INSPECTING THE 19th AND 21st FIELD BATTERIES, PART V

(History of the Hanko Group, T-22005, Military Archives of Finland)

17th of June 1941

- When I again arrived to the batteries during the next day the atmosphere and spirit was completely different. All of the men were working eagerly and the non-commissioned officer, which I had sent, was working feverishly. The excitement seemed to be great and even the old reservists were trying as best as they could, to get acquainted to the difficult profession of a gunner. I order the commanders to stat training calculators and fire controllers and promised to constantly monitor their activities, but the situation had in the meantime changed and I was ordered to see the section commander.

Captain T. Louhivuori

- Structure 409 is a puzzling one, because first of all the fortification card from 1942 clearly states that the mined structure has been nearly completed. Then in 1955 the description part states that the structure cannot be found from the map or from the terrain. Now in 2006 when you look at the landscape, there clearly has been a mining job performed here, as the area is full of stones. There is also a pit of some sort near the shoreline, but that one is full of bushes and other vegetation making the identification difficult. The pit also does not resemble other structures which have been mined.

- Piles of stones are located on both sides of the road so one option might be that the whole mined structure has been covered in order to construct the road. 

- More stones with a similar shape, which can be found near of every mined structures.

- View towards the planned firing direction. On the left side of the picture is the Grundsund area where the Harparskog-line continues. On the right side is the island of Prästö, to which the Finnish forces moved when the war started. Structure 409 was clearly planned to cover the narrow sound between the island and mainland. What makes Harparskog-line so unique is that it is very easy to see why something has been build or planned to different locations. The landscape in the Hanko area makes this possible. It is not so easy to see the meaning of the bunkers and other defence works in the Salpa-line.