Jorma Sarvanto - the Top Finnish Ace of  the Winter War Written by Ossi Juntunen . Lt Jorma Sarvanto in the cockpit of  Fokker D.XXI FR-97 with the white "2" painted on the tail. The aircraft belonged to the 4th flight of Fighter Squadron 24. Jorma Kalevi Sarvanto was born in Turku, on the 22th of February 1912, when Finland still was an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian Imperium. His father was Kaarle Konstantin Sarvanto, a patriot, tailor by trade and his mother Amanda Gustafsson. Growing up in independent Finland, he was interested in aviation and the glorious Aces of the First WW. He read all that he could find about von Richthofen, Ball, Guynemer and others. Participation in voluntary Civil Guard duty strengthened the patriotism of the young man, taught him to shoot and prepared him for military career. Jorma matriculated in May 1933 (from a Finnish school, making him bilingual), 3 years later than others of his age, which may imply that he was not an exemplary scholar. But he needed the diploma to enter the military career. He started his compulsory military service in June, when he was called up to Pori Infantry Regiment. Marching on dusty road in full gear, wearing a steel helmet on a hot day during the infantry basic training was not what he had expected of military life. Private Sarvanto applied for training in the Finnish Air Force when the officer trainees were selected. He passed the physical examination and every test and was admitted to the  Reserve Officer Pilot training at Kauhava Air Academy. The basic trainer aircraft was Letov Smolik. He completed his course and his compulsory military duty in 1934 as a reserve officer. Sarvanto returned briefly to civilian life. It was the time of the Great Depression and high unemployment. Reserve ensign Sarvanto sought immediately admission to the Cadet School, Air Warfare Section for training to be a commissioned officer and was admitted in autumn 1934. Sarvanto completed his training as a pilot and as a navigator in May 1937. He was promoted to the rank of Ensign at a ceremony in the presidential palace along with his fellow cadets, the President of the Republic being the official CINC of the military forces of Finland. Sarvanto was first transferred to Air Station 1 at Utti, a fighter base flying old Bristol Bulldogs in attendance of new equipment. New equipment was already in use at Flight Regiment 4, his next unit in 1938, which was operating modern Bristol Blenheim Mk.1 bombers. There he served as navigator, responsible for navigation and bomb aiming. But ensign Sarvanto wanted to be a pilot, and the pilot vacancies were all occupied by senior officers. Sarvanto was promoted to lieutenant and on the 16th of  May 1939, according to his wishes, transferred to Squadron 24 based at Utti. (The FAF squadrons were large units, which could operatively split into smaller units or Flights of 8 to 12 planes to operate from individual bases.) Squadron 24 had received new Fokker D.XXI fighters in 1937. The planes were made in Finland under license. They were powered by license-made Tampella Bristol Mercury 850 hp radial engines and armed with 4 Browning 7,7 mm machine guns. Lieutenant Sarvanto excelled in Fokker training. His gunnery was first class: in average 92% of the ammunition he fired at a towed target "sock" were hits. As a person, he was described by his fellow pilots as an introvert, pensive and calm - he was an exception among the more extrovert fighter pilots. His nickname was "Zamba" due to his musical hobby: he played his saxophone and could use a guitar, too. His flight commander estimated him as follows: "Lt. Sarvanto is by character considerate yet not slow, conscientious and has a military bearing." During training in summer 1939, as the clouds of war became more and more menacing, Lt. Sarvanto and his fellow pilots learned to live with the characteristics of their Fokkers. The D.XXI was by 1939 slightly obsolete with fixed undercarriage and only four light machine guns. The plane was too slow as a bomber interceptor and not maneuverable enough to engage in dogfights with potential adversary fighter types. On the other hand the Fokker was a stable gun platform also in 20 to 60 degree dives and able to outdive any potential opponent. The pilot could also roll the plane with ailerons during a vertical nose-dive so that the fighter came out of the dive to a different direction from the one he entered the dive, thus confounding the adversary. The D.XXI was also simple to maintain, which was significant considering the anticipated need to disperse the flights into field bases - frozen lakes without hangars or any service facilities. The squadron leader, Captain E. Magnusson, had been in the Spanish Civil War finding out about the modern air warfare and trained his men - who in practice constituted the Finnish Fighter Force - accordingly. Capt. Magnusson, Lt. Sarvanto and all the other Finnish officers up to Marshal Mannerheim knew what to expect if the war broke out and Finland would be involved: desperate battle against numerically and materially superior aggressor