1942-1943
The Isthmus Army
(Lieutenant General H.Österman)
Field Artillery Second Battalion (II), 5th Division, Jär.Psto. 3
During the Continuation War, the Finnish Army's Light Artillery Unit [Patteristo, P:sto] consisted of three or sometimes
only two batteries. Two batteries were to be equipped
with light cannons and the third battery usually had light
howitzers, but in fact - due to the lack of artillery
pieces - many of them were were improperly equipped,
equipped with any available mixed pieces or initially
completely without weapons.
Strength of Light Artillery Regiment:
- 1813 men
- 36 guns (75 - 84mm)
- 636 horses
- 40 motor vehicles
- 615 bicycles
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| Sergeant Valto Antero Tolvanen. 1942. |
1941. The last Finnish Army Corps yet
to engage
in battle, the 4th, started their attack towards Viipuri on
the Karelian Isthmus, by the Gulf of Finland, on August 22. Viipuri was the
second
biggest
city in Finland prior to the Winter War and had been ceded to the
Soviets in
the 1940 Moscow peace treaty. The 8th Division crossed
the
Viipuri Bay and cut the road leading south of the city on the coast.
The Soviet
troops defending Viipuri left the town too late and were later
surrounded in a
large pocket
south of the city. The Finns got a lot of booty and
prisoners,
including one division commander. The 4th Army Corps took
the
deserted Viipuri on August 29. This was a mental boost for all
Finnish
troops – the liberation of a major Finnish town. Word of the
capture
of Viipuri was quickly passed on to soldiers everywhere and civilians
celebrated in Finland.
The majority of the 1st Army Corps
was moved
to Karelian isthmus from Sortavala and the attack towards the 1939
border on
the isthmus was continued with three Army Corps, the 1st on
the
eastern side of the isthmus by Lake Laatokka, 2nd in the
middle and
4th in the west near the Gulf of Finland. These troops had
altogether seven divisions. Parts of the 4th Army Corps
continued
chasing the Red Army towards Koivisto without stopping in Viipuri. The
1st
Army Corps grouped north of Vuoksi and prepared to attack the enemy on
the
south bank of the river. Troops from the 12th Division (4th
Army Corps) and the 18th Division (2nd Army
Corps)
reached the level of Vammelsuu – Kivennapa on August 30.
By the first
days of
September the 1939 border was reached and crossed in the center to make
a
straighter line from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Laatokka. By September
9 the
liberation of Karelian isthmus was over and the troops grouped for
defense with
the front line going from the mouth of River Rajajoki - Valkeasaari -
Lempaala
to Tappari by Lake Laatokka. The Finns had arrived in front of the
Karelian Fortified Region and advance would have required significant
artillery power and brought increasing casualties. The front line
stayed here until June
1944. In
September and October two divisions and some other troops were moved to
East Karelia. [Wikipedia]
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| 1941. Autumn. Finnish Army movements, battles, and positions. |
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| Valto Antero Tolvanen. Finnish Military Passport. 1941-1944. |
Lempaala
We
were given some leave every three months. In the fall of ’42 all of the young
men, those born after 1912, were transferred to the Arra Battery. It had been
planned that our group was going to be sent home, but nothing came of it
because the Germans didn’t capture Leningrad.
Mannerheim didn’t want to give the Germans any assistance, but instead decided to keep
us where we were stationed so our troops wouldn’t get out of hand and destroy the Winter
Palace. Well – that would have been quite an undertaking because the Russian
fortifications were in front of us at Lempaala, and they were always shooting at
us from their trenches if we moved about too boldly. That fortification line had
been dug very deep, of course, because they had started building it during the
First World War and kept adding to it. The “White Danger” was of course always
threatening the Russians, you see, from the Finnish side! So it was a good
thing that we didn’t have to try and break through that line.
Sirkiänsaari
Campaign 1942-1943
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Sirkiänsaari on the Karelian Isthmus.
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Photos of Building a Dugout for Our Unit
at Sirkiänsaari.
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Antero Tolvanen
(front row right in full uniform) with his unit at Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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| Building
the dugout. Antero Tolvanen back row in middle. Sirkiänsaari. 1942 |
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Building the
dugout. Sirkiänsaari. 1942
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Men from Fire Control Unit on a coffee break in
front of Women’s Army Corps tent. Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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"ARRA
Battery"Artillery Station being constructed and readied
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Artillery
station being finished. Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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Fire Control
Unit. Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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Artillery
station. Antero Tolvanen front row center without cap. Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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Antero Tolvanen,
back row second from right. Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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"Arra" Artillery
station. Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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Commanding
Officers visiting the "Arra" Artillery Station at Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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"Arra" Artillery. Medals
ceremony. Commendations, medals, rank advancements.
Antero
Tolvanen (front left) just received a promotion to Sergeant.
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Major Arra
(left) visiting the "Arra" Artillery Station at Sirkiänsaari. 1942
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Antero Tolvanen (left) with company
commanders. Promoted to Sergeant. "Arra" Artillery.
Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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Dugout now ready
to move into. "Arra" Artillery Station. Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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Unit
members standing outside their Dugout. Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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Dugout at "Arra"
Battery. Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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There
was snow on the ground by now and we were using the old front line bunkers – I
have no idea who had originally built them. Then one night the roof caught on
fire – I guess we had been too enthusiastic in our efforts to heat the bunker.
There was nothing else to do but withdraw a little way off. There we located
another dugout that had been used to quarter the horses, but it turned out to
be adequate enough after we covered it with our tent.
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"Arra" Artillery
Station Dugout and sauna. Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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Interior of the dugout.
Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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Interior of the dugout.
Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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Once we had completed our
dugout we got to spend the rest of our time at the Artillery Station stringing
barbed wire. Every once in a while we exchanged some fire with the enemy – and
a few mortar shells even landed close to our gun positions. But nothing more
serious than that occurred because the Russians were concentrating all their
efforts on another front.
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| Antero Tolvanen on leave in Helsinki. Winter. 1942. |
Already
that first fall, but especially during ’42, I gathered mushrooms which were
plentiful in the forest and then took them to Aune in Helsinki. These were a wonderful substitute
for meat. When you have salted [preserved] mushrooms you don’t
have any need for meat – they are absolutely delicious.
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| Aune Mäkinen at her mother's grave. Hietaniemi. Helsinki. May 1942. |
So, as I’m looking at
Aune’s picture at her mother’s graveside in the spring of ’42, it’s easy to
tell that little girl’s cheeks look pretty hollow. And it was the same for
everybody else. It’s a good thing that I was able to pick at least some
mushrooms for them. These apparently
eased the food situation quite a bit.
More photos from "Arra" Artillery
Station. Sirkiänsaari. Winter 1942
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"Arra"
Artillery Station dugout's sauna. Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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Chopping and
hauling some firewood for our sauna. Sirkiänsaari. 1942.
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Christmas Eve and
a time to pause and reflect. "Arra" Artillery Station.
Antero Tolvanen, back row right. Sirkiänsaari.
1942.
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Dugout at the “Arra”
Artillery Station. Sirkiänsaari. Winter 1942
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Unit Command.
Staff Sergeant Antero Tolvanen, second from right. "Arra" Artillery Station. Sirkiänsaari.
Winter 1942
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"Arra" Artillery
Station. Sirkiänsaari. Winter 1942
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Chopping
firewood. Arra Artillery Station. Sirkiänsaari. Winter 1942
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Staff Sergeant
Antero Tolvanen. “Arra” Artillery Station. Sirkiänsaari. Winter 1942
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View east from “Arra”
Artillery Station. Sirkiänsaari. Winter 1942
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1942 - Ski Patrol along the
Front Lines
Sirkiänsaari
As
winter (1942) began to turn into spring, we received our skis and white camouflage
snowsuits. It was fun to be on cross-country skis, to ski behind enemy lines,
and do some sunbathing along the way.
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Sergeant Antero
Tolvanen. Ski patrol on the front lines. Fire Control Tower.
Sirkiänsaari. Winter-Spring 1942
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Fire Control Unit's Ski Patrol. (Antero
Tolvanen, third from left.) Front lines. Sirkiänsaari. Winter-Spring
1942
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Artillery pit.
Front lines. Sirkiänsaari. Winter-Spring 1942
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Ski Patrol Team.
Sergeant Antero Tolvanen far right. Front lines. Sirkiänsaari. Winter-Spring
1942
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Sergeant Antero
Tolvanen. Fire Control Unit's Ski Patrol Team. Sirkiänsaari. Winter-Spring 1942
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Fire Control Unit's Ski
Patrol Team. Antero Tolvanen far right. Sirkiänsaari. Winter-Spring 1942
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Fire Control Units's Ski
Patrol Commanders. Sergeant Antero Tolvanen on the right.
Front lines. Sirkiänsaari.
Winter-Spring 1942 |
By the way, the first structure we
built was a dugout sauna out of logs from the virgin pine forest on the banks
of Sirkiäjoki. The steam baths we took in it were marvelous. We bathed every
night and twice on Sunday. I guess that was our worship service. We did
actually have a field worship service once a month and it took place behind the Artillery Station.
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Artillery
Station Sauna. Sirkiänsaari. Winter 1942
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So
it was like one long holiday, and everything would have been great if we hadn’t
felt so hungry all the time. We mainly lived on rutabagas. Our early morning
tea was some sort of tea substitute – raspberry leaves or some such thing. For
lunch we had porridge – all sorts of variations of it – but then in the spring
we were treated to the now infamous “sawdust mush” which in this country we
call Bran. Aune and I had some of that on our cupboard shelf which we opened
about two years ago. I think we made some once and that was the end of it. — On
the other hand, things seemed to be much worse on the home front. If you wanted a pork
chop that used up your whole month’s meat ration on your card. So it wasn’t
that great at home either.
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Artillery
Commander, Major Tawast. Sirkiänsaari. Winter 1942
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“Arra” Artillery
Station. Sirkiänsaari. Winter 1942
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| Unit on break in the dugout.
Sirkiänsaari. 1942 |
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Wintery view across the front lines. Sirkiänsaari.
Winter 1942
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Translated from the original Finnish: Marja-Leena Tolvanen-Rogers
