Appendix Table 1Main events in the period 399–338 BC e. T a b l e 2 The number of Greek mercenaries for the period

DOT "Poppius" (Sj4). The famous two-casemate bunker of frontal machine-gun fire was built in 1937. This fortification is located at a height of 65.5, next to the road leading to the fork at Lyakhde and then to Kamarya (now Gavrilovo station). The bunker was called "Poppius Fort" by the Finns, in honor of Second Lieutenant Poppius, the first commander of the fortification. This pillbox was actually a key element of the Finnish defense in the Summa-Lyahde sector. The 123rd Rifle Division of the Red Army, after the discovery of the fortification, assigned the index "DOT No. 006" to this bunker.

The western casemate of flanking fire shot through the entire space up to "Millionny", and the eastern casemate of frontal fire shot through the southern approaches to the height of 65.5. The combat casemates of "Fort Poppius" were protected by steel armor. The bunker drawing can be viewed.

Underground gallery of the bunker, where the barracks were located. The ice cracked underfoot, but the weight of the man could withstand it.

Here is such a miracle of nature met in the underground gallery, next to the entrance. Ice stalagmite, 60 centimeters high.

Already on the first day of the offensive of the 123rd Infantry Division, December 17, 1939, the bunker was blocked. The attack was supported by about 50 tanks. Two Finnish platoons, defending the strongholds of Loukhi and Harkkila, could not resist the onslaught of tanks and infantry of the Red Army. This was largely facilitated by the loss of platoon control - the platoon commanders of fenriks Loukhi and Harkkila were mortally wounded, Harkkila's platoon commander died. Part of the Finnish infantry retreated to the bunker, part went along the trenches to the east. On the night of December 17-18, about one and a half hundred Finnish soldiers were blocked in the bunker - infantrymen, machine gunners, artillery reconnaissance and anti-tank crews. The bunker was in blockade for three days. On December 19, the Red Army tried to blow up the eastern entrance to the casemate. The Finns managed to establish contact with the bunker garrison only after a successful counterattack on December 20th. Soviet tanks fired cannons at the embrasures of the bunker at point-blank range. Only by the evening of December 23, the trenches of the strongholds of Loukhi and Harkkila were completely recaptured by the Finns.

In January 1940, the bunker received a large number of direct hits. On January 27, 1940, from 10 am, Soviet artillery concentrated fire on the Poppius and Millionny bunkers. Already at the beginning of the shelling, the roof of the western casemate was pierced, the machine gun and carriage were damaged. A few minutes later, the roof of the underground barracks was pierced, and 2 soldiers from the garrison were killed.
By the day of the second, decisive assault on February 10, 1940, the fortification was so badly damaged that the Finnish soldiers were afraid to use it. The attack of the 245th Infantry Regiment under the command of Colonel Rosly (awarded for these battles with the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union), despite high losses, was a success, and already at 12.30 on February 10, a red flag was raised over the ruins of the pillbox. From the company of Lieutenant Malm, who defended the bunker, by the end of February 10, only 16 people remained alive.

After the war, the pillbox was blown up. The western casemate is actually completely destroyed, in its place there are only pieces of concrete. The eastern casemate was buried under an observation platform, which was built after the war as an integral part of the test site (the entire area is now a test site of the Russian Defense Ministry). There were many attempts to excavate the casemate, only the last one, in which the "archaeological" group used an excavator, was crowned with success. The observation hill was demolished, leaving a large pit with blocks of concrete in its place.

View of the Munasuo swamp. and the grove "Hammer" (?).

The Munasuo swamp, which the Red Army dubbed the "valley of death", was shot down by the Finns long before the war. In addition, it was non-freezing and could not withstand tanks even in the frosty winter of 1939-1940. On the outskirts of the swamp, even now one can see many individual cells and trenches of the forward guard of the Red Army.

Valenok "70 years later".

Passage in gouges made by tankers or sappers.

Test bunker (artillery wall). This structure is located about 300 meters north of "Fort Poppius". The frontal machine-gun point (the entrance to the old part of the structure is visible in the photo) was rebuilt into a test bunker in the 1930s - a long concrete wall reinforced with buttresses was attached to the old casemate. The wall was built from different grades of concrete and with different saturation of reinforcement. In addition, reinforcement of different thicknesses was used. Then this wall was subjected to direct fire from heavy guns to find out the optimal combination of concrete and reinforcement.

