Continuation War, day by day.

[Dowly]

1 January 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 12


Soldiers take their oath. (Viipuri)

***

2 January 1943

Approximately 2 000 Finnish children remain in Denmark. The country has promised to take in another 1 000 under school age children.

Finnish daily losses: 12


Machine gun position in Ohta.

***

3 January 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 14


Prisoners from POW camp #6. (Viipuri)

***

4 January 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 12

***

5 January 1943

On the Karelian Isthmus, in Lempaala area a total of ten enemy patrols were driven off during the night as they tried to get through Finnish positions.

Finnish daily losses: 25


Canteen worker shows her new birch bark shoes made by someone from the 8.Bridge Company.

[Dowly]

6 January 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 18

***

7 January 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 14

***

8 January 1943

Enemy planes strike Nurmoila airfield using rockets for the first time.

Finnish daily losses: 11

***

9 January 1943

Major-General Winell, Commander of the 8.Division and a Knight of the Mannerheim Cross, dies of a heart attack while attending to his son's burial in Helsinki.

Finnish daily losses: 12


Wood carving by Medical Officer Jaakko Ketola. (Karhumäki, Field Hospital 33)

***

10 January 1943

Soviet offensive against the encircled German Sixth Army at Stalingrad begins.

Finnish daily losses: 10


View inside a dug-out on IR44's sector. (Lotinapelto, Svir)

***

11 January 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 17

***

12 January 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 9

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Dowly

9 January 1943

Major-General Winell, Commander of the 8.Division and a Knight of the Mannerheim Cross, dies of a heart attack while attending to his son's burial in Helsinki.

That's tragic.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

That's tragic.

Very.

His son, Lieutenant Berndt Torolf Winell, was killed in the Uhtua area on 22/12/1941. He served in the 8./Field gun regiment 16.

[Dowly]

13 January 1943

A sixty-man enemy group reaches Finnish trenches under heavy artillery and mortar fire in the Poventsa area. The enemy is thrown back after an hour of fighting leaving behind 44 bodies.

Finnish daily losses: 12

***

14 January 1943

All Finnish submarines are at Suomenlinna's drydock for the remainder of the winter.

Finnish daily losses: 15


German merchant ship 'Gotenland'.

***

15 January 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 17


Captain Veikko Karu, Knight of the Mannerheim Cross #98.
(Awarded for successfully leading a fighter squadron, especially against enemy naval vessels)

In 1963, Veikko Karu was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of his wife Kirsti Karu. It wasn't until after his death in 1991 that it was revealed he had taken the fall for his son who had accidentally killed Kirsti after a fight.

***

16 January 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 14


No man's land at night. (IR 25, Svir front)

***

17 January 1943

Soviet partisans attack three Finnish bases on the Svir front. Two of these attacks are successfully stopped, but at Lindoma the partisans overcome the sentries and destroy the base.

Finnish daily losses: 19

***

18 January 1943

The Red Army breaks the siege of Leningrad.

Finnish daily losses: 22

***

19 January 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 20

[sublynx]

No man's land at night. (IR 25, Svir front)

The picture is really interesting on a personal level as my grandfather fought with the IR25 and had this picture in his photo album. I guess they sold the better pictures and my grandfather thought that pic was a nice one to have.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by sublynx

No man's land at night. (IR 25, Svir front)

The picture is really interesting on a personal level as my grandfather fought with the IR25 and had this picture in his photo album. I guess they sold the better pictures and my grandfather thought that pic was a nice one to have.

That's cool!

Did he tell any stories from the war, or have you looked into finding stuff about him?

The photo was taken by Erkki Viitasalo according to SA-kuva.

[sublynx]

Originally Posted by Dowly

That's cool!

Did he tell any stories from the war, or have you looked into finding stuff about him?

The photo was taken by Erkki Viitasalo according to SA-kuva.

