RECONNAISSANCE MISSION TO TESTAMENT, 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)

1st of September 1941

- Finally the sun has risen and Bengtsår is fully visible, even those areas, which are always in shade, when looking from our positions. The early bird catches the worm thinks Lars and takes out his compass. Johnny starts to spread out his maps and lines up his pencils. There's a tent says Sundquist, there, between the trees, yellow one and there's another one. The place is full of Russians! We need to get the artillery firing that area. Draw to the map, five meters from the shore. The tent was drawn to the map and now that the place was in the map, it was also visible from the Basaböle rocks and on the next day, the Finnish artillery wiped the place away with few shells. 

- During the morning hours the Russian positions were drawn to the map. Dugouts, machine gun positions and barbed wire obstacles were carefully identified and drawn to their correct places. Around three o'clock in the afternoon the Russian held islands were again in the shade and the boys stopped their work. It seemed that Lill-Bockholm (Lilla-Bockholmen) and Takvedsholm (Takvedaholmen) islands were unoccupied. Stor-Bockholm (Bockholmen) seemed to be occupied only during the nights, but Bengtsår on the other hand was fortified were strongly and occupied with a strong forces. 

- In the evening the men pulled back from the island and on the next day, the maps from the Russian positions were on the table of Captain Herrgård.

- View from the roof of the structure towards Hanko Cape. The mined sector of the machine gun nest is located in the lower left corner of the picture.

- The hole for the observation cupola has been also mined ready, but the observation cupola has not been installed.

- Entrance into the structure.

- Corridor in the tunnel.

- The interiors have been mined ready.

- Also the hole for the anti-tank gun is ready, but the construction of the front wall of the embrasure has not been started.

- The embrasure for the machine gun has been partly constructed, but not completed. In the book Five years of war (Viisi sodan vuotta), there is a photograph of a very similar embrasure. The photograph can be found from the page 434. It might be a picture of this same embrasure, although the scale in the picture is a rather huge, when comparing it to this embrasure, which can be found from Stroholmen.

- A lot of loose stones have been piled to the shore.

- View from the rock towards the Vimonböle area.

- The light, which penetrates into the cave, forms different shadows and colours.