New test bunker wall with traces of direct hits. The footprints on the walls are impressive!

Finnish description of the role of the Test Bunker in battles (extract from the combat log of the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment):
... The test bunker located behind Poppius acquired its own significance ... The enemy obviously mistook it for a giant pillbox, because he repeatedly subjected it to powerful shelling (when they fired overshoot, the shells exploded in the area of ​​​​our battalion command post). It should also be noted that enemy tanks constantly circled around him. Since we had few permanent fortifications, we only rejoiced and regretted that even more such structures had not been built in peacetime. In all other respects, the significance of this structure was limited by the fact that under its protection there was one machine gun, and during tank parades there were tank destroyers with anti-tank grenades.

In the memoirs of officers of the Red Army, this structure is described as a "giant concrete wall", and that this structure was an active shelter for mortar batteries and anti-tank artillery of the Finns. Therefore, the wall was heavily shelled, and during the assault, the bunker was blown up by Soviet sappers.

"Concrete trench" Sj7. A small building that lives up to its name. In the front wall of the trench there is a small shelter, for 10 people maximum.

On the route.

Battalion command post Sj6.

After the explosion, the eastern part of the command bunker was relatively well preserved.

The bunker "Poppius" is completely surrounded by a ring of anti-tank gouges. In the most tank-dangerous directions, the gouges are placed in six rows.

From the bunker "Poppius" to the bunker "Millionaire" stretches a continuous line (not counting a couple of places of explosions) of granite anti-tank gouges in 4 rows. The hollow between the height of 65.5 and the height of "Language" was also nicknamed by the Red Army "Valley of Death". Here, over a few days in December 1939, more than a thousand Russian soldiers were killed trying to break through the Mannerheim Line on the move.

DOT "Million" (Sj5). One of the most famous fortifications of the Mannerheim Line, and the last fortification held a day after the neighboring Fort Poppius fell and the Mannerheim Line was effectively breached. The pillbox was officially named "Million" because of the extremely high cost of construction. Together with "Fort Poppius" "Millionny" formed the backbone of the Finnish defense in the Summa-Lyakhde sector.

The bunker was located at the height of "Sormi" ("Finger"), stretching from south to north (on the right in the photo).

View of the bunker from the side of the line of gouges. It was a flanking pillbox, so from the front it looks like a small mound.

The photograph shows the entrance to the central part of the "Million"; this entrance can still be used today. To the left of the entrance is the observer's room, for which an armored dome with slots for observation was mounted in the ceiling. The armored dome was shattered by a direct hit from a 280mm mortar in January 1940. The remains of the armored dome were removed, a periscope was installed in its place in the pipe, and the resulting hole was concreted. A tube for a periscope is visible among the fittings. The pipe was pierced by bullets in several places, and it can be used to judge the intensity of the battles for the "Millionny".

The eastern casemate Sj5, which covered the space up to the "Fort Poppius" with flanking fire.

The western casemate (which covered the space from the height of Language to Summajärvi with flanking fire) was very badly damaged - for the first time it was blown up in February 1940 during the assault, and the second time after the war when creating a training film about the assault on fortified areas.

The description of the assault on the pillbox Sj5 "Million" can be read.

It is through the western casemate that one can most easily get into the preserved internal premises of the bunker.

Here once were the embrasures of the western casemate. On the right is the south side of the bunker, i.e. his front.

View from the bunker to the line of gouges leading to the bunker "Poppius" and the "valley of death".

A slingshot among the gouges, on which barbed wire was attached.

The bunker is well preserved, despite numerous explosions, and it can be crawled through, from the western casemate to the eastern one (or vice versa). Which is what I did.

And this is what the rooms inside the bunker look like.

Winter sunset.

At the end of the tour, in memory of those who died during the 105 days of the Soviet-Finnish war, 105 lamps were lit at the monument to the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army.

This is so good and beautiful.

We used materials from the Mannerheim Line website.

