Continuation War, day by day.

[Dowly]

9 September 1941

East Karelia: After capturing Prääžä the day before, VII AK continues its offensive towards Pyhäjärvi to cut the Prääžä - Aunus road.



Karelian Isthmus: Finnish forces reach their objectives and are ordered to stop approximately on the pre-Winter War border.


Finnish advance on the Karelian Isthmus 21.8. - 9.9.

Separate prisoner camps are to be set up for those POWs who speak Finnish.

Finnish daily losses: 137


Colonel Lagus explains the current situation. (River Svir)

[Dowly]

10 September 1941

Mannerheim visits troops on the river Svir front.

Finnish daily losses: 136


"First aid station at 2005hrs. First Finnish KIA of the battle." (East Karelia)

[Dowly]

11 September 1941

Colonel Erkki Raappana's 14.Division captures the town of Rukajärvi.

Mannerheim gives order to the Karelian Army to capture Petroskoi.

Foreign Minister Witting informs US ambassador that Finland will not attack against Leningrad.

President Ryti discusses about Finland's future borders with German ambassador Wipert von Blücher.

In Ryti's opinion, short and easily defensibly borders would be ideal to Finland.

Finland wishes the rivers Neva and Svir to become the new borders in the south.

Finnish daily losses: 148


"The youngest soldier in the Finnish Army."
Juhani Utkin, a 10yo Karelian orphan who is being taken care of by IR 56.

[Dowly]

12 September 1941

200 men of IR 48 refuse to cross the Rajajoki river (river Sestra) at the pre-Winter War border.

Officials estimate that 10% of the Winter War evacuees can return to their homes in Karelia before winter.

Finnish daily losses: 129


Young Dragoon on his horse in East Karelia. (Possibly Jaeger Battalion 6)

Mannerheim Cross recipient(s):

Lieutenant Olli Remes
- For showing personal bravery by returning back to the front lines in three occasions when he was wounded.

[Dowly]

13 September 1941

Coastal Defence ship Ilmarinen sinks after hitting a mine on the southwest side of Utö.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

The two Finnish coastal defence ships (Ilmarinen & Väinämöinen -D) participated in Operation Nordwind on 13 September 1941, in which German forces were to take the Estonian islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa. A group of Finnish and German ships were to be used in a diversionary operation to lure the Soviet fleet into battle – away from the real invasion force coming up from the south. Another German fleet, including the cruisers Emden, Köln, and Leipzig, waited further away to join the battle if the Soviets turned up; however, the northern fleet remained unnoticed and an order was given to turn around when they had reached a point some 25 nautical miles (46 km; 29 mi) south of Utö. The formation was led by minesweepers, but some mines had escaped being swept. The crew of Ilmarinen failed to take proper notice of the dragging paravane cable. It is likely that the ship had caught one or two sea mines in the paravane, and when the ship turned, the mines struck the bottom of the hull and exploded. The explosion blew a large hole in the ship, which soon developed a strong list and keeled over. The ship sank in just seven minutes. Only 132 men of the crew survived, and 271 were lost, most of them trapped inside the hull. Fifty-seven were rescued by the patrol boat VMV 1, which had maneuvered to the capsized hull and took on as many of Ilmarinen's crew as she could. During this time she too was at great risk of being obliterated if Ilmarinen's magazines had ignited.

The survivors were later known as Ilmarisen uimaseura (Ilmarinen's Swimming Team). Among the survivors were Ilmarinen's captain, Commander Ragnar Göransson, and the Commander of the Finnish Navy, Commodore Eero Rahola, as well as Lieutenant Viljo Revell, later a renowned architect.

Northern Finland: German and Finnish troops attacking in the Kantalahti area punch through the Soviet defenses.

East Karelia: German 163.Division takes front responsibility in Kuuttilahti in western Svir.

Pyhäjärvi crossroad is captured.



Hitler considers Finland one of Germany's best allies in the war and as such he is willing to give Kola Peninsula to Finland.

Finnish daily losses: 385


Ilmarinen photographed from the bridge of Väinämöinen during Operation Nordwind.

[Dowly]

14 September 1941

Large explosion of unknown origin sinks three German minesweepers and kills over 60 in military harbour of Katajanokka, Helsinki.

Finnish daily losses: 164


Fires caused by the explosion in Katajanokka.

Mannerheim Cross recipient(s):

Colonel Aarne Blick
- For leading the swift attack of the 2.Division to the Old Border.

[sublynx]

Originally Posted by Dowly

14 September 1941

Large explosion of unknown origin sinks three German minesweepers and kills over 60 in military harbour of Katajanokka, Helsinki.

