Battle of Tolvajärvi - December 1939

[Hoplophile]

In her thesis* on Task Force A (Osasto A) in the Winter War, Liisa Itäniva provides a number of organizational diagrams for Task Force Talvela (Osasto Talvela) which, among other things, was responsible for the forces fighting around Lake Tolva (Tolvajärvi) in December of 1939.

One of these, dated 11 December 1939, lists, among the subordinate units of Task Force P (Osato P), two small units armed with small artillery pieces: "37. Pst. Kan. juukue" and "Obuhoff Kan. jaos." (Task Force P, commanded by Aaro Pajari, was the formation charged with operations around Lake Tolva.)

With a little guess work and a lot of help from Google Translate, I interpret "37. Pst. Kan. juukue" as "37mm anti-tank gun platoon" and "Obuhoff Kan. jaos" as "Obukhov gun section." Am I right in assuming that the 37mm anti-tank guns in question were Swedish Bofors guns and the Obukhov guns in question were the M1904 mountain guns? (A picture of the latter piece is shown below, on the left.)




*Liisa Itäniva, "Kun keinot loppuu, on konstit otettava käyttöön” Osasto A:n johtamistoiminta Talvisodan aikana", ("When you run out of resources, it's time to be resourceful: the handling of Task Force A in the Winter War," Masters Thesis, University of Eastern Finland, 2012.

[Juha Tompuri]

Hi,

I think you are right about the Anti-tank Platoon, they most probably had the 37mm Bofors guns (Finnish or Swedish made)
The Obuhovs however were of 37mm mod.14.
Actually just these two:
SA-photo #2470
SA-photo #2469
...or similar.

[Juha Tompuri]

*Liisa Itäniva, "Kun keinot loppuu, on konstit otettava käyttöön” Osasto A:n johtamistoiminta Talvisodan aikana", ("When you run out of resources, it's time to be resourceful: the handling of Task Force A in the Winter War," Masters Thesis, University of Eastern Finland, 2012.

http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_nbn ... 120405.pdf

Regards, Juha

[Hoplophile]

Thank you so much!

This is of great help to me.

[Hoplophile]

Moving from anti-tank guns to machine guns, I am looking for information about the machine gun company of Independent Battalion 112, a unit that fought at Tolvajärvi in December of 1939. Was this a full-strength machine gun company, with twelve Maxims? Was it a smaller unit? Did it exist at all?

[JTV]

Moving from anti-tank guns to machine guns, I am looking for information about the machine gun company of Independent Battalion 112, a unit that fought at Tolvajärvi in December of 1939. Was this a full-strength machine gun company, with twelve Maxims? Was it a smaller unit? Did it exist at all?

War Diary of MG Co / Independent Battalion 112:
http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=1490219

I would assume it was a full-strenght unit. The war diary does not seem to specify how many men it had or contain list of equipment, but the company had three platoons as typical, it also lost early on six Maxim machineguns, but continued to fight.

BTW: There seem to have been two writers for that war diary and one of them has really horrible handwriting.

Jarkko

[Hoplophile]

Thank you so much. This is more than I could hope for.

[Hoplophile]

Once again, I find myself delving into the fighting around Tolvajärvi in December of 1939. In particular, I am looking into the organization of Bicycle Battalion 7 (Polkupyörapätaljoona 7).

The war diary for the battalion makes frequent mention of a "KKK." This, I presume refers to the machine gun company (konekiväärikomppania.) However, it does not provide information about the organization of this company. Was it the sort of machine gun company that could be found in ordinary infantry battalions (with three platoons, each of four Maxim guns)? Or was it organized in another way?

Here is the URL for the war diary, which has been digitized by the Finnish National Archives.

http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=1555072

[kuuskajaskari]

Hi, maybe this helps.

http://www.kirjastovirma.fi/haapajarvi/sota

Most of the men in Haapajärvi were assigned to PPP 7. It was assembled as follows: The Staff Company and the Machine Gun Company entirely of the men of Haapajärvi, Company 1 and 2 of the men of Pyhäjärvi and Company 3 of the men of Haapavesi. The battalion commander was Major Saarva, Lieutenant Salolainen, Adjutant Lieutenant Takkunen, Lieutenant Marno and Lieutenant Keränen, Lieutenant Varis, Lieutenant Garlsson and Battalion Lieutenant Garlson, Intelligence Officer.

[Hoplophile]

Thank you, Jaskari! This has been tremendously helpful.