DIRECTING FIRE FROM LERHOLM, PART II

(Teasing the encirclement of Hanko, Adolf Molnár & History of the Hanko Group, T-22005, Military Archives of Finland)

(If there is differences in the name of the places in 1941 and today, italic text inside the closures has been used to indicate the name of the place today)

22nd of September 1941

- The fire controllers are having a nice day in Lerholm (Lerholmarna). Drinking coffee, smoking and now and then taking a few sips from the rum bottle. Then again back to work, to chase away the Russians.

- The enemy positions in Bengtsår, Ekholmen and in Halsholmen are drawn carefully to the maps. These are a great addition to the map of Captain Herrgård, which is starting to fill from the Russian positions in the various islands. Only the enemy positions in the mainland are now missing. Namely the positions from Krogens (Krogars) to Nordberg (Västervik). After those positions have been observed and identified, the map will be perfect.

- Again a boat appears and this time the Finnish artillery already know the area which to fire, they are only waiting for the command to open fire. When the boat reaches the shore and Russians start to jump from the boat to the shore, they receive a welcoming party from the Finnish artillery. This time the artillery is quicker than the Russians and few of them fall to the shore. The strength of the explosions is throwing them all around the shoreline. Some just lies on the shore, while others who are wounded, try to crawl to the woods to take cover.

- Russians have disappeared to their dugouts and are afraid to get out and as evening is starting to come, our fire controllers prepare to get back to their own positions. However just before it is completely dark, the Russians finally come out from their dugouts. One starts to gather firewood, while others start to prepare coffee. Smoking and talking, they do not hear as the Finnish artillery starts firing again. Few of the Russians fall to the ground and coffee pan receives a direct hit.

- Finally the night comes and the day's work is over.

- The "iron mushroom"

- Entrance to one of the machine gun nests.

- The entrance has been covered with barbed wire from the top.

- View from the edge of the cave entrance. In the distance you can see the familiar round shape, "the iron mushroom", meaning of course the observation cupola. The entrance to the cave is located in the lower left corner of the picture. The interiors according to the fortification cards, contains accommodation areas for two platoons of men.

- Entrance to the cave, seen from the ground level.

- The biggest cave in the area. Even when the door looks like it has seen better days, there's still electrical wiring going inside.

- One of the two embrasures in this position.

- Second embrasure in the area and the observation hole right next to it. Here the front wall of the embrasure has been correctly camouflaged and there's really not much concrete visible. If you look at the previous picture, you can see that there the random rock pattern has been completed and it's quite easy to believe, that from distance it would be relatively unnoticeable.

- Remains from a firing position, near the observation cupola. This one is facing directly to the frontline and thus covering the area, where the bunkers, which are firing flanking fire, cannot reach.

- The ventilation grating shows damage done by time...rust.

- Over sixty years these have stood here, staring towards Hanko. Hopefully these will last another sixty years for the next generation.

- "The iron mushroom", covered in barbed wire.