Who was my grandpa?

[cornhead]

Hello people! Nice to see dedicated historians here!

My question is: Who was my great grandfather?

His name was Yrjo Pitkänen, fought in the finnish winter war and died 1941 by the splinter of a grenade. I think he was a captain or an officer. I'm pretty sure he was not a regular private.

I know so little of him, and his wife (my great grandma) does not want to speak about the war, she turns 100 years old by the way next month

Does anyone have any information about an Yrjo Pitkänen? Thank you so much, god bless!

[Mangrove]

Does anyone have any information about an Yrjo Pitkänen?

The Database of the Fallen Soldiers: Captain Yrjö Gunnar Pitkänen. Unit: Esik./III/JR 15 (HQ of the 3rd Battalion of the 15th Infantry Regiment). Died in the munipality of Hiitola in the Karelian Isthmus on 15 August 1941.

From the war diary of his battalion:

15 August 1941. [...] 5.30 a.m. At 5.30 o'clock, Captain Pitkänen was departing from his HQ to the front line. A burst of mortar fire hit in front of the HQ tent. Captain Pitkänen, four signalmen and a man from the 9th Company died instantly. Lieutenant Leivo was severely wounded. Some twenty other men were wounded. [...]

You may also order his military service records from the National Archives for a small fee.

[JTV]

(Mangrove was apparently bit faster, but I post this anyway, since it contains some additional data)

Online services organised by Finnish National Archives include a database of Finnish citizens deceased in wars of 1939 - 1945 and a search engine.

I did a small search with the info that you provided. The number of deceased persons with last name Pitkänen in the database is 156 persons total, from which one seems to fit for your information.

Name: Yrjö Gunnar Pitkänen
Born: 31st of December 1905 in Mikkeli
Rank: Captain
Unit: HQ of 3rd Battalion of Infantry Regiment 15
Deceased: 15th of August 1941 in Hiitola, buried to Parikkala cemetary.

His data card:
http://kronos.narc.fi/menehtyneet/index ... raportti=1

Search page:
http://kronos.narc.fi/menehtyneet/index.php

If this is the correct person, he was apparently battalion commander of 3rd Battalion of Infantry Regiment 15. According battalion war journal at 05:30 that day Captain Pitkänen was about to leave from his command post to frontline, when a sudden mortar barrage hit in front of his command post tent. He, four soldiers from signal corps and one soldier from 9th company were immediately mortally wounded. Also Lieutenant Leivo (or Leino) was seriously wounded and in addition there were more than a ten other wounded.

War journal of 3rd Battalion of JR 15 that day:
http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=3413951

Jarkko

[cornhead]

Thank you so much for your answers, words can't describe how much me and my family appreciate it!