Above - a photo of destroyed DB-3 M bomber from 45th DBAP, January of 1940. In the text there is a snap of this story hero, luutnantti (Lt.) Jorma Kalevie Sarvanto, in cokpit of his Fokker D-XXI "FR-97". The colour profile of this fighter aircraft is on the page bottom.
The 'Winter War' was being fought and it was on 6 January 1940 in. At dawn (about 8:30) the weather in Southern Finland was fairly favourable to enemy bombers. The cloud cover at 300 to 400 m was patchy, providing enough visibility for orientation, but also protecting bombers from surveillance and interceptors, and then haze up to 4000m.
Four Fokker D-XXI fighters with ski undercarrige of the
4th flight of the 24th Squadron were located in the
Utti air base. The reason that the Flight was there was that
during the first days of the year Finnish intelligence had
intercepted radio messages from Soviet weather recce a/c flying
over Jyväskylä and Kuopio. This indicated that the enemy had
targeted these towns. Col.Lt Lorenz, the commander of the 2nd
Wing, instructed Maj Magnusson to place his fighters accordingly.
At 9:30 the air surveillance reported enemy planes. The Fokkers were sent in pairs to intercept, but due to poor visibility the enemies could be encountered by chance only.
At the same time Lieutenant Pehr-Erik "Pelle" (his nickname is shortened from the original, as “Bob” from “Robert”) Sovelius was ferrying FR-92 to Utti from Lappeenranta where the fighter had been undergoing periodic major maintenance in one of the few warm hangars of the FAF. As usual the machine guns of the Fokker were loaded even though it was to be a ferrying mission.
Sovelius was near the base as at 10.10 hrs he heard in his headphones: - 'Enemy planes north of Hamina at 3000m!'.
He saw eight DB-3 bombers flying in an abreast formation right in his direction.
Sovelus’ battle report of the engagement:
Place
of the aerial battle: “Northern edge of the
Utti airfield.”
Enemy a/c: “ DB”
Fate of the enemy a/c: “Dived burning to the ground between Utti and Kaipiainen, North of the railway line.”
Course of the aerial battle: “On a ferrying flight Lappeenranta-Utti I was informed by radio about the movement of enemy a/c at the Southern fringe of the Haukkasuo swamp, eight a/c, on a course to North from Kotka, flying altitude 3000 m. I intercepted the formation on “collision course”. Having climbed above the enemy I half-rolled my Fokker at the left wing a/c. I shot the gunner at 300m and then approached to a distance of 100m. At that moment the third a/c from the left fired at me, so I gave her a brief burst and the gunner fell silent.
Then I fired brief bursts (at the bomber) and the a/c caught fire. The left engine and wing were burning. The a/c crashed.”
Ammunition consumption: “500 pcs.”
Eventual evidence: “A/c found between Utti and Kaipiainen near the railway line.”
Other obervations: “The enemy a/c supported each other by flanking fire. My fighter took 8 hits.”
Signed by : Lt. P.-E. Sovelius Aircraft: FR-92
The other seven bombers continued northwards, and being almost as fast as the Fokker D.XXI they escaped among the clouds and haze. The enemy must have had intelligence information about the Utti base, the “home” of the Finnish fighter aviation, yet these bombers flew almost over it.
The enemy bombing target was Kuopio, population 22000, situated 400 km from the Southern coast at the railway line, which made the navigation easier.
Air raid alert was sounded in Kuopio at 10.52 hours. The town, totally lacking AA defence, was shrouded in frosty mist. The population hurried to take cover in hastily dug splinter shelters, cellars, holes in the ground or in the surrounding forest. Nine two-enigined Soviet bombers flew over the town, failing to spot it. The enemy flew to the North, then turned and dropped 7 high explosive (HE) bombs and fired with machine guns. No actual damage was caused.
Immediately another enemy escadrille was spotted. It was recorded to comprise 6 twin-engined bombers. (This was the 6. DBAP intercepted by Sovelius.) They also at first flew over the town and turned back at Siilinjärvi about 15 km to N. Now unfortunately wind had rosen and scattered the mist. The enemy approached at an altitude of 1000 m, dropped 54 HE bombs and fired with machine guns. 35 houses were damaged, but only one person was killed – by heart attack. ( Three ore lethal air raids followed later in January and February: 42 people were killed, hundreds wounded, 200 houses damaged or destroyed.) It was a terror raid, pure and simple.
The Fokker pilots at Utti kept their flying gear on and waited for the returning bombers. Lt. Sarvanto ordered his ground crew to keep his "FR-97", "white 2" warm (see profile in page bottom).