in the air, at sea and on the ground. Despite that the armed forces were spiritually if not materially ready to defend Finland and the nation did not want to yield under foreign pressure, however threatening. Lt. Sarvanto had time for private life, too: he was married in the medieval National Cathedral in Turku in August 1939 with miss Eine Artemo. Their honeymoon was cut short by the breakout of the Second Word War. The Winter War broke out on the 30th of November 1939. At Stalin's orders, a border incident was fabricated at Mainila two days earlier. The Soviet propaganda claimed that Finland was going to invade the Soviet Union, the non-aggression pact was denounced one day later by the Soviet Union and the day after that the Red Army attacked Finland. As to the FAF, it had 115 airworthy planes of which the only front-line fighters were the 36 D.XXIs of Squadron 24. The Soviet Air Force numeric superiority was at least 20-fold. The task of Sqn 24 was to intercept enemy bombers and prevent their attacks on vital transport links and other important military objects. The first Finnish victory was officially claimed the 1st of December 1939 by Capt. Eino Luukkanen. He shot down one SB-2 bomber. That day Lt. Sarvanto did not fly. From the ground he witnessed how enemy SB-2 bombers attacked his home base at Ruokolahti and how the squadron leader Capt. Magnusson shot down one of the attackers. That day the squadron shot down 11 enemy aircraft (according to Sarvanto) and lost one FR with the pilot - to own AAA! Weather did not allow flying for the next three weeks of the month. Jorma Sarvanto received his baptism by fire on 19 December 1939. He had had two unsuccessful missions, but during the third at sunset (about 15:30) two Fokkers of his flight intercepted a fromation of two SB-2s, shooting down one. Sarvanto watched from a distance the tracers in the darkening sky, then he saw the SB catch fire and nose-dive totally engulfed in flames. Now he fully understood what air war was about. Sarvanto scored his first two victories on the 23th of  December. In the morning the flight was protecting the strategically important sector ot the front at Summa. He saw how one Soviet R-5 was shot down by Fokkers. The rest of the one hour patrol was uneventful, until it was time to return for refueling. He was almost "at home" as he received a report of 9 SB-2s south of Antrea. He was now alone and low on fuel, but he turned to find the enemy, which he did. He attacked the left wing bomber of the formation, which released its bomb load at once. After one salvo Sarvanto looked back - there was one of the SBs, its nose gunner shooting at him with his double MG. The fighter pilot dodged by pulling up, then doing a half roll. When recovering his Fokker from its nose down position the SB flew over him. Sarvanto pulled the stick and got the bomber in his gunsight: he fired at both of its engines in turn, the "Katiushka" (SB-2) nose-dived in flames. The bomber crew had saved the wing SB-2 at the cost of their own lives. The bombers belonged to 44. SBAP. The first victory was scored, but Lt. Sarvanto was too busy to think about it. He chased the remaining 8 SBs which were just as fast as the Fokker, however he caught one that was left behind. His salvo holed the enemy oil tank and oil mist soiled his gunsight. Now he remembered how little fuel he had left, and returned. He saw the damaged bomber crash-land on the ice of Vuoksi river. Finnish pilot landed at the base with two victories. In the morning of the 25th the pilot saw several contrails at 6000m approaching from the south. The flight scrambled. Sarvanto climbed towards the enemy, but as he was just 500 m behind, the engine of his Fokker failed! He turned to glide to the base, seeing how his brothers-in-arms shot down three SB-2s. Suddenly he saw 6 SB-2s below: having enough altitude, he turned his gliding fighter towards the enemy for a feint attack. The enemy bombers released their loads and fled. At landing Sarvanto tried to restart the engine but the cockpit was filled with black smoke. Despite that, he brought the plane home in one piece. It turned out that one piston of the Mercury engine had been split due to overstress. The Fokker squadron had been very successful in their actions. The 100th victory was celebrated on the 31st of  December 1939 (Remark: actually the score was lower, the squadron had scored 96 confirmed kills during the whole of the Winter War. But due to the pilots' desperate task to fight tremendous superiority, this was a good chance to boost morale.) Usually the squadron leader, now promoted to Major, had ordered silence and lights off in his pilots' "dormitory" at 20:15, but now he summoned the men of the flight he personally led at 23:00 and made a speech, then offered the men some brandy before sending them to bed at midnight. Next week Lt. Sarvanto had his greatest glory day - for details please check in the story: Jorma Sarvanto and six kills in five minutes. Having suffered considerable bomber losses (at least 50 by 7 January 1940) to Fokkers the Soviet Air Force no more sent out