Description of the actions of the 7th Infantry Regiment’s Sapper Platoon during the patrol in Ohta on 31.3.42.
Departure took place at 4:20 from the auditory guard post on the right side of the Ohta road. I had with me 2 NCOs and 10 sappers. Our task was, as soon as the regiment’s Jaeger Platoon had cleared the trench and reached Ojanen’s bunker, to destroy the bunker. For this purpose we brought with us 230 kg of trotyl, explosive fuse and timed fuse. These we transported in sleighs, three per man. Luckily the weather conditions were good, so we got the heavy load moving relatively easily (the sappers were also on skis).
The Jaeger Platoon left first and we joined the line soon after. In the beginning of the journey, for about 300 meters, we were in a blind spot from the point of view of the bunker. The Jaeger Platoon continued directly to the enemy trench, but we stayed behind, about 200 meters from the abovementioned trench. We started to hear short bursts of submachine gun shots and before that a satchel charge went off. The Jaegers had made it to the enemy positions. Soon we heard: “sappers get going!” We went the rest of the distance, which was flat ground, as fast as we could get our feet moving. The distance was around 200 meters. As we got to the trench we set our skis and sleighs so that they were ready for going back and started to carry the explosives towards the bunker. Until now everything had happened without the Russians noticing us. The Jaeger Platoon had sent a squad to secure on the right, where they had destroyed a dugout, and there was also someone securing the place where the skis were left. I went about 20 meters ahead of my squad in the trench, when I saw a Russian. I asked this man if he was one of us, he replied something in Russian, at which point I tried to shoot at him, but the first bullet misfired. Then we both shot at each other, but neither hit the other. Right away the Russian threw a hand-grenade but I was shielded by a corner in the trench. I shouted to a man near me with a submachine gun and told him to come help me. He fired a few rounds behind the corner, but the Russian managed to shoot him in the leg and also threw another hand-grenade, which further wounded the Jaeger helping me. I fired a few more shots behind the corner with my parabellum and one of my men with his rifle, but we couldn’t get the Russian killed. I didn’t have any more hand-grenades and neither did my men. We let the Russian be. A moment earlier we had heard: “Tujunen here!” which meant that the Jaegers were by the bunker. We jumped out of the trench and went by the rim past the place where the Russian had been. At the bunker the Jaegers were securing to the left and a couple men were by the bunker’s door, which to our displeasure was shut tight. They had tried to open it but the armored door wouldn’t budge. The bunker had a corridor leading to the entrance, being about 1 meter wide, 2 meters high and 3 meters long, also ferro-concrete like the whole bunker. The bunker’s roof was an estimated 2 meters thick. The bunker’s exterior measures were about 7 – 8 meters. There were two doors, one leading to the bunker at the end of the corridor, the other about a meter away from the end on the side of the corridor. The doors were armor, perhaps 1 cm thick. The corridor first had a straight segment for about one meter and then it made a turn along the wall of the bunker, about 2 meters. We set the explosives all in one charge in front of the bunker’s door and Under-Sergeant Arvola and Corporal Partinen stayed behind to light the charge using two 1,80 cm long timed fuses. I gave the order to light the fuse myself as soon as all the Jaegers had withdrawn away from the bunker. We made it to our skis before the charge exploded. I saw a thick cloud of smoke rise to the sky and another one going by the ground away from the door. Under-Sergeant Arvola said he saw a flame shooting out from the embrasure nearest us. Looking at it from a distance, it seemed to me like the rear part of the bunker had collapsed. When we were at our skis and the explosion had taken place, the leader of the Jaeger Platoon came to us and said that as far as he was concerned everything was ready and we could head home. It was high time for leaving, because Russians were approaching us by the trench on the right. More Russians were coming from somewhere, going by the road towards the trench. These were moving in groups of 7 – 8 men. My men fired at them with rifles for a moment and some Jaegers were securing the departure until the very end. As we were coming home the Russians fired at us with infantry weapons and grenades. One of my men fell very close to our own barbed-wire entanglement and two got lightly wounded about half-way home. During the way back some Jaeger got wounded behind one of my men, who turned back and returned about 40 meters towards the enemy lines to fetch the wounded with his sleigh. The Jaeger was brought to safety. The bunker had fallen silent; it did not shoot at us anymore as we returned. The men were in high spirits as we got to our own dugout.
31.3.1942.
Lieutenant KEIJO TUJUNEN