Messerschmitt 109-pilot Torsti Tallgren visited the Urban Blitz 2002 - convention held at Tampere by Finnish Virtual Pilots Association 2nd of february 2002. Included is the small speech he gave to the attending people, in which he speaks about MT (109) pilots' training program after the war.

Original Finnish language article available here.

Urban Blitz 2002 - pages can be found at address www.compart.fi/icebreakers/blitz02report.html.

Recording: Jukka O. Kauppinen
Transcription of tapes: Jari Matti "Jazs" Taskinen
Translation to english language: Markus "itmo" Mikkolainen

Copyright VLeLv Icebreakers / Virtuaalilentäjät r.y. / Finnish Virtual Pilots Association 2002.
 

First some general issues, we were trained for one-to-one combat.Attacker and defender were of equal capability, what was one of the training subjects. Then there was the fast attacker against a more manoeuverable opponent.Manoeuverable attacker against a fast defender, all of these were practiced.Then there was formation combat - against fighters, against unescorted bombers , against bombers escorted by fighters.There were specific instructions on how to deal in these situations.

Then there was attack. Tally on the target, quick assesment of own position,attempt to surprise, surprise being half victory, attack according to what is learned.Then lots of practise and training. Straight from behind, behind and below, behind and above, front and below, straight front, front and above, from the sides. And if you come under attack yourself, evasive and countering. Then fighters in escort missions, eight different rules about that subject. And then for example destroying static balloons, which was found to be a difficult mission. They were usually protected by heave AA fire and fighters.

And here is an example of the contents of the training program, it is for exceptional circumstances. Send one patrol (finnish partio) ,which equals two planes and surprise attack at high speed and firing is commenced at long range at about 500 metres, unlike in aerial combat. (Nice distinction, shooting down static balloons isn't aerial combat (grin)) I am talking about destroying static balloons here. In clear weather you close in on the balloon either at the deck (near the ground) or in the clouds , if any. Also the altitude of the balloon decides the method of closing in. Attack from the direction where it is known or assumed to have the least AA protection.

This throrough the training was and there are just topics here, I have fourty pages of written text about these events. There is a very specific list of all methods and plane types, how to attack against them.Against bombers, fighters or whatever. Our training was very thorough and was based on facts. These all were World War II pilots' lectures and experiences and they are well noted.

Then there was the spirit , or which I just told. It was important in the airforce then and is still today. Which is still good. There you dont put that much value on ranks, there are the sergeants and generals in the same table like in Joppe Karhunen's funeral. There are no ranks just friendship and cameradery and open conversation.

And here I would like to quote the double fighter knight Hasse Wind on his principles of constructive behaviour. Even during the was he was a kind of a knight , he defined how to act so that everything would go fine.And he said that:

"Immediately on the first day you say hi to all the people (as in ALL) in your flight and on the next day to the guys at the neighboring flight, after this you start learning the equipment" and so on. I just wanted to tell that this is how the stuff was then. Thank You.