He did tell some and even wrote something up when 84 years old. I translated one story for another forum. Here it is, a sauna war story:

Just before the sauna story begins, his platooon has been ordered to rest and refit during the last days of Tali-Ihantala battle in the summer of 1944. When my grandpa joined the platoon, back from the hospital, it was led by a private first class as all the higher ups had been killed or wounded, and my grandpa took the command as a corporal. The platoon had under 10 men left, but every man was equipped by a submachine gun, taken from a fallen comrade or enemy - the submachine gun part background needs to be told to understand the actual sauna story. Here's the story:



"The sun was already shining high, when I woke up. A messenger ordered me to come see the company chief. The chief ordered me to send to men to heat a sauna. He showed me the place on the map, nearly 4 kilometres away. There was a sauna of a farm in a brick cowshed that the battalion had assigned for our use. When the stokers of the sauna would have left, the company was to start marching to the sauna after three hours had passed.



I chose two men to heat the sauna. I showed the place on the map and to make sure they would find the place I even drew a road map for them. The company was just about ready to leave for the sauna, when the stokers came back and said that they can’t heat the sauna, because the men from heavy mortar were there bathing and had said that they were going to hold the place for themselves the whole day. I went to the chief to tell him about what had happened. He went out of his mind. He started bellowing at me: you have lousy men, when they can’t fulfil the battalion’s order, and you can’t get their act together. He shouted a lot more, before I interrupted him by saying that it isn’t so that my men are lousy. We are all armed with submachine guns and the sauna is emptied in a second or two, if the order is given, but that it’s pointless to start fighting against own troops, when there are empty saunas to heat everywhere close-by. The chief paused to think for a while and said: Well heat a sauna then, I don’t care where, just as long as the company bathes today.



I went to my men and said: “The whole platoon goes to heat a sauna now”. Just after waking up I had – as was my habit – taken a run around the encampment area to get a grip on the surroundings and I had noticed the river Kilpeenjoki took a bend towards our area, just 100 meters from us. The river was 10 meters wide at this area, over a meter deep and had a fine sand bottom. On the other side of the river there were two saunas. When I had seen a wooden causeway over the river, I had examined these saunas. They were really nice, with a living room. Maybe villas of residents from the city of Viipuri. I brought the men to these saunas and we heated up both of them. I said, that the other sauna would be reserved for the chief first, but when you get the other sauna warm, you can start bathing right then. When the saunas were heating, many of the men were already swimming in the river. When the sauna reserved for the chief was ready I told Valjakka: “Fetch the lieutenant to the sauna”. The man came, looked on for a second with eyes wide. Then said: “these are some very nice saunas you got here”. So then we bathed and swam in that sunny July afternoon, laid down by the beach grass like we were in Riviera, while the artillery fire rumbled on the front lines. Maybe we even forgot about the war for a short while. When the sunlight started to dim, we went back and occupied the same foxholes by the flood meadow stronghold, where we had left for the saunas.



Afterwards I have wondered if this sauna incident had an effect on the fact that if the chief had something to decide on that he wasn’t sure about, he often wanted to know my view on the problem. Anyway after the incident our co-operation worked perfectly after that, for as long as the company was held intact."

[Schroeder]

Interesting story.

[Dowly]

Thanks for sharing the story, sublynx!

[Dowly]

20 January 1943

Maaselkä: Finns man the Mentsinsaari island on lake Seesjärvi.

Finnish daily losses: 13


Battalion commander Major Koskela's dugout. (Rukajärvi)

***

21 January 1943

Maaselkä: Finnish snipers have killed 52 enemy soldiers between 11.-20. January.

Finnish daily losses: 16

***

22 January 1943

Report on enemy air losses in 1942:
- 357 planes shot down by fighters
- 101 planes shot down by anti-air
- 5 planes destroyed on the ground
- 18 planes captured
- 2 planes shot down by infantry weapons fire
- 1 plane shot down by the navy
Total: 484 planes

The Finnish Air Force has also sunk six enemy submarines and further ten submarines (Not clear if total or on top of six -D) in cooperation with the Finnish Navy.

Finnish daily losses: 19


75 K/97 "Marianne" field gun at fort "Järisevä" on the Taipale peninsula.

***

23 January 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 15

***

24 January 1943

Rukajärvi: 14. Division's patrol comes across a large enemy partisan group near Kiimasjärvi.

Finnish daily losses: 6


Captured Komsomolets T-20 tractor in Varkaus.

***

25 January 1943

Rukajärvi: 14.D reports the partisans have retreated north over lake Nuokkijärvi.

