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[TABLE OF
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[VESTERVIK] [BREDVIK]
[GRUNDSUND] [RILAX]
[STORÖN] [PARGAS] |
BREDVIK
- The distance from the Bredvik area to the closest Russian held island was only some 2,5 kilometers. In between of the first Russian held islands namely Horsön were only few Finnish held islands before the Bredvik area. Biggest of these was the Storholmen. The close proximity of the enemy held islands really shows in the fortifications of the Bredvik area. If there had been more time and money to construct the fortifications, the area of Bredvik would have contained many bunkers build from concrete. The mining job for most of the structures have been either completed or nearly completed. - Now the half constructed bunkers stand alone in the various peninsulas, staring to the direction from where the enemy left years ago. The constructors left shortly after that and now the unfinished monuments of war are slowly disappearing from the landscape. - Perhaps the most interesting area is the small peninsula where the gun position 40, a & b, are located. The gun positions alone are worth of seeing and are not hard to find. Both of the positions still stand there, although the parapet is starting to give up under the pressure of time. Some pieces from the parapet have already collapsed and if nothing is done, it might be just a matter of time, before both of the positions collapse completely. The most interesting detail in these gun positions, are the plaques, which have been attached to one of the two positions. The text and numbers written to these have faded away a long time ago, leaving us just guessing what might have been written to them. Some cleaver constructor however has carved the year 1941 and most likely a date to the wet concrete. Moss now grows in the carving, making the year and the possible date highly visible. - Another interesting and a rather puzzling place is the area from where the structures 408, 409 and 425 can be found. Structure 408, which is marked to the map as a machine gun nest can be still found from the area. The mining job for the structure seems to have been completed. Structure 409 then again is a rather puzzling construction, as the fortification card states that in 1942 there has been a mined structure. Now in the spring of 2006, the actual structure cannot be found anymore. It's like it has vanished in the air. What makes it puzzling is that the landscape is full of stones from the mining job, but the structure cannot be found anymore. The amount of stones around and the fact that the map symbol states the structure 409 being or planned to be an machine gun bunker with an observation cupola and a shelter for the anti-tank gun, makes me to assume that the accommodation for forty men in the structure 425 would have been included in the structure 409. Structure 425 cannot be found from the area at all. - Structure 601 was not that interesting, as it seems to have been just a dugout from which the remains can be still vaguely seen. What could be found near of the structure was a bit more interesting and a good reminder that the advice not to start picking or digging up metal objects from the ground is not a joke. Next to the accommodation dugout remains was artillery grenades, lying next to each other's. The ammunitions looked like those were supposed to be taken away when the troops left from the area, but were then forgotten. All of them were badly rusted and only partly exploded. Next to these ammunitions were fuses from the grenades. Strangely a big piece from a sea mine was also lying in the forest. The Finnish Defence Forces cleared these from the area in the beginning of May 2006. - My own personal notes below are based on the situation in the defensive line, during the years 2005 and 2006.
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Copyright © 2005, 2006 Kimmo Nummela