Here is an obviously authentic story about infantry battles in Tali. It is rare to find a story of this quality written by a mere Pfc.
Antti Nieminen (22.03.1922 - 24.10.2003)
Source:
Tie Tali-Ihantalaan. Konekiväärimiehen sotapäiväkirja, Jyväskylä 2007
[Antti Nieminen fought his war as a Pfc. and machine gunner in the ranks of II/JR48 in 1942 - 1944. He always had a notebook and a pen and most of the time a camera at hand. He kept a diary most of the time but he had to set aside his camera in summer 1944 due to intensive fighting.]
26/27 June 1944. Ihantala
On the 26th June 1944 02.30hrs we reach the rallying point North of Ihantala where we find tents that have been dug in the ground. Finally we are allowed to get some sleep. There are just spruce boughs under me but oh how good they feel. I shut my eyes and fall asleep. Dreams, light as feathers, overcome me.
In the morning (27.) all the guns of the Russian orchestra start playing. The entire front comes alive, now is the moment of truth. But I keep sleeping. I am totally unaware of what is going on.
The proviant distribution horse arrives at 1130 hrs. Someone is shouting hastily at the tent door:
- Get up and find anti-air cover!
I run in the nearest ditch on the field. Pvt. Topi Saarivirta follows me. We are watching the sky. Growing noise of aircraft engines approaches from the direction of Viipuri, then we see the planes.
-It's Stukas! somebody yells at the tents.
True enough, they are (Luftwaffe) Stuka dive bombers, thirty of them. We are shouting with joy because we know that the planes are going to raid the position we lost recently in Tali. We listen with tremendous enjoyment the explosions of bombs. Saarivirta is jumping up and down while yelling:
- That is the way, that is the way, so, so, that is what evicts the bedbugs. This does warm my heart. We get to eat our soup in peace, that dose of medicine calmed them down some!
Pvt. Antti Riihimäki is chewing his crispbread without talking. We can see that he, too, is satisfied.
As we are finishing our meal our Company commander Capt. Seppälä , the Sarge SSg. Ikonen and the Chaplain Tarmo Nuotio arrive. The Company is commanded in a quadruple row. We can guess why.
It is the roll call. The Sarge makes notes in his papers, assisted by the Chaplain. Many of us are missing. Sec.Lt. Lajo has made it to the First Aid post, that is confirmed. Col. Ojala and Pfc. Perälä have fallen, confirmed information. Sec.Lt. Perämäki and his messenger Autio are missing. Cpt. Mikkola tells that he has seen Perämäki being bandaged, missing both legs and one arm, He was unconscious then, he is recorded as fallen. Cpl Mikkola tells that Pfc. Pöysti was badly mangled and found dead. Then Pvt. Autio's name is read. Nobody knows anything about him. Sarge Ikonen questions me. Somebody may have said we were seen together yesterday morning.
- Are you sure that Autio did not join the deserters?
- I am positive. Yesterday there was no such talk.
I can see Pvt Autio in my mind: a man schooled in the maelstrom of the war in his task as messenger, obedient, mentally stable, faithful. The Chaplain makes a note at his name: fallen, body left in battlefield. Pvt Pynnönen was wounded in one leg, he was taken to First Aid Post no. 3054. It is not known if he survived or not. We do not know how many men of Lt Perämäki's platoon were taken prisoners.
We are still standing in formation. Batteries behind us are firing constantly.
- That's the way, Riihimäki is nodding, that does them good. Keep giving them.
- Well, how are you feeling today ? Our Company Commander Seppänen asks Cpl Topi Saarivirta.
- Easier than yesterday. Yesterday we had a tough time but finally it was just a scare., -says Topi.
- Yes, boys, the fighting continues and it will be heavy. We have the forces of a great power against us. Many of our boys will have to sacrifice their lives for the country, says our popular Commander, bowing his bandaged head.
Recognizing his responsibility he quickly puts up his head and forces himself alert, as if frightened by his own words. The Captain is still his old self and he keeps joking, thus calming his men and inducing their trust.
Dinner will be at 1700 hrs and then evening service and communion for those who want it. The Company is dispersed for rest. Dozens of enemy ground attack planes are cruising about with thundering engines and firing at the camp area with their cannons. Aerial bombs are falling with rumbling, ripping huge holes in the already torn ground. Our own batteries keep firing constantly. The storm of artillery fire increases at times into a hellish fury. The Western horizon is flashing over Ihantala like a cloud of fire.
Every man is digging a hole for himself, to create a place to sleep in the shaking ground. We turn in and tired men with good nerves fall asleep at once. Due to stomach problem I have to find a place to relieve myself. I cannot find one, I hope to find it behind a big stone nearby. The place is reserved: behind the stone there is an odd man, a recent replacement called Tiainen. He is weeping without restraint and keeps repeating the names of his wife and children. He is grieving for his fate, "an old man is brought here to die". That one does not dare to desert, I think to myself, but on the other hand he is useless in the front line. I tell Topi Saarivirta about the man. He laughs aloud and says:
- That's odd, so far Tiainen loved to be here in Ihantala.
Later on as we prepare for the evening service I am told our paramedics took the man to the First Aid Post. He was in a state of shock, kept repeating the names of his children although there was nothing to worry about, no risk of dying. As he had recovered he was assigned to Ammunition Distribution . Everyone is not able to defeat fear, that in a tough spot constantly tries to acquaint himself to every soldier. This man was one of them. We heard that in Ammunition Distribution Pvt. Tiainen filled a man's shoes. He kept his nerve even during the massive air raids at Juustila.
The situation in the front line is not getting any easier. This time we are fed as scheduled, 1700 hrs. Even though no delicacy - a field kettle full of oatmeal porridge - everyone eats his portion. We are a quiet lot, even Pvt. Saarivirta shuts up. The men load their SMG magazines in a serious mood. We do not have a machine gun, it was lost at Konkkala hill yesterday.
Fighting intensity is increasing. Russians keep attacking, they break in our positions and are thrown back with counterstrikes. Nothing helps, our losses keep mounting frightfully. The road from Ihantala to Portinhoikka is seriously threatened. Sombre thoughts occupy my mind - counterstrike, what a horrible word. We shall be going next night or tomorrow morning at the latest. Some of us are going to leave our outfit to join the great unknown.
Evening service and communion take place under a vault of fire in Ihantala. The church is modest. An empty mortar shell box is the altar , a white birch cross in front of the box and behind it a fence, resembling a beam where horses are tied. We arrive a platoon at a time. The chaplain begins the service, reading Isaiah 41:10
-Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you...
Pale men are joining the prayer. During the prayer the shells of a battery howl over us, almost touching the tops of mutilated tree trunks. I see that as a bad omen: the lower our shells are flying the closer the enemy is. As if in defiance the psalm "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" is heard among the din. The men who want communion are kneeling at the altar constructed of birch. The rest of us are singing in "attention" in civilian manner. Final prayer and the Nordic psalm "Dear Jesus Christ, in your hand". The life long memorable service is over.
The men scatter in the terrain. Some sit on their blankets and talk with each other. We absolutely need human contact. By next morning we shall be attacking the enemy. Maybe this is the last night before death, inducing strong vibrations deep in one's soul.
Summer night dusk falls over the luckless Vihantala village. The terrain is covered by shell holes with dark edges, the cemetery has not been spared. The cemetery is in shocking state, some of the memorial crosses have been flung in the shell holes, others can be seen among the coffin boards sticking our of the earth. Some of the remaining crosses are covered with earth, others are askew in every direction.
Some of our dead remain in the terrain. Their faces are covered with spruce boughs as the custom is. How lonely is a man in this situation, even though there are thousands of others around.
28. June. Steel storm
At 0030 hrs the companies start the march to their start points. Quiet files wearing steel helmets are heading for the front line. The men are walking in slow, resigned gait. Shells are exploding in the forest continuously, we have to hit the deck every now and then. Cracking of branches is not heard in this din. The march continues. Most of us are very young, one or two years past twenty. I look around, they are humans and men as well as I am. Many of us are marching to their death. Everyone is saying his goodbye - this may be the last moment.
At 0500 hrs we reach the start point. The commander of the battle group, Maj. Pylvänäinen reads the attack order. We are starting from the road Kaateri - Kokkomäki, our initial target is the crossroads of Vakkila road. Machine guns support the attack.
- Any questions?
- Yes. Major, Sir, how can the machine guns support us as we don't have any? Cpl Kuivalainen asks.
- Machine guns support the attack, the commander responds.
- Yes. sir. Kuivalainen is embarrassed.
By 0600 we have grouped ourselves. H hour is at 0630. Tensely we wait for the order. Due to the rain in the night and dew everything is abundantly wet. Birches and alders are drooping and water is dripping from the leaves. The grass is wet and our trousers are getting wet. Every branch and every leaf produces rain when touched. Cobwebs gleaming with pearls of water adorn trees, bushes and grass stalks. They are beautiful to see but they cling unpleasantly to one's face and hands.
Pvt Saarivirta is not worried, he is smiling, but not wise-cracking. We are again feeling the greatest threat a man can feel, the threat of getting killed.
Oiva Korvenpää orders us to proceed. We reach the edge of a small swamp and carefully advance on it. Pvt. Saarivirta is one of our MG squad and he is a little ahead of us. He is a very good scout,. Signaling with his hand he calmly takes cover behind a cranberry tussock. Saarivirta controls himself excellently, he does not do any sudden movements, neither does he shoot. I am watching what Pvt. Riihimäki and the men of the 7th company are doing. They also have taken cover. The Russians on the other side of the swamp are tough ones, too. They maintain their fire discipline. They are waiting for us with fingers on the trigger, ready to kill us on the swamp. We are not coming, however.
Our mortar is firing at a slow rate at the terrain held by the enemy. The enemy recce outfit find themselves detected and they begin to retreat. Pvt. Saarivirta shouts at full volume:
- Russkies are leaving now, let's follow them, quick!
Our battle cries are mixed with crackling of weapons. Shooting long bursts we dash over the swamp. As we reach the solid ground I drop and stay there for a long time, panting. I must catch my breath. There are terrific crashes next to me, stones and dirt are raining on me. My helmet is ringing. The enemy runs, leaving their dead behind.
- Now boys, let's follow them quickly, Cpl. Korvenpää orders us.
- Keep moving, Stukas are coming !
- That's the way, Pvt. Kasittula says and beckons at the bombers.
Enemy AA shells are flashing above us, leaving puffs of smoke in the sky. They drift with the wind and disperse. We are wondering why our artillery is firing only harassment fire instead of a smashing strafe. For some incomprehensible reason the fire controllers are not here. We must wait for them.
Supported by (German) StuGs the III battalion of JR48 advances along the main road. The II Battalion of JR48 advances towards the ruins of Nurmela village. At 0730 we reach the forest edge at Nurmela. Finally the fire controllers are with us , and we start hearing artillery firing from our side. The gun nests at Marjamäki are being softened.
We are making progress in the forest. At 0900 the III battalion of JR48 is near Marjamäki but get stuck there. The enemy has in the night dug in the ruins of the village. They have plenty of automatic weapons. We are getting a stream of bullets fired from the basement windows, cracks between foundation stones and behind chimneys. We have to wait for our artillery to shell them. Russian artillery and mortars are sending steel at us in ever increasing amounts.
I peek out of my foxhole. The forest is being smashed like a grain field in hailstorm. Trees are snapping like straws. The terrain is covered in a dense cloud of dust. I cannot see farther than five metres. Judging by the noise enemy ground attack planes are above us in large flocks.
This hellish confusion reaches from the front line up to our supply points in the rear. It is wide and deep. The enemy appears to have a tremendous number of field guns. The shelling does not abate, it just is moving towards our rear.
- There is going to be a counter-attack, - Cpl. Riihimäki supposes.
- It is, - I admit.
The II battalion of JR13 are in a bad way. A man comes, carrying a field telephone on a strap on his chest, without his weapon, foaming at his mouth, talking incoherently. It is difficult to understand him. He says he has heard Russian when trying to connect with the artillery firing positions. We deduce the man must belong to one of the artillery or heavy mortar fire control teams. The enemy must have connected themselves with our cable and our fire controller lost his nerves under murderous fire.
Men keep coming from the first line. Men of JR48 stop at the blocking position as well as some of the other units. But some of them are scattered in the forest, shocked and unled. The Battalion lost all their officers, including the commander, and most of NCOs.
28 June. Armour support
At 1100 hrs the StuGs join us after ammo replenishment. Now our attack starts advancing , supported by the armour and four batteries. The fire controller is with the StuGs. I am in the securing troop that is heading for the Vakkila crossroads advancing at the edge of the fields in the cover of the forest over Karkimovuori hill. In heavy mortar shelling we are dashing ten meters at a time from one shell hole to another. Splinters are whining and earth is flying around us. Every now and then there is an angry explosion among us.
A Vanya machine gun keeps a nasty barrage across the field to the hillside of Karkimovuori. We are not able to proceed. I am watching at the ruins but cannot find the shooter because shells keep flashing there constantly. It is our artillery and mortars pounding at the tenaciously defending enemy .
- Look out boys, now the Vanyas are going to attack across the field, Pvt Saarivirta calls out.
- Bullshit, it isn't the Vanya but our boys are controlling the Nurmela area, Cpl. Riihimäki opines
- At least one is coming, look there, Saarivirta says
Someone is coming, we must admit it.
- He is mad, whether ours or theirs, Riihimäki says
- He is, I admit
We are watching how the man runs. He has run for a hundred meters and keeps coming.
- That's a lucky one. Let's not shoot him, we shall see what he is up to.
With finger on my SMG trigger I watch as the man comes closer, then I recognise him, he is one of ours. He is Pvt. Veikko Lindell from the 2nd Platoon, hailing from Rannankylä village in Muurame. He is wounded, a splinter has cut off his right arm at the shoulder. Pain and fear made him run across the dangerous field. Lindell was miraculously lucky, and is taken care of by paramedics.
Our batteries keep shelling the gun nests in the ruins. Explosions are heard, earth, rocks, bricks and dirt is ripped in the air. There are shouts and noise as the enemy position is ripped up by shells. Some nests fall silent but not all. Here and there we can see MG muzzle flames with associated cloud of dust. Enemy mortars are firing a barrage at the forest stretch next to us. That is unoccupied now. A lucky break for us. I glance at Cpl. Riihimäki, his face is laughing.
- Now boys we have a chance. Let's go as fast as we can with the load we are carrying.
Riihimäki has guessed right. The enemy does not fire through their own barrage with their automatic weapons. We run crouching , I stumble on a stump, I am panting and my heart is bouncing. The edge of the forest is here and an open field ahead of us, also the road from Vakkila. We see some of our dead. Among them is Eino Vuorikoski, my pal. He is leaning on a rock with smile in his face, lifeless. An AT shell has cut him in two. His legs and pelvis are five meters farter, guts connect the parts. This is the worst, I am thinking. I can't help crossing my hands while my lips produce a prayer. I am fearing tremendously, but I try to conceal it, specially from Cpl. Riihimäki, a hard boiled man.
We are in a tough spot. We cannot advance. Enemy MG is firing a barrage to the Vakkila road. The MG is placed on a hill near the crossroads, and there is an enemy T34 tank is hiding behind the hill. The tank fires every now and then at the Karkimovuori hill.
We dig in near a sand pit and keep observing the No man's land. Information is passed on from man to man: We must wait for our own StuGs. The armour is going to press on firs, we are to follow them. Together we are going to take the Vakkila crossroads from the enemy.
- The StuGs shall advance to the crossroads on the Vakkila road and continue to Portinhoikka. Infantry shall advance on the right side of the hill to the main road - the Company commander orders.
- Very well if we get the war machines to help us, but they should come soonest, Saarivirta says.
It is this damn waiting that gets our nerves. The situation is harrowing and I am bathing in sweat. I must make my load lighter, I dump my rolled overcoat but keep the New Testament and the field psalm book. I just don't dare to throw them away. Pvt Kasittula next to me also unloads.
Waiting goes on. We are watching the Vakkila road to Hakamäki. The StuGs should come that way.
Pvt Kasittula looks worried. His thoughts are occupied by more serious matters than waiting for the armour. The noise is loud. The enemy fires a barrage on the road with mortars, and the MG on the hill too. The road is sparking like an abrasive stone.
- We are getting nowhere if we can't make that MG silent, - I tell Kasittula
- We don't - he agrees and says:
- There's a MG for us. Let's take it.
- Let's, but shrewdly.
We keep our SMGs aimed at the MG nest, but we keep waiting for the StuGs without firing. Saarivirta and Riihimäki keep glancing at the same direction, they may share our idea.
At 1000 hrs (sic) we start hearing tank track noise that gets louder and louder.
(Nieminen obviously has the hours wrong from here on. Maybe he had not wound his watch or just had no time to details. Tr. rem.)
Saarivirta keeps glancing to the right: They are coming but apparently timidly.
- Why the hell are they watching behind the bend? I am wondering aloud
Then we again hear the tank tracks through the noise of shooting. There are three StuGs and things start happening. Russian mortars are firing a barrage and the cursed MG is shooting above our foxholes. We have to duck then. The StuGs stop, then leave the road as they are attacked by two ground attack planes that drop bombs and fire their guns at them.
We can hear constant fire of infantry weapons from our left from Nurmela. The enemy keeps defending the ruins of the village. Ten ground attack planes keep attacking the terrain kept by our troops . Muzzle flames are flashing on both sides of the fuselages.