Finnish daily losses: 16

***

26 January 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 12


Two Russian deserters from a Soviet penal unit. (Uhtua)

***

A. Auvinen

Private Auvinen (tag# 20684) was born in 1923 in Viipuri. He was an apprentice machinist before being drafted to service in 1941. On the 22th of January a sniper's bullet hit him in the head in the Lempaala area killing him instantly. He was 20 years old. Not married.

[Dowly]

27 January 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 14

***

28 January 1943

Maaselkä: Soviet 33. Ski Brigade attacks to Mentsinsaari island across lake Seesjärvi.

Generalfeldmarschall Keitel again asks Mannerheim through a letter to continue attacks towards the Murman railway.

Finnish daily losses: 22


Ski shooting competition on 8.division's area. (Olonets)

***

29 January 1943

US ambassador Standley and Molotov discuss in Moscow about the possibilities of getting Finland out of the war.

Maaselkä: "Enemy detachment's (strength approx. two platoons) attack against one of our bases on Mentsinsaari island has been repelled."

Finnish daily losses: 17

***

30 January 1943

Rukajärvi/14.D.: Attack by a battalion size enemy group against Finnish positions at 2130hrs last night was repelled everywhere, but at base "Mountain" where the enemy managed to get through Finnish obstacles and inside the base. By 0900hrs, the enemy at base "Mountain" was driven off causing them a loss of 106 men + 20 POWs.

Finnish daily losses: 24


Dug-out recaptured by the Finns during fighting in the Rukajärvi area.

***

31 January 1943

The German Sixth Army's southern pocket surrenders at Stalingrad.

Finnish daily losses: 11


View towards the enemy from base "Fingertip". (Siestarjoki)

***

1 February 1943

Maaselkä: Finnish snipers have shot 46 enemies between 21.-31. January.

Finnish daily losses: 21

***

2 February 1943

The remaining German forces surrender at Stalingrad.

Finnish daily losses: 17

***

A.M. Ekbom

Private Ekbom (tag# 996416) of I/IR 46, born in 1922 in Kemiö, was wounded by a shot to the head as he was on guard duty in the Lempaala area on February 2. He died in Field Hospital 40 on the same day at the age of 21. He was not married.

[Dowly]

3 February 1943

Marshal Mannerheim calls a meeting to discuss Germany's war situation in his HQ in Mikkeli. It is unanimously agreed that Germany will lose the war and that Finland must find a way to get out of the war.

Finnish daily losses: 17

***

4 February 1943

AOK Norwegen: On the southern flank of Litsa front, our assault team attacked enemy positions destroying one MG nest, one dug-out and 15 enemies. Own losses 8 KIA, 10 WIA.

Finnish daily losses: 12


AT-gun at Lempaala.

***

5 February 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 11


After a heavy snowstorm its time to dig out the dug-out. (Lempaala)

***

6 February 1943

Maaselkä: Own 100-man patrol attacked Mäntysaari island in the Poventsa sector at 0050hrs. 20 of the 33 enemies on the island were killed and two were captured.

Finnish daily losses: 23

***

7 February 1943

AOK Norwegen: Our assault team managed to get inside an enemy base in the Litsa area and capture it.

Finnish daily losses: 17

***

8 February 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 21


Enemy bunker. (Rajajoki)

***

9 February 1943

Karelian Isthmus: In the Muratta road area, our 12-man patrol managed to sneak inside a forward post. After killing the sentries, the patrol proceeded to destroy three dug-outs and the men inside using satchel charges. Own losses 4 WIA.

Finnish daily losses: 29


The aforementioned patrol photographed after their return. (Lempaala)

***

Heads up to whom it may concern: The National Archives have started to digitise the service records (Kantakortti) of those who died in the Winter and Continuation War.

So far 88 have been released and they can be found here.

More info here:
https://www.arkisto.fi/news/2092/61/...,ajankohtaista

***

P.S. Dufva

Private Dufva (tag# 264853) lost his life on a patrol behind enemy lines in the north side of lake Seesjärvi on the 9th of February at the age of 23. He served in the Jäger company of Infantry Regiment 5. Due to the circumstances his body could not be recovered and was left to the enemy side. Pvt. Dufva was born in Kuusankoski in 1920 and was married.

[Dowly]

10 February 1943

Colonel Paasonen talks about the current war situation at the Finnish HQ in Mikkeli.