unescorted bombers. Now the Fokker pilots had to attack from a higher altitude, dive past the escort fighters, take a quick shot at the bombers and disengage by diving on if only possible. By February new fighters ( 30 Gladiators, 30 Morane-Saulniers, some 30 Fiat G50) started becoming operational, but to no relief for the Fokker pilots, who were logging up to 6 flying hours a day. At the same time virtually half of the Soviet air force was concentrated on the Finnish front, providing a 30 to one superiority ratio. Lt. Sarvanto fought on. On the 17th of January he was playing "lone wolf" as René Fonck had done in WW1. He received a message about the bombing of Lappeenranta, so he took altitude and waited for the returning bombers. Soon he saw 9 SB-2s (of 54. SBAP) 2500 m below flying south. He dived at them and easily caught a straggler, shooting it in flames. As he attacked the wing SB, again the other bombers slowed down to allow their gunners to fire at the fighter. He had to leave one smoking SB as they crossed the front line and I-16 fighters appeared at horizon. On the evening of the 3rd of  February 1940 the air surveillance reported 30 unescorted bombers. The Fokkers at Ruokolahti base scrambled. The pilots saw three 9-plane squadrons of DB-3 bombers, which all turned South having detected the Fokkers. Sarvanto shot down one and damaged another. The Fokkers' machine guns malfunctioned due to extremely cold weather, although the armourers had removed all oil and grease from the Brownings and lubricated their gliding surfaces with graphite. Only two enemy bombers were shot down. On the 15th of February Lieutenant Sarvanto had to climb to 7000 m to find unescorted bombers. He intercepted three DB-3s of 1.MTAP, shooting down one, the other two escaped, being faster than the Fokker at high altitude. He intercepted and damaged 3 bombers on the 16th and two more on the 17th. By now the squadron was desperately short of tracer, armour piercing and incendiary ammunition. The pilots had to use mostly plain solid bullets, nearly inefficient against well-armoured Soviet aircraft. On 18th of February 1940 five Fokkers intercepted 12 unescorted bombers. Sarvanto attacked 3 DB-3s that were flying behind 9 SB-2s, which the other fighters engaged. First he eliminated the rear gunners of two bombers - the third bomber dived and escaped. Sarvanto worked methodically, having nothing to fear. He fired at the left engine of the nearest DB, making it stop, then he aimed at the right engine, the Fokker riding on the slipstream of the victim. One brief salvo transformed the DB into glider. The remaining DB was more active, it "squirmed" to avoid being hit. Sarvanto hung after the bomber and fired every time he had the target in his sights. But his machine guns were jamming, he could make only one or two shots at a time. The DB escaped. At the base Sarvanto scolded the armourer who had loaded his ammo belts. On the next day Sarvanto was flying in a section (4 fighters) that intercepted 6 slow ski-equipped SB-2s that did not have fighter escort. Sarvanto attacked the wing bomber and made its engines smoke, but two other "Katiushka's" slowed down to enable the gunners to shoot at his FR, one from each side. He managed to get the other SB rear gunner in his sights and kill him, but now he was flying wing to wing with the other SB whose gunner kept getting hits in his FR. Sarvanto throttled back his engine and desperately tried to turn his guns at the enemy. The Fokker nearly stalled, but he saw the SB turret in his sighting scope and pushed the trigger just as oil splashed on his windscreen. The last thing he saw before the scope went black was how the SB gunner collapsed behind his weapon. The fighter pilot disengaged, fearing engine damage. His wingman, Sgt. Kinnunen finished off the damaged SB. The score to Sarvanto was one shared SB, two damaged. On the 21st of February 1940 he shared one DB-3 with two other pilots, an incident he did not consider worth describing. That was to be his final, totaling 12 5/6 confirmed victories in Winter War. Once in February he bounced I-16 fighters strafing his base but his bullets did not have any effect on them. Twice he escaped an I-16 attack. He did not describe these incidents in his book published in 1941 in order not to disclose any secrets of tactics, and later when interviewed he did not return to the matter. On the 29th of February 1940 he witnessed on the ground the black day of the FAF: 6 I-153s and 18 I-16s bounced the Ruokolahti base and shot down 5 Gladiators of Squadron 26. One FR piloted by Lt. Harmaja rammed with one "Ishak", the only destroyed enemy. The fighter pilots were told that bombers were approaching. Only they were not bombers, but fighters with auxiliary tanks. Some fool for an observer had believed that the fuel tanks under fighter bellies made them bombers! During the final days of the war from the 4th to the 11th of March 1940 Sqn 24 was assigned to ground strafing attacks at the columns of the Red Army advancing on the ice of the Gulf of Finland at Viipuri. Among the other pilots Lt. Sarvanto fired more than ten thousand MG rounds in two weeks at the enemy infantry on open ice. The enemy positioned AA weapons on the ice and set up fighter bases in immediate vicinity. Once Sarvanto was bounced by three I-153s, but was saved by the poor enemy tactics. The enemy fighter wingmen were not allowed individual flying, they were trained to follow the leader and to fire their guns when the leader did, whether or not having any target in their sights. The war ended on the 13th of March 1940. Finland had retained her freedom at the cost of 23.000 men killed in action and loss of 13% of the territory. 