speed. At 50 m Lampi fired again, this time at the left engine which also immediately caught fire. The gunner was still shooting at the attacking BW, the Finnish pilot kicked the left pedal and fired one burst more in the fuselage of the SB. His victim dived in flames. Fascinated Lampi watched how the bomber hit the ground in steep dive and exploded into a fireball. His first victory had been scored!

But the enemy formation just decreased distances and pressed on toward the town of Heinola, their target. Lampi decided to force as many bombers as possible to jettison their bomb loads. So he fired in succession at five SBs, each of which dumped the bombs as soon as hit. But now he was in the middle of the enemy formation, under fire from the bomber gunners from both sides. The Finnish pilot applied full power and broke off, then climbed behind and above the bombers. He swept sweat off his brow and sought a new spot where to hit. At that moment he saw another BW, it was white 2, Sgt. Kinnunen. In a matter of seconds this veteran of the Winter War shot two bombers in flames, but he was hit and broke off, slightly wounded in the arm.

Now Heinola was below, Lampi realised that the raid could not be prevented any more. He decided to get the enemy leader at any cost. BW-354 dived at full power under the bomber formation and approached the leading bomber from behind and below. The Finnish pilot fired twice at the left engine of the enemy which began to trail smoke slightly, but then he was again in the cross fire of the bomber gunners and he had to break off by diving.

But the enemy leader dived, too. He could not stay in formation with damaged engine. Lampi chased the SB hoping to finish him off soon to be able to pursue the others. The enemy pulled out of dive at treetops.

The range was 100 m as the BW pilot saw the enemy engines were idling - the distance closed rapidly. The guns in the bomber turret pointed up - obviously the gunner had copped it during the battle. Lampi took aim but in the next moment he found himself too close - the left wing of the SB was only 10m away. As he struggled to slow down to get into a shooting position he saw how the turret of the bomber swiveled - then the Finnish pilot could see the eyes of the gunner that aimed at him at a range of 30m!

Lampi found himself as a victim of the 1st WW ruse as his fighter took hits. Thre was a crack as one bullet hit, then another before he could react. Fuel was flowing on his legs as he broke off and pulled an Immelman turn to the left. In rage the Finnish pilot approached the SB.

Lampi forced himself to think calmly. He saw through his gunsight how the bomber gunner fired brief salvoes as the BW approached. As Lampi fired the enemy gunner dropped out of sight, for good this time. Then the Finnish pilot fired at the bomber: right engine in flames, then the left one. The burning SB dived and crashed in a small lake.

Fuel was still spilling on Lampi's legs as he headed for the base. He opened the canopy as he was getting dizzy due to the petrol fumes. At landing after touchdown only the left wheel brake responded, he had to recover the fighter with a surge of power. Battle damage!

Before noon 24 June 1941 the 2nd flight had shot down 10 SBs. Capt Ahola and Flt.Mstr. Turkka agreed that L/Cpl. Lampi had completed his training as he now had 2.5 victories. Lt. Sarvanto had finished off one of the SBs that Lampi had damaged.

Intelligence service recovered the bodies of the leading bomber crew from the lake. The documents found showed that the pilot had been Col.Lt. Panyushik, Fyodor Ivanovitch, born in the year 1906, member of the Party since February 1940. (His unit was 201.SBAP) He was still clutching something in his left hand as his body was pulled out of the submerged wreck of his SB. It was a letter from his wife and two tickets for the Kirov Theater for the evening of the 25 June 1941... It is likely that his main target had been a/b Selänpää and Heinola had been only the secondary target that he bombed having been intercepted.

Having opened his score Lampi felt proud and satisfied with himself. But he was lacking experience which he found out many times. One case was as he on the 30 June evening for the first time climbed to 6000m during an interception mission. But he had failed to turn on the correct valve to get oxygen, fainted and recovered at 1000m only.

