Questions about Hungarian volunteers for Finland 1939-1940

Juha Tompuri · Post by **Juha Tompuri** » 21 Jul 2003 22:17

Hi Csaba!

As Harri mentioned, "missing in sea" was the fate of Vilmos (youre right, "Wilhelm" at Finnish sources) Békássy.
One Finnish source, Kohtalokkaat Lennot 1939-1944 (Fatal Flights...) by Jaakko Hyvönen states the following: "8th Feb-40 (Fiat G.50) FA-7 disappeared at transit flight from Sweden to Finland. Pilot ensign Wilhelm Bekassy was in order to fly one of the from Italy bought and at Sweden assemblied Fiat G.50 fighters to Finland. After the start from Västerås at 1445 hours he disappeared at an unknown way. The ordered route for the transit flights was: Västerås-Arnholm-north of Ahvenanmaa( sometimes also called Åland. I Think)-Säkylä. The last time Bekassy was seen over Svenska Högarn flying east, so his flight was already at that stage heading too much south. Next day 14 Swedish AF planes were send to search him. The area from Svenska Högarn to Märket was searched, but without any results.
Ensign Bekassy was a Hungarian citizen, born 28th Aug 1909 at Szamar, Hungary, and he was, with his fellow countryman Matias Pirity, a volunteer at Finnish AF from 16th Dec 1939. Bekassys name is at the list of the fallen heroes of the LeR(Aviation Regiment) 2."
A not so nice thing is that when V.B. was last seen flying too south, rumours of his possible defection (to Paldiski, Soviet airbase at Estonia) rose at Finland. When Pirity startrd his 2nd attemp to Finland his Finnish wingman was secretly given orders to shoot down M.P.´s plane if he would try something like V.B. was suspected to have done ( naturally all the rumours were found out to be fictionary). When Pirity landed at Turku, Finland his plane was only re-fueled (M.P. didn´t know that) with 50 litres of gasoline for the next flight to the nearby airfield.

Regards, Juha

Csaba Becze · Post by **Csaba Becze** » 22 Jul 2003 17:33

Thanks, I have the same information, but one of his relatives wrote, that he was buried in Lapua, so maybe Finnish soures mentioned, where did they find the body (in seashore, or in a forest, as his relative suggest) So, you don't have any other info about him?

Another question:
Pirithy claimed a damaged/probably destroyed(?) SB bomber over Hololla in March, 1940. Do you know the exact date of this engagement? Maybe the sources about the LLV 26 mentioned the exat date (unfortunately, I don't know) I know, just he flew 22 combat sorties in Finland, and this damage, without exact date.

Thanks,

Csaba

Juha Tompuri · Post by **Juha Tompuri** » 22 Jul 2003 22:10

Hi Csaba!

AFAIK Békássy´s plane/body was never found. It´s possible that there at Lapua, could be a memorial plate, as AFAIK he was declared as KIA at Winter War.
You most likely know this one: http://www.dalnet.se/~surfcity/hungary_pirity.htm
Nothing more to add exept a landing damage (with FA-3) 15th Feb-40 at Haukkajärvi (Utti) at the day he arrived Finland.

Regards, Juha

Csaba Becze · Post by **Csaba Becze** » 23 Jul 2003 09:49

Hi Juha,

Békássy's relative stated, that he was buried in Lapua (in March, if I remember correctly). Hmm, I'll try to seek some info from his family.

Yes, I know Hakan's excellent page, I sent a lot of info to him about the Hungarian pilots. I have this pictures about Pirithy also (from his daughter, Noemi)
I researched Pirithy's exact Slovakian victim, but my knowledge about the LLV 26 and the Soviet losses over Finland in March, 1940 is very limited. Currently I am working on my PhD, so I am not 'just' curious, I need this info for my work also.

Regards,

Csaba

Juha Tompuri · Post by **Juha Tompuri** » 23 Jul 2003 19:38

Hi Csaba!

I found one detail at "Lentäjän Albumi 3" (Pilots Album 3) by Toivo Sorsa. There a Finnish Winter War era fighter pilot w/o Heikki Vepsäläinen (who ferried Fiats from Sweden too) states that the compass at his plane was 15 degrees wrong. He suggests that this kind of fault at Békásssy´s plane could have caused he being lost over the Baltic sea.
BTW did you notice how Pirithy (Pirity?) wrote his first name at the guestbook? Was it for us Finns, to be "able" to pronounce his name correct?

