In 1955 a delegation of four Soviet officers arrived to visit the FAF air base in Pori, which was commanded by Col.lt. Joppe Karhunen. One of the visitors had been a Red Army intelligence officer at Ihantala in 1944 during the heavy battle. When the tone of the discussion became more familiar, the Soviet officer began to talk about a thing that had bothering him since July 1944: How was it possible that the Finnish/German bombing and Finnish shelling of the massed Soviet troops at Ihantala in June/July 1944 was timed and aimed perfectly ?
He understood that the attack timetable could have been revealed by monitoring Red Army radio traffic, but the enemy had to photograph the Soviet rear to define the targets. The Soviet officer told that there had been 300 fighter planes (275. Gv.IAD ?) assigned to one task only: to prevent any enemy aircraft from crossing the front line at Ihantala.
He was dumbstruck to learn that all that was needed was a war-booty Pe-2 equipped with a camera, piloted by a young reserve lieutenant.
Kullervo "Kude" Virtanen started his flying career in summer 1939 as he volunteered for basic pilot training. As the war broke out, he was mobilised and assigned to further pilot training where he remained until June 1941.
Virtanen was commanded to Reconnaisance Squadron 16 to fly Wasp-Fokkers (D.XXI with Wasp engine, a slow plane, much worse than the original with Mercury engine). He flew normal reconnaisance missions in Eastern Carelia, strafed ground targets when getting a chance and tried to stay out of the sight of Soviet fighter pilots.
In early 1943 Ensign Virtanen was commanded to Bomber Squadron 48 for twin-enigine training. The squadron had as many as four aircraft: One Blenheim Mk.IV, one Dornier Do 18 and two war-booty DB-3.
After a few weeks' training Virtanen was considered competent to fly photographing survey
missions with the other DB-3. Consequently he flew more than 100 hours in 1943,
photo-surveying Carelia.
In 1944 the squadron received new Blenheims made by the State Aircraft Factory. The origin of those planes would be worth a story itself: The airframes were imported from Yugoslavia, where the German invasion had interrupted the assembly line, and the Mercury engines in various stages of completeness from PZL Poland. This material for forty bombers was finished and assembled in Finland. Cheap planes, and outdated, too.
Ensign Virtanen and his crew were assigned to a Blenheim Mk IV, which was an improvement compared with the old DB-3. They continued photographing and did some bombing raids, too.
Between 9. and 25. June 1944 the Blenheim piloted by Virtanen participated in some "massive" bombing raids, comprising as many as 30 Finnish bombers. A particularly tough mission was the one on 23 June 1944 to Tuulosjoki on the coast of Lake Ladoga where the Red Army was landing troops behind Finnish front line. Among the FAF bombers four BL's participated from Squadron 48. Because the target was the small landing ships, they had to fly below 1000 m , low enough to be fired at by 20mm AA guns. The Blenheim survived the AA, and the small bomb load was released successfully. There was no fighter escort because the target was out of range for Messerschmitts.
Virtanen witnessed how a La-5 shot down a Ju-88, then his plane was attacked by another. He flew at treetops and successfully dodged the enemy fighters until the enemy had spent all his ammunition.
On 26 June 1944 he flew a Pe-2 from Tampere to Lappeenranta. This plane was shot down the next day when flown by another crew. Then Lt. Virtanen and his crew (Ensign Yrjo Rantala, observer and Sgt. Raine Hynninen, gunner) were assigned to fly PE-215, a photo reconnaisance plane. This war booty bomber had been in Finnish use since 1942 and it was a remarkably lucky plane. Sgt.Maj. Juhola and his crew had flown her for more than 60 hours behind enemy lines and always returned.
Two days later (nn 28 June 1944) at 4:30 Virtanen's crew received orders to photograph the enemy rear at Ihantala. Observer Rantala marked the target on his map: three fifty kilometer long parallel sequences using the RMK f=750mm automatic camera. The commander of Fighter Squadron 24, Major Karhunen, ordered four of his Messerschmitt 109's to escort the Pe. It was a very important and dangerous mission, and the reconnaisance crew felt better when getting help against the enemy fighters.
At 5:00 PE-215 took off at Lappeenranta and climbed to 7500 m, above the town of Vyborg/Viipuri that the enemy had taken a week earlier. The four Me's arrived and grouped a little behind and above to the sun, to be able to intercept any enemy fighter and to keep distance, because the Pe would certainly be fired at by the AA.
Virtanen took course to 95 deg and the first photo covered the Vyborg railway station. The Pe flew steadily at a speed of 460 kmh and the first photo run was completed in seven minutes. At the end of the run Virtanen curved to the West for the starting point of the second run. The weater was excellent: no clouds, no haze. The front line was marked by flashes of artillery muzzle flames and exploding shells and the dust and smoke kicked up by explosions. Finnish troops were fighting against ten times superior enemy.
While the pilot and the observer concentrated in keeping the plane in course, the gunner counted the enemy planes he saw below. He saw about one hundred of them, but none came to disturb the Finnish Pe. Maybe her familiar silhouette made her uninteresting to Soviet pilots? But now the enemy AA had got the Pe in the sights. The explosions of heavy shells buffeted the plane off the course several times, and they had to spend twenty-five minutes for the second 50 km run.
Virtanen was getting worried. Why did the enemy fighters not attack ? Most likely his Pe and the four Me's blended in with the dozens of other radar echoes on the enemy radar screens, and the enemy flight control was unable to direct the fighters to a target with unknown location. The Pe crew continued their mission under the mercifully inaccurate AA fire.
After they had been in the air for 90 minutes the observer announced that the target had been covered. Virtanen did not delay in turning to the North to leave the danger zone. The fighter escort soon left them, being low on fuel and having had nothing to do this time.
PE-215 landed at Lappeenranta where the ground crew was waiting to remove the film cassette. The valuable film was immediately sent for processing and analysis. The mission had been successful, the photos revealed the enemy troop and material concentrations, to be attacked by bombers and to be fired at by artillery. The timetable of the counterattack would be decided basing on information revealed from intercepted enemy radio messages. General Oesch (commanding the front) and Col. Lorenz (commander of the air force units at hand) sent their thanks to Virtanen and his crew.
Now PE-215 was in the air once or twice every day, weather allowing. On 1 July when they were photographing at Johannes/Lihaniemi area near Vyborg, the AA was particularly accurate, and also two La-5 tried to attack, only to be intercepted by the escorting two Me's. Next day four La-5 attacked the reconnaisance plane, again the escorting fighters took care of the intruders.
During the next four weeks Virtanen and his crew flew a total of 27 missions, only three of which were interrupted due to technical problems of the camera or the aircraft engines, never by enemy action. Only once two photo runs were crossed due to heavy AA fire, but the photos were useful enough. The Finnish escort fighters were able to prevent all enemy fighters from attacking the PE-215.
Kude Virtanen and his crew were decorated for their excellent performance. The photos they took played an important part in thwarting the three successive final attacks of the Red Army at Ihantala, Viipurinlahti and Vuosalmi.
Lieutenant Virtanen was demobilised in October 1944 and he returned to civilian life, working in the family printing business until retirement.
The snap-shot of Finnish, war-booty, Petlyakov Pe-2.
