First Finnish Messerschmitt pilots

[Grendel]

The first Finnish Messerschmitt pilots
From Lauri Pekuri's recently published memoirs

In February 1943 the first batch of Finnish pilots had been sent to Germany for training into the Messerschmitt. The training period kept extending and the pilots were getting frustrated, as no-one had yet gotten any flights on the Messerschmitts. Finally the group leader, Ehrnrooth, marched angrily to the plane halls, catched the German responsible for the planes and gave him a loud, hard worded dressing in broken German, demanding to get a Messerschmitt. Us others were on side side, watching the event amused, as the German was clearly clueless what was going on, not understanding Erhnrooth.
Finally the German managed to call his superior, a leutnant, who got the same loud treatment. The poor officer surrendered in front of this mad Finnish major. If he wanted to kill himself, let him. One Me 109 E was pulled out of the hangar. The cloud level was 400 meters and the German leutnant suspected, that it is way too low. Ehrnrooth explained, that 400 metes is usual in Finland, at this time of the year. A short inspection of the plane and soon the 1100 HP engine pulled the major into the sky.
Erhnrooth was an experienced fighter pilot and he tested how the plane reacted and controlled in different speeds. Then he made some acrobatics and one touch'n'go. After 45 minutes he landed, with fine 3-pointer. The plane was refueled and also Pive managed to fly a familirization flight, before the weather got too poor for flying.
Both thought the plane was enjoyable and easy to fly, but suggested us to land in slower speed than the Germans taught. Many Germans had ended up in the fields, after running out of runway when landing with too high speeds.
Now the German leutnant was conviced of our skills and promised our four planes for the next day. I flew my familirization flights with Emil and found it easy and enjoyable to fly. As the day progressed all our pilots managed to fly the Emil at least once. Ehrnrooth, Ervi and Lahtela managed to fly also the Gustav.
The German trainer was amazed to see how our Messerschmitt familization flights progressed without difficulty. The most amazing detail was how our pilots were immediately landing 3-pointers even with the Gustav, requiring less than half of the lenght of runway the Germans needed.

The Germans' proglem with the 1475 HP Gustav was, that they raised the tail immediately after pushing the throttle fully forward. The strong engine created a tendency to swing the tail. When landing the Germans had way too much speed, so it was hard to control to plane when the wheels touched ground and the plane bounced back into air.
On 21st February (1943) I got my second flight with a Emil. I felt ready to move into the Gustav, but the weather turned bad and flights had to be suspended.
Finally the fog lifted, on 27.2., I flew my first flight with Gustav and all others finished their flights with Emils. However, on next day all flights were interrupted, when the German pupils wrecked for Messerschmitts. 1.3. I finally got my second flight with Gustav and I felt ready to continue to the Messerschmitt factory, to get our own planes.

(Snipped. Jumping over the visit at the factory, the parties and singing and return flight towards Finland, though Germany and Baltics.)

The last phase was flown in most perfect weather. We flew a honorary sweep over Helsinki, in tight formation, kind like showing that here we are now, ready to protect you from enemy bombings. The landing to Malmi airport were faultless. The Germans thought the Malmi airfield, with its only partially coated runways, as a hard place. They had lost here many planes, that were transferring towards north (to Luftloffe 5). The local German detachment was waiting for us in the field, with their fire-brigade in readiness, expecting the worst. He had been told that we had only had a few flights in the Messerschmitts. The fire-brigade chief was clearly very relieved after all planes had landed, without mishaps.

Lauri Pekuri, Finnish fighter ace. 18 1/2 victories.
Source: Lauri Pekuri, Hävittäjälentäjä. WSOY 2006, ISBN 951-0-31907-4.

See also:
http://www.saunalahti.fi/fta/me-fin-1.htm