Sabotage or accident?

According to this: https://fi.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kata...C3%A4hdys_1941

An accident likely: the explosion happened at night time and a hand with a working glove and a captain's insignia on the sleeve was found. Probably a captain of one of the mine sweepers was working overtime. If so, leading to the death of himself and his mates.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by sublynx

Sabotage or accident?

According to this: https://fi.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kata...C3%A4hdys_1941

An accident likely: the explosion happened at night time and a hand with a working glove and a captain's insignia on the sleeve was found. Probably a captain of one of the mine sweepers was working overtime. If so, leading to the death of himself and his mates.

Interestingly, the wiki mentions four minesweepers as having been sunk by the explosion.

I am only aware of R-boats 60, 61 and 62.

[Dowly]

15 September 1941

Commander of the Karelian Army gives preparatory order for the attack towards Petroskoi.

IR 23 captures the Svir power plant.



Finnish daily losses: 112


Fighting at the Svir power plant.


Russian internees in Rautjärvi.

[Dowly]

16 September 1941

No entry for this day.

Here's a story from Kansa Taisteli (8/1958) instead. Translated by user named 'Lotvonen' over at AxisHistoryForum, so all credit to him.

 

Kuokkala village was a hot spot

Urpo Arhosuo
Journal Kansa Taisteli vol.08, 1958

(Long distance recce patrol to Kuokkala in the Carelian Isthmus in 1941. )

As our Continuation war started and the army was waiting for attack order we the long distance patrolmen engaged the enemy without any delay. In fact we engaged the enemy in their rear. We had already carried out some patrols to find out about enemy troop locations, strength, artillery etc. Our journeys were not long, just two to three days, but enough to get familiar with the counteractions of the enemy to catch us. What we found out proved to be of great importance as we later had to stay for long periods behind the enemy lines

After we had gained some experience we had to do a longer patrol in early July. Our mission was to spend one month in the enemy rear. Our aim was to cross the old national border at Mainila, the famous place, and to observe enemy defence lines and structures on our way. Very interesting detail was mining railway lines and derailing trains, also included in our tasks.

We were six men who crossed the front lines, heading for Vuoksi river. We found that it was the more simple to proceed in the enemy rear the deeper we penetrated, and we did not encounter any surprises. Crossing the Vuoksi river was easy using boats we borrowed from the enemy but did not return, those were Finnish boats abandoned after the Winter War. We headed for Perkjärvi on the Viipuri-Rajajoki(Byeloostrov) rail line. When there we split into two teams to speed up our work.

The enemy obviously was aware of our movements since already at Vuoksi we had been spotted by civilians. We also had been seen on our way here because near the Perkjärvi station village we by chance happened to overhear a lecture by a Politruk to the troops on manners of liquidating “white bandits”. It was very instructive to us, leaving no doubts about our fate should we be caught. Of course that was the very thing we did not want. The lecturer could not guess that the very “bandits” were sitting no farther than one hundred meters away, listening his rant.

His paroles and threats at us were reeking of brimstone, they could be hear far in the quiet summer evening. Inspired by the Politruk's lecture we decided to give a reminder of our existence the same night. Fot that purpose we proceeded to N of Lounatjoki where the second half of our patrol would return after completing their tasks. There were guards walking along the rail line, seldom only, but it proved that the enemy was alerted. We decided to plant our mine as close to the station as possible to discredit the Politruk's claims. He had said that we just are hiding in the forest, bothering single passers-by in the manner of bandits.

The weather favoured us. The light July night became cloudy and dusk fell, then it started raining a little. At midnight we sneaked carefully toward the station as far as the first switch where we planted a double charge under one rail. Then we set the fuse, camouflaged everything assisted by the rain and everything was ready for the next train. We managed to get in the cover of the forest as a three man patrol set out from the station walking along the rail line. We stayed to see if they would spot our mine. They did not, but went on while chattering lively. We withdrew deeper in the forest to seek rain shelter. We hoped that no train would arrive before next morning so that our job should not be found out by chance to provide our Politruk with more material for lectures.

It had finished raining and we headed for the rallying spot. Having marched for a couple of kilometers we heard sounds of a train from the direction of Lounatjoki. We stopped to listen and waited if everything would happen according to the plan. Minutes were long, and we already had doubts about our success as there was a lightning-like flash in the direction of the station, then we heard a loud explosion followed by tremendous crash and crunching as the waggons piled on the derailed locomotive.

We had done a good job and were satisfied as we continued our journey, guessing what the enemy were thinking and what kind of countermeasures we could expect.