Message was received at 11:50 - '7 bombers flying south following the northern railway!'. The pilots of 4./LLv 24 climbed in their fighters, warmed up the engines and turned their radios on. Lieutenant Jorma Sarvanto listened to the radio traffic, soon he and his wingman (constituting one patrol) were ordered to take off. After take-off the wingman found that he had an engine problem (snow had clogged the engine air intake during take off) and he had to return. Lt. Sarvanto continued alone at the optimum rate of climb, direction N to meet the enemy.
The second pair (Lt. Sovelius and Sgt. Ikonen) took off after noticing that Lieutenant Sarvanto had to go alone, but Sarvanto had a good head start. Now the clouds had disappeared from the sky at Utti, and Sarvanto discovered the handsome formation of DB bomber bellies lit by dim sun shining through the haze. He counted seven silver coloured DB-3 bombers. To the left - a wedge of three, to the right - four abreast, all no farther than one plane length from each other. There was no fighter escort.
Sarvanto continued climbing, turning south by a right curve. For a moment he was within the range and sector of the bomber nose gunners, but remained unnoticed due to sun glare. When he was at the same altitude of 3000 m with the bombers, he was about 500m behind them. Sarvanto pursued the enemy at full power. He decided to attack the leftmost wing bomber, although the third from left was closest to him, to avoid getting into cross-fire from the rear gunners. At a distance of 300 m his plane vibrated unpleasantly - he had flown in a bomber gunner MG salvo.
The fighter pilot kept on approaching the bombers. At a distance of 20 (twenty) meters he aimed at the fuselage of his victim, the left wing bomber, and pressed the trigger briefly. The tracers hit the target. Next, he shifted his aim at the rear gunner of the tail bomber, and killed him. Lt. Sarvanto then carefully aimed at the right engine of the first bomber and fired a brief burst. The bomber's engine caught fire. He repeated the same maneuvre at the tail bomber with similar result. Two burning DB-3 bombers were leaving the formation.
Jorma Sarvanto cheered aloud and attacked the right wing of the formation while the bomber rear gunners blazed at his Fokker. He fired at each engine of the nearest bomber, making them smoke and forcing the bomber to leave the formation. Then he engaged the other bombers at a very close range. Each victim caught fire after two to three brief bursts of MG fire. Sarvanto glanced back - the latest smoking bomber was now in flames and diving to the ground.
Now Sarvanto decided to destroy every one of the DB-3 formation. Some burning bombers made a slow half-roll before diving down, another pulled up before diving down. All the time they were flying south, the sun shone red through the haze low in southern horizon unless dimmed by smoke from a burning enemy plane.
Bomber no.6 was much more resistant to his bullets. The Fokker wing guns were out of ammo by now, but finally the DB-3 caught fire, and Finnish pilot could engage the last bomber. He already had eliminated the rear gunner, so he could fly close to the target. He aimed at one engine and pressed the trigger. Not a single shot. Sarvanto pulled the loading lever and retried shooting, but again in vain. He had spent his ammunition. There was nothing to do but leave the bomber alone and return to the base.
Columns of black smoke hung in the air and burning bomber wrecks could be seen on the ground. Sarvanto checked his instruments, there was no damage to vital parts, but his radio was dead and the Fokker's wings resembled Swiss cheese When preparing for landing he found that the hydraulic pump for the landing flaps did not work, but he landed successfully despite that...
Luutnantti Sarvanto felt very satisified as he parked his Fokker, but he did not quite get out of the cockpit before his cheering ground crew grabbed him and threw him in the air. The flight lasted 25 minutes and the actual battle 5 minutes, during which he shot down 6 DB-3 bombers belonging to the 6th DBAP of the Soviet Air Force. Two Soviet airmen bailed out and were taken prisoners, but the sources do not mention their names. The mechanics counted 23 hits from the bomber rear gunners in FR-97, some of them near the cockpit, necessitating several weeks' repairs at the State Aircraft Factory.
The patrol that took off afterwards pursued the surviving bomber.
The second battle report by Lt. Sovelius:
Date and time: 6.1. 1940 12.30 hrs
Place of the aerial battle: “Gulf of Finland South of Kotka between Suursaari and Lavansaari”
Enemy a/c: “DB”
Fate of the enemy a/c: “Left engine burning, dived in the sea. Air surveillance center reported 12.25 hrs at map square 32C6.”
Course of the aerial battle: “This a/c belonged to the formation of seven of which Sarvanto shot down 6. This a/c continued flying. I pursued her with Sgt. Ikonen. Sgt. Ikonen ran out of ammo South of Haapasaari (rem: he kept firing at a long range) and he turned back. I continued still for a while and finally reached the range of 200 m. I fired a long burst whereby the enemy left engine caught fire and the a/c began to descend toward the sea. Dense fog made pursuit difficult.”
Ammunition consumption: “1000 pcs”
Evidence : “Air surveillance center report.”
