17 Facts About Ilmari Juutilainen

Eino Ilmari "Illu" Juutilainen was a fighter pilot of the Ilmavoimat, and the top scoring non-German fighter pilot of all time.

Ilmari Juutilainen achieved 58 of his victories while flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109G and 34 with a Brewster Buffalo.

One of the four double recipients of the Mannerheim Cross 2nd Class, Juutilainen was born in Lieksa, and died in Tuusula.

Ilmari Juutilainen's brother was the Finnish Army Captain Aarne Juutilainen, nicknamed "The Terror of Morocco".

Ilmari Juutilainen finished the war without a single hit to his plane from enemy fighter airplanes.

Ilmari Juutilainen scored the first radar-assisted victory in the Finnish Air Force on 24 March 1943, when he was guided to a Soviet Pe-2 by a German radar operator, who was testing out the freshly delivered radar sets, that officially became operational 3 days later.

Ilmari Juutilainen entered the Finnish military on 9 September 1932 for his compulsory military service, serving as a pilot in the Finnish Air Force starting in 1935.

Ilmari Juutilainen was transferred to LeLv 24, operating from Utti, on March 3,1939.

Ilmari Juutilainen scored his first victory on 19 December 1939, shooting down an Ilyushin DB-3 bomber and damaging two more.

Ilmari Juutilainen banked away to the east, losing altitude as it went.

All in all, Ilmari Juutilainen scored 34 victories in Brewster B-239,28 of them between 9 July 1941 and 22 November 1942, in his BW-364 "Orange 4".

In 1943, Ilmari Juutilainen was transferred to LeLv 34, which used new Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2s.

Ilmari Juutilainen shot down six Soviet airplanes on 30 June 1944, becoming an ace in a day and parallelling Jorma Sarvanto's score on 6 January 1940 in the Winter War.

Ilmari Juutilainen refused an officer commission, fearing it would keep him from flying.

Ilmari Juutilainen's 94th and last victory was a Li-2, the Russian version of the Douglas C-47, shot down on 3 September 1944 over the Karelian Isthmus.

Ilmari Juutilainen worked as a professional pilot until 1956, flying people in his De Havilland Moth.

Ilmari Juutilainen died at home in Tuusula on his 85th birthday on 21 February 1999.