The enemy reacted with an astonishing rapidity. The very next day the rail line had been secured by standing and mobile sentries. Now it was better not to head for the railway in a reckless manner but we had to observe the patrols to find out their schedules, which did not include much slack. Mostly we succeeded by acting fast, but there were also surprises. The enemy patrols were small, two to three men, so we were equal in strenght. The enemies were always on the receiving side if they stumbled upon us, which added to their list of casualties. The trains did no more traffic carefree, but each train was preceded by a loco pushing sand-laden waggons in order to trigger any mines. With good luck we sometimes managed to mine the rails between the securing loco and the actual train. That made the train traffic even more uncertain and tied huge numbers of men as guards. The prisoners taken told that the loco crews feared mines so much that they actually had to be forced to do their work. Six men are able to cause a lot of nuisance to the enemy and engage troops, so now we understood better than ever the rants of the Politruk.

We had been in our task for nearly three weeks both at the main line (Viipuri-Rajajoki) and the Koivisto line. Our journey went on deeper in the isthmus. Airmen took care of supplying us with proviant and explosives. We had not suffered any losses and were in high spirits. South of Kivennapa village we split into two teams. One team headed for Mainila while the other one had the task of mining the rail line Kuokkala-Rajajoki. We agreed to rally at Lintulanjoki three days later.

I belonged to the rail mining team. Sgt. Juvonen led us, he had grown up in Kuokkala and he knew the terrain. He also absolutely wanted to visit his ancestral village, to “revenge the robbers”. It must have been his home that made this courageous and fearless man into a reckless one. We used to march in nighttime because days were tooo hot to carry heavy backpacks, also the dense civilian population had to be taken into account. The civilians had a nasty habit to report what they had seen to the military, who then wanted to get in contact with us despite having experienced our reluctance.

It was easy for us to move about because Sgt. Juvonen knew the places and we did not need neither maps nor compass. The closer to Kuokkala we came the more confidently we made use of all possible roads. At times we found it appropriate to remark Juvonen that we should use safer passages. “ One never had to fear anything in Kuokkala” was his answer and we had to accept it.

One night we were marching on the road from Haapala to Kellomäki as we heard the noise of an approaching horse cart. We prepared to hide in the roadside as Juvonen saw our intentions. “Why dodge, this is a wide road, one single Ivan has enough space to pass us, just follow me.” A single horse cart met us and then Juvonen told the driver in plain Finnish:
Now get going and do not stop before Moscow, Finns are here already.

I wonder if the driver understood him, but he did leave as one pursued by the Devil.
Did he stop before arriving at Moscow?

We reached the railway early in the morning, 0400 hrs. We had plenty of time to find a good observation spot next to the line. We intended to count the traffic during daytime and mine the rails next night. At the same time we were able to verify the sentries and patrols that according to the prisoners were not there, but one cannot ever trust the enemy. It was best to verify.

There was a very dense copse between the train stop of Kanerva and the station of Kuokkala. It was almost impassable and reaching next to the railway embankment. We thought we had found an ideal spot for observation, but it proved to be anything but calm as we found out some hours later.

We had some breakfast and made plans for mining next night, then turned in. We made our beds among the saplings while our third man, Cpl. Vainikka stayed awake to count the traffic and be our guard.

We had just fallen in the deepest sleep at 0700 hrs as our sentry came and said that we were surrounded, there were enemies all around us. He also cursed Juvonen who had betrayed us by marcing on roads. We listened, quite right, there was crunching every where as if someone had been breaking branches. We felt quite exposed, three men are not able to fight a trench war for any longer period. Sgt. Juvonen interrupted the silence by telling us what a boring place Kuokkala had been, except the Casino, and it was nice change that something interesting should be going on here. Then he gave us a decent order:
- Let them get closer, in this dense copse they won't spot us until at an arm's length. Be ready to shoot, don't spare ammo, every man must send as many of them to the Paradise, there are routes to reach Piter (Leningrad) if necessary, I know this district, just follow me.

We were ready to act and our confidence to Juvonen was complete. But the sounds did not get any closer. We kept waiting but the crunching stayed at the same distance. We decided to find out what was going on. Carefully we sneaked to the direction we had arrived here and soon got wiser. The enemy had tasked a group of soldiers to cut down the copse we found ourselves in. They had left their rifles behind at the edge of the copse. We retreated to consider. We were surrounded but so far the enemy was ignorant of our existence. It was not posible to cross the railway because there were wide open fields beyond the line. The actual rail line was patrolled by the enemy. There was more open field on this side of the rail line and the station was no farther away than one kilometer.