Another incident took place the 3rd July 1941 as he and Flt.Mstr Turkka encountered 3 I-153. Turkka saw the enemy first, but Lampi dived at the enemy without waiting for further orders. When he had the enemy in range he found that he had not switched on his gunsight. Then he found that he had not loaded guns as he tried to fire. He overshot the enemy while trying to load and decelerate. Now he had three enemies behind his back and no altitude to dive to shake them off. Then he heard Turkka's voice in his headphones:

- Don't worry, sonny, Daddy is coming to help!

The Soviet pilot that had Lampi in his gunsight was blind and deaf to anything else until his fighter blew up upon the impact of Turkka's bullets. Turkka managed to damage also the second I-153 while the third escaped.

Lampi got a talking-to in debriefing but worse followed: the radiomen who had listened to their communications christened Lampi to "Sonny" and Turkka to "Daddy" which names stuck for the rest of the war... But on the other hand, one of the pilots in the same flight was called "Western Cattle Rustler"!

2nd flight was transferred farther to East in the course of the year. Lampi was promoted to Sgt on 13 July. He participated in a scrap against I-153 on 13 July 1941 but according to official statistics he did not score. Soviet pilots obiously were ordered to avoid battle and the BWs controlled the airspace over Olonez in autumn 1941.

On 6 Nov 1941 the 2nd Flight was transferred to Malmi, the airport of Helsinki, to defend the capital. It was a nice period of war for the Flight, with the joys of the Capital nearby.

But in Jan 1942 the 2nd Flight was transferred to Tiiksjarvi, an a/b in the middle of forest in Eastern Carelia. The enemy air force, equipped with Hurricane Mk.II fighters and based at Segezha, was active in the defence of Belomorsk and the Murmansk railway against anticipated offensive. The winter days up in the north were short, often foggy and frequent snowstorms blocked the runway. Very little flying could be accomplished. To relieve tedium Lampi and some other pilots began to study for the minimum (2 classes of High School) that would open the doors of the Officer School for them. "Poika" had probably not been interested in studies so far.

As the days got longer in March the flying activities increased. On 29 March seven enemy Hurricane Mk.II fighters strafed a/b Tiiksjarvi, without results. The next day Capt. Pekuri took the flight to a recce mission, and as they approached the base, the flight was directed to intercept 6 Hurricanes harassing the troops and transports at Rukajarvi. The enemy was informed about the take-offs and landings by partisans hiding in the forest around the base. But due to the long range of the BW, the flight had still plenty of fuel after one hour mission.

6 Hurricanes were strafing at ground targets as the 6 BWs attacked between the clouds. The BWs were spotted before they were in range, and the enemy at first tried to escape but were caught and a "furball" at very low altitude ensued. The HCs were equipped with 12 machine guns each, as they fired, the leading edge of the wing seemed to be in flames! At the same moment another 6 Soviet fighters arrived at the scene. Capt Pekuri, with Sr.Sgt. Lampi as his wingman, was the first to get in range and score. Lampi had fired at two HCs in succession, without result. As he pulled up at treetops, he saw about 150m ahead at 300 m another one. Lampi took careful aim and fired a brief salvo which was a perfect hit. The victim turned upside down and dived in the forest. The wind was very strong and gusty, buffeting the fighters and making accurate shooting more difficult.

Five Hurricanes had been shot down and two had broken off, trailing smoke as the surviving enemies tried to disengage. Six Brewsters chased them. Lampi and Sgt. Koskela caught a group of four. Koskela was closer, he fired at the rearmost enemy which began to trail smoke and lost speed rapidly. Koskela throttled back, preparing to attack again, but overshot his victim which crashed in the forest unseen to the Finnish pilot. At the same moment he was attacked by another Hurricane, but was saved by Lampi who bounced the attacker. The Soviet pilot saw Lampi approach, and broke off, flying extremely low. After a brief chase the enemy had to pull up a little to avoid flying in a hillside, and Lampi shot him down at a close range.

The enemy lost 8 of the 12 Hurricanes, none of the BWs was lost.

In April 1942 the enemy sent every night single R-5 biplanes to harass the base, the Finns called them, among other things, "nerve-saws". The physical damage was minimal but the mental toll considerable. During the time the 2nd Flight was based at Tiiksjarvi the base was subject to about 200 bombing raids!

