Excerpts from various War Diaries
Translated from the Finnish language
War Diary of the 3rd Battalion/28th Infantry Regiment June 18, 1941 – September 15, 1941
(III/JR 28 SPK 18.6.41 – 15.9.41)
Document no. 11121
July 3, 1941
08:15. Order from the Regiment Commander: the Commander of the Machine Gun Company Captain Ojanen is transferred immediately to the 2nd Battalion, where he must report to the Battalion Commander Captain Kuvaja without delay.
August 17, 1941
17:40. The Battalion Commander Captain Sutela at the front line on the path leading north from Trp, where the offensive had stopped. Despite warnings he went too far in the front, and took several hits on his waistline from an enemy machine gun. He was wounded seriously and died a moment later at the same place.
19:00. The offensive was pulled back, troops left in defensive positions in the previous location. The 1st and 2nd Battalion and 6th Light Unit moved further in the rear to rest. Captain A. Ojanen from the 2nd Battalion arrived at the battalion command post. The Regiment Commander had assigned him to be the new Battalion Commander.
War Diary of the 1st Battalion/28th Infantry Regiment August 5, 1941 – October 9, 1941
(I/JR 28 SPK 5.8.41 – 9.10.41)
Document no. 11118
September 4, 1941
At 11:15 the 1st Company and the Jaeger Platoon continued to advance up to the Ohajoki village clearing. Resistance considerable. At the perimeter of the village clearing contact was made with the 7th Company. Arrived there at about 12:30. The Russians have bunkers ahead. The Russians opened artillery fire. We stopped in defensive positions.
War Diary of the 1st Battalion/7th Infantry Regiment May 22, 1943 – December 31, 1943
(I/JR 7 SPK 22.5.43 – 31.12.43)
Document no. 9650
May 24, 1943
20:00 – At 19:30 combat activity started in the neighboring sector (III/JR 49), at which time our direct-fire artillery fired 27 grenades through the embrasures of Ojanen’s bunker. Apparently the Russians, deluded by the smokescreen, assumed something more serious was coming, and responded to our fire ferociously.
June 10, 1943
Combat Unit Kiiskinen made a diversion and an ambush patrol to Kuvajanmetsä and the terrain of Pihlajabunkkeri and Traktoribunkkeri. The mortars fired into the tip of Kuvajanmetsä.
October 23, 1943
At 15:25 our Regimental Cannon fired 15 grenades at the enemy’s Turvebunkkeri on Korsukukkula. We got 11 hits, of which 6 seemed to go through the embrasure. In addition, the bunker’s roof was damaged.
The Russians have a bunker construction site at the boundary of the Inkiläisenmetsä forest.
October 27, 1943
13:30. The anti-tank squad of the 2nd Company fired at the enemy bunker located at the left brink of the Kärkikukkula hill, by which a group of Russians was seen working. One of the shots went though the machine gun embrasure.
November 9, 1943
A patrol led by Sergeant Risku, strength 1+5, went to the eastern boundary of Inkiläisenmetsä. The bunker the Russians had been working on was found to be completed, but due to its excellent camouflage the patrol could not detect the direction of its embrasures. In front of the bunker there is a shallow trench, in which guards had been moving in pairs. No obstacles were discovered. The patrol returned the same way to base no. 7.