A FLAME THAT FOR A SHORT WHILE LOOKS LIKE A POPLAR DRAWN BY FIRE, PART III

(Hanko Besieged, Edited by Pelle Lindholm) 

July 1941 - August 1941

- It is now 02:05 o'clock, five minutes passes again. What could have happened to them - Now it happens. A flame rises, which for a short while looks like a poplar drawn by fire and it is growing fast. At the same time rifle fire starts, then a strong noise from the sub-machine guns is audible all around us. Machine gun also joins into this from our right side. Then the sub-machine gun fire stops, but the machine gun keeps on firing for a short while. After that it is quiet.

- The fire spreads out quickly. About thirty meters of the leafy fence is already on fire. The fire also spreads to the rear, where a house or a barn is now burning. Suddenly a loud detonation can be heard and a flame and smoke cloud rises to the sky. Perhaps it was a ammunition storage or a mine?

- Minutes passes again. The joy of the success fades away, as we start to worry about the fate of the patrol. They will survive, they will survive, we say to each others.

- Suddenly near of us a single shot can be heard, then a sub-machine gun starts to fire. A flare is shot from the Russian side and it rises to the pale sky. Machine gun starts to fire again. What is happening? Where is the patrol.

- We can see a figure running in the shore towards our line, then a second figure. The patrol has returned. Sweaty and exhausted, but with a smile in his face the first figure is now standing in front of us. "A beautiful bonfire" he says. "I only needed one bottle. Here's the second one."

TK - Laurin Zilliacus

- One of the biggest dugout remains in the area. Looking at the bottom, it does look like there would still be grooves from wheels remaining.

- The same dugout remains as in the previous picture, seen from a different angle.

- Water makes it always much easier to see the shape of the structure.

- Water now fills the constructions, which once were so important.

- A bit smaller dugout remains.

- Another dugout remains, where the entrance is visible in the foreground of the picture.

- The whole area of the dugout remains is just right next to the main road in the area.

- Another big remains, with the entrance still visible on the foreground of the picture.

- The same dugout remains as in the previous picture.

- This remains is very deep. Some of the stones used for the construction are still visible at the edges of the remains.

- Dugout remains can be found from both sides of the road, but the eastern side is much more covered with vegetation, which makes it hard to see the shapes of the remains.

- The same remains as in the previous picture.

- The shape of the construction has been nearly consumed by time and weather.

- A very small remains.

- The forest here has been also cleared and some of the remains are now partly covered with dead trees and branches.

- Despite of the forestry, it seems that some of the bigger dugout remains has been spared from total destruction, which covering up these will result, as the shapes will be sloping even more during the coming years.

- Still on top of some of the remains, there is a lot of fallen trees.

- A very long dugout remains.

- Over sixty years has passed since someone stood here and dug this, sweating in the hot weather of summer of 1941. The year 1941 is one the worst in Finland when it comes to the drought. It rained record low during that year. This drought also hampered the fire-fighting which was a constant job for the troops, as the artillery fire started forest fires.

- Some of the remains are oddly oblong shaped. For horses perhaps? 

- The road to the tip of the Pargas peninsula.