Valto Antero Tolvanen 1909-1990: 2018

Theater of War at Syväri (Svir), Karelian Isthmus

The Russian Spring Offensive in 1942

At the beginning of 1942, the Soviet 7th Army was facing the Finnish 17th Division in the Svir area. The 61st Regiment was located at the east, opposite the Soviet 114th Infantry Division. Towards the end of March, the Soviet Army concentrated their forces, and launched its Spring Offensive at the start of April 1942. The objective was to force the retreat of the Finnish Army across the Svir River and capture a bridgehead for continued advance towards the old frontier. The gravity point of the attack was in an 18 kilometer wide arch headed by the Soviet 21st Division and the Soviet 69th Marine Infantry Brigade, and supported in the flank by the Soviet 114th Infantry Division. The main Soviet advance soon encountered fierce resistance, requiring the Soviet 114th Division to be thrown into the main line of attack, after which the Soviet forces managed to break through the Finnish lines between Shemenski and Pertjärvi. As preparation for a Finnish counterattack, a major Finnish combat unit was formed on 17 April, of which the 61st Infantry Regiment was a key component. The Finnish counterattack was launched on 19 April and by 22 April all the Soviet forces that had advanced through the Finnish lines between Shemenski and Pertjärvi had been annihilated. The Finnish Army suffered losses of 2 165 men, while the Soviet 7th Army suffered losses of just under 12 800 men.

After crossing the Jandeba River, the 61st Regiment advanced towards the area of the village of Shemenski and city of Podporoze, where it entered into trench warfare and remained for a period of more than 2 years until May 1944. The city of Podporoze was occupied by the 61st Infantry Regiment from 12 December 1941 until 30 January 1942, when it was moved back to the Shemenski area to relieve the Finnish 34th Infantry Regiment.
Trench Warfare 1942-1944
Despite labeled as a period of "trench warfare", a state of continuous active warfare signified this period. Constant patrols into enemy territory, artillery barrage and readiness to counterattack, characterized this phase of the war. Specialized patrol troops were formed, some of which achieved almost legendary fame within the regiment. [Wikpedia]

1943

Syväri (Svir) - Järeä Patteristo 3, 5th Division

In the spring of ’43 we were ordered to Syväri (Svir). All of us were loaded on trains and we bumped along on them for a couple of days to Syväri. The first week or so we spent in the town on Syväri —called Podporoze by the Russians. There the Russians had built new log houses and that’s where we quartered to start with. I slept against the south wall, on the floor that is, and in the middle of the night I had to move more to the center of the room because it was rainy. There was a south wind blowing, and the water started coming in through the cracks in the wall and almost soaked me to the skin. Fortunately I had a poncho made out of tent canvas [acquired as spoils of war] around me and it was pretty rainproof.

Cattle Car filled with Finnish troops on their way to Svir, Karelian Isthmus. 1943.

Svir Bunker - Spring 1943

Our Sauna at the bunker - Svir, Spring 1943

Interior of our Bunker - Svir, 1943 (Antero Tolvanen second from right)

Interior of our Bunker - Svir, 1943

Koskitsajoki - 1943

Heating up the sauna - Koskitsajoki, Svir - 1943

Refreshing swim after our sauna - Koskitsajoki, Svir - Summer 1943

Relaxing after sauna - Koskitsajoki, Svir - Summer 1943

Promotions in the Service

Very soon, however, we were thrown to the front lines where our number one tank gun had been stationed. By the way, I forgot to mention that the year before [1942] I had been made a munitions clerk. I started out as a reconnaissance patrol leader, then became a statistician and surveillance information leader, and then finally a munitions clerk. This meant that I had to thoroughly inspect and go through every piece of ordnance except for the gun itself. All the shells had to be weighed, each individually, since there were small differences in their weights. Our gun was a .202 mm. or an 8-incher, and the shells had to be tailored accordingly. Average weight for each shell was 91.5 kilos, but the weight could vary by a kilo each way. The weight was very important because a kilo made a difference of 20 meters in how far the shell would carry. If the shell was 93 kilos, for instance, the distance it could reach would be 30 meters less due to the weight, so we had to make a correction by lifting the barrel on the gun. And the other way around. Well, it was war and it was a new educational experience.

Heavy artillery - Arra Battery, 1942. Staff Sergeant Antero Tolvanen loading heavy gun with munition.

Jandebad and Memories from a Tsasouna

After we had situated our guns at Jandebad it was time for us to work on building dugouts once again. Until then we had lived in our tents. The spring was a glorious time once again —it was great to ski around on the crusty snow, and then later on to tramp around in the forest which was a pleasant mixture of conifers and broad leaved trees. I hunted quail and Erkamaa, who was a courier, even shot a grouse one day in the fall. He came from Reposaari, and we became pretty good friends because he was a right-wing conservative in his politics, the same as I was. And he also belonged to the Home Guard since he was the son of a prosperous land owner. Every once in a while we would have occasion to visit the Battery Office in Syväri. Sometimes we were asked to help around the office since we really didn’t have any pressing duties at the artillery station. There the gunners were mainly from Tampere and leftists, so I really didn’t have many friends among them. So this gave us an opportunity to look around the area.

Tsasouna. Karelian Isthmus. SA Photo.

Russian Power Plant built with slave labor. Svir, Karelian Isthmus

Finnish troops in front of Russian Power Plant built with slave labor. Svir, Karelian Isthmus. 1943

View of the town of Svir. Russian Power Plant in the distance. Karelian Isthmus. 1943.

That’s how for instance the tsasouna was located, of which I have a photo — a beautiful little church that had been used as the living quarters for a concentration camp. There a power plant had been built with slave labor. The unusual thing about the church, aside from the fact that it was in a square entirely surrounded by a tall barbwire fence with guard towers on all four corners, was that when we tried to go inside it was quite impossible because of the human excrement that covered the floor, and also because one could only enter the place by crawling through a small hole cut over the top of the door. There were three rows of bunks and they were stacked four high. We didn’t go in, but this was a place where people had been inhumanely treated like animals —and even worse —probably for many years. How that country has suffered at the hands of the top command of the saviors of the “oppressed.”

On Leave and a Barrel of Mushrooms

In the fall of ’43 I then went on leave. With that in mind I located a wooden barrel in an abandoned house and started cooking mushrooms and salting them. I was able to use the regiment’s field kitchen and soon had a barrelful. It probably weighed about 30 kilos altogether, and I assume they probably were excellent —they were the edible agrarian variety of mushrooms [a typical Finnish variety of forest mushroom]. It was quite a job dragging that barrel to the train station, but once I got there the rest of the trip on the train was very pleasant.

On the train I saw one fellow I knew from before, but he didn’t recognize me anymore, or pretended he didn’t. He owed me money, you see, for an article that I had written on his behalf for a publication called Suomen Vapaussota [Finland’s War of Independence] while we worked for the Asemies [Combat Soldier] newspaper. It centered around President Svinhufvud. I seem to have forgotten most of the details about this incident.

More memories from the Syväri (Sver) Front 1942-1943