There were from the beginning two defenders of the Reich, the JG2 and the JG26. Both units had been send to fight the incoming Soviets in January 1945. Some elements were also converting their Focke-Wulfs to He-162 jets.

I. and III./JG11 were still flying the FWs for the defence of the Reich over bombed Berlin late in April.

One unfortunate pilot of the Gruppe was killed in an airbattle over Tempelhof on 24 April 1945. What was curiously enough in this fight was that the Luftwaffe pilot fought against Spitfires, P-51s and Yaks!

Source: Osprey - Focke-Wulf FW-190 Aces of the Western Front, John Weal.

The Stabsschwarm of JG 301 was the only fortunate section of the entire Luftwaffe to receive this ultimate Focke Wulf, the Ta-152 and to use it in combat. They got their first Ta-152H-1s on 2 March 1945. The Stabsschwarm saw a little action with the Ta-152s but still exhibited it to be superior in many terms to Allied fighters.

Read more »

When the situation in the Karelian Front was getting too critical went Finnish diplomatic delegation to Moscow to negotiate for the terms of peace. Peace negotiation started on 8 March 1940. Finnish army was supported by Western countries and their sympathies were with Finland.

Soviet Union saw the danger that the on going war could escalate to an international crisis and so rattled tight rules for the peace. Finland had nothing to do but to accept the terms in the critical situation. So took the cease-fire effect on 13 March 1940 at 11.00 hours as told on the peace treatment. Finland had stopped the Red Army at the critical moment on the Gulf of Finland but suffered several area losses for the Soviet Union under the peace treatment or the peace of Moscow after 105 days of fighting.

Read more »

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.