At 1300 hrs our artillery and mortars starts pounding the gun nests in the ruins and the defended hillock in front of us. The sky is full of circling aircraft.
The situation is changing favourably. Our Messerschmitts chase away the enemy ground attack planes from the battlefield.
- That's right boys in the air, you did a good job to us, Kasittula opines.
We hear artillery fire behind us from Vakkila village. Strong smell of gunpowder drifts to our noses from one kilometer distance. Heavy shells are dropping somewhere near Nurmela along the main road. Shell hole emerges, is filled up, another one emerges. Gray dust blocks vision like fog.
The enemy gunner in front of us tests his weapon, he fires a brief burst every now and then. It seems the Vasilis, too, fear dust and sand rain. The awkward waiting continues
At 1500 the StuGs get going with clanking tracks. Saarivirta and Riihimäki are nearest to the tanks. They signal us with their arms, no shouting could be heard in this din.
Capt. Seppänen and his 8. Co are having a hard time at Nurmela. The enemy has lost the nests in the village ruins but keep up fierce resistance in the small forest strip North of the Youth Associaton hall.
Where are the StuGs going? They stop and find cover. It is the Russians ' turn now. The field in front of us and the birch forest beyond are literally boiling under shelling. Shells are flying with sharp howling then hiss when closer to us, finally exploding on the ground with ear deafening crashing. Something is hissing in the ditch in front of me; yes, it is a hot shell splinter in a puddle of rainwater.
Our mortars are firing at the Russian MG nests but Vanya's MG won't fall silent. Those are really tough men, I must say.
The StuGs are again advancing., in a staggered formation. I and Pvt Kasittula are watching them, thrilled. The tanks advance a hundred meters from us with closed hatches, then there is a bang.
The T34 from its securing position behind the hill has fired and hit, but only at an angle at the logs protecting the StuG side. The timber catches fire, the StuG commander panics and backs his tank quickly off from the road. The StuG pair behind them fire a shot each and pull back also. The tankers start putting off the fire on their vehicle. I am fearing for them but for nothing. Two StuGs cover them.
Vanya's MG does not dare to shoot, he is in a dire situation with two StuG cannon muzzles in front of him. The Russian T34 escapes from the crossroads in the direction of Mustasaari. The StuGs are now under intense fire, shells are flashing around them. The tanks are moving, they are covering each other with their fire. Two of them climb on the road and advance a hundred meters. Then one returns to their starting position and turns to cover the hillock being softened by our mortars. Trees are falling in the flashing cloud of dust. Visibility is getting worse.
The MG securing the road won't fall silent. Pvt. Kasittula is in serious mood, he is wondering why the StuGs cannot spot the MG. Cpl. Saarivirta is not seen but Riihimäki is there and he is beckoning. We cannot hear him but we are watching his signs. He repeats - we understand: forward!
The StuGs open rapid fire at the hillock. Two of the tanks are just in front of the cursed MG. The Russian boys won't give up yet. The side of the rearmost tank is sparkling as the MG burst hits it. Now the tankers must have spotted the MG because the tank turns at it.
28 June. A MG changes owners
We get going now. Riihimäki and Saarivirta are dashing ahead along with everybody else. The StuG is firing at the MG nest. Kasittula fires at it, too. As his mag is spent I continue firing at the same target between the tanks. Finally the MG served by men in brown tunics falls silent, having caused much trouble.
- Paramedics here! - shouts somebody on the right
- There are wounded on the left, paramedics and stretchers there!
A team of paramedics start running under intense mortar shelling with their stretchers and first aid kits. A splinter gets one of them, he falls down and stays there. Another man grabs his stretcher and the team goes on. The dead are left there.
I and Kasittula dash and creep in turns, supporting each other with fire. In the ditches of the road there are enemy dead and loudly moaning wounded. We manage to traverse the road unscathed. We keep going on, we dash over a strip of field from one ditch to another. Due to bad visibility and dust cloud I stop in a larger shell hole. Kasittula joins me. We don't talk, we just rest leaning on the hole wall. An intense, pretty well aimed enemy barrage hits the terrain. Dirt is raining on us, it is not possible to talk in the noise. We wait a little.
Firing has decreased a little. From our left from the direction of the Youth Associaton hall we can hear fire of light weapons. Enemy shells are falling behind us with irregular intervals. Dust is settling a little, we stay alert.
- Keep lookout now, I am filling up my mags, I say to Kasittula.
- Look now, he responds hastily
. What's up ?
- Tanks just in front of us !
- Dammit, we are in trouble now. We don't have Panzerfausts. What can we do, they are soon coming at us!
Cpl Riihimäki grabs my shoulder and wonders why we are worrying .
- We just have a damn bad luck, those two tanks came there in the cover of dust and shelling, - I respond him with indignation, but Riihimäki is just laughing.
- Are you fools, fellows, can't you see they are not dangerous, they are dead tanks. Unfortunately ours.
That is right. There is a swastika on the sooty side of one tank.
Battle goes on. 7. Co. men reach the Ihantala - Portinhoikka road. Riihimäki dashes there, too. As agreed I am heading for the hillock on our left to look for the MG with Kasittula. Soon we find it. The Russian MG defending the hillock fell silent due to feeding problem: twisted ammo belt. The canvas ammunition belt they use is inferior to steel belt. Sand and turfs that fell on the weapon and the belt box became their death. Even in death the gunner seems to wonder what happened to his MG.
Kasittula disconnects the gun from the wheeled mount, but the dead Vasili hangs on to the spade grips and gets dragged along. Only after a sharp kick does the dead man in his brown tunic release his grip. The man would have kept firing at us even dead, if a turf had not clogged the feed block.
- There is the gun, I shall remove the belt, Kasittula says.
But because there is a kink in the belt we cannot remove the feed block nor remove the belt.
- Take it as it is, here is a couple of ammo cans too.
I take the gun and the ammo cans. I shove also some Russian hand grenades in my pockets . We run down the hill, the Russians do not yet know what the situation is. Their barrage is falling far behind us, for our benefit. We are soon out of breath due to heavy load, we must stop in a shell hole and recover a little. There is a mortar fire control team going to the front line. They have a field telephone and one of the men unrolls cable from a reel on his back.
Kasittula looks at the men and seems to be happy, he says:
- Now it is going fine.
- You mean the war?
- Right.
We set off again. We have to rest a couple of times more before we join Cpl. Riihimäki, out of breath. He has dug a nice foxhole in the ditch on the side of the road. The fire control team is just digging in.
- Hurry up boys, set up the MG and quickly, Cpl. Riihimäki tells us
- Boys attacking to Mustasaari need our support.
I get busy with the MG, I remove the bolt return spring setup and with moderate violence manage to make the cocking lever touch the stop roller. Now the breech block and cartridge carrier can be removed for cleaning by Kasittula. Soon the Russian MG, with fluted water jacket and wheeled mount, is in firing readiness, now in the correct direction.
The field and the hillock where we found the MG is now under shelling. The enemy is strafing the terrain they lost. Light arms shooting din is coming from the direction of the schoolhouse. It is impossible to hear talking farther than one meter. It is beyond comprehension how the fire controllers are able to manage with their telephone.
End of Part 1/3
Personal story in three parts: a machine gunner in Ihantala 1944
Re: Personal story in three parts: a machine gunner in Ihantala 1944
Kasittula is busy. He has one clean belt, we just have to insert it in the feed block. He says in my ear:
- The dog is ready to bite its owner.
We do not yet lift the MG in the position prepared by Riihimäki. I load the gun, the cocking handle moves freely. I tighten the bolt return spring for the sake of safety. Kasittula leans on the side of our position and keeps on cleaning a belt. I hear an odd splat, and Kasittula makes odd gestures with his hands, he spreads his fingers. I think he fell asleep and is dreaming as his eyes are closed and his head leaning against the embankment.
- Don't sleep now, I yell and try to shake his shoulder to wake him up.
My pal does not wake up, his head falls back . A bullet has hit his brow under the visor of the helmet. No time to contemplate now, bullets are whizzing past me. I drop on the bottom of the ditch .
- Enemy is in the house to the left of us, upstairs! Give them some MG fire! - it is the artillery fire control team informing us.
- Stay low where you are, - I respond and aim the MG at the upstairs window, then shoot.
Cpl. Riihimäki is now aware of the situation. he drags Kasittula away by his legs and then feeds the belt for me. We let go two belts in one go. Boards of the schoolhouse upstairs wall are smashed into splinters by the bullet stream, roof slates fall down. Mortar shells are flashing on the school yard, they are ours. The schoolhouse catches fire, either by the mortar shells or our tracer bullets. The Russian MG belts include tracer as every third round.
The schoolhouse burns handsomely, some smoke descends and makes the surroundings ghostly. Men dashing in the smoke for Mustasaari look like ghosts when seen against the fire.
The law of the war is harsh. The enemy specialists, including the sniper that got Kasittula, who had cleverly selected the schoolhouse as their position are going to die as the house burns down. It was Kasittula's fate to be their first victim. I, Riihimäki and the fire control team survived because the Russian wanted to stay undetected and did not fire a burst in the ditch . He wanted to get us one at a time. He did not succeed, thanks to the alert fire controllers. As we opened the MG fire at them they had no chance, and it was their turn to enter the great unknown with no return.
Now we lift the MG in its prepared position. Then we check how our good friend and brother Martti Kasittula is. His helmet is pushed on the back of his head, there is a slightly bleeding hole in his brow.
We kneel on his side for prayer, he cannot hope for any other help. His heart is beating but his breathing is rattling.
- Paramedics, here! - I shout despite knowing that he is beyond worldly help.
The din decreases constantly but shouting cannot yet be heard. Nobody is seen, we wait until paramedics appear´. We beckon them and they come with their stretcher. Our brother, breathing heavily, is lifted on the stretcher and his journey to the First Aid post begins. Martti's lifeless, unfocused staring gaze means that his end is near. A paramedic touches his lip with a straw and says solemnly that this is a clear case of KIA but he will be taken to hospital. We nod our goodbyes to him without talking. It is in a field hospital where Pfc. Martti Kasittula finds the end of his life.
Our squaddie Korvenpää is missing, too. For hours we are ignorant of his fate. It is only late at night as a paramedic can tell that Cpl Korvenpää was wounded in the neck and was bandaged by Pvt.Myllymäki before he was evacuated. So only me and Pvt Riihimäki are left of the squad.
The battle goes on. Now we have the MG ready on the bank of the road. It is evening now and the noise of fighting decreases a little. We watch the action of the fire control team. They are directing the fire to support the attack to Mustasaari by Capt. Tähtinen's outfit. The enemy does not react to machine gun fire, even mortars that are eager to get a MG are quiet, which is a miracle.
- I think we have the upper hand now.- Riihimäki opines.
Bullets keep going above us from Mustasaari, some hit the road embankment.
- What's wrong with my ear, Riihimäki wonders.
- Have a look, will you ?
I can see that he has lost a bit of his ear, snipped off by a bullet. Antti Riihimäki is now earmarked like a sheep at home. He is not serious, but in a joking mood.
- My sisters at home can now see that Antti, too, has been fighting. I shall tell them that I saw a bullet aimed at my eye but I dodged it. I am a hero, am I not, what do you think, sisters?
The fire control team men hear his words. The older men, veterans of the Winter War, are annoyed.
One of them tells him angrily:
- Son, don't speak nonsense in a serious situation. Cross your hands and thank God for surviving. Who would believe your story, your sisters cannot be that stupid.
Riihimäki just keeps smiling and tells me I am not good at bandaging. It is a difficult job to bandage an ear, one's head must be wrapped all around. General von Döbeln had a bandage like that in the old days, now I have a pal like him.
Now a StuG drives on the road and stops in front of our MG.
- What the heck is that Jerry up to? Riihimäki is wondering.
- Why did he park here, he should be going to Mustasaari, he would find a job to do there.
The tank fires its cannon almost along the road. The shell must have landed among ours. Riihimäki jumps on the road next to the tank, shouting German words, then he starts climbing on it. Bullets are pinging the other side of the tank which fires again its 105mm gun. Muzzle blast throws Riihimäki on the road like a crow. Is he hit ? Fortunately not, he climbs again on the tank. Now he is lucky. The top hatch is opened and a tanker throws out spent shell cases. As the man tries to close the hatch Riihimäki cleverly puts the butt of his SMG in the crack. As he can't close the hatch the surprised tanker peeks out. Riihimäki beckons to him for a couple of seconds, then the hatch is closed again and - bang - another shot. Riihimäki rolls down and tells with satisfaction that now the gun barrel is pointing in the right direction.
I am unaware of the general situation. I consider it wisest to give a long burst to Koulusuo at the strip of forest occupied by the enemy. The StuG provides me cover. Riihimäki comes and shouts hastily:
- Don't shoot, the Russki is retreating, you may be shooting at ours.
I quit.
It is 2110 hrs as we learn from the fire control men why the StuG was there. It was securing the road as the Russians counter-attacked, reaching the Ihantala-Portinhoikka road. The tankers were doing the right thing, after all.
Before midnight the Russians are pushed a couple of kilometres to the East. The road Ihantala-Portinhoikka is completely in our hands. But it is not used. The situation at Mustasaari is confused. Finnish attack is beaten back and Russian advance is stopped about 300 m East of the schoolhouse. Fighting is going on South of Koulusuo swamp, intense shooting is heard there. Dusky summer night falls on the battlefield. Tanks are driving on the road, we wonder what they are up to.
- Just look at them, Riihimäki says.
Two men jump out of the tank in front of us. They are collecting bodies next to our destroyed tanks on top of their tank. They load the corpses, including one run over by a tank. But lifting fails as one of the men starts vomiting. The tougher man gives up and pushes the mangled body in the ditch. Before leaving the man salutes. Some 50mm mortar shells land on the road and makes the tankers hurry up. They climb on the tank and down the hatch as it is moving already with its grisly load. The eye of one dead man is hanging out at a thread as long as half a meter. It is a terrible sight, my eyes are sort of turned off and I am not able to see anything for quite some time.
Riihimäki does not waste his time in watching the tank. He leaves to look for ammo and hand grenades. Antti is sitting, looking happy, on the field side of the bank. He is looking at a young dead son of Russia lying in front of him. He turns the dead man on his back and starts chattering:
- I wonder what kind of mother did put him to bed ? Her trouble is wasted now. If only he had the name and address of next of kin, as we do, I would like to know at least that.
Russian boys have neither addresses nor watches, officers included. They do not care about the identity of their dead, and they are not sent home. Labour units bury them on the battlefield in mass graves.
The terrain is disfigured by war everywhere. Both our and enemy troops have been affected. There are big brass StuG gun shell cases, shell splinters, torn pieces of uniforms ripped from the wounded, bloody bandages, reminding of suffering and fates of men. All colours have disappeared, everything is dirt and earth gray, except the red stars on the Russian helmets lying on the ground. Two wrecked immobile T-28 tanks, unfortunately Finnish, stand there, still oozing nasty smoke. The fate of the crews has been clear and quick, they have not had any time to shout for help.
There is an odd hindrance in front of the tanks. A group of dead Finnish soldiers have been dragged on the road, obviously by the enemy. The tankers did not have heart to drive over them, and stopping had fatal consequences. The enemy AT gunners stalking at the "hindrance" have hit these thin walled tanks, they are called "mobile coffins". The StuG rules the battlefield now, they are still collecting the bodies killed in defensive and hapless early morning attack actions.
2345 hrs. I do not want to stay any longer in this sombre place smelling of death. Fog is rising from lake Ihantalanjärvi and spreading up to Koulusuo swamp.
28 June. Tired and hungry men
It is past midnight, 28th June. Antti leaves me and disappears in the fog. He is looking for rifle cartridges, he has already found quite a heap. I must go to the MG else the fire control men may think the machine gunners have deserted. I have half a kilometer to go, and there the brown Russian Maxim with its' wheeled mount is on its place.
- We should fill the empty belts, - Riihimäki says.
- We should, but it is difficult with bare hands. This damn canvas belt is just a f* long piece of rag.
It contains 50 round more than our steel belts, that is 250 pcs. It is quite a chore to put them in. So I go looking for ammo in the terrain where we found our MG.
The schoolhouse ruin is smoking. Ghost looking men are coming from Mustasaari direction, they have SMGs. They are not deserters, but probably messengers. Our dead and wounded have been evacuated already. There are lots of Russian dead. Some of them have been killed in their foxholes by a tank driving over it.
I take a good look at the hillock. It is quite a mess. There is a dead enemy officer among the other dead, with a smashed radio apparatus on his side. On a shallow unfinished foxhole there are two ammo porters lying prone. They have four ammo cans. Most likely they were passing ammo to a MG during the battle. One of them still hangs on to a can. He must have been trying to pass the can on as death caught him. I take the can off his hand.
There are also Russian hand grenades with a design that remind me of tortoise. I put some in my pockets, then grab the four ammo cans and start hauling the heavy load to our position. Riihimäki has reconnoitred for new position, he has found a nice dry hole cut by floodwater about 100 m to the East from the road. He has prepared a position there.
The MG is on the embankment, ammo belt is inserted and Riihimäki is busy digging. It is past 0200 hrs. Enemy artillery and mortars are shooting slow harassment fire. We hear odd noises from the enemy side. Riihimäki believes they are hauling ammo to their artillery and regrouping their tanks. The enemy obviously wants to take the initiative, the noises imply attack preparations.
