Aake Jermo: ”Siiranmäen miehet”
Published by Otava, Keuruu 1977
Second edition
Excerpt from Aake Jermo’s “The Men of Siiranmäki”
359 pages
Translated from the Finnish language
Pages 52 – 60
MAINTAINING HOSTILITIES IN THE OHTA SECTOR
Pola and the Ojanen bunker
[Page 52] The knight-to-be Lieutenant Kullervo Sippola didn’t content himself just to tar burning on the hill in Siiranmäki, but made his vehement contribution to front line fighting as well.
As the leader of an anti-tank gun squad he was perhaps even more in his element than as a sawmill director. That was how he was going to earn his Mannerheim Cross.
He was at the same time cunning, cold bloodedly skillful and foolhardy. When some enemy position was found to be especially aggravating, Sippola was called to help, with his anti-tank gun squad. There was no stitch-shooter more skilled and courageous than him. He brought his gun deviously close to the enemy, fired through the bunker’s embrasure and pulled his gun deftly behind cover before the enemy could recover and start countermeasures.
Many pestilent enemy bunkers were stifled like this.
And not only stifled but also captured. In the Ohta sector, on a hill dominating the whole tract there was an enemy forward base that Sippola and his squad took by a savage, boisterous charge.
After
this it became the Finns’ forward base that carried the name
of its conqueror – Pola.
Kullervo Sippola.
It also became the most difficult base along the Finnish lines. The reason was that only 60 meters away in front of it loomed the enemy’s strong bunker that with its black embrasures and the lurking, constantly alert men behind them completely terrorized all movement in Pola and near it.
It was the notorious, malicious Ojanen’s bunker.
It had gotten its name in an unusual and dramatic way.
[Page 53] The acting commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 28th Infantry Regiment in the autumn of 1941 was Captain Ojanen. Pola was already in the hands of the Finns and the enemy bunker in front of it was a real pest. In a fear-nothing, festive mood the Captain and an artillery fire-control officer who had been his guest – celebrating at his command post – decided between the two of them to go and conquer that accursed nuisance.
These two merciless dare-devils by some miracle made it through the obstacles and mines to beside the feared bunker. When they didn’t meet any resistance there either, the Captain dashed to the bunker’s doorway and fired inside with his pistol.
At that point flames shot out from many barrels at the same time. The Captain fell on the ground, dying immediately, but the fire-control officer was lucky and made it back to his own lines without being wounded.
Captain Ojanen’s body lay for months right next to the bunker, clearly visible to the Finnish lines. The bunker became Ojanen’s bunker without further pondering. And it was a pest if anything. An extra leave was promised for anyone who would fetch Ojanen’s body. Many tried, but one after the other they had to give up after being more or less injured.
Among those who tried was the capturer and namesake of Pola, Kalervo Sippola. He managed to fire altogether five anti-tank gun grenades through the embrasure. An ordinary bunker would have already fallen forever silent, but Ojanen’s bunker did not. Right after the hits it fired into our positions like nothing had happened.
Sippola’s helmet was shot off his head. He had to stop playing that game. Ojanen’s bunker was an accursed opponent that nothing seemed to be able to turn over.
When the son of the defense minister, Lieutenant Lauri Walden, through relentless demands had finally gotten himself transferred from regimental headquarters to the front line, he was assigned to Major Arvo Ahola’s 2nd Battalion.
The Major was a good judge of human nature and saw right away that this person had received and excellent upbringing and was strictly soldierly and determined in everything he did. He wanted to give him a company, but there were no vacancies for company commanders. [Page 54] He described to the Lieutenant the grouping of the battalion, its weapons and the general situation and ordered him to the 5th Company, which was led by Captain Niska, one of the most senior company commanders in the regiment.
Perhaps the old front line officer wanted to test the newcomer a bit; someone whom he thought to be the pampered offspring of the privileged, wealthy upper classes. Then again it might have been just by chance that he ordered Lieutenant Walden to take the post of platoon leader precisely in Pola, which was without doubt the nastiest base in the battalion’s sector.
There weren’t even decent dugouts in Pola, because Ojanen’s bunker had all the time impeded building them. When Major Ahola heard where Walden ended up he was dismayed and hurried to check his situation.
It was just as bad as he had feared.
The base commander’s dugout was small as a bird’s nest. The only place to lie down on was a 30 centimeters wide bench.
- Where does Lieutenant Walden sleep? Asked the Major.
- Here on the bench.
- Isn’t it a bit tight?
- Yes, it’s tight, but if we take turns, we get by. You can sleep on it once you get used to it. Isn’t this war, Major, Sir?