25 of the D.XXI's were airworthy on that day. FAF pilots had shot down 207 enemy planes and lost 68 of their own aircraft to enemy fighters and anti-aircraft fire. 54 pilots and airmen were killed in action, 75 wounded. The Finnish pilots had succeeded sometimes in preventing enemy air raids, and often disturbing and limiting enemy operations. The most painful experience of the war to Lt. Sarvanto was the loss of a friend, Lt. Vuorela on the 30th of January 1940. In the afternoon of that day heavy air activity was interrupted due to rising fog. Pilot Vuorela was to transfer FR-78 from Ruokolahti base to Lappeenranta for overhaul and he took off without permission, believing to be able to arrive before the weather would get too bad. When Sarvanto called the base to warn about fog in Lappeenranta, it was too late. Vuorela did not respond to radio calls, either. At night a crashed Fokker with dead pilot in it was found in a forest. A fighter pilot had to fight not only the enemy but the elements, too. Squadron 24 was re-equipped in April with American Brewster fighters, purchased in January but failing to arrive in time. At the request of a publisher Lt. Sarvanto wrote a book about his war experiences, titled "Hävittäjälentäjanä Karjalan taivaalla" (in English "A Fighter Pilot above Karelia"), which was reprinted a few years ago on the 50th anniversary of the Winter War. The book is very interesting although processed by censorship cutting details and containing some patriotic tendency. Finland was again drawn in the war as the German Army invaded Soviet Union in June 1941. Lt. Sarvanto was a Flight Commander in Squadron 24. He shot down one SB-2 on the 25th June and one Pe-2 on the 29th June 1941.  Lieutenant Sarvanto was promoted to the rank of Captain on the 4th of August 1941, and transferred to the Air Force Headquarters on the 19th of October 1941. Then he served as test pilot in from 8 May to 17 July 1942. He was ordered that day to Germany for special tasks, and he returned to his old squadron on the 16th of January 1943. He had not lost his touch and scored two more victories, 21 April 1943 one Yak-1 and 9 May 1943 one Yak-7. His total score is 16 5/6 confirmed victories. On the 9th of July 1943 he started his studies at the Military Academy, making it possible to advance to higher grades. Having completed the academy he served as the commander of Replacement Squadron 35 from the 22nd of June to the end of the war. Jorma Sarvanto retired from the FAF service as Lieutenant  Colonel on 8th of June 1960. Sarvanto was a modest man and he did not allow his Ace reputation influence his private life, which ended on the 16th of October 1963. He had one son and three daughters. His hobbies were shooting with rifle and pistol, swimming, music and the English language. FR-97: Lt Jorma Sarvanto's FR-97: First aircraft of the series III. Test flight on the 16th of March 1939. Transferred to Squadron 24 on the 24th of July 1939. Propeller damaged when reserve ensign E. Savonen hit the target plate during air-to-air gunnery practice over Käkisalmi. On the 30th of November 1939 was in the 4th flight of Squadron 24, pilot Lt. Jorma Sarvanto. On the 6th of January 1940 received hits during air combat, Lt. Sarvanto landed the aircraft at Utti and he wasn't wounded. Plane was sent for repairs, back in the squadron on the 20th of June 1940. Was in the inventory of Squadron 32 since the 19th of April 1940. On the 7th of November 1940 ran over FR-91 that was landing in front of FR-97 at Siikakangas, E. Parviainen wasn't hurt.   Transferred to the Valmet aircraft factory on the 14th of February 194. Transferred to the 2nd flight of Squadron 32 on the 29th of June 1941 and to the first flight of Squadron 14 on the 14th of July 1941. On a recce flight on the 25th of July 1941 to the Nuijamaa area was hit while strafing road traffic, ensign O. Häkli was lost when the aircraft crashed into woods. Written off on the 10th of August 1941 after 250 flight hours. Lt. Jorma Sarvanto achieved eight victories with the aircraft. See: Jorma Sarvanto and six kills in five minutes. Originally published at: WW II ACE STORIES   Home Latest Topic | Air Warfare | Conferences/Air Shows | Fighter Tactics | Fighter Aircraft | Missiles | Fighter Aviation Topic | Fighter History | Warbirds | Magazines | Current News | Links | Physiology | Photo Gallery | Bibliography | SIIVET - Wings | What's New J Lindberg. Copyright © 1997-2006 Fighter Tactics Academy. All rights reserved. Revised: tammikuu 01, 2006.