We are now on the second day since we ate or slept. We are hungry, our stomachs are rumbling empty. Cooked food is not available, again. It is difficult to carry in the first line and horses cannot be used now. We must resort to the food we have in our haversacks which are a mess. The crispbread is crushed into small bits mixed with butter, cheese and four sugar cubes - half a daily ration. The heavy magazine pouch has smashed the food when I have hit the deck. We start crunching the bread, without talking, keeping a lookout.
Tiredness peaks. Riihimäki keels over, his helmet hits an ammo can. He gets up, looking stupid and swearing. Then he sits down and starts again eating. We must do something to stay awake. I find a piece of telephone wire that has fallen down.
- Let's tie a piece of wire around one ankle and try to keep each other awake by jerking it, - I suggest my pal.
- If we fail, this wire will make it easier for the Russkies to haul us in a hole as they did in Valkeasaari, Riihimäki says
- Maybe, but let us hope that is not our fate.
The wire does not work . We both have fallen in deep sleep at least for two hours until we are woken up.
Capt. Seppänen is rapping at my helmet with a wooden stick. I am startled, we have been caught sleeping in sentry post. The Captain is not angry , he does not yell at us.
- Do try to stay awake boys, at least one of you. Have you got ammo for that MG?
- We do, we found some on that hillock over there, sir.
The Company commander leaves, looking satisfied.
28 June, morning.
As the dawn breaks we are able to assess our position. There is a 300 m wide field in front of us, sloping gently to Koulusuo swamp. There is neither wire nor "dragon's teeth".
- Another day, I wonder what kind of one ?
- A s*y one of course, Riihimäki says.
- I have got a hunch that we are going to be in trouble today. We must be prepared to retreat. Is it possible to traverse the road through that underpass, could you check that? -Riihimäki suggests.
- All right, - I go and examine the matter.
- There is no way to pass it, at least with any equipment, - I deduce.
It will be difficult to traverse the road if it is under enemy MG fire. Having considered that we decide to move our position next to the Ihantala road. It is 04.50 We move without problems. We find two suitable nice holes dug by tank tracks. We put the MG between them and start urgent digging, the holes must be widened and deepened.
After the rather calm night the Russians open a heavy fire at about 0500. Their target is our troops that managed to get near Mustasaari, North of Koulusuo swamp. Soon we hear shots, first some rifle shots. Russian sentries are alerting. Soon automatic weapons open up. JR48 attacks and they face intense fire, there is a constant crackling noise. Finnish attack does not succeed in any part of the line, the enemy resistance is too hard. Our men are shot at with all infantry weapons.
Bullets are whining over Koulusuo swamp. Explosive bullets are cracking at willow branches and stunted pines. Now shelling starts. The enemy starts from the front line but by the by the steel storm expands to rage also in field artillery positions and deep in the rear against our logistics transports
Something more serious is now going on. I fire the MG and my SMG to check that they are in order, and both are. I throw a tarp on the MG to protect the feeder block against the flying dirt.
We keep digging. It is 0820 as the Finnish position at the road is under ever increasing mortar shelling. Stalin's organ is playing its hissing sound. Dozens of explosion columns at a time can be seen behind us.
- That is quite a contraption, that Hectar Gun, - Riihimäki says
- This is going to turn into a decent war, just look there, Namesake, he adds.
True enough, hundreds of bombers, fighters and ground attack planes are approaching the front. Soon the Ihantala road is covered with a tin roof. I am looking at Riihimäki, anxious. He seems to be quite calm, he is just watching the road that the ground attack planes sweep with their fire. I am fearing and I keep digging deeper, facing the ground. Riihimäki does not feel fear, as if ecstatic he pushes me on my side and explains:
- Look what a festive sight there is in the sky, just over there a group of happy pigs are coming down, wagging their bottoms.
A ground attack plane has dropped its bombs and it now sweeps the road with its fire, muzzle flames are burning on both sides of the propeller. Hundreds of shells and bombs have kicked up a grey cloud of earth on the road, and it keeps flashing. The road looks like a sea of flames.
Finally the planes leave the road for reloading. Anxiously I am looking ahead and expect that the dust cloud serves as cover for the enemy. Our artillery is strafing in the direction of Mustasaari. Infantry weapons fire is not heard now, the only clear sound is the shell explosion nearby. Smoke and dust are smarting my eyes. Riihimäki pulls the tarp off the MG and shouts in my ear:
- Now the devils are coming, stand by!
28 June. Enemy attack
There they come, dashing in turns. I cannot tell the colour of their tunics due to the dust. Mortar shells are dropping among the attackers. The first wave is about 200 meters from us, then more with an interval of 50 meters.
A LMG to our right opens up. Riihimäki lifts three ammo cans next to the MG and tells me:
- Push the trigger, the browns are now right there.
We have adjusted our weapon to 150 meters. My thumb presses the plate and releases an angry jet of bullets. The grim reaper starts his job. Everyone falls down, the survivors start digging in. Dirt is flying. I continue firing, now at the second wave that keeps advancing in dashes.
As our firing is the most intensive an unknown officer shouts:
- Hold your fire, they are our men!
This is a hard blow. No, no, they cannot be our men. I keep sharply watching at the men on the field as visibility keeps improving. Shouts of wounded are heard there. The survivors are dragging them behind a big rock. I believe I can recognise among the noise words "saniteer, saniteer". It is Russian!
On the field there is obviously a troop of enemies grouped for attack. Everyone of us recognise that and defensive fire is opened again.
Our machine gun is playing without problems and sweeping down one wave of attackers after another. The survivors are digging in the field. They keep throwing earth with their field spades from their holes. Men keep trying to reach the level of the first ones from the rear. Only some of them are successful. The rest stay on the field, some quiet, some creepily moaning.
Riihimäki, a brisk man who is able to control himself well even in this difficult situation, is not satisfied with my gunnery. He wants me to hand over to him. I do that willingly, because I feel terrible in participating this slaughter, and listening to the moaning of the wounded. My namesake does a thorough job.
The MG rattles, men keel over and drop down in any possible position on the field. I feed in another belt and assist its course in the feeder block. The same is repeated every time the enemies dash forward. I fire my SMG at the men who are nearest to our position. An enemy gets a hit in his bunch of hand grenades and is ripped in two.
At 1030 hrs the enemy attack formations is showing signs of dispersal. Some men are now dashing back. It seems that we have been able to repel the attack as most of the enemies have fallen and the rest are running away.
They are running away, panicked, dragging their wounded. A brave officer cannot stop them although he, despite being wounded , tries to beckon at his men with his final forces. Their situation on the open field is hopeless.
Riihimäki's countenance is grimly bitter. I shout in his ear:
- We are doing fine, the Russkies are retreating !
He does not answer but fires brief bursts and keeps repeating:
- At the balls, at the balls!
Riihimäki is tired and bitter, he glances at me angrily. The MG keeps chattering, the gunner's torn right tunic sleeve is fluttering due to the vibration.
The midsummer day, hazy, dusty , covered with smoke, is full of rumbling. Artillery fire and aerial bombing is constant. The entire battlefield at Ihantala seems to be full of the threatening power of a great power, which erupts into the explosions of different kinds and sizes of shells and bombs. Now the sound of aircraft engines is heard. The cursed ground attack planes are above the Ihantala road again. The road is flashing, sparking and crashing.
I sense a brief swishing thud. There is a bright flash on the road in front of the MG. Dirt and mud is flung at my face, for a moment I can neither hear or see anything. As my consciousness returns I find to my horror that Riihimäki is wounded. His face and hands are bloody. My left palms is split. As if a chisel had been pushed across, it was a splinter. I examine my left hand, the wound is bleeding and hurting a little, but I can move the fingers. Nothing serious then.
My namesake is worse off. He is leaning at the embankment with his head tilted. I look left and right, without seeing anybody. The LMG gunner is gone. Smoke and dust clouds are floating on the No man's land, nobody is there. The MG is partly covered with earth, the water jacket torn, the muzzle attachment twisted to the side.
My SMG is working, which I find out after a couple of rounds at semi auto. That calms me down a little, it is my only support.
A terrible fear grabs me, I feel a terrible loneliness. My only help and support is dozing there, unconscious. I would like to get out of here. But I cannot abandon my wounded pal to the enemy. I shall stay here. I take a look in the front, nobody is coming yet. They are probably resting in their foxholes. Suddenly Riihimäki wakes up and moves his hands, even the one that seems to bleed terribly.
- I think I fell asleep, he opines.
- You did, it was a terrible blast
- What blast ?
My namesake is ignorant of the hit we took. With a smile in his face he looks at his wounded hand, then something else catches his attention. Blood is dribbling over his eye just the way with Kasittula yesterday. Riihimäki wipes his cheek with his hand and realises that he is wounded in the head.
Bad premonitions make the man pale, he is indeed shaking with fear. It is as if he were ashamed of his situation, he tries to force a laughter but in vain. His face is just distorted into a grin and the corner of his mouth is twitching. He bounces up to test if he can walk, and he can.
- Listen, Namesake, we must get out of here.
At our left the front has broken, rattling of shooting is heard behind our backs. It is 1100 hrs as we abandon our position at Ihantala road. The broken MG is left on the road bank.
Defeat has discouraged our minds. In the sand pit we meet the first living Finn, an unknown Lieutenant. He, too looks depressed and he does not say anything to us. We go on, the terrain looks like it had been strafed with every gun in Russia. Rocks and even tree stumps have been flung around.
At the First Aid post the paramedics taker over Riihimäki, and our roads are parted.
28 June. Retreat
I am wandering alone, then I sit down on a stump and bandage my wounded hand. Carrying the SMG under my arm I head for North, alone. Finally at Kaateri I meet some exhausted, pale, discouraged and ragged men of JR48. Half of them are bandaged. I
In the strip of forest between fields, North of Kaateri we meet men of JR12 advancing in good order. They are led by a Lieutenant and their stretchers are clean for now.
I expect that these sturdy looking men of the North, the "Taiga jaegers" would swear at us and despise us for running away from the Road to Ihantala. But surprise, we get a handsome greeting by the Lieutenant. After learning that the colour of the tunics is different from now on, the platoon spreads out into a row and the scouts start sneaking ahead. We wish them luck.
We keep wandering to the North. Finally we reach the small road to Ihantala across Pyöräkangas forest . There we meet a platoon of Jaegers on their bikes, led by Lt Brask that we know from the days of Bunker Hill in Valkeasaari. Again I am expecting a dressing down . He comes to us, stops, salutes and says:
- Boys of the 8th Company of JR48, come here and pass me on two sides, I want to shake your hand. We want to do it quickly.
I am the third on the left. Brask shakes m y hand and asks:
- How many men of the Third squad of my old platoon are left?
- I am the last one, Lieutenant, sir.
- Tough battles are behind you. I thank you, boys, you have done a man's job, everyone. I must now catch up with my platoon.
It is with admiration that I listen to the words of this decent officer. The pressure of responsibility is not seen on him. The Lieutenant mounts his bike, then salutes us one more time and disappears pedalling in the smoke of the battlefield.
I continue for another kilometre . North of Pyörakangas I finally join the remains of JR48. There are officers, too, a couple of lieutenants unknown to me. Our group is dog tired and depressed. Everyone should dig a foxhole for himself but not everyone is able to due to exhaustion.
Foxholes would be needed because the reserve placement areas have been bombed and shelled. The reserves and the logistics have suffered losses. It is really depressing to see broken vehicles, mauled horses and dead men floating in water filled bomb holes.
But the war goes on. Some of us start digging in on the hill South of Vanhantorppa farm. I am ordered to join Lt Jaatinen's outfit, our task is to sweep the Vakkila area and find any stray enemies.
We start off at 1440 hrs. We have not been fed so far. We make a break at the river that flows from lake Ihantalanjärvi to river Kilpeenjoki. Everyone should dip himself, and I join the others. I get myself wet, but due to fatigue I am not able to swim. I climb on the riverside and fall asleep at once.
A Corporal kicks me awake. The other sleepers get the same treatment. We reach the wide field at Vakkila, to the East of it. Our outfit takes a battle grouping and full battle readiness. It is a sunny afternoon. There is a rye field in front of us, there oats and over there corn. Enemy artillery gives barrages to a hill to the elf of us. Our own batteries are responding from the West of Vakkila. There is an interesting sight: the forest has been shot up into a maze of threes but the grain fields are untouched.
We advance three or four hundred meters along the edge of the field. As enemy spotting planes fly above, we take cover and stay put. We are not discovered since we are not shelled.
We have not encountered the enemy yet. But now we have to traverse the field, a nasty and frightening task. We are grouped in the ditches. Voluntarily I take the task of a scout. Three men are following me. We start our advance. There is a group of men in every ditch although unseen. In the middle of the e field the ditch makes a bend. Tense, with my finger on the trigger I approach the bend. Nothing happens, I cannot detect any movement. Carefully I peek around the bend and get a fright.
- Russki, dammit!
My SMG gives a burst and one of the pals behind me jumps on my side and shoots, too. The enemy does not respond, he is probably killed. We continue, now the other man is the scout. Soon he stops.
- There's your Russki !
There are jute bags with hay pole pins in them, weighted by hay poles. The farmer had planned to make hay in the ditch. I am mortified. I have fired at a bag, I am angry as Hell. Fortunately Riihimäki did not see this, he would see to it that I heard about this for weeks.
Enemy shelling is every now and then very dense, but the shells are landing somewhere else.
-The Red artillery is sparing their own stragglers, someone comments.
- I guess they are, another responds. (2/3)
- The dog is ready to bite its owner.
We do not yet lift the MG in the position prepared by Riihimäki. I load the gun, the cocking handle moves freely. I tighten the bolt return spring for the sake of safety. Kasittula leans on the side of our position and keeps on cleaning a belt. I hear an odd splat, and Kasittula makes odd gestures with his hands, he spreads his fingers. I think he fell asleep and is dreaming as his eyes are closed and his head leaning against the embankment.
- Don't sleep now, I yell and try to shake his shoulder to wake him up.
My pal does not wake up, his head falls back . A bullet has hit his brow under the visor of the helmet. No time to contemplate now, bullets are whizzing past me. I drop on the bottom of the ditch .
- Enemy is in the house to the left of us, upstairs! Give them some MG fire! - it is the artillery fire control team informing us.
- Stay low where you are, - I respond and aim the MG at the upstairs window, then shoot.
Cpl. Riihimäki is now aware of the situation. he drags Kasittula away by his legs and then feeds the belt for me. We let go two belts in one go. Boards of the schoolhouse upstairs wall are smashed into splinters by the bullet stream, roof slates fall down. Mortar shells are flashing on the school yard, they are ours. The schoolhouse catches fire, either by the mortar shells or our tracer bullets. The Russian MG belts include tracer as every third round.
The schoolhouse burns handsomely, some smoke descends and makes the surroundings ghostly. Men dashing in the smoke for Mustasaari look like ghosts when seen against the fire.
The law of the war is harsh. The enemy specialists, including the sniper that got Kasittula, who had cleverly selected the schoolhouse as their position are going to die as the house burns down. It was Kasittula's fate to be their first victim. I, Riihimäki and the fire control team survived because the Russian wanted to stay undetected and did not fire a burst in the ditch . He wanted to get us one at a time. He did not succeed, thanks to the alert fire controllers. As we opened the MG fire at them they had no chance, and it was their turn to enter the great unknown with no return.
Now we lift the MG in its prepared position. Then we check how our good friend and brother Martti Kasittula is. His helmet is pushed on the back of his head, there is a slightly bleeding hole in his brow.
We kneel on his side for prayer, he cannot hope for any other help. His heart is beating but his breathing is rattling.
- Paramedics, here! - I shout despite knowing that he is beyond worldly help.
The din decreases constantly but shouting cannot yet be heard. Nobody is seen, we wait until paramedics appear´. We beckon them and they come with their stretcher. Our brother, breathing heavily, is lifted on the stretcher and his journey to the First Aid post begins. Martti's lifeless, unfocused staring gaze means that his end is near. A paramedic touches his lip with a straw and says solemnly that this is a clear case of KIA but he will be taken to hospital. We nod our goodbyes to him without talking. It is in a field hospital where Pfc. Martti Kasittula finds the end of his life.
Our squaddie Korvenpää is missing, too. For hours we are ignorant of his fate. It is only late at night as a paramedic can tell that Cpl Korvenpää was wounded in the neck and was bandaged by Pvt.Myllymäki before he was evacuated. So only me and Pvt Riihimäki are left of the squad.
The battle goes on. Now we have the MG ready on the bank of the road. It is evening now and the noise of fighting decreases a little. We watch the action of the fire control team. They are directing the fire to support the attack to Mustasaari by Capt. Tähtinen's outfit. The enemy does not react to machine gun fire, even mortars that are eager to get a MG are quiet, which is a miracle.
- I think we have the upper hand now.- Riihimäki opines.
Bullets keep going above us from Mustasaari, some hit the road embankment.
- What's wrong with my ear, Riihimäki wonders.
- Have a look, will you ?
I can see that he has lost a bit of his ear, snipped off by a bullet. Antti Riihimäki is now earmarked like a sheep at home. He is not serious, but in a joking mood.