There was nothing one could say to that. The Lieutenant had gotten himself where he so desperately had wanted.
Lieutenant Lauri Walden did not stay in the uncomfortable Pola base for very long, he was given a company in the 1st Battalion. Neither did he have to deal with the dangerousness of Ojanen’s bunker, because that nuisance had been effectively silenced prior to his arrival at the front line.
Ojanen’s bunker was removed from the scene of war – although only temporarily – at night on the last day of March 1942.
[Page 55] The 2nd Division commander at the time, Major-General Aarne Blick had personally paid attention to Ojanen’s destructive impact and ordered it to be eliminated.
The task was given to the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Infantry Regiment, whose commander, Major Arvo Ahola called the leader of his Jaeger Platoon, Second Lieutenant Niilo Voittis to discuss the challenge.
Voittis was ready for it. The plan was made carefully and cunningly. Because the weather was good and the snow was like made for skiing, and the distance short, they decided that the most opportune would be to go in the early hours of the morning, during the full moon, and go as far as they could get without any kind of preparatory artillery fire. If the surprise failed, then pre-targeted artillery support would be given to help the charge.
The Jaeger Platoon consisted of around 30 skiers dressed in snow camouflage. One squad was led by Under-Sergeant Väinö Alpiin Hämäläinen, a known elite fighter from Kerimäki. Staff Sergeant Eino Ripatti, from Sääminki, pushed himself into the team as an outside volunteer. He had proven himself to be a unique, natural born fighter.
Both
NCOs were later accorded the Mannerheim Cross.
Eino Ripatti.
Major Ahola, feeling assured, stayed in Pola to observe the progress of the dare-devil mission. He gave the soldiers his last detailed instructions:
- Voittis leads the blow-up squad. Lieutenant Tujunen and his sappers follow Voittis and perform the actual task of exploding the charge at the appropriate moment. Ripatti with his men keep the trench clear. Hämäläinen takes with him Privates Piiparinen and Räsänen. You will destroy the dugout shelter nearby.
- What, you plan to get me killed first? Said Under-Sergeant Hämäläinen, sounding a bit uptight, and pushed away on his skiis. Soon the whole snow-white strike group had disappeared into the no-man’s-land, getting mixed with the shadows thrown by the full moon.
[Page 56] Naturally the men could not make themselves invisible.
Ojanen’s Russian guards saw the men approaching in good time, but apparently did not believe their eyes. The Russians were peeking out from their trench, one behind another, wondering what this is supposed to mean. Are they ours, or the enemy? They must be ours, not even the “finski soldat” is that crazy, just coming into our trench like that without any support, without softening us up by artillery.
In front of Voittis skied his envoy, Jaeger Lehtinen, who in the full moon clearly saw the heads of the Russians in the trench. He turned and whispered to his leader:
- Should we shoot them?
- Hell no, then we’d be in trouble, Voittis hissed back. Let’s just ski all the way to the trench.
At the next moment Private Piiparinen was whispering to him:
- Shouldn’t we kill them, what are we going to do with them?
The
Second Lieutenant didn’t have time to answer. Under-Sergeant
Hämäläinen solved the problem. He was already at the trench, jumped in
it and
let his submachine gun sing. That’s how it started. The rest followed
him and
started to clear the trench in both directions. The defenders started
to come
out from the dugout shelter, but the surprise was perfect, and many
died in their
underwear.
Väinö Hämäläinen.
The men got behind the bunker door, but couldn’t penetrate it. Ripatti, a brisk boy, climbed on the roof with Private Heikki Konttinen, threw his fur hat in the air as a sign of having taken the bunker, and then tried to push a piled-up charge through the chimney pipe. That didn’t work out because the chimney had been built to repel such unpleasant surprises.
Now it was the sappers’ turn.
They set 450 kilograms of trotyl behind the bunker door. While waiting for the enormous explosion they started to make their way back to their own lines. This was not child’s play, because the enemy’s adjacent base had woken up to the racket and was firing with all weapons at the malefactors leaving the scene. [Page 57] Ripatti with his submachine gun tried to keep them in check but two men died and as many got wounded while detaching.
One of those who fell, Jaeger Veli Tikka, was left in the field on the enemy side. They didn’t see Captain Ojanen’s body anymore. Maybe the enemy had taken it away; maybe it was covered by the snow.
The sound of the tremendous explosion tore the drumheads in the men’s ears.
Ojanen’s
bunker didn’t cause the Finns any harm for a long time
after that last moonlit night of March.
Blowing up "Ojanen's bunker" on March 31, 1942.
Sevastopol
In the 12 km of front line in the Ohta sector the Finns had more than ten strong bases.