My other photo reports from the excursions of Bair Irincheev:
Last day of the war
Vyborg offensive operation of 1944
Mannerheim line. Fortified area Summa-Khotinen
Forcing the Taipaleenjoki River and the Kiviniemi Channel

P.s. All photos from the trip can be downloaded (zip archive, 83.95 Mb, photos are reduced by about three times from the original size, if someone needs full-size ones - contact us).

railway station Leipyasuo - Igla flood dam on the Perovka river - mass grave No. 70 - Kushchevskoye swamp (Munasuo) - bunker Sj3 - Molotok grove - bunker Sj10 - bunker Sj11 - bunker Sj9 - bunker Sj4 - bunker Sj8 - bunker Sj2 - bunker Sj-6 - lake Zhelannoe (Summajarvi) - pillbox millionaire Sj-5 - Swamp Kushchevskoe (Munasuo) - railway station Leipyasuo

Route length (one way) - 18.6 km.

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GPS coordinates of bunkers linesMannerheim fortified area Summajärvi:

Sj-2 N60 30.637 E29 05.129

Sj-3 N60 30.788 E29 05.869

Sj-4 N60 30.456 E29 05.216

Sj-5 N60 30.328 E29 04.257

Sj-6 N60 30.752 E29 05.016

Sj-7 N60 30.614 E29 05.201

Sj-9 N60 30.635 E29 05.516

Sj-10 N60 30.649 E29 06.326

Sj-11 N60 30.612 E29 06.384

At the end of the vacation, it was decided to end this summer season with a trip to Mannerheim line to the Summajärvi fortified area (Sj). If you remember, we have already examined in part in one of the past exits.

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How to get to the Mannerheim line on your own?

So! Early in the morning on October 3, 2015 on Saturday, we went on the first train (06:55) "St. Petersburg-Vyborg" from Finland Station to the station Leipyasuo. Our departure coincided with the mushroom season, so the train was overflowing with passengers with baskets and buckets. We were pleased with one thing: we only had 1 hour and 40 minutes to go.

Upon arrival at the station Leipyasuo we noted the time, checked the map, turned on the navigator and hit the road. As a rule, in such exits we make a small halt near the starting point in order to check the equipment, spread out things for a long transition and at the same time have breakfast. So it is now: we found the road we needed, went into the forest and stopped for a halt.

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We were very lucky with the weather that day: the sky is clear, the sun is generous, the air is invigorating. Walking in such weather through the autumn forest was a pleasure! After about 3.5 km we came to the dam" NEEDLE" on the river Perovka. Today it is a dilapidated structure that can be used as a river crossing. According to the comments of historians, this dam was built by the Finns in order to artificially flood the territory. fortified area Le(near the railway bridge across Perovka) in the event of a threat of a Soviet offensive.

After crossing the river, we again went out on the same road. As I already mentioned, the trip coincided with the mushroom season, therefore, without even going deep into the forest, we gathered a lot of porcini mushrooms and aspen mushrooms for the mushroom shop for dinner. And the forest was also rich in large, ripe, sweet lingonberries, which made a wonderful fruit drink.

The second point of our route was the fraternal military burial No. 70, located on the side of the road, near the eastern edge swamps Kushchevskoe (Munasuo). Hundreds of dead Red Army soldiers who stormed the Finnish positions are buried under simple and modest tablets. The least we could do was honor their memory by laying flowers.

The military grave is located on the eastern flank of the fortified area Summajärvi included in Mannerheim line. The positions of this fortified area were located between the lake Summajarvi, now Desired, and swamp Munasuo, now Kushchevskoe. The main nodes of this section of defense:

- DOT-"millionaire" (Sj-5), located at the height of "Language" (Sormi, Sormi) or, as the soldiers of the Red Army called it, the height "Finger";

- Pillbox (Sj-4) "Poppius", located at an altitude of 65.5 m;

- Pillboxes Sj-9, Sj-10, Sj-11 located in the grove" A hammer" on the Kushchevsky swamp.

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Having walked about 500 m along the road from the military grave, we turned onto the anti-tank ditch, and along it we continued our route in the direction of the bunkers Sj-9, Sj-10, Sj-11. Unfortunately, little remains of these bunkers: funnels and pieces of concrete with protruding reinforcement bars. These bunkers belonged to the period of the first construction Mannerheim lines: they consisted of one casemate for machine-gun fire, were not saturated with reinforcement and were not as strong as the others. The pillboxes were destroyed during the war by direct hits from artillery shells.

