COMMUNIQUÉ 20.07.41 - 21.07.41, PART III

(Communiqué and reports of the Hanko Group units, T-16432/1742, Military Archives of Finland)

20th of July 1941

- In the east cape section the enemy got a direct hit to a small dugout at 08:00 - 09:00 o'clock, on the east side of the railway. Three men fell and two were wounded. The enemy fortifying efforts are slowing down. A fire has been going through out the day in the rental area in the direction of the railway. In the evening at 20:00 - 22:00 four heavy explosions were heard in that direction. These explosions might have been mines exploding. At 23:00 o'clock the enemy fired 8 grenades to Järnö. Our forces didn't suffer any damage from this. Some machine gun fire has been heard from Hermansö. The island still contains several fires.

- Observation position, seen from the front side. It certainly feels strange to see these constructions standing alone and abandoned in the forest. There's even not many people living anymore, who would remember the days when this area was full of soldiers and the present day people, are quite unaware of these constructions. The same thing really can be said from the whole Harparskog-line. I don't live too far from the Hanko Cape, but still I have been completely unaware how huge fortification line goes here. Of course every history book remembers to mention about the renting of Hanko to Soviet Union, but hardly anything is said about the huge fortification work taken on both sides of the borderline of the Soviet rental area of Hanko.

- I guess it's always so, that when some fortification don't see any heavy battles, the history books passes the un-glorious fortification with just a side note... 

- The same observation position seen from another direction.

- A rather similar structure in 1941. Notice that the structure seems to have been built from a similar size stones, as in the two previous pictures and is also located on a high hill. (Picture: The Finnish Defence Forces. Published 1942 in a book Hangö Belägras)

- This is all that remain from the structure 240, a. According to the map symbol, it was a machine gun nest with observation cupola. Without a doubt this one has contained either a machine gun or light machine gun, as the field of fire points towards the sound between Låckisor and mainland, just like shown in the map.

- The same structure seen from the front side. A lot of loose stones are around the construction.

- When lowering down from the observation position and back to the road, one will notice a huge pile of loose stones, all that remain from the accommodation bunker/dugout 240. Of course concrete wasn't use for these two constructions, as there is not much left today. Still if you look carefully the picture, you can see a rusted pipe in the middle of the remains. A memory from the chimney flue or something else?

- The same structure as in the previous picture, seen from the "outside".

- The first view when lowering down from the hill.

- Alone dugout remains, near of the three previous constructions. As the map symbols are not placed too accurately, it is sometimes difficult to say with a hundred percentage accuracy, which remains actually is one of the numbered positions. 

- Another dugout remains.