During summer the Tiiksjarvi base was a nice place for hunting and fishing, and the airmen began to like it. Air activities were minimal, mainly recce missions deep in the enemy rear for which the BWs with their long range were well suited.

During his stay in the Carelian forest Lampi made the acquaintance of Lotta (volunteer female auxiliary) Anna Ollikainen who was in charge of the canteen of the base. They were married in April 1944.

On the 21st Nov 1942 the 2nd Flight rejoined the squadron at the Carelian Ishtmus and the BWs began to operate over the North-Eastern Gulf of Finland. Lampi however had now the necessary education under his belt and he applied for officer training. He left his unit in January 1943 and returned as Aspirant in June, his promotion date to officer was 18 August 1943. He was one of the "rank-and-file" pilots who "were necessary in air battles to create opportunities for the top aces" (Definition by Joppe Karhunen).

Ensign Lampi served now as Division leader (4 a/c) but his next victory was not scored until 2 April 1944. He described the incident in a letter to his fiancé. It was the second mission of the day and he engaged a single La-5 over the eastern Gulf of Finland. The "turning contest" was long until finally the enemy committed a mistake and Lampi's bullets set the La-5 in flames. The Soviet pilot made a final half roll and saved himself with parachute. Lampi waved his hand at his adversary and headed for home.

Ensign Lampi in 1944 at Suulajarvi a/b in his MT.

Squadron 24 converted to Messerschmitts in March-April 1944 but it was not an unlimited success. The aircraft were old G-2s, used by Squadron 34 for one year, and the engines were worn out and often unreliable, causing accidents. Also not every Brewster pilot did learn to fly the Me. Compared with the Brewster the Me109 was unforgiving, specially at landing and takeoff. One experienced Brewster pilot broke eight Me's before he was ordered to give up trying. The squadron was short of airmen and that meant longer on duty periods for the remaining men.

At the Suulajarvi air base the pilots of each flight had been billeted in a separate dugout. The flight commander had a private room, the officers had a room and the NCO's their own. There were no "social" limits between the rooms, the pilots could freely visit each other. But the spirit in each dugout was different. The 1st flight where Lampi served in 1944 comprised humorous and musical teetotallers and their pastimes were innocent enough. But one of the other dugouts were manned by eager card players, sometimes games went on 24 hours a day. The third dugout housed the roughest pilots who could take to drinking. One night tremendous noise was heard, and the next morning Lampi went to see what had happened. The dugout was a sorry sight. Two drunken pilots had pulled their pistols and shot up the walls, the furniture, their broadcasting receiver and even the fine fireplace. The flight commander had been shot through the palm by accident... All of this was ended on 9 June 1944.

The Red Army offensive started. The enemy broke through the defensive lines in the Carelian Isthmus and Suulajarvi a/b had to be evacuated on the 11th June. Lampi was the last pilot to leave for Immola.

On the 19th June replacement Messerschmitts started coming and the pilots had to fly as much as they could.

Lampi describes his situation in the first days of July 1944, having escaped from a dogfight against about ten enemy fighters:

"I have been constantly on duty, without shutting my eyes, for two days and nights, and this was my seventh mission during this period. And what kind of missions! Every time at least ten enemies against one of us. In one case more than hundred enemy fighters at one time against eight Messerschmitts." (1967, p.186)

It was the long days of the Northern latitudes that enabled visual flying for 24 hours a day. Lampi, like all pilots of the squadron were dead tired, Lampi was also suffering from arthritic pains in his legs and arms that robbed him of decent sleep for weeks. Yet he did not seek relief from duty on medical grounds because he felt he could not abandon his fellow pilots.

