PPoS wrote:I want to know about the operation when the germans tried to capture the important island of Suursaari in Finnish Gulf of Baltic Sea at autumn of 1944 (from the finns).
German military named this operation "Tanne Ost" and the battle happened 14th of September 1944. Suursaari Island is nowadays known with its Russian name "Gogland". It is the biggest island in the eastern part of Finnish Gulf. During Continuation War (1941 - 1944) it had important role in guarding minefields of sea-mines blocking Finnish Gulf from Soviet warships (mines made it dangerous and difficult for Soviet submarines to get into Baltic Sea and Finnish coastal artillery placed in Suursaari Island made it impossible for Soviets to use minesweepers to clear the minefields). At 1944 Finns had RTR 12 (Rannikkotykistörykmentti = Coastal artillery regiment 12) and some other smaller units at Suursaari. The island itself had been quite well fortified during the war years, but the the Finns had transported lot of the heavy weaponry to mainland just before the attack as part of preparations for the Finnish-Soviet peace agreement (Which gave the island to the Soviets. Finnish military didn't want to give them the weapons in the island so they had to be transported off before giving it to Soviets).
Luckily for them the Finnish troops in the island still had some heavy weapons like:
- 2 x 122mm field gun (122 K 31 aka A-19) (one of them already removed from its position)
- 9 x 120mm mortar
- battery of 75mm (75 K 17) field guns
- some 40mm Bofors and 75mm AA-guns
- 45-mm at-guns
- machineguns
The Germans had their their closest base in somewhat smaller nearby (south-west from Suursaari) Tytärsaari Island while Soviets had their closest base in somewhat farther Lavansaari Island (eastwards from Suursaari). The Germans also had a radar station with its crew and liaison officer in Suursaari. The Germans called the operation "Tanne Ost" and gathered their troops for the operation together in Tallinn (Estonia). Before the operation German liaison officer had reported to his own superiors that the Finns would not resist taking the island, this proved to be a colossal mistake. It is not known if Commander of Suusaari (Ltn-Col Miettinen) had actually given any promises, but just before the attack (13th of September) he had received orders from Finnish High Command not to give Suursaari to the Germans at any case and use weapons to keep them out if necessary.
German troops were commanded by Commodor Mecke, it seems that they had considered unlikely for Finns to fight as the troops sent to take the island had a very large amount of artillery- and AA-units among them compared to amount of infantry and engineers. They used all kinds of ships and boats to transport their troops (gun ferries, minesweepers, motor torpedo boats, engineer boats and even some landing crafts). The main landing point was Suurkylä harbour at north-east part of the island (all the larger vessels were heading there) and east beach north from it (engineer boats landed their troops in there along the beach). Landing was planned to be supported by two destroyers located west from the northern part of the island. The German plan was to use the evacuation of their personnel from their radar-station of Suursaari as an excuse for getting their ships to that harbour. Unfortunately for them the Finns were too helpful for that plan to work - when German radar-station personnel was ready to be evacuated to Tytärsaari base (they destroyed the radar station equipment before that) and the German boat, which should have arrived from Tytärsaari to collect them, had not arrived in time the Finns radioed a suggestion that they might transport the radar station crew to Tytärsaari with one of their boats. German commander of Tytärsaari answered by demanding that Germans will transport them with their own boat. This made the Finns suspicious and Finnish troops in the island were alarmed and commanded into their positions.
When first German minesweepers got to pier at Suursaari island all Finnish troops had waited battle-ready already several hours. When the first German vessels came the harbour the German commander Mecke landed from it and met Miettinen (the islands Finnish commander) in the harbour trying to get him giving the island to the Germans without battle, but Miettinen refused. After this German troops started to taking Finns at the harbour as prisoners and started shooting towards those who Finnish soldiers who resisted (Finns had two VMV patrol boats in harbour and Germans captured those in that point). Unluckily for Germans Miettinen managed to escape capture and get into his HQ. Finnish soldiers started returning fire, German ships getting to harbour started also shooting Finns and the whole battle begun. The German unit which was about to land the island had some 2,300 men, but German ships failed disembarking about 900 of them.
The Germans tried to advance from the beach but didn't get very far until Finns from their well fortified positions surrounded by barb-wire obstacles managed to stop them. German advance got pinned by fire. and Germans failed getting their heavy weapons to ground. Finnish 120mm mortars were bombardingthe harbour making it impossible for Germans to unload their heavy weapons from ships in there. At the same time the Germans had also failed getting any working radios into the island (the island is mountainous and covered by thick forests, so to direct fire successfully the Germans needed FO with radio to the island). Because the lack of FO with radio in island the German ships could not shoot inland targets in danger of hitting their own troops (especially the two destroyers were useless - they could not give any fire support). Finnish troops had no such problem - especially the 75mm field guns north from the harbour damaged several of the German ships and destroyed many smaller boats. Finnish 40-mm Bofors guns were also able to fire the harbour area from nearby high hill. The German advance got pinned by fire and the Finns made an counter attack which made the Germans retreat a bit. After both Finnish motor torpedo boats and Soviet planes (attack of Soviet planes was 100% Soviet idea. During battle Soviet Lavansaari commander asked by radio if the Finns would like any help and the Finns refused - telling that they didn't need any help) attacked the German ships.
When the German ships still failed getting any radio connection to their troops in the island they decided to leave. After German ships had left (the German troops in island still had no radio connection anywhere) and after founding out that the Finns would soon make another counter-attack Mecke decided that the battle was lost and surrendered with his remaining troops (about 1,200 men). On their way to Tallinn the remaining German ships were again attacked by Soviet planes, which yet increased German casualties.
German losses in this battle (losses in the island only, no idea about losses in German ships which left the Island):
- KIA: 155
- WIA: 175 (also counted as POW)
- POW: 1231
Finnish losses in this battle:
- KIA: 45
- WIA: 69
- POW: 7 (German ships took them with them when they left)
The whole battle happened in that one single day (14th of September 1944):
- The Germans started landing their troops around 01:00
- Soviet aircraft attacked the island twice (around 06:45 against harbour and German ships and around 10:40 against German and Finnish positions in the island)
- Germans surrendered around 18:45
- Siege-fire started 21:00
BTW: Most of the Soviet planes attacking the island attacked the harbour (it had several German vessels, most of them already damaged or destroyed by Finnish fire). These and other attacks of Soviet planes into Suursaari that day killed also several Finns (some POWs that Germans had taken + some attacks actually hit into Finnish positions instead of German ones). During the same way these Soviet aircraft also attacked against Finnish warships (luckily without causing any large damage) after which the Finns asked the Soviets to stop their air operations around the island.
Source: Original Finnish military reports of this battle. I read them through in Sota-arkisto (= Finnish Military Archives) long time ago and made some notes.
by PPoS on 14 Jan 2005 00:31 
15th of September 1944 is correct date for the battle (I checked it from my notes and two books).