Further, passing along the gouges ("dragon's teeth"), we went to the bunker Sj-4 from the offensive of the Soviet army. This bunker, which was named by the Finns in honor of the first commander - Lieutenant Poppius, is located at a height of 65.5 m. The bunker was a fortification consisting of two casemates for two heavy machine guns each. The casemates were connected with each other. There were also rooms for the rest of the personnel. The task of the bunker is to cover the southern direction of the road and flank fire towards the lake DesiredSj-5). Built in 1937, full of fittings. The thickness of reinforced concrete walls reached 1.5 m. As is known from history, the capture of this bunker turned out to be the key to the whole Mannerheim lines, which was broken through on February 10, 1940. For those who are interested in this stage of our history, we recommend visiting the private military museum of the Karelian Isthmus in Vyborg ( Vyborg st. Progonnaya, d. 7B).

Next, we headed north along the road and inspected the concrete trench Sj-8 located to the right of the road. The fortification was not blown up after the war, and therefore has survived to our time in a satisfactory condition. It was intended to shelter the infantry.

An interesting design is a bunker Sj-2, which was originally intended for flank machine-gun fire, but was rebuilt in 1939 to test the quality of concrete of various grades. Holes from shells remained visible in concrete sections with different weaving of reinforcement.

Near Sj-2 bunker is located Sj-6, which housed the command post of the battalion defending this area. The bunker belongs to the construction of 1939, it has one casemate for one easel machine gun. The bunker was damaged during the war and finally undermined in the post-war period. All that remains of it can be seen in the photographs.

The plan of the first day is completed, you can think about an overnight stay. We knew that on the shore Lake Zhelannoye there is an excellent parking lot with a canopy from the rain, so we moved there. Unfortunately, the parking lot was busy, and we settled a little to the south, in a cozy clearing with access to the water. We set up camp, cooked a delicious mushroom dinner, and cooked fruit drinks. After the meal, we admired the beautiful autumn sunset over the lake for a long time.

After a long day, we went to bed early, respectively, and woke up around 06:30. Morning in its beauty was not inferior to the evening. A thick fog slowly rose over the lake. Absolute silence. The lake is like a mirror.

After the traditional morning coffee, the group divided according to their interests: some went looking for mushrooms, while I went to explore the trail from the lake to Pillbox "Million" Sj-5. As it turned out, the object was 15 minutes walk.

"Millionaire"- This is one of the most famous large structures of the Mannerheim Line. It is called so because of the cost of construction (more than a million Finnish marks). Located at an altitude of 47 m (" Language"). It consists of two casemates of flank fire, interconnected by underground passages located in three tiers. The thickness of the walls also reached 1.5 meters. At the top of each casemate was an armored dome - the "eyes" of the pillbox. The eastern casemate covered the hollow extending to Fort Poppius. This valley was named by our fighters "Death Valley". Each armored dome, in addition to protecting steel plates, was covered with a "pillow" of earth and stones. In the bunker, you can go down and go through it, from the western to the eastern casemate.

After inspecting the interior Sj-5 we went along the gouges through "Death Valley", and went along the path to bunker "Poppius" about which was written earlier. Actually, this was the end of the informative part of the trip. We had to return to the railway station along the same road along which we came here.

At the end of my story, I would like to say that visiting such iconic places again and again makes it clear that the history of your country is not only on the pages of books and textbooks ... history is next to us, around us! And this story must be known and remembered! ...

PS: Going to a mass grave Kushchevsky swamp, do not be too lazy to take a few carnations with you ...

On February 11, 1940, the valiant units of the 123rd Rifle Division, subsequently awarded the Order of Lenin, stormed the fortifications of Hill 65.5, breaking through the Mannerheim Line in the most important, decisive sector. Below we print the stories of the participants in this heroic assault.

A day in a wrecked tank

I. Shchepilin

Peaceful winter landscape. In some places lone firs sprinkled with adjacent powder stick out, pine groves darken at the very horizon. Ahead is a small hill, similar to a slightly crumpled hat of a fabulous Santa Claus, a frame and a smaller height on the left. Snowflakes sparkle in the sun.

Quietly. Unless the pines rustle, and a crazy breeze raises a cloud of snow dust.