Officially they were named using a running number, from north to south, but many of them got better known by unofficial names given by the boys. We already heard how Pola got named. South of it there were the bases Nyrkki [fist] and Kreml, among others. The easternmost and at the same time most important base in the south sector was Sevastopol, built on a ridge the size of a couple hectares.
The fiercest fighting of the trench war period in the 2nd Division’s area took place over the possession of this base during July 20 – 21, 1942.
The enemy had already earlier tried to take Sevastopol a few times but had always been repelled. Now it managed to capture a part of Sevastopol after intensive preparatory fire by artillery and mortars.
The enemy’s objective apparently was to destroy the fortifications in Sevastopol and to isolate the base from its connections to the rear. Colonel Kemppi ordered the company commander, Captain Caj Toffer to start an immediate counterattack.
[Page 58] Toffer was a very good, brave and liked commander, who easily got his men to follow him even to the most difficult missions. When he was preparing for the counterattack a welcome volunteer signed up to join the squad.
The volunteer was the envoy of the Machine Gun Company’s commander, Under-Sergeant Tuomas Gerdt. He was not infected with the “medal bug”, but now he saw that he could make himself useful.
Despite his young age, Gerdt had gotten used to operating his submachine gun in many close combat fights, when capturing bases and in other similar situations during the attack period. The son of a police officer from Rantasalmi, he had absorbed fervent patriotism in his childhood home. He was also a dyed-in-the-wool sportsman. The young man was in tough physical and mental condition. And there was a bit of “I have to show them” in him as well. The youngster wanted to show what he was made of to the older veterans and his foremen, many of whom he knew from his home town. To top if off, he was one of the three NCOs from his battalion chosen to be sent to officers’ school. He had to show he was worthy of it.
Captain Toffer knew his reputation as a fighter and was glad he was coming with him. He gave the young man no specific order, but Tuomas Gerdt could read from his eyes:
- This is going to be tougher than usually. You are the youngest, you’re strong, you have no family to worry about, you’ve already developed a routine for these things. When you go in front, your comrades will follow for sure.
And that’s what happened.
Sevastopol changed owners three different times during two days. Captain Toffer personally led the main group in the counterattacks. In front of the first squad ran Under-Sergeant Gerdt, making his submachine gun rattle. This is how the first enemies were destroyed, after which trenches were cleared using hand grenades. [Page 59] When one trench was cleared, the squad continued in another direction, and Gerdt was again cheery and dashing in front, destroying enemies with hand grenades and his submachine gun. His vigorous activity affected the whole squad. The tumult was rough, but the Under-Sergeant remained calm and attentive. Since the squad had especially been told to take prisoners, Gerdt personally took five of them, gave them to others for taking to the rear, and continued fighting himself.
During the third and toughest battle Gerdt suddenly noticed Captain Toffer lying on the ground seriously wounded. He was under heavy fire but he ran, grenade crater by crater to the Captain, took him on his shoulders, and stumbled as fast as he could towards safety.
For Tuomas Gerdt this was the most difficult moment of the battle.
In a way it was already familiar work for him, as during the attack period he had carried a man from his home town to cover under enemy fire. Now in the swamp in Sevastopol it was more difficult to run and enemy fire was more vicious, coming from all directions. Tuomas Gerdt kept on repeating a familiar chant from his childhood to himself, a certain prayer.
The chanting helped him to stay calm. The Under-Sergeant managed to carry the Captain to safety.
It didn’t help Captain Toffer, however – he later died of his wounds. The Commander-in-Chief right away accorded him the Mannerheim Cross, out of his own initiative.
But Under-Sergeant Gerdt didn’t make it to the officers’ school course he had been accepted to. Towards the end of the battle over Sevastopol he got wounded so badly that he had to spend four months in the military hospital. While he was in the hospital he heard on the radio that the Commander-in-Chief had accorded the Mannerheim Cross to him as well. A bit later he was promoted to Sergeant. [Page 60] But while the war still lasted he had time to attend officers’ school and lead his troops as an officer in Siiranmäki.
Captain Toffer’s young widow visited him in the hospital to thank him. He told the mourning widow about the prayer he had been saying in the swamp.
- It helped then. At war I have learnt to trust in the power of prayer.
In addition to Captain Toffer two other men died and about 70 got wounded in the battle for Sevastopol. The enemy was estimated to have lost about 300 men. 15 prisoners were taken, some of whom gave the Finns valuable information. Altogether nine units from the Russian 20th Division had taken part in the battle, during which enemy artillery fired over 10,000 grenades.
