Finnish Forces

Lieutenant Colonel Jokipaltio

Pekka Jokipaltio(1901-1977) was a Finnish officer who became known during the Continuation War as commander of Anti-Aircraft Regiment 1 which covered Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The barrage system which he created saved Helsinki from considereble damages during the Soviet terror bombings of spring 1944. At the beginning of the war, he also had realized to increase the light effect of the AA gun shells by adding mixture of magnesium and aluminum to them. In test shootings this caused the explosion of 76mm shell to look like a 152mm shell going off. This increased the scaring effect of the barrages and as the Finnish Anti-Aircraft guns opened fire, the Soviet bombers often dropped their loads and turned back before getting even close to the target zone.