Six bombers down in just four minutes

On January 6. 1940 17 Soviet 6. DBAP’s Ilyshin DB-3M bombers took-off from an airfield in Viro to make a bombrun to Kuopio. The First nine bombers got there without problems and dropped their loads but the remaining eight bombers at heels got too much west and near Utti were Finnish 4/LLv 24 (4. flight of Fighter Squadron 24) was based at the time.

Lt. Sovelius was at the time flying with his Fokker D.21 (FR-92) and saw the bombers coming and shot one of them down. The remaining seven DB-3Ms continued their way to Kuopio and dropped their bombs without any success.

At the same time lt. Jorma Sarvanto had started his Fokker on the ground and scrambled to chase the remaining bombers. lt. Sarvanto got his aircraft behind the bombers which were now flying in two ‘vic’s. Sarvanto went to 20 metres behind a bomber and opened fire to its left engine which blazed up. Then he continued same way by killing the rear turrets first, then left engine and moving to the right engine. When he had downed six planes he noticed that he was out of ammo and had to break out with only one DB-3M surviving from his fire. The last one was also downed by Finnish pilots.

When lt. Sarvento landed back to the base he had shot down six bombers in just four minutes! All bombers had fallen between Utti and Tavastila. With this achievement lt. Sarvanto became Finnish first fighter ace in just four minutes.

The Fokker D.21 /FR-97) lt. Sarvanto was flying had got 23 hits without any serious damage. Foreign press was immediately astonished by the case because nothing like this hadn’t happened in the war this far.

Source:Osprey-Fighter Aces 4: Finnish Fighter Aces.