Vesa Nenye - Finland at War - The Continuation and Lapland Wars 1941-45

15 June

Soviet tanks have reached the rear of Major-General Lars Melander’s Cavalry Brigade at Vammeljärvi. Its consequent retreat will force the Finns to abandon the VT Line. Colonel Albert Puroma’s 1st Jäger Brigade’s counter-attack towards Kuuterselkä fails. After heavy fighting these men are sent to recover in the rear. The VT Line is deemed unrecoverable. Lieutenant-General Oesch receives Mannerheim’s orders for all troops to withdraw from the VKT Line. Colonel Olli Paloheimo’s Military Government of Ladoga Karelia and Aunus begins civilian evacuations in the area.

16 June

Siilasvuo’s III Army Corps abandons the southern side of the Vuoksi River. The 2nd Jäger Battalion manages to capture Perkjärvi village from the Soviets, but loses 90 per cent of its officers in the process.

17 June

Aunus Group and II Army Corps are given permission to begin a fighting withdrawal towards the U Line and the former border.

19 June

Finnish troops from Aunus Group withdraw from bridgehead positions south of the Syväri River.

18 June

Major-General Lagus assumes overall command of the 10th Division and the Cavalry Brigade. He organises the defence of the Rokkalanjoki area. Leonard Govorov is promoted to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.

19 June

Mannerheim’s daily orders demand that the VKT Line must hold. The new commander of the Cavalry Brigade, Colonel Urho Tähtinen, is ordered to repel any attacks on the western coast of Viipuri. The Soviets attack the PSS Line in eastern Karelia, and the Finns abandon their bridgehead on the south side of the Syväri River.

20 June

Mannerheim splits the defence of the VKT Line between the IV and III Army Corps. The V Army Corps takes up position west of Viipuri, which is captured by Soviet forces in a single day. The Soviets break through on the Maaselkä Isthmus, and force the Finns back to the Karhumäki–Seesjärvi line. The Finns enquire as to the possibility of peace with the Soviets. The Soviets will only agree to complete and unconditional surrender, something the Finns cannot accept. Major-General Ivan Fadeyev orders the Soviet 6th Rifle Corps to attack through Näätälä and past Lake Kokkoselkä to Noskua. The attack is repelled, and Fadeyev repeats the attack the next day, which also fails. These struggles will continue for a further week.

21 June–6 July

The battle of Tali–Ihantala – the largest ever fought in the Nordic countries – begins with attacks by Twenty-First Army. Two weeks of the fiercest combat result in a decisive defensive victory for the Finns. The Soviet 98th Rifle Corps reaches positions in front of Äyräpää and Kyläpaakkola on the Vuoksi River. Two weeks of failed attempts to cross the river follow.

21–24 June

Soviet forces cross the Syväri while Finnish troops conduct an orderly fighting retreat as planned.

22 June

German foreign minister Ribbentrop makes a surprise visit to Helsinki. He talks to President Ryti about the possibility of more German aid if Finland allies itself firmly to Germany. On the Tali front, the Finnish 18th Division’s strongpoint in front of Mannikkala is destroyed, and the Soviets steamroller through the VKT Line towards Tali and Repola. Soviet Operation Bagration begins on the third anniversary of Hitler’s Barbarossa .

23 June

The town of Karhumäki on the Maaselkä Isthmus is lost. II Army Corps continues its orderly retreat. Coastal defence troops are forced to retreat from the Koivisto Islands. The Soviet 70th Naval Rifle Brigade makes a surprise landing behind the PSS Line, near the villages of Vitele and Tuulos. Finnish counterattacks fail, and the PSS Line starts to fold.

23 June

Colonel-General Eduard Dietl dies in a plane crash.

24 June

Major-General Blick disregards direct orders to hold the PSS Line and instead gives orders for his VI Army Corps to retreat. This forces the rest of Aunus Group to withdraw in haste to avoid being surrounded.

25 June

The second concerted attempt by the Soviet Twenty-First Army to break through in IV Army Corps’ sector at Tali–Ihantala begins. This creates a serious breach in the Finnish lines at Portinhoikka.

26 June

The reinforced 1st Jäger Brigade launches a successful night counter-attack on the Tali–Repola front. Despite destroying 45 enemy tanks, the Finnish light tanks suffer heavy losses.

27 June

The Ryti–Ribbentrop Agreement: President Ryti sends his personal guarantee to Hitler that Finland will not enter into any form of peace agreement with the USSR in return for immediate German aid. On the Syväri Isthmus, VI Army Corps is given orders to retreat north of the Soviet landing to their rear. Major-General Heiskanen and the 11th Division arrives from eastern Karelia, and takes over the defence of Kärstilänjärvi–Leitimojärvi, thus freeing Lagus’ Armoured Division to manoeuvre and attack.

27–29 June

The IV Army Corps attempts to surround the Soviet 63rd and 64th Guards Rifle divisions at Tali–Ihantala. When this action fails, Laatikainen again moves to the defence. By now the Twenty-First Army commander, Colonel-General Dmitry Gusev, has realised that his gambit has not worked. Despite this, the fighting continues for another week.

28 June

Fighter ace Hans Wind is engaged by enemy planes and badly wounded. He survives and makes it back home. In the wake of the battle of Noskua, the Soviet 6th Rifle Corps is totally spent, and moves to the defensive. The Finns abandon the city of Äänislinna in eastern Karelia. It will soon revert to being known as Petroskoi.

29 June

The IV Army Corps fails to surround the Soviet Guards units, and retreats to the north of their battleground. Commander of the Leningrad Front Govorov concludes that the Twenty-First Army is unable to create the breach he needs, and so orders the Fifty-Ninth Army under Lieutenant-Colonel Ivan Korovnikov to cross Viipuri Bay and for Alexander I. Tsherepanov’s Twenty-Third Army to cross the Vuoksi River at Äyräpää.

29 June–6 July

Finnish artillery proves instrumental in halting the last efforts of the Soviets in the Tali–Ihantala area, shelling Soviet troops repeatedly at their jumping-off points. Over the previous weeks, both sides have accumulated a total of over 35,000 casualties.

30 June

Korovnikov’s newly arrived Fifty-Ninth Army attempts a final landing across Viipuri Bay for the first time, but is repelled. Mannerheim brings II Corps under the control of Talvela’s Aunus Group and orders a fighting withdrawal to the U Line.

1 July

Stavka starts to transfer surplus units from the front line in Karelia to the Eastern Front.

3–10 July

A major Soviet attack is launched by the Fifty-Ninth Army in Viipuri Bay, but it fails to create the intended bridgehead on the coast of Finland.

3 July

Lieutenant-General Basil I. Shvetsov replaces Tsherepanov as the Twenty-Third Army commander in the central Karelian Isthmus. Soviet forces capture Minsk and take around 100,000 German prisoners.

4–9 July

The 98th Rifle Corps attacks at Äyräpää–Vuosalmi. The Finns are driven across the Vuoksi River to Vuosalmi, but in the process the attacking corps is practically destroyed.

4–6 July

The Finnish Navy supports Finnish forces in Viipuri Bay. The following day, Soviet forces claim the islands around Viipuri.