- My sisters at home can now see that Antti, too, has been fighting. I shall tell them that I saw a bullet aimed at my eye but I dodged it. I am a hero, am I not, what do you think, sisters?
The fire control team men hear his words. The older men, veterans of the Winter War, are annoyed.
One of them tells him angrily:
- Son, don't speak nonsense in a serious situation. Cross your hands and thank God for surviving. Who would believe your story, your sisters cannot be that stupid.
Riihimäki just keeps smiling and tells me I am not good at bandaging. It is a difficult job to bandage an ear, one's head must be wrapped all around. General von Döbeln had a bandage like that in the old days, now I have a pal like him.
Now a StuG drives on the road and stops in front of our MG.
- What the heck is that Jerry up to? Riihimäki is wondering.
- Why did he park here, he should be going to Mustasaari, he would find a job to do there.
The tank fires its cannon almost along the road. The shell must have landed among ours. Riihimäki jumps on the road next to the tank, shouting German words, then he starts climbing on it. Bullets are pinging the other side of the tank which fires again its 105mm gun. Muzzle blast throws Riihimäki on the road like a crow. Is he hit ? Fortunately not, he climbs again on the tank. Now he is lucky. The top hatch is opened and a tanker throws out spent shell cases. As the man tries to close the hatch Riihimäki cleverly puts the butt of his SMG in the crack. As he can't close the hatch the surprised tanker peeks out. Riihimäki beckons to him for a couple of seconds, then the hatch is closed again and - bang - another shot. Riihimäki rolls down and tells with satisfaction that now the gun barrel is pointing in the right direction.
I am unaware of the general situation. I consider it wisest to give a long burst to Koulusuo at the strip of forest occupied by the enemy. The StuG provides me cover. Riihimäki comes and shouts hastily:
- Don't shoot, the Russki is retreating, you may be shooting at ours.
I quit.
It is 2110 hrs as we learn from the fire control men why the StuG was there. It was securing the road as the Russians counter-attacked, reaching the Ihantala-Portinhoikka road. The tankers were doing the right thing, after all.
Before midnight the Russians are pushed a couple of kilometres to the East. The road Ihantala-Portinhoikka is completely in our hands. But it is not used. The situation at Mustasaari is confused. Finnish attack is beaten back and Russian advance is stopped about 300 m East of the schoolhouse. Fighting is going on South of Koulusuo swamp, intense shooting is heard there. Dusky summer night falls on the battlefield. Tanks are driving on the road, we wonder what they are up to.
- Just look at them, Riihimäki says.
Two men jump out of the tank in front of us. They are collecting bodies next to our destroyed tanks on top of their tank. They load the corpses, including one run over by a tank. But lifting fails as one of the men starts vomiting. The tougher man gives up and pushes the mangled body in the ditch. Before leaving the man salutes. Some 50mm mortar shells land on the road and makes the tankers hurry up. They climb on the tank and down the hatch as it is moving already with its grisly load. The eye of one dead man is hanging out at a thread as long as half a meter. It is a terrible sight, my eyes are sort of turned off and I am not able to see anything for quite some time.
Riihimäki does not waste his time in watching the tank. He leaves to look for ammo and hand grenades. Antti is sitting, looking happy, on the field side of the bank. He is looking at a young dead son of Russia lying in front of him. He turns the dead man on his back and starts chattering:
- I wonder what kind of mother did put him to bed ? Her trouble is wasted now. If only he had the name and address of next of kin, as we do, I would like to know at least that.
Russian boys have neither addresses nor watches, officers included. They do not care about the identity of their dead, and they are not sent home. Labour units bury them on the battlefield in mass graves.
The terrain is disfigured by war everywhere. Both our and enemy troops have been affected. There are big brass StuG gun shell cases, shell splinters, torn pieces of uniforms ripped from the wounded, bloody bandages, reminding of suffering and fates of men. All colours have disappeared, everything is dirt and earth gray, except the red stars on the Russian helmets lying on the ground. Two wrecked immobile T-28 tanks, unfortunately Finnish, stand there, still oozing nasty smoke. The fate of the crews has been clear and quick, they have not had any time to shout for help.
There is an odd hindrance in front of the tanks. A group of dead Finnish soldiers have been dragged on the road, obviously by the enemy. The tankers did not have heart to drive over them, and stopping had fatal consequences. The enemy AT gunners stalking at the "hindrance" have hit these thin walled tanks, they are called "mobile coffins". The StuG rules the battlefield now, they are still collecting the bodies killed in defensive and hapless early morning attack actions.
2345 hrs. I do not want to stay any longer in this sombre place smelling of death. Fog is rising from lake Ihantalanjärvi and spreading up to Koulusuo swamp.
28 June. Tired and hungry men
It is past midnight, 28th June. Antti leaves me and disappears in the fog. He is looking for rifle cartridges, he has already found quite a heap. I must go to the MG else the fire control men may think the machine gunners have deserted. I have half a kilometer to go, and there the brown Russian Maxim with its' wheeled mount is on its place.
- We should fill the empty belts, - Riihimäki says.
- We should, but it is difficult with bare hands. This damn canvas belt is just a f* long piece of rag.
It contains 50 round more than our steel belts, that is 250 pcs. It is quite a chore to put them in. So I go looking for ammo in the terrain where we found our MG.
The schoolhouse ruin is smoking. Ghost looking men are coming from Mustasaari direction, they have SMGs. They are not deserters, but probably messengers. Our dead and wounded have been evacuated already. There are lots of Russian dead. Some of them have been killed in their foxholes by a tank driving over it.
I take a good look at the hillock. It is quite a mess. There is a dead enemy officer among the other dead, with a smashed radio apparatus on his side. On a shallow unfinished foxhole there are two ammo porters lying prone. They have four ammo cans. Most likely they were passing ammo to a MG during the battle. One of them still hangs on to a can. He must have been trying to pass the can on as death caught him. I take the can off his hand.
There are also Russian hand grenades with a design that remind me of tortoise. I put some in my pockets, then grab the four ammo cans and start hauling the heavy load to our position. Riihimäki has reconnoitred for new position, he has found a nice dry hole cut by floodwater about 100 m to the East from the road. He has prepared a position there.
The MG is on the embankment, ammo belt is inserted and Riihimäki is busy digging. It is past 0200 hrs. Enemy artillery and mortars are shooting slow harassment fire. We hear odd noises from the enemy side. Riihimäki believes they are hauling ammo to their artillery and regrouping their tanks. The enemy obviously wants to take the initiative, the noises imply attack preparations.
We are now on the second day since we ate or slept. We are hungry, our stomachs are rumbling empty. Cooked food is not available, again. It is difficult to carry in the first line and horses cannot be used now. We must resort to the food we have in our haversacks which are a mess. The crispbread is crushed into small bits mixed with butter, cheese and four sugar cubes - half a daily ration. The heavy magazine pouch has smashed the food when I have hit the deck. We start crunching the bread, without talking, keeping a lookout.
Tiredness peaks. Riihimäki keels over, his helmet hits an ammo can. He gets up, looking stupid and swearing. Then he sits down and starts again eating. We must do something to stay awake. I find a piece of telephone wire that has fallen down.
- Let's tie a piece of wire around one ankle and try to keep each other awake by jerking it, - I suggest my pal.
- If we fail, this wire will make it easier for the Russkies to haul us in a hole as they did in Valkeasaari, Riihimäki says
- Maybe, but let us hope that is not our fate.
The wire does not work . We both have fallen in deep sleep at least for two hours until we are woken up.
Capt. Seppänen is rapping at my helmet with a wooden stick. I am startled, we have been caught sleeping in sentry post. The Captain is not angry , he does not yell at us.
- Do try to stay awake boys, at least one of you. Have you got ammo for that MG?
- We do, we found some on that hillock over there, sir.
The Company commander leaves, looking satisfied.
28 June, morning.
As the dawn breaks we are able to assess our position. There is a 300 m wide field in front of us, sloping gently to Koulusuo swamp. There is neither wire nor "dragon's teeth".
- Another day, I wonder what kind of one ?
- A s*y one of course, Riihimäki says.
- I have got a hunch that we are going to be in trouble today. We must be prepared to retreat. Is it possible to traverse the road through that underpass, could you check that? -Riihimäki suggests.
- All right, - I go and examine the matter.
- There is no way to pass it, at least with any equipment, - I deduce.
It will be difficult to traverse the road if it is under enemy MG fire. Having considered that we decide to move our position next to the Ihantala road. It is 04.50 We move without problems. We find two suitable nice holes dug by tank tracks. We put the MG between them and start urgent digging, the holes must be widened and deepened.
After the rather calm night the Russians open a heavy fire at about 0500. Their target is our troops that managed to get near Mustasaari, North of Koulusuo swamp. Soon we hear shots, first some rifle shots. Russian sentries are alerting. Soon automatic weapons open up. JR48 attacks and they face intense fire, there is a constant crackling noise. Finnish attack does not succeed in any part of the line, the enemy resistance is too hard. Our men are shot at with all infantry weapons.
Bullets are whining over Koulusuo swamp. Explosive bullets are cracking at willow branches and stunted pines. Now shelling starts. The enemy starts from the front line but by the by the steel storm expands to rage also in field artillery positions and deep in the rear against our logistics transports
Something more serious is now going on. I fire the MG and my SMG to check that they are in order, and both are. I throw a tarp on the MG to protect the feeder block against the flying dirt.
We keep digging. It is 0820 as the Finnish position at the road is under ever increasing mortar shelling. Stalin's organ is playing its hissing sound. Dozens of explosion columns at a time can be seen behind us.
- That is quite a contraption, that Hectar Gun, - Riihimäki says
- This is going to turn into a decent war, just look there, Namesake, he adds.
True enough, hundreds of bombers, fighters and ground attack planes are approaching the front. Soon the Ihantala road is covered with a tin roof. I am looking at Riihimäki, anxious. He seems to be quite calm, he is just watching the road that the ground attack planes sweep with their fire. I am fearing and I keep digging deeper, facing the ground. Riihimäki does not feel fear, as if ecstatic he pushes me on my side and explains:
- Look what a festive sight there is in the sky, just over there a group of happy pigs are coming down, wagging their bottoms.
A ground attack plane has dropped its bombs and it now sweeps the road with its fire, muzzle flames are burning on both sides of the propeller. Hundreds of shells and bombs have kicked up a grey cloud of earth on the road, and it keeps flashing. The road looks like a sea of flames.
Finally the planes leave the road for reloading. Anxiously I am looking ahead and expect that the dust cloud serves as cover for the enemy. Our artillery is strafing in the direction of Mustasaari. Infantry weapons fire is not heard now, the only clear sound is the shell explosion nearby. Smoke and dust are smarting my eyes. Riihimäki pulls the tarp off the MG and shouts in my ear:
- Now the devils are coming, stand by!
28 June. Enemy attack
There they come, dashing in turns. I cannot tell the colour of their tunics due to the dust. Mortar shells are dropping among the attackers. The first wave is about 200 meters from us, then more with an interval of 50 meters.
A LMG to our right opens up. Riihimäki lifts three ammo cans next to the MG and tells me:
- Push the trigger, the browns are now right there.
We have adjusted our weapon to 150 meters. My thumb presses the plate and releases an angry jet of bullets. The grim reaper starts his job. Everyone falls down, the survivors start digging in. Dirt is flying. I continue firing, now at the second wave that keeps advancing in dashes.
As our firing is the most intensive an unknown officer shouts:
- Hold your fire, they are our men!
This is a hard blow. No, no, they cannot be our men. I keep sharply watching at the men on the field as visibility keeps improving. Shouts of wounded are heard there. The survivors are dragging them behind a big rock. I believe I can recognise among the noise words "saniteer, saniteer". It is Russian!
On the field there is obviously a troop of enemies grouped for attack. Everyone of us recognise that and defensive fire is opened again.
Our machine gun is playing without problems and sweeping down one wave of attackers after another. The survivors are digging in the field. They keep throwing earth with their field spades from their holes. Men keep trying to reach the level of the first ones from the rear. Only some of them are successful. The rest stay on the field, some quiet, some creepily moaning.
Riihimäki, a brisk man who is able to control himself well even in this difficult situation, is not satisfied with my gunnery. He wants me to hand over to him. I do that willingly, because I feel terrible in participating this slaughter, and listening to the moaning of the wounded. My namesake does a thorough job.
The MG rattles, men keel over and drop down in any possible position on the field. I feed in another belt and assist its course in the feeder block. The same is repeated every time the enemies dash forward. I fire my SMG at the men who are nearest to our position. An enemy gets a hit in his bunch of hand grenades and is ripped in two.
At 1030 hrs the enemy attack formations is showing signs of dispersal. Some men are now dashing back. It seems that we have been able to repel the attack as most of the enemies have fallen and the rest are running away.
They are running away, panicked, dragging their wounded. A brave officer cannot stop them although he, despite being wounded , tries to beckon at his men with his final forces. Their situation on the open field is hopeless.
Riihimäki's countenance is grimly bitter. I shout in his ear:
- We are doing fine, the Russkies are retreating !
He does not answer but fires brief bursts and keeps repeating:
- At the balls, at the balls!
Riihimäki is tired and bitter, he glances at me angrily. The MG keeps chattering, the gunner's torn right tunic sleeve is fluttering due to the vibration.
The midsummer day, hazy, dusty , covered with smoke, is full of rumbling. Artillery fire and aerial bombing is constant. The entire battlefield at Ihantala seems to be full of the threatening power of a great power, which erupts into the explosions of different kinds and sizes of shells and bombs. Now the sound of aircraft engines is heard. The cursed ground attack planes are above the Ihantala road again. The road is flashing, sparking and crashing.
I sense a brief swishing thud. There is a bright flash on the road in front of the MG. Dirt and mud is flung at my face, for a moment I can neither hear or see anything. As my consciousness returns I find to my horror that Riihimäki is wounded. His face and hands are bloody. My left palms is split. As if a chisel had been pushed across, it was a splinter. I examine my left hand, the wound is bleeding and hurting a little, but I can move the fingers. Nothing serious then.
My namesake is worse off. He is leaning at the embankment with his head tilted. I look left and right, without seeing anybody. The LMG gunner is gone. Smoke and dust clouds are floating on the No man's land, nobody is there. The MG is partly covered with earth, the water jacket torn, the muzzle attachment twisted to the side.
My SMG is working, which I find out after a couple of rounds at semi auto. That calms me down a little, it is my only support.
A terrible fear grabs me, I feel a terrible loneliness. My only help and support is dozing there, unconscious. I would like to get out of here. But I cannot abandon my wounded pal to the enemy. I shall stay here. I take a look in the front, nobody is coming yet. They are probably resting in their foxholes. Suddenly Riihimäki wakes up and moves his hands, even the one that seems to bleed terribly.
- I think I fell asleep, he opines.
- You did, it was a terrible blast
- What blast ?
My namesake is ignorant of the hit we took. With a smile in his face he looks at his wounded hand, then something else catches his attention. Blood is dribbling over his eye just the way with Kasittula yesterday. Riihimäki wipes his cheek with his hand and realises that he is wounded in the head.
Bad premonitions make the man pale, he is indeed shaking with fear. It is as if he were ashamed of his situation, he tries to force a laughter but in vain. His face is just distorted into a grin and the corner of his mouth is twitching. He bounces up to test if he can walk, and he can.
- Listen, Namesake, we must get out of here.
At our left the front has broken, rattling of shooting is heard behind our backs. It is 1100 hrs as we abandon our position at Ihantala road. The broken MG is left on the road bank.
Defeat has discouraged our minds. In the sand pit we meet the first living Finn, an unknown Lieutenant. He, too looks depressed and he does not say anything to us. We go on, the terrain looks like it had been strafed with every gun in Russia. Rocks and even tree stumps have been flung around.
At the First Aid post the paramedics taker over Riihimäki, and our roads are parted.
28 June. Retreat
I am wandering alone, then I sit down on a stump and bandage my wounded hand. Carrying the SMG under my arm I head for North, alone. Finally at Kaateri I meet some exhausted, pale, discouraged and ragged men of JR48. Half of them are bandaged. I
In the strip of forest between fields, North of Kaateri we meet men of JR12 advancing in good order. They are led by a Lieutenant and their stretchers are clean for now.
I expect that these sturdy looking men of the North, the "Taiga jaegers" would swear at us and despise us for running away from the Road to Ihantala. But surprise, we get a handsome greeting by the Lieutenant. After learning that the colour of the tunics is different from now on, the platoon spreads out into a row and the scouts start sneaking ahead. We wish them luck.
We keep wandering to the North. Finally we reach the small road to Ihantala across Pyöräkangas forest . There we meet a platoon of Jaegers on their bikes, led by Lt Brask that we know from the days of Bunker Hill in Valkeasaari. Again I am expecting a dressing down . He comes to us, stops, salutes and says:
- Boys of the 8th Company of JR48, come here and pass me on two sides, I want to shake your hand. We want to do it quickly.
I am the third on the left. Brask shakes m y hand and asks:
- How many men of the Third squad of my old platoon are left?
- I am the last one, Lieutenant, sir.
- Tough battles are behind you. I thank you, boys, you have done a man's job, everyone. I must now catch up with my platoon.
It is with admiration that I listen to the words of this decent officer. The pressure of responsibility is not seen on him. The Lieutenant mounts his bike, then salutes us one more time and disappears pedalling in the smoke of the battlefield.
