Major -General Alyabushev, commander of 123rd Rifle Division:
Around December 12 the units of division approached the fortified area, the so-called Mannerheim line, and on December 17 the division carreid out an offensive, without proper preparation. Why do I say without proper preparation? Lack of preparation was expressed in lack of cooperation between the different combat arms, each combat arm acted independently, and as the result we had very high casualties of armor, while the fortified area was not broken through.
Politruk Matyushkin, 245th Rifle regiment, 123rd Rifle Division:
...When we arrived at the valley on December 12, we had not known yet, that in that very place, on this part of our journey we were facing the fortifications of Mannerheim Line. Neither bunkers not dugouts, nor artillery concrete fortifications - nothing was seen. Bunkers were hidden deep underground, there were small pine trees and stums on them, and sometimes even mightly old pine trees.
...Nothing indicated presence of the enemy fortifications on the Hill 65,5...
...All-out offensive was scheduled for December 17. Our first battalion was to advance on the elevation to the left of Hill 65,5.
...The second signal flare shot into the air and tanks went into the valley, followed by infantry. Tanks quickly passed thourgh the valley, went through the breaks in anti-tank rocks and in a minute were on Hill 65,5, not knowing that under them were the concrete dens of the enemy. Infantry, the soldiers of the 2nd battalion, also reached the hill. Our battalion occupied the elevation to the left of Hill 65,5. The 3rd battalion was advancing on the right flank. That was the moment when the enemy put all weapons of the fortified area into action, all machine guns, all mortars and artillery.
Major -General Alyabushev, commander of 123rd Rifle Division:
...The second offensive on December 28 did not produce any positive result, because again we were not properly prepared and did not find out properly, what the division was facing, but were simply discussing, who was to blame - armor or the infantry...
...Only after January 1, when we finally started to find out what was in front of the division, and when we started a serious, businesslike activity, it turned out that the division was facing three concrete fortification storng points of the enemy...
...This was the strongest fortification. It had hill Yazyk (Tongue) behind it. Here the bunker had a form of caponier with gunports, from which one could fire from one side towards Summajarvi lake, and from the other - apporoaches to Hill 65.5.At the same place a good observation post with two steel armored cupolas and several soil and wood bunkers were located.
All fortifications of the enemy were connected to each other. They could only be captured simultaneously, as one bunker would cover the approaches to the next one.
By January 15 we spotted up to 10 concrete and 18 wood and soil fortifications. These were the fortifications we had to destroy in order to break through the Mannerheim Line in this area.
First of all we decided to put Hill 65,5 and Tongue Hill under direct fire of heavy artillery.
On January 18 we towed a 152mm gun into prepared firing position in 400-500 meters from the bunker. In order to muffle the sound of the tractor engines, we used artillery barrage. Everything worked out well. The gun destroyed the armor turret of the bunker's observation post on Tongue Hill and damaged its gunport. We also managed to damage part of the bunker on Hill 65,5...
...Another rifle regiment was set to attack the Tongue Hill...
...108 pieces of artillery, ranging from 76 mm to 280 mm guns, were ordered in firing positions...
...Tank battalions and an engineering battalion were attached to the infantry.
The Sj5 Miljoonalinnake bunker was defended by Lieutenant Ericsson's company, Second battalion of 9th Infantry Regiment, while the assault on the bunker was executed by an entire regiment (272nd Rifle Regiment) of 123rd Rifle Division. The Second battalion of the 9th Infantry Regiment replaced the battered frontline units from Longboot grove to Miljoonalinnake hours before the assault of February 11, and did not even have a chance to get acquainted with terrain. Besides that, the battalion only had 40% of its strength, just around 400 men. Battalion was made up of Swedish-speaking Finns, which in fact deprived the battalion of possibility to communicate with 9th Regiment HQ, which was Finnish-speaking.
During the day of February 11 Lieutenant Ericsson's company repelled attacks on Millioner bunker, on several occasions the Re Army men surrounded the fortification but were thrown back. There were several hand-to-hand fights in the trenches around the bunker. By the evening the Finnish platoon in the bunker was completely surrounded.
