AJAN SUUNTA REPORTS, PART II: 

RUSSIANS WHO ARE LEAVING FROM HANKO, WILL BE DESTROYED! 

RUSSIANS STARTED TO EVACUATE HANKO DURING THE LAST TUESDAY 

4th of December 1941

- Like it was officially announced yesterday, the Bolsheviks have started to evacuate Hanko. According to our TK- correspondents, this was already expected in the Hanko Front, after the Russians had fired their ammunitions with huge quantities. Also the explosions and fires in the city and in the cape area, which were not caused by our artillery, were indicating towards the evacuation. The evacuation was expected to start already few days ago, as the nights then were dark and foggy, but this however was not the case. Evacuation didn't start until 2nd of December. At the same time the Finnish forces started also to occupy the rental area of Hanko. During the few previous days, some smaller islands had been already occupied. During the 2nd of December, the fortification island of Horsön was occupied, which is an important island in the west side of Hanko. Also the island of Hästö in the east side, important island also, was occupied. Both were heavily fortified and contained strong positions, made from logs, stones and concrete. These were equipped and positioned so, that they would have been able to defend against an attack, coming from the land and not from the sea. The island of Russarö was occupied yesterday and at the same time the engineers were starting to advance in the direction of Hanko Cape. This advancing is done slowly and maintaining great caution, as the mines and booby-traps has to be made harmless first.

- Structure 74, a & b, is completely ready gun position and was operational during the war. There are two similar positions side by side.

- The base for the gun is still in the middle of the sludge.

- Closer view to the base.

- View towards the firing direction. The clear task for the gun position has been to guard the channel coming from east. The firing direction is along the channel.

- View from the shoreline towards the firing direction. On the left side of the picture is Baggön area.

- Shoreline.

- Communication trenches like the whole position have been covered with water, sludge and trees.

- Communication trench to the second position in the area.

- The positions are in a sad condition. There has been some discussion with a local resident, about emptying the positions. In the gun position 226, a, b & c, which is located in Björnholmen, one can see how the positions could look if emptied. Although in that area there is a tree growing in the middle of one of the two positions and the other one is also covered quite badly. These positions in the Skåldö area are not that filled, that it would be a completely unrealistic to empty these with a voluntary work.

- The ammunition storage peaks out from the ground.

- Second position in the area. This is in a much worse condition than the other position seen in the previous pictures. Here the water and sludge reaches nearly to the edge of the construction and on top of that, a tree grows in the middle. Most likely it would be an easier task to start the emptying operation from the position, which is seen in the previous pictures.

- A local resident has attached a plaque next to the position, which shows a picture from this same gun position during the war.

- When we were here during the first time, we noticed that plaque and decided to come back and attach the fortification card and the fortification map to the same plaque. I would like to see this kind of thing happening in all of the numbered structures. Of course this should be done in a bit more nicely way, than just putting papers inside a plastic near of the structures. The information from the structures is in this presentation, so nothing else is missing than the plaques to which to put the information. I think that most of the work is done already. I doubt that any budget from an official institution would be ruined because of acquiring these plaques? These official institutions could be for example the cities of Hanko and Tammisaari, The National Board of Antiquities and Military Museum.

- The picture, which appears in the plaque next to the gun position. The picture might show the structure 74, a & b. The view in the background is nearly the same that can be observed while visiting the structure. (Picture: The Finnish Defence Forces. Published 1942 in a book Hangö Belägras)

- I do hope that the emptying operation of these positions will happen in the near future.