Destruction of bunkers

By Hero of Soviet Union P. Leontiev, Sergeant of artillery

Battalion commander gave me a mission to move 203 mm gun in forward position and destroy the bunker No. 36 by direct fire. I think that such heavy gun never before fired over the open sight on such a close target. I went to select a place for a firing position. Finns spotted me and opened fire. I had to sneak. I sneaked up a small hill. In front of me were a sandy area and then some small hill. Through binoculars I managed to see that it was the bunker that was to be destroyed. It was a n open terrain around me - nothing but low bushes. I thought that I had to place the gun in bushes that would provide at least some sort of camouflage, although a rather bad one. We had to dig a trench and set the gun in it. I was ordered to open fire on the bunker at 8 o'clock in the morning.

So, I had evening and night to do the job.

I decided to start building the position in the evening and bring the gun into position at night. I sneaked back to the observation post and reported everything to the battalion commander. Commander agreed with me. But how could we pull the gun into position without attracting the Finn's attention? After some consideration the commander made a decision: all the guns of our division would fire on the hill where the bunker was, in order to make noise and a smoke screen. This would confuse the Finns and they would not be able to understand that we were brining the gun.

In twilight I brought my soldiers to the selected place. I showed them where the enemy's trenches were and where the bunker was. A black forest, that was not occupied by our troops, loomed at our right. I placed two machine guns on the right and left flanks, sent two soldiers with rifles forwards and we started our work.

We had to knock on frozen soil with shovels and bars; sounds of our digging could be heard for miles. Finns heard us and opened fire. We had to lie on the ground for half an hour. When they ceased fire, we again started our work. Finally, the trench was ready. We reported to the battalion commander. He ordered us to install the gun in the trench. As we had agreed, the battalion opened fire on the hill so that Finns could not hear the tractor that was pulling the gun.

We moved extremely slowly, as snow was very deep and tractor skid all the time. Finally, it drove into a deep snow and got stuck. We had to take shovels and dig a road to the very trench. In general, we brought the gun safe and sound and installed it. I sent the tractor back and waited for the morning. Finally, dawn came. We saw the Finnish bunker right in front of us. Sharply at 8 o'clock our gun opened fire.

We were not lucky. Our first shell hit the knocked out empty tank that has been in front of that bunker for some ten days. The tank caught fire and started to emit thick smoke that covered the bunker from us, and that was it. We could as well just pull the gun into a new position! I got worried. All of a sudden the wind changed and we could see the bunker again. We fired the second shell. Missed again. I noticed that after every shot our gun moved a little bit. In order to fix it, we hammered wooden rods into the ground, hammered the socks in to the ground as deep as possible.

- Fire! - I ordered. A hit.

- Fire! Over the target. We decreased the aim.

- Fire! A hit.

- Fire! A hit.

The bunker opened hurricane fire on us from machine guns and artillery. We had to lie down and cease fire. Two shells exploded right at the trench. We were all covered up with dirt. One soldier had his face scratched. However, the gun was intact and we were all alive.

When the fire started to abate a little bit, I ordered:

- Back to the gun!

It was all covered up with dirt. We quickly cleaned the barrel and the gun lock from dirt. Everything was in order.

- Fire!

Finns again intensified fire, but their fire was inaccurate and we continued fire. At the twentieth shell a massive steel cupola flew off the bunker. We fired several shells on the middle of the bunker. A shell-hole in the middle of the bunker. Then we fired on its left side. A shell-hole in the left side of the bunker as well. We took care of the right side of the bunker as well - made a shell-hole there as well.

After we fired the eighty-first shell, the bunker was destroyed. I sent an orderly to the battalion commander with a report: "mission completed. Request a tractor"

We were lying and waiting.

Our artillery opened intensive fire on the entire Finnish hill in order to give tractor a possibility to approach us. The tractor arrived. We hastily towed the gun away and went to have some rest in dugouts.

In the morning I received an order: "Travel to the left side of the road. Destroy bunker No. 42." We got into the cars and went there. It was even harder to select a firing position this time. We started to dig a trench and the soil was all like stone. We abandoned that trench, started to dig on another place, but soil was almost as hard. Finns noticed us and opened artillery fire on us. It became impossible to work and we sneaked to the side. A Finnish shell hit our trench. It was good that no one was there.

This shell did us a big favor. It deepened the trench and made soil light. When the shelling started to abate and we again gathered in the trench, our work progressed much faster. Having prepared the trench, we brought up the gun, again covering the tractor's noise by artillery fire. The first two shells missed, the third one hit the target. After we fired the fifth round Finns fled from the bunker. I saw them getting out of the hatches like mice. Gaps and dents on the armored wall of the bunker. The previous time I first fired on he middle of the bunker, then on one side and then on the other side. I tried to use the same technique with this bunker as well. It worked quite well - after the 75th shell the bunker No. 42 was destroyed.

In the days that followed I destroyed several other bunkers with this gun. I already had some experience and I spent less and less rounds for destruction of every next bunker. Quite soon I knew exactly which spots of the bunker I had to hit to wipe it off from the face of the earth. Besides this, our experience helped us to select the best positions to place our gun.

Finns were delivering hurricane fire on my gun. One time enemy's shell exploded and threw me some ten meters from the gun. When I regained my senses, I felt all over myself and realized that I was safe and sound. However, only four men were unhurt, the rest were killed or wounded. We sent the wounded into the rear and continued to fire on the bunker. There was no one left to bring shells, but i stopped several infantrymen that were rushing by and they brought shells to the gun till the minute when the bunker was destroyed.

This is how we were destroying the bunkers, clearing the way for our troops.