Lampi and Lt. Pasila were sitting on a pile of logs near their fighters that were being reloaded and refuelled as there was an air raid alert. The ground personnell ran for cover in the foxholes dug for the purpose, but Pasila and Lampi were too tired to care about anything. With dull interest they watched how a largish formation of Il-2m's attacked the base while the defensive AA fired at them. But the enemy pilots released their bombs too late, they exploded in the perimeter of the base and then the enemy retreated chased by a Messerschmitt flight. "What utter bunglers they were" Pasila commented. The pilots walked slowly over to a cardboard tent serving as the alert hut and tried to get some sleep.

Then the alert phone rang and the 1st flight, eight Me's, were scrambled to intercept enemy aircraft bombing Finnish positions at Vuosalmi. It was tired pilots who took off. Lt. Pasila led the flight, he had ordered Lampi to lead the top division.

The flight arrived at Vuosalmi at 5000 m and they were shot at by the enemy AAA before the dozens of Soviet fighters engaged them.

"I rock my wings to signal to my Division that off we go. Eight La-5 are climbing below at us and they shall take our first strike. Mikko's Division has already engaged another formation.
The enemy aircraft get rapidly larger in my view. My speed accelerates above 600 kmh. Now! With cannon and two heavy MGs together!

Missed. At the last moment the enemy banks aside and my salvo passes him. I pull a steep battle Immelman toward the zenith and push my fighter down again. This time I hit my target but only in one wing. Again the enemy dodges and again the thousand plus horsepowers fling me upwards. I just manage to meet heads on another Division of La-5 bouncing me from above. One of them is not quick enough to dodge my fire, and in a blink of an eye the shells of my cannon explode in the side of his fuselage. Then I have swished past. I catch a glimpse of the plane turning uncontrolled over then nosediving. I cannot spare any more time to follow him up because I am under attack from every quarter. As if in frenzy I manouver and fire, manouver and fire..." (1967, p.190)

In 15 minutes Lampi had spent his ammo and he had to disengage by diving steeply. Upon his return flight he could scarcely keep his eyes open, he never had felt so tired in his life. He made a bad landing, without breaking his fighter, however. His mechanic had to help him out of cockpit.

In the readiness tent good news came: 12 hours off duty for Pasila and Lampi! The two pilots decided to have a couple hours' shut-eye, then go to sauna and go on sleeping.

It was a dire necessity for Col.Lt. Magnusson, the commander of the fighter force, to overwork his pilots. The Army troops were under yet harder strain. The Air Force had to do their utmost to support the Army to stop the enemy set to overrun Finland.

Fighting went on. On the 2nd July the enemy attacked the air bases of Immola and Lappeenranta with 30 IL-2 and 40 Pe-2 under fighter escort. All refuelled fighters in Lappeenranta had been scrambled just in time to meet the enemy in air. Lampi chased one IL-2 from Lappeenranta to Viipuri (about 50 km) and spent most of his ammo on it before the "stormovik" belly landed. It was one of the 11 shot down in the battle.

The enemy had radar and they used it to vector single Yak-9s at unsuspecting Finnish fighters returning to base. As soon as this enemy strategy was found out, the FAF radio intelligence began to monitor the detected frequencies. As radio traffic from radar station to air was intercepted a general warning was transmitted from the battle control center to all Messerschmitts in the air: "Attention everyone, enemy fighter being radar vectored, look out!" The warning was often lost in the melee in the frequency during an air battle. Once Lampi was returning from mission where 30 Me's had fought 300 enemy fighters. It was his third mission during the duty and due to tiredness he failed to monitor the airspace. He already saw the base as he heard a sharp command in his earphones: "Dodge!" Lampi pulled a sharp turn and a Yak-9 passed him at a great speed and vanished. The Finnish pilot later found out that the radio message was never meant for him but anyway it saved his life.

Lampi witnessed the death of Lt. Nissinen on 17 June as he crashed with the wreck of Lt. Sarjamo's Me in mid-air. Some days before Nissinen and Lampi had flown a difficult reconnaisance mission to the enemy air base of Levashovo, enduring tremendous AA fire.

