Keijo Helmer Kuusela (6 January 1921 – 27 April 1984) was a Finnish professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player who played in the

SM-liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

for

Hämeenlinnan Tarmo Hämeenlinnan Tarmo is a sports club founded in Hämeenlinna, Finland, in 1903. It currently has about 1500 members. The club participates in sport of athletics, athletics, cycle sport, cycling, strength sports, bowling, orienteering, and volleyb ...

. He was inducted into the

Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame The Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame is housed in and administered by the ('Finnish Ice Hockey Museum'), a part of the Vapriikki Museum Centre, in Tampere, Finland. The was founded in 1979 with the mission to record, document, and exhibit objects, ...

in 1985. He also competed in the men's field hockey tournament at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

. Kuusela served as a fighter pilot in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, flying Morane-Saulnier 406 fighter. He shot down one Soviet

P-39 Airacobra The Bell P-39 Airacobra is a fighter produced by Bell Aircraft for the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. It was one of the principal American fighters in service when the United States entered combat. The P-39 was used by the ...

fighter in his last aerial combat before colliding with another and parachuting and becoming

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

1944.

References

External links

*
Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame bio
1921 births 1984 deaths Finnish ice hockey players Ice hockey players at the 1952 Winter Olympics Olympic ice hockey players for Finland Ice hockey people from Tampere Finnish male field hockey players Olympic field hockey players for Finland Field hockey players at the 1952 Summer Olympics Finnish World War II pilots Shot-down aviators Finnish prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by the Soviet Union Military personnel from Tampere {{Finland-fieldhockey-bio-stub