Deceptive silence! It is worth taking a closer look at the snow-covered distances, and a peaceful winter picture will turn out to be far from peaceful.

A long chain of dots blackens in front of the hill. Through binoculars, you can see that these are granite pillars dug deep into the ground - anti-tank gouges. Further, the plain is quilted with winding thin lines of barbed wire. Then again nadolki. And between the gouges and the wire, there are ditches and pits - traps for tanks and sharp metal stakes intertwined with spirals of wire through which electric current passes.

Hundreds and thousands of small round mines are hidden under the snow, similar to saucepans that explode as soon as you touch them. And even spruces - stunted trees growing in front of the first line of wire fences - are mobilized for war. These are enemy outposts. If you accidentally touch a Christmas tree, a chime will rise: bells are hung on the trees, which should warn the White Finns of danger.

On clear days, on a hill, you can see gray semicircular towers with narrow embrasures barely protruding on the snowy surface, embankments, trenches.

From time to time the hill comes alive. Guns begin to boom, machine guns rattle, machine guns click, mortars slam. The central height is echoed by the lateral heights. A deadly avalanche of fire "combs" the entire district. Every inch has been shot.

This is the famous height 65.5 - the main citadel of the Khotinensky fortified area of ​​the White Finns, one of the strongest links of the Mannerheim Line.

Now at this height heaps of shapeless ruins. But then, a year ago, there was a formidable fortress equipped with the latest military technology.

We stood at this height for a long time. She seemed to be invulnerable, impregnable. Our gunners hit the enemy, shells dug out fortifications from under the ground. We saw how blocks of reinforced concrete, fragments of steel plates, machine guns, pieces of human bodies shot up. And yet the height continued to live. Instead of each suppressed firing point, another, active one appeared.

I tried to break through the tank. He had already overcome the first line of gouges, several rows of wire, but at the very height he was knocked out by the White Finnish artillery.

The damaged car had to be abandoned. So she remained at the bunker itself.

Our unit was in the forest, one kilometer from this accursed height, which blocked the road to Vyborg.

We lived in dugouts. Frosts were severe, up to 54 degrees. Strong winds were blowing. There was nothing to think about normal nutrition in these conditions. If it was possible, taking advantage of the darkness or blizzard, to bring bread, then along the way it froze so much that it was necessary to chop it with axes.

But worst of all was the waiting. The fighters only dreamed of one thing: if only the assault would be sooner! It was hard to wait...

At the end of January, I received the task to reconnoiter the state and the system of fortifications at a height of 65.5. My plan was this: under the cover of night darkness, quietly get through the barbed wire to the wrecked tank, climb into it and sit there for a day. From there, look out.

Lieutenant Kotov went with me - a calm, unhurried person, a virtuoso grenade launcher.

We dressed warmer: sheepskin coats, felt boots, hats with earflaps. From above they put on white camouflage robes. The armament of each of us consisted of nine grenades and a pistol. I had a periscope behind my boot. Kotov tied a telephone set on his head. They decided not to take the cable reel with them: when unwinding, it could make noise. Therefore, we left the coil in the rear, and I tied the end of the cable to my belt. Although it is more difficult to drag the cable than to unwind the coil, the hands are free and there will certainly be no creaking. In our business, this is the main thing.

W name war 1939-1940 and "Mannerheim Line" became inseparable concepts in the public mind. Moreover, the inhabitants of the Karelian Isthmus call the "Mannerheim Line" everything that, in their opinion, may be related to the war and is made of concrete. These are the pillboxes of the "Karelian Val", built by Finnish sappers and builders in 1941-1944, and the casemates of KaUR (Karelian fortified area) - the fruit of the titanic work of the Red Army fortifiers, begun back in the late 20s, continued in the 50s and more waiting for their explorers, and even civilian buildings.

Meanwhile, the name "Mannerheim Line" was born on the pages of the Finnish and European press to designate the line on the Karelian Isthmus, where the divisions of the Soviet invasion were stopped. Actually, the system of long-term fortifications on the Isthmus in the Finnish military-historical literature is called "Enkel's Positions" - by the name of its builder, Major General R.O. Enkel. In passing, we note that the front line, on which the Soviet troops lingered for a month and a half, 70% of its length came into contact with this line of fortifications. (More details about the construction and breakthrough of the "Mannerheim Line" can be found in the book by E.A. Balashov and V.N. Stepakov, published by the editors of the almanac "Citadel" - ed.).

