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
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