When he was 18 years old he became a member of the SA, where his shooting skills were acknowledged, and he was given a rifle to take home and practise marksmanship.

In his autobiography, Sutkus describes that after the war he came into contact with the anti-Soviet Lithuanian resistance, how he was captured and tortured by the KGB.

He was in possession of forged documents declaring him to be stateless and of having worked throughout the war as a farm labourer, but knew the Russians suspected him of having served in the Wehrmacht as a sniper.

Sutkus went into voluntary banishment to accompany a Lithuanian woman, Antanina, (d. 1995) nineteen years his senior, who had been linked to the resistance.

He wrote a memoir and helped train the Lithuanian army after Lithuania gained independence, giving lectures.