Regards, Juha

Csaba Becze · Post by **Csaba Becze** » 24 Jul 2003 08:13

Hi Juha,

Thanks for this info. Pirity's first name was Mátyás, but this is a real Hungarian first name, evidently he used the Mathias form just for the Finnish people (to be "able" to pronounce his name correct, as you mentioned).
The exact form is:
Mátyás Pirity

Regards,

Csaba

Hanski · Post by **Hanski** » 17 Aug 2003 19:22

On the previous page, Ike_FI already presented a photo of Diego Manzocchi's grave.

On my recent trip to Finland I visited the same site, and came up with the photo below. The engraving is

ITALIALAINEN
LENTÄJÄ
DIECO MANZOECHI
+13.1.1940
VALKEALA

(Italian pilot ... etc.). Strange indeed, how his name was misspelled, and his date of birth was not engraved in the tombstone, unlike it is in most other stones, although the Finnish authorities must have known it.

Hanski

Juha Tompuri · Post by **Juha Tompuri** » 17 Aug 2003 20:10

Diego Manzocchi
26th December 1912 - 11th March 1940

Ike_FI · Post by **Ike_FI** » 24 Aug 2003 20:51

Juha Tompuri wrote: P.S. What other "foreign volunteers/troops" related monuments do you have at Helsinki?

Juha, the following page has a collection of photos of gravestones/memorials erected to honour the Germans who died in year 1918's operations in Finland. Many of those are in Helsinki region.

http://www.helsinki.fi/~jjeerola/muistomerkit.htm

The link "Suomessa 1918 kaatuneet saksalaiset" near the end of page takes you to a list of the names of those soldiers.

Juha Tompuri · Post by **Juha Tompuri** » 24 Aug 2003 22:00

Ike,

8) link.
The first fallen at your link, under Detachment Brandenstein, Willy Heintz, rests at Kotka. There even is a song about him, do you know the one Veikko Lavi sung ?
Two WWI Germans rest at Valkeala cemetery. As does a Danish Winter War volunteer fighter pilot Fritz Rasmussen. And Lauri Nissinen, a Finnish fighter ace.

Regards, Juha

Ike_FI · Post by **Ike_FI** » 26 Aug 2003 23:03

Ike_FI wrote:
P.S. What other "foreign volunteers/troops" related monuments do you have at Helsinki?
For the Swedish...

The Swedish King and his spouse and Princess Victoria are visiting Helsinki today, and for the first time (at least officially) the King also visited the memorial for the Swedish volunteers. Sorry for poor quality of the news clip capture.

(Juha, thanks again for your information. I think I may have heard the song but don't remember any details.)

Nicolas von Schmidt-L · Post by **Nicolas von Schmidt-L** » 02 Sep 2003 15:30

Ike, where did you find that news clip?

Orvar Nilsson, chairman(word?) of the Veteran organization for the Swedish Volunteers in Finland 1939-44 (During the war, platoon commander in the Swedish Voluntary Company at Svir and the Isthmus) was supposed to take part in this event.

Swedish TV showed exactly 0 seconds of this. I think that the most that was ever written about this, was three rows in a national newspaper. Yay for our media. Sigh.

Im thinking about writing something about the people on that Swedish stone on http://www.svenskafrivilliga.com, as I have obtained first hand accounts on most of their deaths and why they were "left behind". Its all very tragical ...

Ike_FI · Post by **Ike_FI** » 03 Sep 2003 21:27

Nicolas von Schmidt-L wrote:Ike, where did you find that news clip?
Orvar Nilsson, chairman(word?) of the Veteran organization for the Swedish Volunteers in Finland 1939-44 (During the war, platoon commander in the Swedish Voluntary Company at Svir and the Isthmus) was supposed to take part in this event.

Swedish TV showed exactly 0 seconds of this. I think that the most that was ever written about this, was three rows in a national newspaper. Yay for our media. Sigh.

Im thinking about writing something about the people on that Swedish stone on http://www.svenskafrivilliga.com, as I have obtained first hand accounts on most of their deaths and why they were "left behind". Its all very tragical ...

Hi!

The clip is the second lowest one on this page:
http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/arki ... /08/182757
(it may be removed any time, when they need to make room for new ones, I suppose)

The king's visit to the memorial was mentioned in both major TV channel's prime time news that I saw.

I wish you let us know when your project proceeds, good luck with it!

Ike_FI · Post by **Ike_FI** » 12 Oct 2003 00:48

Two pictures published in (Finnish) Journal Of Military History 15 (I hope I can add some textual information based on this source in the near future too):

Csaba Becze · Post by **Csaba Becze** » 12 Oct 2003 07:25

Nice pictures, Ike_FI.
Last week I sent some daetails about Pirity's combat sortis to Carl-Fredrik Geust(and I got some details from him also).

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