There was one pleasant surprise that Lampi experienced during the summer 1944. He had returned from mission and was watching how the ground personnel reloaded and refuelled his Me as he heard a female voice saying his name. He turned around - it was his wife in her Lotta uniform. While the other pilots looked on, smiling, they hugged. Mrs. Lampi had persuaded the authorities to grant her a permit to visit Lappeenranta, off limits for non-military, for 24 hours. It is a proof of the spirit of the flight that the other pilots told Lampi to spend the remainder of those 24 hours with his wife. His flying duty would be taken care of. That visit was one of the most cherished memories of Lampi.

The reason for Ensign Lampi not seeking medical help despite obvious need was that he did not want to be labeled coward. In his book "Kirjeita Kannakselta" the author takes up a delicate subject: burnout of fighter pilots.

Lampi wrote in 1994: "It was miserable to see the first signs of burnout in a good friend in your flight. A talkative, happy man became by the by a quiet, withdrawing one. And then he got pains in various parts , his knees would squeak and so on. Those were certain signs of a man burning out. Finally came the day he would announce that he would not be coming along. From that very moment he would belong to another caste. He was a coward and nothing worse can be said about a soldier, about a pilot at least. He became an outsider, he no more visited the pilots' quarters or dugout, did not participate in discussions. He was posted someplace, in the rear [as instructors] or in desk duties...

I do not know of a single case of a fighter pilot that had given up fighting recommencing to fly missions." (1994, p.92-93). The FAF was merciful with their burned out personnell. Army men who refused to go to the front line were given a choice: after court martial face the execution squad or do your duty.

The reason the active pilot despised the burned out ones was this:

"We were bitter and angry at those that had been given fighter pilot training and who had gained flying experience, but who had abandoned their duty and taken ground tasks. There were more of ten of them. They just had told that they shall not be coming along any more, thus dumping their burden on us who still flew and fought. We did have more than enough of that sort of burden already." (p.95). Between 9 June and 5 Sept 1944 Lampi flew about 100 missions.

Lampi claims that Sqn 24 lost 13 pilots to burnout. -The fighting losses were eight killed in action, nine wounded, three taken prisoner (total 20). FAF airmen flew as long as they could, there was no "tour" system as in the air forces of the Western Allies. The merits of each system could be discussed at length, but most likely the "tour" system was more effective against burnout. But taking the circumstances into account, it is not surprising that some FAF fighter pilots burned out, rather it is admirable that the majority withstood the stress.

As the war against Soviet Union ended on the 4th September 1944 Ensign Lampi had scored 13.5 confirmed victories on 268 missions. However the Soviets continued fighting until the 5th September, probably to humiliate Finns. The entire Squadron 24 was scrambled at 08.30 hrs on that second day of the armistice as a large Soviet formation had penetrated Finnish airspace. The intruders turned back, however, without fight and for a while the Soviets and Finns flew side by side, each on their side of the front line. Ensign Lampi saw for the last time the now calm battlefields of the Carelian Isthmus from the air. He was bitter remembering his killed friends and knowing that his hometown would have to be ceded to enemy, but he was also proud for having participated in the successful struggle for the independence and freedom of Finland.

Lampi continued his studies for the Matriculation, for which he had plenty of time, the Finnish Air Force being grounded for most of 1945 by the order of the Allied Control Commission.

Ensign Lampi resigned from FAF service on the 20th Oct 1946 having been found unable to fly due to medical reasons and began to study law. Having got his degree he made a career in courts of law and retired as the President of the Eastern Finnish Court of Appeal. He also wrote several books of fiction, and memoirs of the Continuation War. In the books mentioned at the end of this text Lampi gives a vivid picture in the day to day life of FAF fighter pilots during the 2nd WW.

Heimo Lampi died 1 June 1998 survived by his widow and five children.

His confirmed victory list:

(Indebted for this story mainly to the books of Heimo Lampi and Joppe Karhunen and a magazine article by Olavi Linnus.
Lampi, Heimo & Turkka, Yrjö, Viimeiset syoksykierteet, Porvoo 1967
Lampi, Heimo, Kenttapostia Kannakselta, Jyvaskyla 1994)

2000.05.14, © WW II Ace Stories.