RECONNAISSANCE IN FORCE IN HANKO CAPE, PART I

(Hanko Cape in the Second World War, Niilo Lappalainen & History of Hanko Group, T-22005, Military Archives of Finland) 

1st of July 1941 

- The fact that the Russians in their Hanko base were rather passive and the traffic in sea had increased raised the suspicion that the Russians were evacuating their base. With this background, the Hanko Group ordered different sections to mount reconnaissance in force, during the night of 30th of June/1st of July 1941. The commander of 13th Infantry Regiment objected the order, as in his opinion, there was already enough information about the enemy. Objections however were useless and a reinforced company from the 1st Battalion was sent out to perform the task.

- The company, which was lead by a Lieutenant R. Blomqvist went on for the attack during the morning hours of 1st of July. A heavy artillery fire preceded the attack. The mortars from the 3rd Battalion were supporting the attack, by firing to the area of Lappohja station and to the area of the elementary school. The attack started in the south-east area of the Lappohja station and the company was advancing in the area, which was between the railroad and the shore. Only the squad lead by a 2nd Lieutenant Holm managed to advance through the first line of barbed wire and reached a point, from which they still would have needed to advance another 600 meters to their objective. The other squads managed to advance only some 100 to 300 meters.

- The biggest dugout remains in the area. This one is actually a very close to the place where the gun position 41 has been drawn in the map. However this really doesn't look like a gun position and in such a case it would have been positioned to a wrong direction.

- The same dugout remains as in the previous picture, seen from the entrance into the dugout.

- The area to where structure 427 has been drawn contains two distinct dugout remains. This one is the first one and is badly covered with vegetation and water.

- The second distinct dugout remains is also filled with water, but much more visible than the other one.