RUSSIANS AND I CAN SEE EACH OTHERS IDYLS, PART I

(Hanko besieged, edited by Pelle Lindholm)

June 1941 - August 1941

- The relatively little width and deepness of the land front, gives the war a rather strange mark of unreality here. Yesterday one private took his bicycle from a hundred meters away from his guard position, from where he just had left to go to a leave. A grenade landed in front of him and a second one behind him.

- He flew in the air about twenty meters and landed unharmed into the forest, came back to the road and took his bicycle, which also had remained without any damage and after a few hours, he was peacefully in his home.

- Yesterday one of our dugouts in the front line received a direct hit. Four men were killed and two wounded. Four hours later one of the witnesses of this event was sitting peacefully in a restaurant in Helsinki.

- I'm cycling from the guard position to the place, where I'm writing these lines. The journey takes about an half-hour. The area presumably is located in the theater of operations. The Haaga and Munkkiniemi roads (roads in Helsinki, where traffic is very heavy and thus a good name for heavy grenades) are flying above my head during the traffic hours. Both Russians and I have a good view towards each of our positions, across the sea. My position however is too insignificant to be a good target for their precious shots and I on the other hand, do not have a gun which to fire at them. (additionally there is a forest fire burning at the moment in the Russian side).

TK - Laurin Zilliacus

- The structure 471 can be found partly from the area. The above picture shows a clear dugout remains. No trace from a machine gun bunker can be found from the area. The above structure has lost a lot from its shape, making it impossible to say whether or not that was a machine gun dugout. Due to its location and a possible firing direction, it very well might have been a machine gun dugout or a nest. The structure has been positioned towards the shores of Storön and a machine gun here, could have fired flanking fire against attacking enemy.

- View from the nearby rock towards the island of Bengtsår Prästön. The island can be seen just and just inside the fog.

- View towards the shores of Storön during the summer.