We had arrived in the copse over sparse pine forest that would expose us to enemy fire before we would have been able to cover the three to four hundred meters to the denser forest. Neither could we wait that the enemy would leave, because the area to be cleared would be done before evening – almost two hundred men were at work, we estimated.

Our situation was grim but not hopeless, as Juvonen commented. He knew the terrain and he had a plan. Without him we would have been in a really tough spot.

We set out to the direction we had arrived from, having dodged some of the working men we encountered a shallow old ditch. By creeping along it quietly and staying low we might be able to escape from the blockade unnoticed if the ditch were long enough.

We started our advance, which was time-consuming but we had all the time in the world. Our every movement had to be considered because one quiet crack of a breaking twig could have been fatal: the closest enemies were just a few meters from us, fortunately not facing us and making noise. Officers and NCOs leading them were walking about and it was them that we had to fear most.

Sgt. Juvonen consoled us saying that if we are spotted the Red Army shall have several vacancies to fill. It was a poor consolation, because our nerves were quite tight. We had proceeded 60 to 70 meters as the ditch ended in a piece of wetland overgrown with wild rosemary. It was not a large area, less than ten meters in diameter, but enough to provide us with cover from prying eyes. We decided to stay there for the day.
Isn't it fun to watch the Russkies work, Juvonen said.

We kept watching the toil of the enemies, but it was still forenoon and we decided to continue our interrupted sleep. Vainikka promised to stand guard. Our day had started with a quick reveille and soon another followed. At noon our sentry poked our ribs whispering that women were heading right at us. Carefully we put up our heads and saw that there was a woman with two young girls coming right at us. She could not pass us without seeing us, and next the soldiers would be informed. Juvonen alone stayed calm, he commented complaining how old the woman was and the girls very young, it they had been of the right age we could have had a nice afternoon.

We could not help being amused despite the serious situation. The soldiers, too, had seen the passers-by and kept looking at them. We tried to lie as flat as possible among the wild rosemary, hoping that the ladies would alter their course. Now there was the risk that suddenly spotting three bearded men in front of them they would scream and then we would have to sprint to the forest before the enemy reacts.

But a Russian woman must have been used to worse surprises because spotting us they did not make any sound. The girls did start and took a few running steps but their mother's rebuke cut their run short. The woman was at once orientated in the situation. She began simulating berry-picking with her hands. The soldiers must have wondered what made the girls jump as they kept staring.

Now we started a discussion that was not very deep as our Russian skills were limited to a few dirty words. Juvonen, however, understood some. Talking with your hands was not possible when lying flat on the ground. The communication was smoothed by a ten-rouble banknote that Juvonen gave the woman, she at once slipped it in her skirt. Juvonen found out that the soldiers had been assigned to clear shooting sectors at the railway line because a Finnish invasion was possible. There were lots of soldiers in Kellomäki, she told, but could not give any figures. She swore not to talk about us and she promised to keep the girls quiet, too. Not until now she checked the banknote she had received and asked if we had any smaller values as she did not dare to pass such a valuable banknote to anybody because it would mean a tough interrogation to find out where she had got it.

But having been told it was all we had she kept the banknote. Finally she asked us to visit her home which was visible to us and have some tea. In our predicament we agreed to do that, and she crossed herself, then went on at the soldiers

Now nerve-racking moments followed: would she keep her promise or would she betray us? We kept watching the ladies until they vanished from our view. The soldiers went on working. But what would the ladies do now that they were out of our sight? With that in our mind we decided to get out of the place despite the risks. If the enemy would succeed in surrounding us here on the open ground we would be finished.

Making use of the terrain and moving carefully we managed to get in the denser forest unnoticed. The enemy did not give any clues of having seen anything. It is difficult to spot a terrain coloured man who is immobile.

Now we were ready to go deep in the forest to avoid any further surprises. We asked Sgt. Juvonen about his plans and begged him to hurry up. But he told us that now we do not have no hurry any more, we must check if the woman betrayed us, and it would be great fun to watch the enemy surrounding the wetland and finding nothing. His idea was a disappointment for the rest of us, but we did not tell him, because we had seen how he was able to maintain his good sense of humour and clear thinking in the most difficult situations.

We stayed there to wait what would happen. Two hours later we were sure that the woman had kept her promise. Nothing happened. It was 1500 hrs and the enemy had done their job, the copse had been thinned. The soldiers left.