I continue for another kilometre . North of Pyörakangas I finally join the remains of JR48. There are officers, too, a couple of lieutenants unknown to me. Our group is dog tired and depressed. Everyone should dig a foxhole for himself but not everyone is able to due to exhaustion.
Foxholes would be needed because the reserve placement areas have been bombed and shelled. The reserves and the logistics have suffered losses. It is really depressing to see broken vehicles, mauled horses and dead men floating in water filled bomb holes.
But the war goes on. Some of us start digging in on the hill South of Vanhantorppa farm. I am ordered to join Lt Jaatinen's outfit, our task is to sweep the Vakkila area and find any stray enemies.
We start off at 1440 hrs. We have not been fed so far. We make a break at the river that flows from lake Ihantalanjärvi to river Kilpeenjoki. Everyone should dip himself, and I join the others. I get myself wet, but due to fatigue I am not able to swim. I climb on the riverside and fall asleep at once.
A Corporal kicks me awake. The other sleepers get the same treatment. We reach the wide field at Vakkila, to the East of it. Our outfit takes a battle grouping and full battle readiness. It is a sunny afternoon. There is a rye field in front of us, there oats and over there corn. Enemy artillery gives barrages to a hill to the elf of us. Our own batteries are responding from the West of Vakkila. There is an interesting sight: the forest has been shot up into a maze of threes but the grain fields are untouched.
We advance three or four hundred meters along the edge of the field. As enemy spotting planes fly above, we take cover and stay put. We are not discovered since we are not shelled.
We have not encountered the enemy yet. But now we have to traverse the field, a nasty and frightening task. We are grouped in the ditches. Voluntarily I take the task of a scout. Three men are following me. We start our advance. There is a group of men in every ditch although unseen. In the middle of the e field the ditch makes a bend. Tense, with my finger on the trigger I approach the bend. Nothing happens, I cannot detect any movement. Carefully I peek around the bend and get a fright.
- Russki, dammit!
My SMG gives a burst and one of the pals behind me jumps on my side and shoots, too. The enemy does not respond, he is probably killed. We continue, now the other man is the scout. Soon he stops.
- There's your Russki !
There are jute bags with hay pole pins in them, weighted by hay poles. The farmer had planned to make hay in the ditch. I am mortified. I have fired at a bag, I am angry as Hell. Fortunately Riihimäki did not see this, he would see to it that I heard about this for weeks.
Enemy shelling is every now and then very dense, but the shells are landing somewhere else.
-The Red artillery is sparing their own stragglers, someone comments.
- I guess they are, another responds. (2/3)
Re: Personal story in three parts: a machine gunner in Ihantala 1944
Without major mishap we manage to traverse the rye field. Alertly watching the terrain we advance in the forest. Nobody is receiving us with bullets. The enemy spies want to avoid battle. They are trying to stay concealed and radio their findings home.
There is an empty hay barn. Finally there is some traces of the enemy; bandages, blankets, two smashed radio transmitters and other gear. Those fellows must have left in a hurry. We climb the hill with our fingers on the trigger but don't see the enemy.
At 1800 hrs we are on the summit of the Hakamäki hill. For one hour we keep observing the terrain. Odd explosions are seen in the forest: the enemy is firing smoke shells to cover the retreat of their spies.
We also check the Lehtola farm buildings. No enemies there. I am posted as sentry at the corner of the cow shed. Tiredness peaks again as tension has been relieved. I cannot help sleeping in my post. I have unshouldered my SMG, my haversack and mag pouch.
I get to sleep for one hour until I am roused by kicks. It is not the enemy but our man, a Sergeant of 1/JR12. He is not angry at me for sleeping, he just wants to know where the enemy is.
- Not in this house as far as I know, I respond.
There is sound of movement and JR12 arrives to march in the front line. Our task is over and we assemble at Hakamäki, then start our return march. Being tired, I am marching with the others without knowing where . We keep meeting JR12 men.
It is 2300 hrs. North of Vakkila at a bridge we meet three unarmed men, obviously deserters. I do not recognise them. They keep shouting at the men of JR 12.
- Boys, you are going in the wrong direction, you are marching to a certain death. You must be crazy if you go there. Turn around and dump your guns in the river, you have been carrying them long enough
JR 12 has been under constant air raids and ground attack plane attacks since the moment they arrived at Ihantala. They are going to counterattack and they are depressed. Nobody cares what the men are saying, including the officers. Now a Sergeant of JR44 gets angry. He goes to the men and commands:
- Shut up, shame on you, cowards!
- Stop yelling Sarge, your men have had enough, they agree with us.
- No they aren't, - the Sergeant says.
Some of us join the Sergeant, me too. Soon there are twenty of us. Our looks are menacing and we are pointing our SMGs at them. No more words are needed, the deserters find themselves in the minority. They collapse mentally, they are shaking like aspen leaves, fearing for their lives. They promise not to disturb the men marching to an important assignment. We take these men along.
The day is now over. Two days without food, without sleep. We drag our feet traversing Pyöräkangas. There is a terrible mess in the terrain. shell holes, fallen trees, smashed and burned lorries and horse carts. Worst of all is the nauseating stink of rotting horses.
29.June
We arrive at Sydänmaa village in Kilpeenjoki on 29. June 0045 hrs. We dig foxholes and go to sleep. The unpleasant case we witnessed still crosses my mind. Yet I feel good for not having to witness shooting of our own men.
There is movement in Sydänmaa this night, more artillery is being placed there. Finns have gained the initiative, a counter attack is going on, supported by continuous artillery fire. My foxhole vibrates and sand keeps flowing on my boots, cooling them nicely. I fall asleep without hearing, seeing or knowing what is going on around me.
Yet there is quite a noise, the artillery fire is heard in my home 300 kilometres away.
We are allowed to sleep until 0600 hrs. We could have slept longer but a sentry comes and wakes up each one.
This time we are not going to join an attack, but we are to be fed. Finally the field kitchen is there. We get our dry food ration: crispbread, butter, cheese, sugar and field kettles full of good pea soup, truly good.
An intense battle is raging at Vakkila crossroads. JR 12 tries to press ahead but can't. Enemy artillery is firing a barrage there. Ground attack planes are ploughing the terrain with their fire.
At a distance of four kilometres the planes keep diving through clouds of dust and smoke with blazing guns. The summer morning light reflects in the dust cloud and makes it well visible.
We fear that we are soon leaving for the front line but no, we get more rest. I drop in my old foxhole and soon fall asleep. I don't dream, I don't know anything about the battle raging nearby.
Next wakeup is at 1130 hrs. We are ordered to get ready, but we are not told when we are going to leave. I am sitting at the rim of my foxhole loading SMG mags. Our artillery keeps shelling enemy targets. There are airplanes of three nations in the air . Then Stukas come and bomb the Vakkila crossroads.
- Good, Jerries, just look at them, - someone shouts.
I keep watching the man. He is empathizing with the bombers, following the diving planes with his head and arms, laughing. Enemy tanks massed at Vakkila crossroads of the Ihantala road get a shower of bombs . Our artillery at Sydänmaa keeps shooting in the same direction. The air is getting polluted by grey clouds of smoke and dust up to here in Sydänmaa. We are feeling so good that we do not pay heed to the enemy shelling.
We are still not leaving, we are told to rest. Lying in my foxhole I keep watching the sky. Ground attack planes are raiding our artillery positions. White smoke fluffs appear on the sky as our AA artillery is firing a barrage. I am feeling good as I fall asleep.
I sleep until 0600 hrs as a sentry wakes me up again. The food horse is here. We are given our field kettles full of porridge and cooked juice. I get up quickly to get my share, but sand has shifted on my legs and I have a problem to get out. But some of us have been unlucky. Two men of 7th Co are missing: They have been suffocated in their foxholes as a close bomb hit buried them. They are sleeping eternal sleep in a grave they dug for themselves. At Ihantala there are lots of men sharing their fate.
We can eat fairly undisturbed, only at times a shell explodes at a threatening distance. The food horse brings us an extra: tea and double ration of sugar (16 pcs 5-g cubes, tr.rem.).
Our rest is over. A messenger tells us to get ready. I am placed in Cpl. Kuivalainen's squad as replacement. He has only two other men. We have again a MG and six ammo cans. The MG is placed in a horse cart. The 3rd Platoon horse with our backpacks has survived.
Our artillery at Kilpeenjoki keeps firing barrages at Ihantala. Now dozens of aircraft are overhead, many of us jump in their foxholes. I am surprised as I see that they are friendly, including the German planes. There are 70 of them over Ihantala. Bombs are falling on the tank columns on the road South of Ihantala. Happy faces are seen all over.
Enemy planes arrive and Messerschmitt fighters engage them. They are diving at the enemy and soon planes are being shot down in flaming torches. We cannot tell which they are, ours or enemies. The airmen are the protective angels of infantry, we appreciate their input and salute them.
29 June. Subject to air raid.
The foxhole appears to protect me from the whinging splinters but at times I am about to be suffocated by dust and smoke. Also pressure waves are ripping my lungs every now and then. I should keep my mouth closed because of the dust and smoke but then my hearing would be gone. My ears are blocked, and for a long time all I can hear is whooshing.
After the last wave has left I find that the terrain has changed appearance. Trees have fallen criss cross on large and small holes.
The decimated II battalion of JR48 did not stand this destructive air raid. Able bodied men left in the rear with the wounded ones.
Men with their weapons keep disappearing. Cpl. Kuivalainen is surprised as Pvts Lahtinen and Lehtimäki have disappeared, they were 15 meters off from him. Their foxholes are empty, and their fate remains unknown to us. Cpl. Kuivalainen is depressed, he tells me to check to the left if there are any men left in the line. I make a 400 meter trip and find some men but some have panicked and abandoned their position. But a brisk Lieutenant comes and says:
- Now boys, let's go and see what is the matter there in the front.
He goes and the men follow him. Men are calmed down and they remain in their sentry posts. The appearance of the men is extraordinary. The earth is in many spots mixed with blood and other human remains, and creeping in it has terribly soiled their faces. It is difficult to recognise even a good pal.
II/JR48 is tired and so is its commander Maj. Pylvänäinen. He has had a tough time leading his battalion in battles, he is evacuated due to physical and mental exhaustion.
The area where there used to be a trench is now full of huge holes. Many a man has disappeared totally. Legs and arms can be seen emerging from the soil. Another one has been flung dozen of metres in the terrain. There are bloody rags and pieces of men dangling from the smashed standing remains of tree trunks.
I return to Cpl. Kuivalainen, shocked. The rest of the 29th June is spent in preparing to leave this place. Showers of thunder sprinkle us.
30 June
We are ready before 0100 hrs, guessing where we will be going. We start off at 0200. We are heading West on a small forest road for some four km and then to East . We pass a small village called Korpi. We are marching in a slow pace, making pauses. - Road sign: Särkijärvi. We leave this road and using pathways we pass villages Metsämäki and Harju until we arrive at our secondary line to the West of Tähtelä village. The village itself, in front of us, is in Finnish hands-
At 0545 our squaddie states that we are in our destination for now. By 0900 hrs the machine gun position is completed. Infrequent shelling goes on at us. We are so used to living in constant crashing that we don't even notice enemy fire if soil, rocks and tree stumps are not raining on us.
In front of us, at Tähtelä, and at our right, at Juustilankangas heavy fighting is going on. Ground attack planes are constantly above the front line, ploughing the positions of JR6. Then the Stukas come and raid the terrain held by the enemy. Their escort fighters engage the ground attack planes, one enemy plane dives in Hoikkasuo swamp shrouded in flames.
In the early afternoon the enemy launches a heavy aerial bombardment at the positions of JR48. Russian airmen have been given heavier bombs than usually, and the results are devastating. A storm is loose: trees are cut, sand is flying in the air and pressure waves buffet stones, tree trunks and stumps from one place to another.
I feel discouraged.
- All of them have left - all who were able to, I say Cpl. Kuivalainen
We do not say anything else.
At 1630 men of II/JR6 approach from Tähtelä. The rear guard men come next, they keep glancing back. An enemy recce plane flies above Tähtelä. We can see flares in the East. the Russians are trying to inform the recce plane about the position of their front line.
Cpl. Kuivalainen goes to talk with the last JR6 man. He is out of breath and tells us :
- We have orders to retreat, you better get going too, the Russkies will soon be here!
They may have orders to retreat but not us. We join the others in good faith. We are carrying all our equipment and gear. Our artillery is shooting intense barrages at the enemy.
At 1830 we find ourselves in Piispala village. We cover the distance of a couple of kilometres in the cover of deciduous forest at the edge of a field without mishap. Enemy harassing artillery and mortar fire does not bother us.
We are sitting at a cowshed as a Second Lieutenant of II/JR35 comes to talk to us. Having been told our unit he orders us to wait for others. He and his outfit are going to the front line.
An enemy recce plane hovers overhead.
- Let's find air cover in the cowshed upstairs, - I suggest
- Let's.
We take along the MG and ammo cans. Then we take some crispbread from our haversacks to chew, we have nothing else. The noise is tremendous, the cowshed is shaking and the upstairs pair doors keep clanking. I lie down in a pile of threshed straw then fall asleep. Cpl. Kuivalainen does likewise.
01 July
We do not know what has happened during the night as we sleep soundly until 0700 hrs. I was dreaming that the war was over, but feel a deep disappointment after waking up, the war is as ferocious as ever.
Vakkila is being shelled and II/JR is under aerial bombardment. We gather our gear. We have to carry a machine gun, its tripod, a SMG and a lot of ammunition. We feel a little uncomfortable to tread the Pispala- Harjula road, for fear of being taken for deserters.
The road is busy. Horse carts are taking mortar shells to the front and returning with wounded men. Ground attack planes are harassing us: The carts and their loads are camouflaged, and the horses pull them in the forest and stay put when a raid is on. After the planes leave thee traffic resumes. One driver tells us that JR 48 is assembled at Rättijärvi. I and Col Kuivalainen have our heavy loads to carry, the carts are reserved for the wounded.
At 0830 we are at Harjula fields. A field to the left, a shallow ridge to the right. Four men are standing at the roadside, shouting at the drivers heading for the front. The din of the front prevents me from hearing until we are next to them.
- Hey boys, dump the guns now, it is so much easier to walk home that way.
- We don't, we may yet need these , - Cpl Kuivalainen says.
- Oh hell what a crazy corporal, a real war maniac. Didn't you see what is going on in the front line, everybody is killed or at least maimed, yet he is hankering back to the front line. P*e, he is a full idiot madman.
Cpl Kuivalainen dislikes profanities and flies into a rage. He jumps in front of the men and points the SMG at them.
- Shut up and shame! - he berates the men.
The men find themselves in trouble now, being unarmed. Their tone changes totally, the arrogance is gone. Without swearing the men try to calm Cpl Kuivalainen who is seething with rage while keeping his weapon aimed at them.
By a chance a three man patrol comes to the scene, led by a Sergeant.
The Sarge asks me:
- What has happened here? Why is the Corporal threatening own men?
I tell him that the men had disturbed the men marching to the front and us, too.
- Do you know him?
- Yes. He is my squaddie, we are men of the 8.Co of the II Battalion of Infantry Regiment 48, the remains of the Third Platoon. Our assembly point is at Rättijärvi.
- You can go, we shall deal with these men.
The Sergeant exchanges a few words with Cpl Kuivalainen, then we can go on. The road is cut by bombs near Harjula, and we have to bypass the spot in the forest. Telephone poles with the wiring have collapsed on the road . Houses in Harjula village are burning as we pass it. One artilleryman gives us a compass bearing and we march seven kilometres through forest to Rättijärvi. Then we see a sign to our Regiment on the roadside. Half a kilometre more, and at 1000 hrs we arrive at Rättijärvi, close to the Saimaa canal. Only a small isthmus connects the island to the mainland.
We are well received. Capt Seppänen. the Company commander, greets us with a smile. Our pals had already began to suspect the worst.
At 1130 food distribution: field kettle full of meat soup and triple ration of sugar (120g). Not everyone has strength to eat but they sleep instead. I and Cpl. Kuivalainen are among the most alert ones. Having eaten we go and have a swim. The tired hard pressed men of II/JR48 are sleeping scattered in the terrain. It is a beautiful summer day, no tents are needed.
Sitting at the beach with my feet in water I am looking at the local scenery. The lake is a part of the Saimaa canal system . The noise of the front line is again increasing. Enemy air force are bombing our positions while shelling intensifies. Even the large rocks in shallow water are resonating, making concentric rings of waves .
Evil premonitions keep creeping in my mind. I can't help it. If only the boys would stand ! Good God, give them strength and consolation in their loneliness. A pal in the foxhole or in the next one can only give material assistance. Everyone has to make his transit to the eternity alone.
With these serious ideas in my head I go to sleep at 1430hrs. My bed is simple: some spruce boughs and a clump of moss as pillow. We have to wear our helmets even when sleeping due to risk of air raid.
Food transport horse arrives at 1800 and the men are woken up to dine. The light of evening sun is reflected on the quavering surface of lake Rättijärvi. We feel free. We do not have to fear that the clanking of field kettle could be heard by the enemy as was the case at the Bunker Hill of Valkeasaari. We enjoy the food, except the sick ones. They are dysenteric and now finally they are cared for. The food transport surprises us: Clean set of underwear for all , a towel and an extra box of smokes. We go swimming in groups of ten.
