The task of the flight was to defend the harbours and towns of Kotka and Hamina.
Kotka was an important naval base for Finnish and German navies that defended the
Seeigel/Rukajarvi mine belt. The Soviet Navy was trying hard to break out of its
blockade in Leningrad, attacking with aircraft at the ships guarding the mine belt.
The fighters of Kymi had to do their best to protect the Navy, too.
It was Friday the 20th August 1943. The weather was fine at sunrise, just a few cumulus clouds were seen. The flight had four airworthy fighters!
04:50 hours. 5 Il-2M's escorted by 6 LaGG-3 strafed Someri island (50 kms from the base). 2 Me's were sent to intercept but the enemy already had left.
12:00 One more Messerschmitt arrived, now 5 airworthy fighters.
14:15 Enemy air activity was increasing.
14:41 Scramble: again Someri, attacked by 4 Il-2 and 8 escort fighters. Four fighters took off, one he left as reserve. Enemy returned before attack (the Soviets had radar) but were intercepted. All Me's returned after battle. Capt Puhakka's guns had been jammed, but Lt. Karhila got a La-5 (see separate story) and Flt.Mstr. Tuominen one flying boat or a Boston bomber but that could not be confirmed. Three serviceable fighters left.
The Me's were loaded and refuelled. The mechanics set to work at the two damaged planes.
16:40 Another scramble: 11 Il-2 escorted by 8 Lagg-3 flying west from Lavansaari. Tuominen took off fastest, Puhakka and Sgt. Nuorala followed. Tuominen failed to find the enemy, because the low-flying enemy planes "blended" with haze on the sea and he returned.
Puhakka guessed the return route of the enemy formation, and intercepted them with his wingman west of Seiskari island. The 11 IL-2 were flying East in low altitude escorted by 10 LaGG-3 and LA-5 at 1000 to 2000 m. The two Me's engaged the enemy fighters. Puhakka fired at two La-5, one nosedived but recovered, the other left a smoke trail and vanished in the haze at 200m altitude.
The dogfighting planes had "drifted" above Soviet territory on the Southern coast of Gulf of Finland near Leningrad. Both Me pilots had to fight alone. Sgt. Nuorala managed to get behind a Lagg-3, and he fired at it from a range of 50 m, hitting the pilot. The enemy fighter stalled, nosedived and crashed on the ground. Nuorala turned to shoot at another, but his guns were jammed. Capt. Puhakka was fighting with two La-5.
The IL's had escaped, the escort fighters had done their duty. The Soviet AA opened fire at the Me's, regardless their own planes. The Me's were separated and low on fuel. Puhakka called his wingman over the radio "Attention Naru, let's go see Joppe" - meaning Suulajarvi base, the nearest one, 80 kms away. They took course to NW, flying East of Kronstadt. They had to dodge the furious AA fire of the fortress island. The enemy was transmitting in the wavelength of their radio something that sounded like bad Finnish: "go 'round'...go 'round.."
Puhakka was flying ahead in 500m altitude, Nuorala followed several hundred meters behind. Then Nuorala saw two fíghters approach Puhakka, who noticed them, too, but took them for HLeLv 24's BW's. As the fighters opened fire the captain took a better look: it was 2 La-5's .
Nuorala saw two planes dive steeply, the one in the rear shooting tracers at the first one. He believed Puhakka had attacked the enemy. In a second the first plane pulled out of the dive on the very wavetops, but the second one crashed in the sea with a splash. Nuorala was shocked, he called in the radio for Puhakka, and got a reassuring answer. The other La-5 turned away to avoid battle.
Capt Puhakka had nosedived despite the low altitude of 500 m for such a manouver, curving so that the sun shone in his face, and then it was the last second to pull out of dive. The La-5 pilot could not follow, but dived in the Baltic. The Kronstadt AA still fired at them as they continued to North. Two Brewsters checked their identity aggressively: MT and BW pilots did not have common radio frequency. The two Me's landed at Suulajarvi base at 17:55 hrs with the last liters of their fuel. Flying time was 1h 15 min.
18:00 The two pilots climbed out of their fighters and relaxed. They wondered what the Soviet radio message meant: They would have "gone around" Kronstadt even without orders from enemy, due to the intense AA fire. They also had flown in the Leningrad Blockade airspace, forbidden to Finnish pilots due to unnecessary great risks. The pilots decided not to mention that detail when reporting the victories.
It was dinnertime, and the Squadron 24 pilots invited them for a meal. The host squadron had had a heavy battle earlier in the day, they had scored 7 victories without losses.
After dinner Puhakka and Nuorala returned to their fighters, which had been refuelled and reloaded. The mechanics had not found any damage. The pilots climbed in and waited for a suitable opportunity to take off for home base.
At 18:34 they received message: Someri island was again strafed by four Lagg-3's. The Me's took off to intercept the returning enemy. Soon they heard that Someri AA had damaged one attacker.
At 18:44 it was reported that the damaged Lagg-3 had made a forced landing in sea and sunk. A little later another message: 10 enemy planes took off from Lavansaari. Soon these planes were attacking German warships near Tytarsaari. The two pilots changed course to assist.
The enemy was returning to their base as the Finnish fighters met them heads-on east of Tytarsaari. The enemy could not avoid combat. Capt Puhakka saw 2 IL-2M's flying at wavetops, without escort fighters. He attacked, shooting in the cockpit of one. The burning enemy belly-landed in sea. Now four Lagg-3 bounced them, and Nuorala found that his guns were jammed. He could only make feigned attacks to help his captain, watch the enemy and warn by radio. Puhakka shot down one Lagg-3, then damaged two, both escaped. The fourth dived and retreated having been left alone with two Messers.
Puhakka and Nuorala landed at Kymi air base at 19:45 hours. It turned out that their visit in the Blockade air space had been noticed, so they could not lie about it in their battle reports. Capt. Puhakka had scored four victories: two La-5, one of which without a single shot, one LaGG-3 and one Il-2M. Sgt. Nuorala had scored one LaGG-3; he assured that it would not have been the only one if his guns had not been jammed.
Squadron 34 suffered two losses, too, that day: One Bf 109 had spontaneously caught fire in mid-flight and the pilot had to bail out. And Lt. Tervo had been shot down by at Seiskari Island by enemy AA.
When this day's incidents were discussed among the fighter pilots, everyone agreed that nice flying does not score victories; Captain Puhakka was just the exception that confirmed the rule.
