29 February 1940 - DAY 92 of Winter War
Reserve Corporal Korsola, a fighter pilot in the Finnish Air Force, is killed during the course of the morning.
The massive Soviet offensive continues across Viipurinlahti bay to Häränpäänniemi and Vilajoki.
Withdrawal from the intermediary and delaying positions in the Suur-Pero sector disintegrates into panic when enemy tanks get in among the Finnish troops.
The defending force manages to defeat the enemy detachments which have come ashore, but later in the evening Tuppura and Teikari islands are lost to the enemy.
The Finnish Government decides by 17 votes to 3 in favour of opening formal peace talks with the Soviet Union.
In Ladoga Karelia, the eastern Lemetti 'motti', also known as the 'general motti', is captured by 4 o'clock in the morning, giving IV Army Corps its greatest ever haul of captured enemy materiel: 71 tanks, 268 lorries and several lorryloads of guns and shells.
Brigade Commander Kondratiev, the general after whom the 'motti' was named, is killed along with his staff officers in a desperate attempt to break out. The enemy loses around 3,000 men altogether.
Reserve Second Lieutenant Nyrki Tapiovaara is killed leading a reconnaissance patrol on the Kollaa front. The 28-year-old Tapiovaara, a film director in civilian life, leaves behind an uncompleted film based on F.E. Sillanpää's novel Miehen tie (A Man's Way).
In northern Finland, a fierce artillery bombardment heralds the launch of the third attempt by Soviet troops to come to the aid of the surrounded 54th Division at Kilpelänkangas in Kuhmo.
In just the couple of hours before noon the enemy pounds the Finnish positions with around 3,000 shells.
The Finnish 7th Division, fighting in Taipale, has lost around 100 men a day. More than half these losses have come in February.
15 Finnish and 36 Russian fighters engage in a dogfight in the skies above Ruokolahti on the southeast edge of Lake Saimaa.
The battle lasts a little under half an hour. Several of the Finnish aircraft are damaged, and seven shot down. Lieutenants Huhanantti, Halme and Kristensen, the latter a Danish volunteer, are killed, and three other pilots are wounded.
There is heavy enemy bombing on the home front, in Turku, Haapamäki, Savonlinna and Kouvola. 132 bombers are counted in the skies above Kouvola.
Finland sends a note to the League of Nations over the Soviet Union's military action against Finland's civilian population.
Daily Finnish losses: 322
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