The front keeps thundering as previously. The rocks still resonate. When swimming we are warned:
- Get in cover , don't move, air threat!
I and Kuivalainen hide in the reeds, I wait with tension where the planes are coming from. They are flying over the front line, we are not affected. But a recce plane circles our island. Everybody stays immobile, including the food transport horse who is wearing a dense alder bush camouflage on his back. As the plane flies just overhead I am surprised to see the horse drop down on his knees. He, too, took cover having sensed danger. Did the airmen see anything? It they did , soon there will be a good lot of steel raining at us.
The swimmers are told to quit and everyone is ordered to dig a foxhole just to be on the safe side.
But there is neither air raid nor shelling, fortunately. Our camping ground is undetected. We are allowed to continue our rest until midnight.
02 July
Off we go - back to the front line. We march through Särkijärvi and Renäikkölä villages to the forest East of Harjula fields. The Battalion is led by Capt. Seppänen who previously was the Commander of the Machine Gun Co. The situation in the front is now cleared for our benefit. Our artillery and mortars are shelling heavily. We are getting a feeling that we will not be chased back to our homes even though the enemy loudspeaker propaganda at Kivennapa promised that.
Cpl. Kuivalainen is taken to other duties , I do not know where. Our MG squad has shrunk and I am made its leader. I have three men in my command: Pvt. Honkanen Markkanen and Oberg. The two first are older age class replacement men.
At 1400 the slack enemy harassment fire intensifies. The fine pine forest 50 m to our left is a chaos . An order is passed along the line: Counterattack in the direction of Vakkila and Tähtelä.
We do not manage to climb over the top as ten men, out of breath, arrive from the No man's land. There are no NCOs among them. The men appear to be shaken. They tell us that the enemy has broken through and soon the Russians with their tanks will be here.
But these men have not lost their fighting ability. They have stuck to their weapons, one LMG and several SMGs. I order them to take positions on each side of our MG. I instruct them:
- When the tanks come, we shall keep ourselves disguised and fire only at the infantry following the tanks. At least the MG must not reveal its position too early.
We are waiting under tension, determined to fight as long as possible. Constant sound of shooting is heard in front of us. Sounds of tank engines is merged in the noise. I am watching hard at the direction of the sound. Quite right, there they are, about four hundred meter from us on the road traversing the forest. The tanks are coming with intervals of thirty meters, stopping a few times to shoot as they head for Harjula.
A three man patrol volunteers to check the terrain in front of us for enemy infantry. The men find a firing position of our heavy mortars. Our men are told that the enemy has been repulsed by a counterstrike and the tanks have been eliminated. We are nonplussed and surprised at this happy turn of events. We are relaxed, the smokers light up and we discuss the incident.
Our mortars are busy firing at the enemy targets in the glen. Pvts Hokkanen and Markkanen start digging to improve our position. The men have seen with their own eyes that sweat does save blood.
At 1700 a messenger brings me a message: we are warned that an enemy tanker is in the run and he may try to join his own. Pvt. Markkanen voluntarily joins me as we are going to head off the tanker or tankers at the Harjula farmhouse. We proceed for one kilometre, then see a group of men at a big rock on the edge of a field. They are just studying the remains of a killed Russian tanker. The man had blown a hand grenade against his chest. instead of surrendering. The men tell us that as they fired at the rock with rifles and SMGs the man kept shouting "Stalin, Stalin". Each one has a faith of one's own.
I am asking the men about the other enemy tankers but they do not know. Some 500 m farther there is a destroyed enemy tank and we go to have a look. Having entered the field someone calls air alert. Quickly the men slip in the ditches of the field to hide themselves. It is only the enemy AA fire that tells us the planes are friendly. Finnish and German aircraft are bombing Vakkila and Tähtelä.
We approach one tank. It is a T34, a handsome piece of machinery. It is lying on its side deep in a field ditch, the other track is in the air. There are a total of three tanks stuck in the same manner. The field, broken in swamp, with deep ditches, did not support the weight of heavy war machines as they tried to traverse. Lack of AT weapons was replaced by natural obstacles..
The field is treacherous. The tanks have sunk in it sideways. The tank crews have panicked, abandoned their vehicles and scattered in the terrain.
(Armour Division men towed these tanks out the following night , they were taken into Finnish use, but due lo lack of 85mm ammo they were next to useless. Tr. rem.)
We return to our outfit and find that it is almost night. It was the last tough day at Juustila. At 0030 hrs we hand over the support line to JR30 reserve. Finally the tired JR48 in its entirety is pulled back for rest and recuperation.
End of 3/3
There is an empty hay barn. Finally there is some traces of the enemy; bandages, blankets, two smashed radio transmitters and other gear. Those fellows must have left in a hurry. We climb the hill with our fingers on the trigger but don't see the enemy.
At 1800 hrs we are on the summit of the Hakamäki hill. For one hour we keep observing the terrain. Odd explosions are seen in the forest: the enemy is firing smoke shells to cover the retreat of their spies.
We also check the Lehtola farm buildings. No enemies there. I am posted as sentry at the corner of the cow shed. Tiredness peaks again as tension has been relieved. I cannot help sleeping in my post. I have unshouldered my SMG, my haversack and mag pouch.
I get to sleep for one hour until I am roused by kicks. It is not the enemy but our man, a Sergeant of 1/JR12. He is not angry at me for sleeping, he just wants to know where the enemy is.
- Not in this house as far as I know, I respond.
There is sound of movement and JR12 arrives to march in the front line. Our task is over and we assemble at Hakamäki, then start our return march. Being tired, I am marching with the others without knowing where . We keep meeting JR12 men.
It is 2300 hrs. North of Vakkila at a bridge we meet three unarmed men, obviously deserters. I do not recognise them. They keep shouting at the men of JR 12.
- Boys, you are going in the wrong direction, you are marching to a certain death. You must be crazy if you go there. Turn around and dump your guns in the river, you have been carrying them long enough
JR 12 has been under constant air raids and ground attack plane attacks since the moment they arrived at Ihantala. They are going to counterattack and they are depressed. Nobody cares what the men are saying, including the officers. Now a Sergeant of JR44 gets angry. He goes to the men and commands:
- Shut up, shame on you, cowards!
- Stop yelling Sarge, your men have had enough, they agree with us.
- No they aren't, - the Sergeant says.
Some of us join the Sergeant, me too. Soon there are twenty of us. Our looks are menacing and we are pointing our SMGs at them. No more words are needed, the deserters find themselves in the minority. They collapse mentally, they are shaking like aspen leaves, fearing for their lives. They promise not to disturb the men marching to an important assignment. We take these men along.
The day is now over. Two days without food, without sleep. We drag our feet traversing Pyöräkangas. There is a terrible mess in the terrain. shell holes, fallen trees, smashed and burned lorries and horse carts. Worst of all is the nauseating stink of rotting horses.
29.June
We arrive at Sydänmaa village in Kilpeenjoki on 29. June 0045 hrs. We dig foxholes and go to sleep. The unpleasant case we witnessed still crosses my mind. Yet I feel good for not having to witness shooting of our own men.
There is movement in Sydänmaa this night, more artillery is being placed there. Finns have gained the initiative, a counter attack is going on, supported by continuous artillery fire. My foxhole vibrates and sand keeps flowing on my boots, cooling them nicely. I fall asleep without hearing, seeing or knowing what is going on around me.
Yet there is quite a noise, the artillery fire is heard in my home 300 kilometres away.
We are allowed to sleep until 0600 hrs. We could have slept longer but a sentry comes and wakes up each one.
This time we are not going to join an attack, but we are to be fed. Finally the field kitchen is there. We get our dry food ration: crispbread, butter, cheese, sugar and field kettles full of good pea soup, truly good.
An intense battle is raging at Vakkila crossroads. JR 12 tries to press ahead but can't. Enemy artillery is firing a barrage there. Ground attack planes are ploughing the terrain with their fire.
At a distance of four kilometres the planes keep diving through clouds of dust and smoke with blazing guns. The summer morning light reflects in the dust cloud and makes it well visible.
We fear that we are soon leaving for the front line but no, we get more rest. I drop in my old foxhole and soon fall asleep. I don't dream, I don't know anything about the battle raging nearby.
Next wakeup is at 1130 hrs. We are ordered to get ready, but we are not told when we are going to leave. I am sitting at the rim of my foxhole loading SMG mags. Our artillery keeps shelling enemy targets. There are airplanes of three nations in the air . Then Stukas come and bomb the Vakkila crossroads.
- Good, Jerries, just look at them, - someone shouts.
I keep watching the man. He is empathizing with the bombers, following the diving planes with his head and arms, laughing. Enemy tanks massed at Vakkila crossroads of the Ihantala road get a shower of bombs . Our artillery at Sydänmaa keeps shooting in the same direction. The air is getting polluted by grey clouds of smoke and dust up to here in Sydänmaa. We are feeling so good that we do not pay heed to the enemy shelling.
We are still not leaving, we are told to rest. Lying in my foxhole I keep watching the sky. Ground attack planes are raiding our artillery positions. White smoke fluffs appear on the sky as our AA artillery is firing a barrage. I am feeling good as I fall asleep.
I sleep until 0600 hrs as a sentry wakes me up again. The food horse is here. We are given our field kettles full of porridge and cooked juice. I get up quickly to get my share, but sand has shifted on my legs and I have a problem to get out. But some of us have been unlucky. Two men of 7th Co are missing: They have been suffocated in their foxholes as a close bomb hit buried them. They are sleeping eternal sleep in a grave they dug for themselves. At Ihantala there are lots of men sharing their fate.
We can eat fairly undisturbed, only at times a shell explodes at a threatening distance. The food horse brings us an extra: tea and double ration of sugar (16 pcs 5-g cubes, tr.rem.).
Our rest is over. A messenger tells us to get ready. I am placed in Cpl. Kuivalainen's squad as replacement. He has only two other men. We have again a MG and six ammo cans. The MG is placed in a horse cart. The 3rd Platoon horse with our backpacks has survived.
Our artillery at Kilpeenjoki keeps firing barrages at Ihantala. Now dozens of aircraft are overhead, many of us jump in their foxholes. I am surprised as I see that they are friendly, including the German planes. There are 70 of them over Ihantala. Bombs are falling on the tank columns on the road South of Ihantala. Happy faces are seen all over.
Enemy planes arrive and Messerschmitt fighters engage them. They are diving at the enemy and soon planes are being shot down in flaming torches. We cannot tell which they are, ours or enemies. The airmen are the protective angels of infantry, we appreciate their input and salute them.
29 June. Subject to air raid.
The foxhole appears to protect me from the whinging splinters but at times I am about to be suffocated by dust and smoke. Also pressure waves are ripping my lungs every now and then. I should keep my mouth closed because of the dust and smoke but then my hearing would be gone. My ears are blocked, and for a long time all I can hear is whooshing.
After the last wave has left I find that the terrain has changed appearance. Trees have fallen criss cross on large and small holes.
The decimated II battalion of JR48 did not stand this destructive air raid. Able bodied men left in the rear with the wounded ones.
Men with their weapons keep disappearing. Cpl. Kuivalainen is surprised as Pvts Lahtinen and Lehtimäki have disappeared, they were 15 meters off from him. Their foxholes are empty, and their fate remains unknown to us. Cpl. Kuivalainen is depressed, he tells me to check to the left if there are any men left in the line. I make a 400 meter trip and find some men but some have panicked and abandoned their position. But a brisk Lieutenant comes and says:
- Now boys, let's go and see what is the matter there in the front.
He goes and the men follow him. Men are calmed down and they remain in their sentry posts. The appearance of the men is extraordinary. The earth is in many spots mixed with blood and other human remains, and creeping in it has terribly soiled their faces. It is difficult to recognise even a good pal.
II/JR48 is tired and so is its commander Maj. Pylvänäinen. He has had a tough time leading his battalion in battles, he is evacuated due to physical and mental exhaustion.
The area where there used to be a trench is now full of huge holes. Many a man has disappeared totally. Legs and arms can be seen emerging from the soil. Another one has been flung dozen of metres in the terrain. There are bloody rags and pieces of men dangling from the smashed standing remains of tree trunks.
I return to Cpl. Kuivalainen, shocked. The rest of the 29th June is spent in preparing to leave this place. Showers of thunder sprinkle us.
30 June
We are ready before 0100 hrs, guessing where we will be going. We start off at 0200. We are heading West on a small forest road for some four km and then to East . We pass a small village called Korpi. We are marching in a slow pace, making pauses. - Road sign: Särkijärvi. We leave this road and using pathways we pass villages Metsämäki and Harju until we arrive at our secondary line to the West of Tähtelä village. The village itself, in front of us, is in Finnish hands-
At 0545 our squaddie states that we are in our destination for now. By 0900 hrs the machine gun position is completed. Infrequent shelling goes on at us. We are so used to living in constant crashing that we don't even notice enemy fire if soil, rocks and tree stumps are not raining on us.
In front of us, at Tähtelä, and at our right, at Juustilankangas heavy fighting is going on. Ground attack planes are constantly above the front line, ploughing the positions of JR6. Then the Stukas come and raid the terrain held by the enemy. Their escort fighters engage the ground attack planes, one enemy plane dives in Hoikkasuo swamp shrouded in flames.
In the early afternoon the enemy launches a heavy aerial bombardment at the positions of JR48. Russian airmen have been given heavier bombs than usually, and the results are devastating. A storm is loose: trees are cut, sand is flying in the air and pressure waves buffet stones, tree trunks and stumps from one place to another.
I feel discouraged.
- All of them have left - all who were able to, I say Cpl. Kuivalainen
We do not say anything else.
At 1630 men of II/JR6 approach from Tähtelä. The rear guard men come next, they keep glancing back. An enemy recce plane flies above Tähtelä. We can see flares in the East. the Russians are trying to inform the recce plane about the position of their front line.
Cpl. Kuivalainen goes to talk with the last JR6 man. He is out of breath and tells us :
- We have orders to retreat, you better get going too, the Russkies will soon be here!
They may have orders to retreat but not us. We join the others in good faith. We are carrying all our equipment and gear. Our artillery is shooting intense barrages at the enemy.
At 1830 we find ourselves in Piispala village. We cover the distance of a couple of kilometres in the cover of deciduous forest at the edge of a field without mishap. Enemy harassing artillery and mortar fire does not bother us.
We are sitting at a cowshed as a Second Lieutenant of II/JR35 comes to talk to us. Having been told our unit he orders us to wait for others. He and his outfit are going to the front line.
An enemy recce plane hovers overhead.
- Let's find air cover in the cowshed upstairs, - I suggest
- Let's.
We take along the MG and ammo cans. Then we take some crispbread from our haversacks to chew, we have nothing else. The noise is tremendous, the cowshed is shaking and the upstairs pair doors keep clanking. I lie down in a pile of threshed straw then fall asleep. Cpl. Kuivalainen does likewise.
01 July
We do not know what has happened during the night as we sleep soundly until 0700 hrs. I was dreaming that the war was over, but feel a deep disappointment after waking up, the war is as ferocious as ever.
Vakkila is being shelled and II/JR is under aerial bombardment. We gather our gear. We have to carry a machine gun, its tripod, a SMG and a lot of ammunition. We feel a little uncomfortable to tread the Pispala- Harjula road, for fear of being taken for deserters.
The road is busy. Horse carts are taking mortar shells to the front and returning with wounded men. Ground attack planes are harassing us: The carts and their loads are camouflaged, and the horses pull them in the forest and stay put when a raid is on. After the planes leave thee traffic resumes. One driver tells us that JR 48 is assembled at Rättijärvi. I and Col Kuivalainen have our heavy loads to carry, the carts are reserved for the wounded.
At 0830 we are at Harjula fields. A field to the left, a shallow ridge to the right. Four men are standing at the roadside, shouting at the drivers heading for the front. The din of the front prevents me from hearing until we are next to them.
- Hey boys, dump the guns now, it is so much easier to walk home that way.
- We don't, we may yet need these , - Cpl Kuivalainen says.
- Oh hell what a crazy corporal, a real war maniac. Didn't you see what is going on in the front line, everybody is killed or at least maimed, yet he is hankering back to the front line. P*e, he is a full idiot madman.
Cpl Kuivalainen dislikes profanities and flies into a rage. He jumps in front of the men and points the SMG at them.
- Shut up and shame! - he berates the men.
The men find themselves in trouble now, being unarmed. Their tone changes totally, the arrogance is gone. Without swearing the men try to calm Cpl Kuivalainen who is seething with rage while keeping his weapon aimed at them.
By a chance a three man patrol comes to the scene, led by a Sergeant.
The Sarge asks me:
- What has happened here? Why is the Corporal threatening own men?
I tell him that the men had disturbed the men marching to the front and us, too.
- Do you know him?
- Yes. He is my squaddie, we are men of the 8.Co of the II Battalion of Infantry Regiment 48, the remains of the Third Platoon. Our assembly point is at Rättijärvi.
- You can go, we shall deal with these men.
The Sergeant exchanges a few words with Cpl Kuivalainen, then we can go on. The road is cut by bombs near Harjula, and we have to bypass the spot in the forest. Telephone poles with the wiring have collapsed on the road . Houses in Harjula village are burning as we pass it. One artilleryman gives us a compass bearing and we march seven kilometres through forest to Rättijärvi. Then we see a sign to our Regiment on the roadside. Half a kilometre more, and at 1000 hrs we arrive at Rättijärvi, close to the Saimaa canal. Only a small isthmus connects the island to the mainland.
