Urho Sakari Lehtovaara was born on 27 October 1917 in Pyhäjärvi

Pyhäjärvi

Pyhäjärvi is a town and municipality in the south of Northern Ostrobothnia region, Finland. Pyhäjärvi also borders the Northern Savonia and Central Finland regions. The town belongs to the subregion of Nivala–Haapajärvi...

, northern Finland and died on 5 January 1949. He was to become one of the top scoring Finnish Air Force aces and he was awarded the Mannerheim Cross

Mannerheim Cross

The Mannerheim Cross of Liberty is the highest Finnish military decoration. The medal was introduced after the Winter War and named after Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim...

 on 9 July 1944.

Lehtovaara would eventually fly over 400 missions, scoring 44½ victories with Morane-Saulnier M.S.406

Morane-Saulnier M.S.406

The M.S.406 was a French Armée de l'Air fighter aircraft built by Morane-Saulnier starting in 1938. Numerically it was France's most important fighter during the opening stages of World War II....

s and Messerschmitt Bf 109

Messerschmitt Bf 109

The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...

s. He retired from the Finnish Air Force

Finnish Air Force

The Finnish Air Force is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. Its peacetime tasks are airspace surveillance, identification flights, and production of readiness formations for wartime conditions...

 in 1946 and started to run his own cinema.

Lehtovaara died in very sinister conditions. He had been arrested by Valpo

Valtiollinen Poliisi

Valtiollinen poliisi was the predecessor of the Finnish Security Intelligence Service.- Etsivä keskuspoliisi :...

 and interrogated of the Weapons Cache Case

Weapons Cache Case

The Weapons Cache Case was a Finnish criminal case of the mid-1940s. It concerned a secret military operation following the Continuation War, where a large number of Finnish Army weapons and equipment was hidden away around the country....

. He attacked one of his interrogators, grabbed his pistol and committed suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 so that his interrogators would get no information of him.

Victories

Aircraft	Victories
Morane-Saulnier MS.406	15
Messerschmitt Bf 109 Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s... G	29.5
Total	44.5

External links

• Urho Lehtovaara - Little Giant