The presentation is seen as too pessimistic, and Col.Paasonen is ordered to give a more optimistic one two days later.

Northern Finland/Uhtua sector: "250-300 strong enemy detachment attacked against our base at lake Alajärvi last night. After our reserves arrived, the enemy withdrew. A group of 150-200 enemies has dug-in on the northern shore of lake Alajärvi. Enemy losses 30+, one deserter captured."

During the night, the enemy group was encircled and by early morning had withdrawn. Enemy losses estimated at 70+.

Finnish daily losses: 13


Soldiers making axe handles. (2.D.)

***

11 February 1943

Maaselkä: "Our snipers have killed 66 enemies between 1.-10. February.

14.D.: "Enemy unit operating behind our lines has been identified as the *32.Ski Brigade." (*33. -D)

Finnish daily losses: 10


View from the roof of Viipuri's women's hospital. What's left of eastern Viipuri is seen in the background.

***

12 February 1943

14.D.: "Attack by a 100-strong enemy detachment against one of our bases at lake Ontajärvi was repelled."

Finnish daily losses: 16

***

13 February 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 25


Major Puustinen's patrol returning. (Rukajärvi area)

***

14 February 1943

No entry.

Finnish daily losses: 8

***

15 February 1943

President Ryti is re-elected nearly unanimously.

AOK Norwegen: "Our reconnaissance unit got into a firefight with a 100-strong enemy unit in grid 36:62. Enemy losses 20 KIA, 1 POW."

Finnish daily losses: 16


Knight of the Mannerheim Cross #110, Staff Sergeant Einar Schadewitz. (This guy)

"On February 10th 1943 the Commander-in-Chief has appointed Staff Sergeant Einar Schadewitz as Knight of the 2nd class Mannerheim Cross.

Sergeant Schadewitz proved to be a completely fearless fighter in the Winter War. This is evidenced by the many reports of his actions against enemy tanks. The same brutal and fearless activity he has continued during this war, for example:
(1) In Oravakytö terrain, Sergeant Schadewitz was with his group in ambush when an enemy marching column came to the road of the Vuosalmi-Oravakytö crossroads. His unit unexpectedly opened fire, killing the 8 officers who rode at the front of the column causing confusion and preventing the enemy formation from linking up with the main force near the crossroads.
(2) Once when the enemy attacked with a great force on the Finnish flank, Schadewitz himself eliminated two enemy machine gun teams in close combat contributing decisively to the outcome of the battle, where the enemy suffered significant losses.
(3) In the Riihiö area, during capturing of an enemy base Sergeant Schadewitz himself destroyed an enemy strongpoint with a satchel charge that had greatly hindered the Finnish attack. During the same attack he efficiently and effectively lead the storming of the trenches using his submachine gun which lead to the complete annihilation of the enemy with no own losses.
(4) At the same location during a later violent reconnaissance mission he again volunteered to lead the assault team. Much like earlier, his skill and example lead to near complete destruction of the enemy forces in the base with no own losses.
Sergeant Schadewitz has always been willing to volunteer to take on the toughest and most dangerous missions and perform them with cold-blooded bravery and decisiveness."

***

16 February 1943

Martti Koivistoinen, sentenced to death for treason and high treason, is executed.

He was part of the outlawed SKP (Communist Party of Finland) and had encouraged people to refuse military service and helped and organized armed groups of deserters to potentially rise up against the Finnish government.

Finnish daily losses: 16


Patrol stopping for a smoking break 200m from enemy lines. (Ostanjoki area)

***

J.O. Antila

Private Antila (tag# 400382), born in Virrat in 1922. He was stationed at POW camp 17 in Aunus (the city, not the isthmus). On February 10th, Pvt. Anttila was wounded in the head during an air raid and died to his wounds on the same day in Field Hospital 14 at the age of 21. He was not married.

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Dowly

10 February 1943

Colonel Paasonen talks about the current war situation at the Finnish HQ in Mikkeli.

The presentation is seen as too pessimistic, and Col.Paasonen is ordered to give a more optimistic one two days later.

This is so dumb it hurts.
"Hey, what's your opinion on the situation", "Well, this and that and that and this.", "Hell no, I don't like that opinion, give me a different one that I'll like more....". WTH?