Pages 71 – 74
A reconnaissance mission
[Page 71] The resourceful chief of the 3rd Company, Captain Jouko Kiiskinen, was given orders to lead the biggest reconnaissance patrol of the trench war period on Karelian Isthmus.
[Page 72] It took place on December 15, 1943.
The commander of the regiment received orders from the commander of the division to organize a recon mission to the enemy side, with the purpose of taking prisoners. After discussing it with the commander of the 1st Battalion, which was manning the south sector, Major Eino Kuvaja, Ehrnrooth assigned the task to Captain Kiiskinen.
For the purpose, Combat Unit Kiiskinen was formed, consisting of two platoons from his own company, led by Lieutenant Kunto Talvisto and Second Lieutenant Veikko Vainio, and the 1st Battalion’s Jaeger Platoon, led by Second Lieutenant O. Nyberg. In addition to this it had a command group, a signals group, and a sapper squad, two flame-thrower squads, artillery and mortar fire-control groups, and medics.
An entire miniature army was getting ready for a charge. The Combat Unit had way over 200 men.
Their task was to capture and destroy the enemy base located south of the Suur-Harvasuo swamp, north of Sevastopol and east of the so-called Inkiläinen forest, take prisoners and obtain intelligence material.
Preparations for the patrol were started already in November. The target was observed closely and continuously, practice runs were made in the rear, rehearsing advancing in a large group, breaking trough defenses, and destroying fortified positions.
When everything was ready, they still had to wait for the right weather. They needed a wind blowing from the southwest or west, which would allow the best use of smokes to form a cover from the eyes of the enemy. Chance was playing its grim games again, as on December 14 the Russians attempted to capture prisoners with a 200-men strong strike group in the Tonteri sector, south of Ohta, defended by the 2nd Battalion/58th Infantry Regiment. They had to give up the attempt after suffering losses of about 60 men. As if answering the challenge Captain Kiiskinen’s unit took off less than 24 hours later. [Page 73] However the reason for this timing was that the weather happened to be good then.
The Suur-Harvasuo swamp crackled under the men’s feet in the morning frost. Three artillery battalions, mortar company and direct-fire artillery sent bigger and smaller parcels to the enemy bunker line.
They spent a total of 50 minutes in enemy positions.
They cold-bloodedly cleared the trenches in an area of about 400 by 500 meters. In that area they destroyed 11 dugouts, 12 covered pillboxes and two storage huts. The enemy lost an estimated 35 men.
And most importantly: two prisoners were taken.
For this mischief the Finns also had to pay a price. Some men of the recon patrol fell already in the fist dashes to the enemy trench. The worst losses were suffered when the patrol withdrew. At one point the smoke screen vanished, enabling the enemy to fire more accurately. Some of the losses were a result of troops not following orders.
Captain Kiiskinen had told the men to avoid the Inkiläinen forest during withdrawal, because he assumed that would be where the enemy would direct the heaviest fire. He was right. One squad did not follow this advice, took a shortcut and got caught under fire from enemy mortars.
About ten men got wounded then. All of the dead and wounded were brought back. Kiiskinen himself got away without a scratch, although he ran from one wounded to another distributing bandages or giving advice.
A group of men had returned to the company from a leave late in the evening the day before the mission. When the patrol was leaving early in the morning, Staff Sergeant Kaasalainen, who was one of those men, reported himself to Captain Kiiskinen and asked if he could join the squad.
The Captain was pleased. The Staff Sergeant was one of his best soldiers. He was from Karelian Isthmus, from Räisälä. [Page 74] At the same time the Captain was hesitant. All the others had practiced meticulously for the mission, while Kaasalainen had been on a regular leave.
The Captain subjected his decision to Lieutenant-Colonel Ehrnrooth, who, as was his custom, was there to see the patrol off.
Even the regiment’s commander knew Kaasalainen’s skills as a fighter.
- If Kaasalainen wants to go, and the Captain has a job for him, then why not, he said.
So Kaasalainen went on the mission with Combat Unit Kiiskinen. When they were returning to their own lines having finished the job, and Kaasalainen was bent over on the rim of the trench, ready to jump in, a bullet came, following along his spine and going through his neck.
Lieutenant-Colonel Ehrnrooth rushed to the field hospital in Vuottaa to see Staff Sergeant Kaasalainen soon after the incident. He knew that a man couldn’t live long with a wound like that. He remembered how much he had himself appreciated it when his commanding officer, division commander Aarne Blick had come to see him in the hospital, where he was thought to be a sure goner. He tried to visit his wounded boys whenever he had time. Unfortunately he was often so fully occupied with work that he didn’t always have the opportunity to do so.
This
time he made it to be with Staff Sergeant Kaasalainen during
his last few moments alive.