We are well received. Capt Seppänen. the Company commander, greets us with a smile. Our pals had already began to suspect the worst.
At 1130 food distribution: field kettle full of meat soup and triple ration of sugar (120g). Not everyone has strength to eat but they sleep instead. I and Cpl. Kuivalainen are among the most alert ones. Having eaten we go and have a swim. The tired hard pressed men of II/JR48 are sleeping scattered in the terrain. It is a beautiful summer day, no tents are needed.
Sitting at the beach with my feet in water I am looking at the local scenery. The lake is a part of the Saimaa canal system . The noise of the front line is again increasing. Enemy air force are bombing our positions while shelling intensifies. Even the large rocks in shallow water are resonating, making concentric rings of waves .
Evil premonitions keep creeping in my mind. I can't help it. If only the boys would stand ! Good God, give them strength and consolation in their loneliness. A pal in the foxhole or in the next one can only give material assistance. Everyone has to make his transit to the eternity alone.
With these serious ideas in my head I go to sleep at 1430hrs. My bed is simple: some spruce boughs and a clump of moss as pillow. We have to wear our helmets even when sleeping due to risk of air raid.
Food transport horse arrives at 1800 and the men are woken up to dine. The light of evening sun is reflected on the quavering surface of lake Rättijärvi. We feel free. We do not have to fear that the clanking of field kettle could be heard by the enemy as was the case at the Bunker Hill of Valkeasaari. We enjoy the food, except the sick ones. They are dysenteric and now finally they are cared for. The food transport surprises us: Clean set of underwear for all , a towel and an extra box of smokes. We go swimming in groups of ten.
The front keeps thundering as previously. The rocks still resonate. When swimming we are warned:
- Get in cover , don't move, air threat!
I and Kuivalainen hide in the reeds, I wait with tension where the planes are coming from. They are flying over the front line, we are not affected. But a recce plane circles our island. Everybody stays immobile, including the food transport horse who is wearing a dense alder bush camouflage on his back. As the plane flies just overhead I am surprised to see the horse drop down on his knees. He, too, took cover having sensed danger. Did the airmen see anything? It they did , soon there will be a good lot of steel raining at us.
The swimmers are told to quit and everyone is ordered to dig a foxhole just to be on the safe side.
But there is neither air raid nor shelling, fortunately. Our camping ground is undetected. We are allowed to continue our rest until midnight.
02 July
Off we go - back to the front line. We march through Särkijärvi and Renäikkölä villages to the forest East of Harjula fields. The Battalion is led by Capt. Seppänen who previously was the Commander of the Machine Gun Co. The situation in the front is now cleared for our benefit. Our artillery and mortars are shelling heavily. We are getting a feeling that we will not be chased back to our homes even though the enemy loudspeaker propaganda at Kivennapa promised that.
Cpl. Kuivalainen is taken to other duties , I do not know where. Our MG squad has shrunk and I am made its leader. I have three men in my command: Pvt. Honkanen Markkanen and Oberg. The two first are older age class replacement men.
At 1400 the slack enemy harassment fire intensifies. The fine pine forest 50 m to our left is a chaos . An order is passed along the line: Counterattack in the direction of Vakkila and Tähtelä.
We do not manage to climb over the top as ten men, out of breath, arrive from the No man's land. There are no NCOs among them. The men appear to be shaken. They tell us that the enemy has broken through and soon the Russians with their tanks will be here.
But these men have not lost their fighting ability. They have stuck to their weapons, one LMG and several SMGs. I order them to take positions on each side of our MG. I instruct them:
- When the tanks come, we shall keep ourselves disguised and fire only at the infantry following the tanks. At least the MG must not reveal its position too early.
We are waiting under tension, determined to fight as long as possible. Constant sound of shooting is heard in front of us. Sounds of tank engines is merged in the noise. I am watching hard at the direction of the sound. Quite right, there they are, about four hundred meter from us on the road traversing the forest. The tanks are coming with intervals of thirty meters, stopping a few times to shoot as they head for Harjula.
A three man patrol volunteers to check the terrain in front of us for enemy infantry. The men find a firing position of our heavy mortars. Our men are told that the enemy has been repulsed by a counterstrike and the tanks have been eliminated. We are nonplussed and surprised at this happy turn of events. We are relaxed, the smokers light up and we discuss the incident.
Our mortars are busy firing at the enemy targets in the glen. Pvts Hokkanen and Markkanen start digging to improve our position. The men have seen with their own eyes that sweat does save blood.
At 1700 a messenger brings me a message: we are warned that an enemy tanker is in the run and he may try to join his own. Pvt. Markkanen voluntarily joins me as we are going to head off the tanker or tankers at the Harjula farmhouse. We proceed for one kilometre, then see a group of men at a big rock on the edge of a field. They are just studying the remains of a killed Russian tanker. The man had blown a hand grenade against his chest. instead of surrendering. The men tell us that as they fired at the rock with rifles and SMGs the man kept shouting "Stalin, Stalin". Each one has a faith of one's own.
I am asking the men about the other enemy tankers but they do not know. Some 500 m farther there is a destroyed enemy tank and we go to have a look. Having entered the field someone calls air alert. Quickly the men slip in the ditches of the field to hide themselves. It is only the enemy AA fire that tells us the planes are friendly. Finnish and German aircraft are bombing Vakkila and Tähtelä.
We approach one tank. It is a T34, a handsome piece of machinery. It is lying on its side deep in a field ditch, the other track is in the air. There are a total of three tanks stuck in the same manner. The field, broken in swamp, with deep ditches, did not support the weight of heavy war machines as they tried to traverse. Lack of AT weapons was replaced by natural obstacles..
The field is treacherous. The tanks have sunk in it sideways. The tank crews have panicked, abandoned their vehicles and scattered in the terrain.
(Armour Division men towed these tanks out the following night , they were taken into Finnish use, but due lo lack of 85mm ammo they were next to useless. Tr. rem.)
We return to our outfit and find that it is almost night. It was the last tough day at Juustila. At 0030 hrs we hand over the support line to JR30 reserve. Finally the tired JR48 in its entirety is pulled back for rest and recuperation.
End of 3/3
Re: Personal story in three parts: a machine gunner in Ihantala 1944
Thank you for translation, very interesting. "Two wrecked immobile T-28 tanks, unfortunately Finnish" - Nieminen really mentions T-28, not T-26? I've been under the impression, that 4 T-26 had been damaged on the road early morning 27th June and only one of them abandoned. On the other hand, that's not so hard to get the numbers wrong, that's not war journal after all.
Re: Personal story in three parts: a machine gunner in Ihantala 1944
Theoph:
Not having the source text at hand I admit that the translator may have committed an error as to the tank type.
BTW even captured T-26 is always in Finnish sources identified as "Vickers".
Not having the source text at hand I admit that the translator may have committed an error as to the tank type.
BTW even captured T-26 is always in Finnish sources identified as "Vickers".
Re: Personal story in three parts: a machine gunner in Ihantala 1944
Thank you / Kiitos
My grandfather Erkki Kuvaja fought with JR.12. Early at Tali-Ihantala battle he got a eye wound and was evacuated to field hospital. He sadly passed away from "war heart" in 1968, only 49 years old. Any information from JR.12 would be greatly appreciated. I only have my grandfathers soldiers card and I know he was promoted. He fought in all of JR12 battles, including Kestinki
My grandfather Erkki Kuvaja fought with JR.12. Early at Tali-Ihantala battle he got a eye wound and was evacuated to field hospital. He sadly passed away from "war heart" in 1968, only 49 years old. Any information from JR.12 would be greatly appreciated. I only have my grandfathers soldiers card and I know he was promoted. He fought in all of JR12 battles, including Kestinki
-
John Hilly
- Member
- Posts: 2618
- Joined: 26 Jan 2010, 10:33
- Location: Tampere, Finland, EU
Re: Personal story in three parts: a machine gunner in Ihantala 1944
About JR 12 in Finnish
http://www.metsapirtti.net/artikkelit/p ... anka02.htm
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalkav%C3 ... jatkosota)
http://www.metsapirtti.net/artikkelit/p ... anka02.htm
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalkav%C3 ... jatkosota)
"Die Blechtrommel trommelt noch!"
Re: Personal story in three parts: a machine gunner in Ihantala 1944
Kiitos, I need to practice my finnish after all these years in Sweden
Re: Personal story in three parts: a machine gunner in Ihantala 1944
For comparison: Below you can find the II/JR48 war diary of the same period as the personal story.
There was no MG Company war diary of the same battalion. The author mentioned 7.Coy but their WD has a gap from 24 May to 30.July 1944.
24.6.1944
(...)
Alert at 07.15 hrs. Btn was marching under heavy artillery harassment fire in Pahalampi terrain where they camped. At 2100hrs Regimental order: Btn shall at once march to the terrain between Konkkala rocks and shall immediately start building rear blocking lines led by Maj. Pylvänäinen.
25.6.
Start at 00.30 and arrival at 02.00, again camping and start of field fortification work. At 02.00hrs Rgt (HQ) informed that a larger number of replacements shall arrive in the terrain S of Ihantalanjärvi lake, and they shall be fetched to the Btn. The Btn sent out 1 off + 2 NCO to receive the replacements (total number during 25.6. 0+13+1+8 =121)
At 06.15 hrs enemy attack started in the direction of Peronjoki river and Tali-Juustila road.
Extremely heavy artillery, rocket and mortar fire augmented by strong aerial bombardment.
The enemy managed to cross Peronjoki river and press our troops to the rear by outflanking in the Konkkalanvuoret hills terrain. Also some tanks managed to break through our lines at the road to the crossroads at Portinhoikka and from there some distance to the direction of Juustila nd Ihantala roads.
The result was a bad breach in the direction of the road and the units of I Btn subjected to us and the Rgt. Command post in Pahalammi terrain were surrounded at abt 14.00hrs. At the same time at least 1 Coy of enemies managed to get through into our rear in the direction of Talinmylly road, advancing as far as the road Portinhoikka – Ihantala, cutting off for a while the road connection in the terrain of Koulusuo. However, due to countermeasures the enemy was pushed back and the road was opened.
Heavy fighting went on in the terrain of Portinhoikka crossroads between enemy tanks and our AT weapons supported by StuGs. Hereby the enemy lost out of their about 35 tanks some thirty, of which 7 were taken intact by smoking the crews out of their tanks.
All the time very heavy shelling which caused very heavy losses to our Battalion.
(In the margin:
Replacements 0+13+108
Casualties:
KIA 2+3+11
(lt. Savolainen, Niilo, 2nd Lt. Perämäki)
Wounded 4+10+40
(Lt. Niinistö, Merikoski, Ahola
2nd Lt Forsman)
MIA 0+0+5 )
The situation became clearer by midnight to the extent that the encircled part of our Btn as well as the parts of the Rgt. HQ got out by a circuitous route and the counterattack by our troops was successful. Pahalammi terrain was freed from enemies.
The Btn was assembled in the terrain W of Kilpeenjoki road crossroads where the last outfits arrived at midnight.
26.6.1944
The day was spent by resting, gear maintenance and placing the replacement men in the Companies. The Btn was in one-hour alert readiness.
At 21.00 1.Coy was alerted and it set out to contact the about 80 men strong enemy unit found SW of Ihantalanjärvi lake.
At 23.00 the rest of the Btn were alerted.
At 23.30 we set out to the direction of Talinmylly.
There was no exact information about the enemy, it was known that they were moving about in the terrain S and NW of Talinmylly and that its strongish scouting units had been spotted at the SW perimeter of the open ground at Marjamäki-Nurmela. Also enemies had been spotted in the groups of houses in the mentioned places.
(In the margin for 26.6:
Replacement 1+0+0, no casualties)
27.6.1944
Rgt. Commander briefing at …. The Btn was tasked to advance by terrain S of Kakkomäki hill, their initial objective on line Marjamäki – Nurmela – Nst. (map 1:20000). Having reached it they would stay there waiting for further orders.
The Btn grouped next to Kokkomäki road so that ahead on the right wing was 7.Coy, and on the left wing 6.Coy. In the supporting line were 5.Coy and 8.Coy behind 7. Coy.
On our let at the road was Btn. Alftan and behind us in the second line I Btn.
Grouping was completed at 05.50hrs whereafter we set immediately out. During our advance in the extremely dense forest Btn Alftan, that almost at once was engaged by the enemy, could not keep the pace with us. The result was breach of contact on the left and the troops were somewhat mixed up.
The Btn got into firefight with the enemy not until at the bog about 300m SE of Karhimovuori “i'” and we advanced after a long and heavy battle with some units to the forest-covered hillock situated abt 400m NW of Nurmela and with some units (6.Coy and parts of 8.Coy) by W of the open ground at Nst. via Pt.38 to the main road. Having crossed it they remained to secure the terrain at the group of houses.
So the initial objective had been reached by 07.00hrs.
(In the margin: Appx.8)
At 11.00hrs the following order issued by the Rgt:
As the road has been taken the positions SE of the road must be manned in co-operation with I Btn on the stretch of road Church village – Marjamäki, and the positions must absolutely be kept.
The enemy had extremely tenaciously bitten in thr groups of houses SE of the road but as Coy Vuolle-Ojala supported by German StuGs had rolled up along the road unti Marjamäki, an outfit ot 20 to 30 men led by Capt. Seppänen continued the action starting at 12.40 hrs and takingover by 16.00hrs the group of houses at Nummela and the forest isthmus SW of it.
Specially the last mentioned was very hard to take.
Simultaneously we were contacted on our right wing from the terrain of the Church village and Nst.
All the time lively artillery and mortar fire on both sides. Specially Nurmela and the forest promontory SW of it were almost constantly being shelled by our artillery and mortars.
(in the margin: Appx.10)
At 19.00 order was issued to the Co of Btn Alftan: The remaining parts of the Btn are to be disengage from the front line and their sector is taken over by 21.Tyk.K.and 6./JR45. The losses of Btn Alftan are very great, e.g. almost all the officers are dead or wounded.
At 21.50 parts of I Btn tried to attack to S via a forest promontory situated 200m SW of Nummela to ease the enemy pressure but the attack failed due to extremely hard enemy counterfire and exhaustion of our men, the lines remained unchanged.
(In the margin:
Casualties:
KIA 1+1+6 (2nd Lt Fabritius)
WIA 1+9+43 (Lt. Mankki)
Mia 0+1+1)
28.6.1944
At 06.00 An extremely intrense enemy barrage with all heavy weapons started, supported by raids of ground attack aircraft. This lasted about one hour, whereafter at the seam of I and II Btns started an enemy attack with a force of at least one Btn was so strong that the defenders, weakened by a great number of casualties, were not able to withstand it but the lines were broken and the positions had to be disengaged. The Btn was thereafter assembled in the terrain of the Btn supply for reorganization and supplying. Supply men Lt. Jaatinen and Lt. Koiranen were posted as acting CO
s of 5.and 6. Coys.
At 20.00hrs an outfit made up of men from different Coys, strenght 3+10+110 was sent out to take over the Hakamäki hill patch of forest in the middle of Vakkila fields and secure it until other outfits would relieve them.
(In the margin:
Replacement 2+6+16
Casualties:
KIA 2+0+4
2nd Lt. Korhola and Malmila
WIA 0+8+40
MIA 0+0+3 )
The outfit returned next morning having fulfilled their task and handing over the stronghold to JR12.
(In the margin :
29.6._
Casualties¨: WIA 0+0+1
Replacements: 0+1+14)
The day was entirely spent resting and maintaining gear and organizing replacements.
30.6.1944
Alert and on the move at 02.55hrs. The task was to take positions in the terrain of Marjamäki-Tähtelä. There at 06.55 hrs and manning completed by 07.15hrs. On the left 6.Coy, in the middle 7.Coy, the limit Pt. 14 – Hoikkasuo “o”. On the right in Marjamäki terrain 5.Coy, the limit the brook flowing through the fields, right limit the Marjamäki house group (M). Contact to the right with III/20.Pr. At 07.30hrs. On our left I/JR48. Btn Command post is situated in the terrain “suo” in Hoikkasuo. First aid post and ammo supply point in the terrain of Piispala. Defence supported by 2 75mm AT guns at the road Tähtelä – Vesala from 13.Er.TykK.and one 45mm gun S of Hoikkasuo bog from 14.Tyk.K. Rgt command post situated in the ruins of Harjula farmhouse.
At 11.30hrs an intense air raid by several dozens of bombers and ground attack planes started. The result was that most of the men in the front line withdrew to the rear despite the patrols that immediately had been posted at the roads to the rear to prevent this. However the front line was manned again immediately.
At 15.30hrs it was informed that the outfits of Col.Lt. Toppila and Maj. Manninen delaying in front of our line have withdrawn while the enemy is following at their heels.
In Tähtelä terrain the enemy succeeded in breaking in our positions, immediately starting to advance in depth wherefor our manning after a brief firefight withdrew in the rear. As the report was receive in the Btn Command post the enemy was already there. 6.Coy had withdrawn from the left and its elements were organized for defence, supported by some MG s in the terrain N of the Btn command post. Since the situation was rather unclear and the enemy kept attacking busily, the parts of the Btn withdrew about 1 km to the rear and set up defences at Piispala group of houses E and NE of them. Parts of Lin.P.4 were there, too. From there a couple of counterstrikes were launched. First Lts Jaatinen and Koiranen with 15 to 20 men which failed and then with the entire available Btn. force led by Capt. Seppänen starting at 18.45hrs.