Junior Lieutenant Lekanov, assault party leader:
... Having spotted the forward concrete fortificaions, we were transferred to the left flank, where we spotted the largest bunker 0011. It was located on Tongue Hill and swept with fire through cuttings in the forest the dragon teeth and trenches to the right to the bunker 006 and to the left up to the lake Summajarvi. This bunker and the entire hill dominated over our left flank.
On the day of breakthrough of Mannerheim line Engineering battalion commander Senior Lieutenant Grabovoi ordered my assault party in reserve. Two assault parties under Junior Lieutenants Markov and Yemelianov were sent against the Bunker 0011.
Hour later the liason officer arrived with an order for us to meet the unit commnder at his observation post.
- Assault party of comrade Markov, - he said, - is to the right from the bunker in the dragon teeth, pinned down by strong enemy fire. Tanks cannot assist them, as the hill is too steep. The second assault party under comrade Yemelianov, which is also to the right, is under hurricane artillery and mortar fire of the enemy. Yemelianov is wounded. Immediately advance to assist our comrades and destroy the bunker 0011...
We walked out of the forest towards the hill and were immediately hit by mortar fire. We crawled towards trenches with heavy boxes of explosives. I ordered my soldiers to take off their white overalls, as they only made it easier to spot us against the black background of soil plouged by the artillery fire.
It was a strong cold, but we were all covered by sweat. Finally, we reached the nearest trench. Together with the infantry we tried to inspect the bunker, but a White Finn emerged at that moment and threw several hand grenades at us. A short burst of a machine gun - and the enemy was destroyed.
The White Finns locked themselves in their underground fortress.
We cralwed on the roof of the bunker with the boxes of explosives. We started to look around, where to put the charge. It was soil all around. The bunker pierced the hill like a tonnel.
Soldiers threw grenades in the ventilation pipes of the bunker, but this apparently did not cause too much damage to the Finns.
Then Engineer Zavualov got into trench from the rear and approached the doors of the bunker. Although the door had a gunport, no one fired from it. Zavialov saw that the enemy did not return fire and decided to throw a grenade, But as soon as he stood up, a shot was fired and the brave engineer fell down.
We all got angry.
Soldier Mokrov approached to Zavialiov to assist him, but the enemy pinned him down by fire.
We had to rescue our comrades.
Engineer Solin thought up how to do it. He proposed blocking the door of the bunker with stones. Finns spotted it and opened mortar fire, but it was too late. The door was buried under the stones, the gunport was closed...
The bunker was huge. I realized that the amount of explosives that we had would not be enough for destruction of the stronghold. But returning to the rear for additional amount of explosives would mean to let the White Finns out of the bunker.
We set the charge at the door and detonated it. Explosion tilted the doors: the White Finns are in our hands, they cannot get out.
Infantry quickly surrounded the bunker and occupied the rear trenches.
I reported my actions to the rifle battalion commander and retreated together with my group to the starting point, where my commander prepared explosives for us.
We became part of Lieutenant Prudnikov's assault party. We had to carry several hundreds of kilograms of explosives to the bunker. Despite strong fire of the White Finns, the engineers rapidly made their way to the bunker. After that we took the boxes with explosives from the trenches and laid them on top of the left casemate (apparently, it is the western casemate)
A huge pile of boxes with explosives grew on top of the bunker. Infantry withdrew to the trenches. Fuses were lit at my command.
A tremendous explosion. A huge flame shot into the sky. We were all covered up with soil. Ears were ringing for a long time, our heads were spinning.
We walked up to the site of the explosion. At all the depth there was a crater of up to 10 meters in diameter. Iron reinforcement vanished into dust. Everything blackened in fifty meters from the explosion site.
The huge bunker, along with its garrison, ceased to exist.
This was at 5 AM, February 12, 1940.
Despite destruction of the western casemate and death of all those inside of it, the remains of Lieutenant Ericsson company continued to put up effective defence.
When the company retreated to the support line north of Summajarvi lake, it had less than 50 men left in it.
© Bair Irincheev 2001 - 2004