HANKO GROUP ORDER OF THE DAY, N.O. 7, PART I

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

6th of April 1942

- On 13th of June 1941 the Hanko Group was formed to fend off the blow, from our enemy centuries old, towards Finland through the Hanko Cape. As the situation developed, more troops were needed in east. At that time troops from the field army had to be moved away also from the Hanko Front. The result from this was that the Hanko Group was reformed on 16th of July to 17th of July 1941. The troops and commanders were changed. The responsibility of Hanko Front was for the most part, left for the different units of the Naval Forces, which had been formed from different coastal brigades. A bit later on 26th of August 1941 the leadership of Hanko Group was entrusted to me. All through the summer and autumn defensive fighting was going on daily. Due to the low number of troops and for saving them, we could not start a direct attack against an overwhelmingly superior enemy and its strong fortifications. Despite of this, along with the every day artillery and infantry weapons fire, there were several separate and furious island battles. Many brave men from Hanko Group sacrificed their lives in these battles.

- Due to our unrelenting pressure which paralyzed the enemy constantly and as the political and strategic situation was coming more and more unfavourable for the enemy and as the winter was closing in, to which its troops were not so familiar with, the enemy in this unfavourable situation decided to evacuate the rental area of Hanko. Despite of the numerous mines and booby-traps, the whole rental area was occupied by our troops in the evening of 4.12.1941. On the morning of the same day, the Finnish flag had been fluttering again in Hanko.

- After the battles were over, the Hanko Group was being reduced. Troops were either disbanded or sent elsewhere. What was left from units, were recombined to new units. Those units, which were left to the area, had the task of securing the area and clearing the enemy mines and booby-traps. Additionally the loot had to be collected and the devastation caused from the war needed to be fixed back to its pre-war state. These tasks required also courage and determination. Many good men lost their lives to the enemy mines after the battles were over.

Commander of Hanko Group: Colonel Eino R. Koskimies.

- The structure, which according to the plan would have been a machine gun bunker/dugout, cannot be found from the area. Without a doubt there has been troops in the area to guard the shoreline, but fortifications have not been build this far from the borderline. At least no such fortifications, from which some traces would have been left.

- The picture above shows the view towards planned firing direction. The clear task for the structure would have been to defend against a possible attack coming from the sea and towards Halsholmen, which is located on the right side of the picture. That kind of attack however would have required either to capture a numerous islands or an direct landing from the sea. Neither of these options happened in such a scale, that there would have been any hurry to build the structure 464. The gun position 74, a & b, is located in Halsholmen. The pile of stones can be spotted in the picture by a sharp eyed person.