Advance was successful together with parts of Capt. Vuolle-Ojala's Coy on the left as far as the terrain of the Btn Command post. The attack fizzled in the fire of enemy auto weapons and the detachment was pulled back to the Piispala terrain.
1.7.1944_
During the night the lost lines were retaken by the attack of a Jaeger company. At 02.15hrs it was informed that in the Marjamäki terrain the enemy had managed in breaking in the positions and advanced in the terrain of Pts 51 and 52.
II Btn was ordered to set out to counterattack but before they managed to arrive the Lin.P4 CO Maj. Gustav reported that the situation had been cleared.
The (II) Btn was temporarily combined with I Btn and they were ordered to man the previous I Btn section, led by Maj. Pylvänäinen.
At 14.00hrs both arty F.O.O. And infantry reported that the enemy was grouping about one Btn supported by some 20 tanks for attack in several locations at the E side of Vakkila fields. The attempted attack was suppressed however by intense shelling of our artillery at the mentioned targets.
Also a German Stuka squadron bombed the tank groupings very successfully.
At 20.30hrs an (enemy) attack, stronger than usually, was launced at the direction of Hakamäki forest patch but the enemy was thrown back by a counterstrike.
2.7.1944_
(Annex 12)
At 00.00hrs order issued by Rgt:
1.:_ 7/35, CO Lt. Tuominen, shall replace during the night 1./2.6.(sic!)1944 the units of JR 48 from the front line
2:_II/JR48 CO Capt Seppänen, shall remain as reserve for the Vesala sector in the terrain E of Harjula. Capt Seppänen shall during the replacement take responsibility of the front at Vesala secton and 7./35 will be subjected to him
(In the margin: Replacement 1+0+0)
I/(JR)48 and 14. (JR)48 shall march after they have been replaced in small groups to the terrain N of Reinikkala from where they shall march in Coys to the terrain W of Särkijärvi according to the preliminary order issued by Capt Koppinen. (Capt. Koppinen shall receive instructions at the Rgt Command post when he is personally reporting on the replacement.)
3.:_Capt. Seppänen and his outfit shall stay under command of Col Laaksonen (command post the present command post to the Rgt.)
4.:_For communications, the telephone connection of the Rgt. Remains on the section and radio contact to the future command post of the Col.
5.: _Rgt. Command post shall be transferred to the terrain W of Särkijärvi.
6.:_If necessary the Btn left in the front line shall be replaced by the one in their rear.
7.:_I order that Capt. Koppinen shall relay this order for the information of 14./(JR) 48
AM was relatively calm.
At 15.00 4 Sotkas (T-34) managed to break through as far as the perimeter of Harjula fields. While passing they scored several hits among other things at the command post of the Btn. 3 of the tanks were destroyed at the perimeter of Harjula fields. Next the lines were retaken by a counterstrike as the lines had collapsed at the road direction due to this (tank) attack.
Afterthis Capt Koppinen took over the responsibility for the front line and the remaining elements of II Btn were ordered to camp at Rättijärvi lake terrain form reorganization and replacements.
(In the margin:
Casualties:
KIA 0+1+0
WIA 0+0+5 )
3.7.1944_
Btn camp area maintenance, gear maintenance, weapons maintenance and rest.
Replacement 5+4+9
4.7.1944_
Nothing special. Maintenance and rest.
Replacement 0+21+177
5.7.1944_
Nothing special. Maintenance and rest.
Replacement 1+0+1
6.7.1944_
Nothing special. Maintenance and rest.
Replacement 0+3+26
7.7.1944_
Nothing special. Maintenance and rest.
Replacement 10+0+0
21.00hrs Briefing for unit COs.(..)
There was no MG Company war diary of the same battalion. The author mentioned 7.Coy but their WD has a gap from 24 May to 30.July 1944.
24.6.1944
(...)
Alert at 07.15 hrs. Btn was marching under heavy artillery harassment fire in Pahalampi terrain where they camped. At 2100hrs Regimental order: Btn shall at once march to the terrain between Konkkala rocks and shall immediately start building rear blocking lines led by Maj. Pylvänäinen.
25.6.
Start at 00.30 and arrival at 02.00, again camping and start of field fortification work. At 02.00hrs Rgt (HQ) informed that a larger number of replacements shall arrive in the terrain S of Ihantalanjärvi lake, and they shall be fetched to the Btn. The Btn sent out 1 off + 2 NCO to receive the replacements (total number during 25.6. 0+13+1+8 =121)
At 06.15 hrs enemy attack started in the direction of Peronjoki river and Tali-Juustila road.
Extremely heavy artillery, rocket and mortar fire augmented by strong aerial bombardment.
The enemy managed to cross Peronjoki river and press our troops to the rear by outflanking in the Konkkalanvuoret hills terrain. Also some tanks managed to break through our lines at the road to the crossroads at Portinhoikka and from there some distance to the direction of Juustila nd Ihantala roads.
The result was a bad breach in the direction of the road and the units of I Btn subjected to us and the Rgt. Command post in Pahalammi terrain were surrounded at abt 14.00hrs. At the same time at least 1 Coy of enemies managed to get through into our rear in the direction of Talinmylly road, advancing as far as the road Portinhoikka – Ihantala, cutting off for a while the road connection in the terrain of Koulusuo. However, due to countermeasures the enemy was pushed back and the road was opened.
Heavy fighting went on in the terrain of Portinhoikka crossroads between enemy tanks and our AT weapons supported by StuGs. Hereby the enemy lost out of their about 35 tanks some thirty, of which 7 were taken intact by smoking the crews out of their tanks.
All the time very heavy shelling which caused very heavy losses to our Battalion.
(In the margin:
Replacements 0+13+108
Casualties:
KIA 2+3+11
(lt. Savolainen, Niilo, 2nd Lt. Perämäki)
Wounded 4+10+40
(Lt. Niinistö, Merikoski, Ahola
2nd Lt Forsman)
MIA 0+0+5 )
The situation became clearer by midnight to the extent that the encircled part of our Btn as well as the parts of the Rgt. HQ got out by a circuitous route and the counterattack by our troops was successful. Pahalammi terrain was freed from enemies.
The Btn was assembled in the terrain W of Kilpeenjoki road crossroads where the last outfits arrived at midnight.
26.6.1944
The day was spent by resting, gear maintenance and placing the replacement men in the Companies. The Btn was in one-hour alert readiness.
At 21.00 1.Coy was alerted and it set out to contact the about 80 men strong enemy unit found SW of Ihantalanjärvi lake.
At 23.00 the rest of the Btn were alerted.
At 23.30 we set out to the direction of Talinmylly.
There was no exact information about the enemy, it was known that they were moving about in the terrain S and NW of Talinmylly and that its strongish scouting units had been spotted at the SW perimeter of the open ground at Marjamäki-Nurmela. Also enemies had been spotted in the groups of houses in the mentioned places.
(In the margin for 26.6:
Replacement 1+0+0, no casualties)
27.6.1944
Rgt. Commander briefing at …. The Btn was tasked to advance by terrain S of Kakkomäki hill, their initial objective on line Marjamäki – Nurmela – Nst. (map 1:20000). Having reached it they would stay there waiting for further orders.
The Btn grouped next to Kokkomäki road so that ahead on the right wing was 7.Coy, and on the left wing 6.Coy. In the supporting line were 5.Coy and 8.Coy behind 7. Coy.
On our let at the road was Btn. Alftan and behind us in the second line I Btn.
Grouping was completed at 05.50hrs whereafter we set immediately out. During our advance in the extremely dense forest Btn Alftan, that almost at once was engaged by the enemy, could not keep the pace with us. The result was breach of contact on the left and the troops were somewhat mixed up.
The Btn got into firefight with the enemy not until at the bog about 300m SE of Karhimovuori “i'” and we advanced after a long and heavy battle with some units to the forest-covered hillock situated abt 400m NW of Nurmela and with some units (6.Coy and parts of 8.Coy) by W of the open ground at Nst. via Pt.38 to the main road. Having crossed it they remained to secure the terrain at the group of houses.
So the initial objective had been reached by 07.00hrs.
(In the margin: Appx.8)
At 11.00hrs the following order issued by the Rgt:
As the road has been taken the positions SE of the road must be manned in co-operation with I Btn on the stretch of road Church village – Marjamäki, and the positions must absolutely be kept.
The enemy had extremely tenaciously bitten in thr groups of houses SE of the road but as Coy Vuolle-Ojala supported by German StuGs had rolled up along the road unti Marjamäki, an outfit ot 20 to 30 men led by Capt. Seppänen continued the action starting at 12.40 hrs and takingover by 16.00hrs the group of houses at Nummela and the forest isthmus SW of it.
Specially the last mentioned was very hard to take.
Simultaneously we were contacted on our right wing from the terrain of the Church village and Nst.
All the time lively artillery and mortar fire on both sides. Specially Nurmela and the forest promontory SW of it were almost constantly being shelled by our artillery and mortars.
(in the margin: Appx.10)
At 19.00 order was issued to the Co of Btn Alftan: The remaining parts of the Btn are to be disengage from the front line and their sector is taken over by 21.Tyk.K.and 6./JR45. The losses of Btn Alftan are very great, e.g. almost all the officers are dead or wounded.
At 21.50 parts of I Btn tried to attack to S via a forest promontory situated 200m SW of Nummela to ease the enemy pressure but the attack failed due to extremely hard enemy counterfire and exhaustion of our men, the lines remained unchanged.
(In the margin:
Casualties:
KIA 1+1+6 (2nd Lt Fabritius)
WIA 1+9+43 (Lt. Mankki)
Mia 0+1+1)
28.6.1944
At 06.00 An extremely intrense enemy barrage with all heavy weapons started, supported by raids of ground attack aircraft. This lasted about one hour, whereafter at the seam of I and II Btns started an enemy attack with a force of at least one Btn was so strong that the defenders, weakened by a great number of casualties, were not able to withstand it but the lines were broken and the positions had to be disengaged. The Btn was thereafter assembled in the terrain of the Btn supply for reorganization and supplying. Supply men Lt. Jaatinen and Lt. Koiranen were posted as acting CO
s of 5.and 6. Coys.
At 20.00hrs an outfit made up of men from different Coys, strenght 3+10+110 was sent out to take over the Hakamäki hill patch of forest in the middle of Vakkila fields and secure it until other outfits would relieve them.
(In the margin:
Replacement 2+6+16
Casualties:
KIA 2+0+4
2nd Lt. Korhola and Malmila
WIA 0+8+40
MIA 0+0+3 )
The outfit returned next morning having fulfilled their task and handing over the stronghold to JR12.
(In the margin :
29.6._
Casualties¨: WIA 0+0+1
Replacements: 0+1+14)
The day was entirely spent resting and maintaining gear and organizing replacements.
30.6.1944
Alert and on the move at 02.55hrs. The task was to take positions in the terrain of Marjamäki-Tähtelä. There at 06.55 hrs and manning completed by 07.15hrs. On the left 6.Coy, in the middle 7.Coy, the limit Pt. 14 – Hoikkasuo “o”. On the right in Marjamäki terrain 5.Coy, the limit the brook flowing through the fields, right limit the Marjamäki house group (M). Contact to the right with III/20.Pr. At 07.30hrs. On our left I/JR48. Btn Command post is situated in the terrain “suo” in Hoikkasuo. First aid post and ammo supply point in the terrain of Piispala. Defence supported by 2 75mm AT guns at the road Tähtelä – Vesala from 13.Er.TykK.and one 45mm gun S of Hoikkasuo bog from 14.Tyk.K. Rgt command post situated in the ruins of Harjula farmhouse.
At 11.30hrs an intense air raid by several dozens of bombers and ground attack planes started. The result was that most of the men in the front line withdrew to the rear despite the patrols that immediately had been posted at the roads to the rear to prevent this. However the front line was manned again immediately.
At 15.30hrs it was informed that the outfits of Col.Lt. Toppila and Maj. Manninen delaying in front of our line have withdrawn while the enemy is following at their heels.
In Tähtelä terrain the enemy succeeded in breaking in our positions, immediately starting to advance in depth wherefor our manning after a brief firefight withdrew in the rear. As the report was receive in the Btn Command post the enemy was already there. 6.Coy had withdrawn from the left and its elements were organized for defence, supported by some MG s in the terrain N of the Btn command post. Since the situation was rather unclear and the enemy kept attacking busily, the parts of the Btn withdrew about 1 km to the rear and set up defences at Piispala group of houses E and NE of them. Parts of Lin.P.4 were there, too. From there a couple of counterstrikes were launched. First Lts Jaatinen and Koiranen with 15 to 20 men which failed and then with the entire available Btn. force led by Capt. Seppänen starting at 18.45hrs.
Advance was successful together with parts of Capt. Vuolle-Ojala's Coy on the left as far as the terrain of the Btn Command post. The attack fizzled in the fire of enemy auto weapons and the detachment was pulled back to the Piispala terrain.
1.7.1944_
During the night the lost lines were retaken by the attack of a Jaeger company. At 02.15hrs it was informed that in the Marjamäki terrain the enemy had managed in breaking in the positions and advanced in the terrain of Pts 51 and 52.
II Btn was ordered to set out to counterattack but before they managed to arrive the Lin.P4 CO Maj. Gustav reported that the situation had been cleared.
The (II) Btn was temporarily combined with I Btn and they were ordered to man the previous I Btn section, led by Maj. Pylvänäinen.
At 14.00hrs both arty F.O.O. And infantry reported that the enemy was grouping about one Btn supported by some 20 tanks for attack in several locations at the E side of Vakkila fields. The attempted attack was suppressed however by intense shelling of our artillery at the mentioned targets.
Also a German Stuka squadron bombed the tank groupings very successfully.
At 20.30hrs an (enemy) attack, stronger than usually, was launced at the direction of Hakamäki forest patch but the enemy was thrown back by a counterstrike.
2.7.1944_
(Annex 12)
At 00.00hrs order issued by Rgt:
1.:_ 7/35, CO Lt. Tuominen, shall replace during the night 1./2.6.(sic!)1944 the units of JR 48 from the front line
2:_II/JR48 CO Capt Seppänen, shall remain as reserve for the Vesala sector in the terrain E of Harjula. Capt Seppänen shall during the replacement take responsibility of the front at Vesala secton and 7./35 will be subjected to him
(In the margin: Replacement 1+0+0)
I/(JR)48 and 14. (JR)48 shall march after they have been replaced in small groups to the terrain N of Reinikkala from where they shall march in Coys to the terrain W of Särkijärvi according to the preliminary order issued by Capt Koppinen. (Capt. Koppinen shall receive instructions at the Rgt Command post when he is personally reporting on the replacement.)
3.:_Capt. Seppänen and his outfit shall stay under command of Col Laaksonen (command post the present command post to the Rgt.)
4.:_For communications, the telephone connection of the Rgt. Remains on the section and radio contact to the future command post of the Col.
5.: _Rgt. Command post shall be transferred to the terrain W of Särkijärvi.
6.:_If necessary the Btn left in the front line shall be replaced by the one in their rear.
7.:_I order that Capt. Koppinen shall relay this order for the information of 14./(JR) 48
AM was relatively calm.
At 15.00 4 Sotkas (T-34) managed to break through as far as the perimeter of Harjula fields. While passing they scored several hits among other things at the command post of the Btn. 3 of the tanks were destroyed at the perimeter of Harjula fields. Next the lines were retaken by a counterstrike as the lines had collapsed at the road direction due to this (tank) attack.
Afterthis Capt Koppinen took over the responsibility for the front line and the remaining elements of II Btn were ordered to camp at Rättijärvi lake terrain form reorganization and replacements.
(In the margin:
Casualties:
KIA 0+1+0
WIA 0+0+5 )
3.7.1944_
Btn camp area maintenance, gear maintenance, weapons maintenance and rest.
Replacement 5+4+9
4.7.1944_
Nothing special. Maintenance and rest.
Replacement 0+21+177
5.7.1944_
Nothing special. Maintenance and rest.
Replacement 1+0+1
6.7.1944_
Nothing special. Maintenance and rest.
Replacement 0+3+26
7.7.1944_
Nothing special. Maintenance and rest.
Replacement 10+0+0
21.00hrs Briefing for unit COs.(..)
-
John Hilly
- Member
- Posts: 2618
- Joined: 26 Jan 2010, 10:33
- Location: Tampere, Finland, EU
Re: Personal story in three parts: a machine gunner in Ihantala 1944
I finally had time read this story completely. We Finns know about Tali-Ihantala, the greatest battle in Nordic countries ever, but still this story is so telling of the bitterness of the battles. Great stuff.
BTW, there's more written about that Soviet tanker in the run. Perhaps also here in AHF? @Juha Tompuri
BTW, there's more written about that Soviet tanker in the run. Perhaps also here in AHF? @Juha Tompuri
"Die Blechtrommel trommelt noch!"
Re: Personal story in three parts: a machine gunner in Ihantala 1944
On 2.7.44 3 T-34-85 were lost by the 98 Tank Regiment "at Ojala"