We set out and proceeded past the station to a place between villages Ollila and Kuokkala, about two kilometers from Kuokkala. There we stayed to find out about possible enemy patrols on the railway line, because we had wasted our day from the point of vies of our mission. We kept observing for the rest of the day without seeing any guards. Train traffic was quite lively in both directions.

At midnight we left our extra gear in the cover of the forest about one km from the rail line while one of us stayed behind to guard them. Two of us headed for the railway to carry out our duty. The night was cloudy and enough dusky. Making use of a wooded stretch of land between open fields we arrived at the railway. It was an ideal spot for a mine due to the high embankment. We had scarcely started our job as we heard the sounds of a larger enemy unit marching on the rail line from Kuokkala. We took cover in the bushes nearby to see who is coming. A company of enemies marched past to the direction of Rajajoki. We wondered where they were going at 2300 hrs, because it was not us they were after, marching in a big closed formation.


The sounds of boots died out and we climbed up the embankmen to complete our job. We had learned to work soundlessly while keeping all our senses open. A faint whiff of mahorka (Soviet tobacco) smell made us alert at once. We heard nothing, everything was quiet although we knew that there were enemies nearby.

Our last mine had been planted now and we hastily camouflaged and covered our tracks.
Then we started crossing the field to get back to our gear. We had proceeded about 30 m as a flare was fired from the edge of the forest. We dropped in a ditch, wondering what on earth was going on. Soon we found that the enemy was doing a night fighting training. The company that passed us was acting as the aggressor, approaching the defender at the edge of the forest. So that had been the source of the mahorka smell, we patted ourselves in the back for acting silently at the railway although we had not been aware of the presence of the enemy before the betraying smell of mahorka.

Flares were fired more and more often, we did not have any chance to escape the attacking unit. We decided to let them pass us, they had blank cartridges only, so they could not threaten us. We could use our SMGs in case it was necessary.

But the enemies passed us, shooting profusely and ignoring us. We soon found our gear where our nervous sentry was waiting for us. He had already thought we were done for judging by the lively shooting.

The enemy was still shooting equally lively as we heard sounds of an approaching train from Rajajoki. We opined that the night exercise will have a live ending as the train approached our mine. After the explosion the shooting stopped as if by the order of a referee. After terrible crunching and crashing ended there was a total silence. Finally we heard the voices of enemies approaching the scene of destruction.

We did not stay there to wait for another train because the rest of our mines were delayed for four hours. We thought of the woman, would she have any use for the ten roubles, or would she share the fate of the man from whom we had taken it?
It was a bad luck banknote, Juvonen said, fortunately we got rid of it in time.

At our rallying point we began to plan how to get home. We would not have to cross the Vuoksi because our troops were already advancing on the near side of it: Vuoksi was on Finnish territory again. Our mission had been completed and we would wait for the next show.

Finnish daily losses: 124


Machine gun at river Svir.

Mannerheim Cross recipient(s):

Private 1st Class Onni Mantere
- For destroying seven enemy tanks and further damaging one in a single battle.

(Away for the weekend)

[sublynx]

Quite a story and a very clever old lady

[STEED]

Just bookmarking as I'm off for a break, will pick up reading after this post.

[Dowly]

17 September 1941

Over 70 men from a penal Battalion (dubbed "Pärmi's Battalion") defect to the enemy side during fighting in Vuohtjärvi.

Northern Finland: Finnish-German attack towards Kantalahti halts at the heavily fortified Vermanjoki-line.

Finnish daily losses: 104


Wounded Swedish volunteer Sergeant-Major Kolthoff, who passed away later the same day. (Hanko)

***

18 September 1941

17.Division captures the town of Podporoze.



Mannerheim visits Karelian Isthmus.

Radio Moscow announces that every male between age 16 and 50 must begin military training on October 1st.

Finnish daily losses: 71


Russian medical staff in Miehikkälä workcamp.

[Dowly]

19 September 1941

Owners of more than 15 ares of potato culture are required to sell some of the produce to the state.

Feeding potatoes to farm animals is also forbidden.

Jews are forced to start wearing the Star of David on their clothing in German controlled areas.

Finnish daily losses: 143


Advance guard. (Valkeasaari)

***

20 September 1941

11.Division's attack from Prääžä towards Petroskoi begins.



Finnish daily losses: 135


Rocket filled with propaganda leaflets is launched. (Hanko)

[sublynx]

Originally Posted by Dowly

17 September 1941

Over 70 men from a penal Battalion (dubbed "Pärmi's Battalion") defect to the enemy side during fighting in Vuohtjärvi.

That's a way to get rid of criminals I wonder how many of the defectors died in the prison camps.