Other obervations: -
Signed by : Lt. P.-E. Sovelius Aircraft: FR-92
Next night Sarvanto visited the local Air Defence Center in Kouvola. He was presented to an enemy Sr. Lieutenant who had parachuted out of one of the bombers, and he also was shown war booty found in the wrecks: Field manuals, training manuals, pistols. Another POW, a Captain, was in hospital with a broken leg.
The Finnish radio surveillance found that the enemy stations kept calling the destroyed escadrille far beyond the theoretical maximum flying time, late in the night.
This feat by Sarvanto received tremendous publicity in the word press, who considered it a world record at the time. Many major Western newspapers published a photo of Lt. Sarvanto holding a large creased sheet of aluminium with a big "5" on it, a trophy from one of the victims. The hero himself was rather embarrassed by his unexpected fame, he said that any of his fellow pilots could have shot down those six bombers if they had had equal opportunity.
The town council of Kuopio donated silver candlesticks for Sarvanto, Sovelius and Ikonen as a token of gratitude.
The reasons for this unusual success were the following:
It is no wonder that the enemy flew “passively”. Finnish pilots flying captured DB-3s found that she simply could not be coaxed by her pilot to do any reasonable evasive action, such as sideslipping. The DB-3 was very stable, a virtue during a bomb run but vice when under attack by fighters. But directing the bombers to fly next to a known fighter base is more difficult to understand.
This is the famous propaganda photo of Sarvanto
holding a trophy: a piece of one of the six DB-3 that he shot
down in minutes.
It is also rumoured that the armourers had disregarded the regulations and had loaded the Fokker's MG belts with a larger proportion of scarce and expensive incendiary and armour piercing ammunition. Some Soviet sources imply that the bombers were lacking defensive armament but this is not true, both FR-92 and FR-97 were damaged by enemy machine gunners during the action .
This day also proved the VVS that bombers penetrating deep in the enemy airspace without fighter escort are bound to take heavy losses.
Finally, the actual battle report by Lt. Jorma Sarvanto:
Report of Air Battle
(about enemy a/c that have been damaged or shot down)
Date and time: “6.1. 1940 12.03 – 12.07 hrs”
Place of the aerial battle: “Utti-Tavastila (altitude omitted)”
Enemy a/c: “DB a/c (radial engines)”
Fate of the enemy a/c: “6 a/c caught fire in the air, one continued her course but the gunner was silent. A/c found.”
Course of the aerial battle: “I approached alone from ahead and below. I changed my course to parallel so that they flew over me and I got behind and below them. I shot the a/c in flames from right behind about in the numbered sequence (sketch below). In the beginning the gunners flank-fired but I suppressed their fire with brief bursts. My range varied from 20 to 150m.
I fired minimal bursts at the engines and each a/c caught fire at the 2nd or 3rd burst. Ammunition consumption about 2000 pcs.”
Eludicating drawing about the enemy formation and how the attack was carried out:
(also the action of other own a/c against the same formation as far as observed.
Their identification !)
5 This one survived
1 T 2 6 T 3
T T T T T
4
Witnesses or evidence about the destruction of enemy a/c:
(preferably written and signed by witness)
“Among others, Lt. Sovelius, Sgt. Ikonen, Maj. Harju-Jeanty, etc. The shot-down a/c found in the area from Utti to Tavastila.”
Special observations (about the performance or characteristics of enemy a/c, tactics, own damage etc.):
“The formation stayed tight all the time and almost in one line. Fire was opened by them at a range of 600 m and my a/c took hits. My own a/c has 23 holes, e.g. in prop blades, engine, radio cover etc.”
Lt. J.Sarvanto FR-97
Rank Name A/c, ID code
Sources:
Karhunen, Joppe: Tarunhohteiset Talvisodan Fokkerit, Espoo 1981
Sarvanto, Jorma: Hävittäjälentäjänä Karjalan taivaalla, 1940
Tikkanen, Anja, Kuopio vuosisatojen saatossa, Hämeenlinna 1982
Lavi, Veikko: Jorma Sarvanto (a ballad on KEL671 sung by J.Karjalainen) Ab Discophon Oy, 1987
Jorma Kalevi Sarvanto was top ace of the Winter War, credited by 12 5/6 victories. In WW 2 he downed next 4 Soviet planes, flew on Brewster B-239 (2 on "BW-357" and 2 on "BW-373" call-coded), then his total rose to 16 5/6 kills in 251 battle missions. More details about his career please check on the story: Jorma Sarvanto - Top Ace of "Winter War".
Here is color profile of Fokker D-XXI "FR-97", tactical code "white 2", flown on 6 January 1940 by Lieutenant Jorma Kalevi Sarvanto.
And there is a portrait of the FR-97. It was taken a few days before the famous one-sided battle. The fighter is in dispersal, the engine is warmed up and wrapped in blankets to keep it warm in the -30deg weather. Original caption : Shivering FR-97 at dispersal.
1999.10.30, © WW II Ace Stories.