Returning back completelly to the topic - losses in Lemetti. They are known quite good, some problems in place names [taken from Russian and German litarature] are possible, sorry in advance. References I will give tomorrow, very much want to sleep :roll: and try to finish the post as soon as possible, sorry
Near 5000 men with ~100 tanks, >10 guns were encircled in Lemetti, 2 battalions of 402nd regiment and 2 battalions of 462nd regiments tried to deblockade encircled men, but they could reach Ruskaset area only where united with 2 infantry, 1 howitzer regiments, separate tank and recon battalions of 18th division, recon battalion and 2 companies of 34th light tank brigade.
Garrison Uoma and group Lemetti-Mitro: units of Soviet 18th and 60th infantry divisions - more than 2200 men [more than half - wounded and frostbeaten], 16 tanks, 12 guns were encircled. Near Lake Sarijärvi - 500 men with 3 tanks and 8 guns were encircled. Lovajärvi area - infantry and ski battalions and artillery battery were encircled. 168th infantry division could defend its area and capture several hills nearby, despite its significant losses in previous combats before and sent 3 battalions to help 18th division - so 168th division could withstand Finnish siege/ring during 2 months and prevented several strong Finnish attempts to capture the road across Ladoga.
Soviet garrison "near the crossroads" 25.01.1940 sent the radiomessage: "Encircled 16 days, 500 men are wounded, noi ammunition, food, eat the last horse". 02.02. Finns destroyed Lemetti-North - more than 700 Soviet soldiers were killed/captured [also 32 tanks mainly damaged, 7 guns and mortars, 30 trucks were captured], only 20 soldiers could reach Lemetti-South. 05.02. - garrison "near the crossroads" sent the radiomessage: "Hard situation, all horses were eaten, no supplies delivery. 600 men are ill. Hunger. Death." 08.02 - new radiomessage "Food supplies were dropped to the east, but some part was found". 13.02 and 22.02. two more radiomessages were sent "Death from hunger. Drop more, help, can't resist".
15.02. Finns strengthened attack against garrison Mitro-Ruskaset [garrison of "four encircled regiments"] - those were battalions of 208th and 316th regiments, batteries of 3rd artillery and 12th howitzer regiments of 18th division. 18.02. garrison of 1700 soldiers [half were wounded and frostbeaten] tried to organize breakthrough to unite with 168th division. All men from 83rf tank and 224th recon battalions of 34th brigade were lost in combat as they covered breakthrough. Men from Ruskaset were lost in combat also - only 30 of them reached positions of 168th division. Finns captured 20 tanks, 34 guns, 6 AA MGs, 63 MGs, 17 tractors, 25 trucks, 250 soldiers.
Garrison of Lavajärvi was more successful - 14.02. it could attack Finns and threw them back, 16.02. soldiers reached Soviet positions - 810 survivors could save 34 MGs, but all guns were lost.
Finns had significant losses also [I have exact data, but no time, generally with few exceptions - near 1/2-1/3 of each battalions of 36th, 37 and 38, 64 regiments were lost].
Garrison Uoma under the command of captain Kasatkin sent the radio message 02.02: "encircled 16 days, 500 men were wounded, no food and ammunition, wounded men are almost dead". 23.02: "Please, help. No possibility to resisst, all are ill and wounded, 40 days encircled". Soon survived soldiers could unite with units of 15th army.
23.02. garrison of Sarijärvi was lost - after the war 131 dead bodies from 3rd battalion of 97th regiment were found there, and 2 large graves. Finns captured 12 guns, 4 mortars, 4 tanks and 60 MGs.
23.02. garrison "near the crossroads" radioed "40 days encircled, no healthy men, help, no info from Sarijärvi garrison...".25-27.02. ski squadron tried to reach the garrison, but only 3 men could did this, others were killed/captured.
26.02. - Lemetti-south sent message to 56th corps: "Help, attack Finns, why no attacks from you? Drop food and cigarettes. Saw yestedya 3 TB-3, why they dropped nothing?". HQ of 56th corps asked to stop sent panic messages, and because it was impossible to land heavy TB-3 there [Soviet encircled area was 1000x400m only] ordered to perform breakthrough. 3261 men of Lemetti began the breakthrough with 2 groups - north group under leadership of brigade commander Kondratiev, south group - HQ commander of 18th division colonel Alekseev. The breakthrough was organized extremelly bad - even commanders didn't know in which group were their units, 2-3 tanks BT-7 were planned to use for support but nobody informs their crews.Wounded soldiers were not evacuated [see above], the major part of abandoned guns and tanks were not damaged. Kondratiev group was almost all lost during breakthrough - but survivors could save the banner of brigade. Brigade commander Kondratiev , commissar, HQ commander of 34 light tank brigade put pistols to their heads, later their bodies together with bodies of 4300 soldiers of 18th division and 34th brigade were burried by Finns. Heavily wounded commander of 18th division was saved by soldiers, 04.03. he was arrested in a hospital by NKVD.
Group of colonel Alekseev performed breakthrough - 1237 men [including 900 wounded and frostbeaten] reached Soviet positions, only 48 were lost during breakthrough. But Finns captured the banner of 18th division, so that unit was disbanded.
General conclusion of HQ 0f 8th army - 18th division and 34th light tank brigade were blocked by Finns along the road Uoma-Lemetti, Ruskaset - 13 garrisons total were established. Commanders and commissars can't organize the defense in wright way, didn't use tanks and guns, no trenches were made during 2 months of siege, all nearby hills were given to Finns without any defence and no any attempts to take those hills back were made by command of those 2 units, they could send only panic telegramms. Breakthrough was organized in the worsest way, commanders didn't participate in organization of it. 168th division despite of high losses [6000 men were killed/captured since the beginning of the war] and food shortage performed much better [and its commanders didn't panic] and controlled road along ladoga lake despite of strong Finnish attacks and artillery fire.
8th army, operated to the east of Ladoga, consisted of 1st infantry corps [139,155 division; 47 artillery regiment] and 56th infantry corps [56, 18, 168 divisions], 34th light tank brigade, 49 and 467 artillery regiments, 10th howitzer regiment. Near 100.000 men total. Losses - 168th division: 7000 men captured/killed/lost + 3 battalions lost in Ruskaset, 18th division - 12000 men killed/captured/lost, 34th brigade - 1800 men.
Total losses of 8th army - 8100 KIA, 4971 MIA, 21723 wounded, also 7296 ill, 2797 frostbeaten - data from Russian Central Military Archive
Finnish 12th infantry division lost 1458 men killed, 3860 wounded and 220 MIA; Finnish 13th division lost 1171 KIA, 3155 WIA and 158 MIA; 64th regiment, battalions and engineer companies attached to 13th division lost 253 KIA, 762 WIA, 102 MIA.
Regards, BP
PS. Near Lemetti -
http://around.spb.ru/finnish/etusivu/ta ... nkkeja.jpg
