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The bunker, originally built in 1920s as a front-firing machine-gun bunker, was later rebuilt to become a test bunker - two large walls with reinforcement were added to it. The walls were built from different types of concrete, with different types of reinforcement. The walls were later tested by direct fire from heavy artillery in order to discover the most suitable combination of concrete and reinforcement.
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On the picture above you can see the test bunker in 1930s - no damage from explosions can be seen. Source: Kansa taisteli magazine, No 4/1964
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Red Army soldiers atop of captured Test bunker. Picture source: Fighting in Finland, Volume 2, page 8.
Layout of Test bunker:
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1 - Old frontal firing bunker from 1920s 2 - old test walls 3 - new test wall 4 - area for testing of armour plates 5 - area for testing casemates with sloped walls (seen on the picture from Fighting in Finland Book) The places where the Red Army battle engineers blew up the wall are marked with red color
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On the new test wall one can see the designation Sj2 painted by Karelia people. However, Finns themselves considered this bunker destroyed long before the Winter War started and did not include it on their maps as an active fortification.
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The Red Army troops, however, considered the wall of the test bunker a fortified artillery position and apparently shelled it a lot, as one can see from the two pictures above. It is mentioned in the memories of the Red Army officers and soldiers as an "artillery wall":
Lieutenant Zhdan-Pushkin:
"...Neither bunkers nor dugouts, nor the artillery wall hiding the mortars and artillery of the enemy, nor trenches in this fortified area - absolutely nothing could be seen. Everything was hidden deep in ground, damn well camouflaged and covered by snow."
Politruk Matyushkin, 245th Rifle regiment, 123rd Rifle Division:
"...Neither pillboxes nor earth and soil bunkers, nor the concrete artillery fortifications, nore dugouts, not trenches - nothing could be seen. Bunkers were deep underground, there were small pine trees and stums on top of them, and sometimes even huge pine trees."
Captain Grabovoi, Commander of Engineer battalion at Summa:
"...In some 300 meters to the north from bunker No. 006 (Poppiuslinnake) there was a concrete wall with height of up to 2 meters. Total length of the wall was 60 meters. This wall served as a good shelter for mortars and anti-tank artillery" (Mannerheim Line and Finnish fortifications on Karelian Isthmus)
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The view of the break in the new test wall and reinforcing elements. Apparently, the break was made by Red Army engineers during the assault on Summa sector, as the bunker is briefly mentioned:
Lieutenant Afonin, Engineer:
"...together with soldier Grigoriev, who was later awarded with the Order of Red Star, I crawled to the artillery fortification. I had an axe with a long bent axe-handle. With this axe I signaled to the soldiers when the explosives were to be brought.
Engineers themselves, without assistance of the infantry, surrounded the artillery installation and laid boxes with explosives to the wall of this bunker. Yet another enemy's fortress was destroyed." (Fighting in Finland, Military Publishing House of People's Commissariat of Defence of USSR, 1941)
The picture below shows the entrance to the original frontal-firing bunker built in the 1920s. The entrance is preserved, while all the inner parts of the bunker are collapsed. More pictures of the test bunker can be found here, on Mikhail Levin's page.
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Test bunker is one of the most impressive fortifications to be found on Mannerheim line and is relatively easy to spot in winter time, as it is located in some 30 meters west from the road that runs to Lahde crossroads. In the summer time it might be a bit hard to find, as it is hidden by thick undergrowth.
© Bair Irincheev 2001 - 2004