The skeleton of "Engel's position" was made up of long-term firing points (bunkers). They were of different years of construction: from primitive, with a minimum of reinforcement, stone-concrete casemates of the early 20s, to very powerful and complex structures of 1936-1939. The most large of them received because of their exorbitant cost for the skinny budget of Finland in those years (100 marks per 1 m 3 ) the name of "million pillboxes", "Millionaires" ("Millionaires"). Their number did not exceed a dozen of more than 190 bunkers of the main defensive line of the "Enkel position", "Millionaires" were built in the most dangerous areas, from the point of view of the possible direction of the breakthrough of Soviet troops.

One of them was the area between the Terijoki (Zelenogorsk)-Viipuri (Vyborg) highway and the Leningrad-Viipuri railway. The only road passed through it, connecting two road junctions - the village of Boboshino (Kamenka) and the station Kamyarya (Gavrilovo) 1 .

On December 11, 1939, units of the 123rd Infantry Division (SD) occupied Boboshino in a night battle. On December 12, the forward 245th Rifle Regiment, overcoming the resistance of disparate enemy groups and advancing along the Kyamyarevskaya road, in the evening reached the southern tip of a long and narrow hollow, closed from the north by a height of 65.5, from the east by the non-freezing Munasuo (Kushevskoye) swamp, and from the west - lake Summa-yarvi (Desired) and a long steep ridge. The hollow was intercepted by a belt of gouges and barbed wire. The subunits met by rifle and machine-gun fire, which were conducting reconnaissance in battle, having suffered serious losses, withdrew to their starting lines: it was clear that the Finns would try not to let anyone through this hollow.

A general offensive was scheduled for December 15th. Artillery pulled up fired at the gouges, the tanks rushed forward, the infantry behind them. What happened in the next 5 days in this hitherto little-known hollow requires a separate description. Leaving about 20 wrecked tanks on the battlefield, having lost over 1800 killed and wounded, the 123rd SD was forced to stop its victorious offensive for 2 months and go on the defensive. Every day the Finns brought more and more firing points into battle. It soon became clear that some of them were bunkers. One relatively quickly managed to be found at an altitude of 65.5 (it was assigned the number 006)2, it was more difficult with the other, well camouflaged on a hill near Lake Summa. The latter, numbered 00113, covered from the front by bunker fire 006, actually controlled the entire hollow and approaches to height 65.5. The Red Army soldiers quickly dubbed this hollow "the valley of death." What was this DOT?

The rocky upland "Finger" ("Language") stretched from north to south for almost 700 m. In the northern part of the ridge, towering 15-17 m above the lake, in the summer of 1938 construction work began. Unlike the bunkers of the Inkel series /monolithic/, the OO11 bunker was built in several stages, the so-called "floating sections". A pit was torn off to a depth of 8-10 m, the foundation was poured, a reinforcing cage, sectional formwork was placed, and layer-by-layer pouring of concrete was carried out. Upon completion of the work, they moved on to the construction of the next section. Unlike the pillboxes of the 1920s, the fittings in the pillboxes of 1936-1939. was much thinner. This made reinforced concrete unnecessarily "soft", as noted by the well-known Soviet fortifier, General D.M. Karbyshev, who examined all captured Finnish pillboxes in the summer of 1940. This weakness of reinforced concrete was the reason for the successful "swotting" of bunkers with guns taken out for direct fire. The situation was not improved by the fact that in the pillboxes of 1936-1939, using concrete "600", Finnish military engineers managed to increase the compressive strength to 450 kg / m 2 (in earlier models of pillboxes - - 350 kg / m 2 ). Ceilings were designed for compressive strength up to 550 and even 600 kg/m 2 and could withstand individual hits of 280-mm shells. As a result of calculations and tests, which, by the way, were carried out in the 30s near a height of 65.5, the requirements for such structures were determined:
- the thickness of the walls of combat casemates - 130 cm
- the roof of the barracks / tunnel / - 60-80 cm
- side, auxiliary walls - 30 cm.

After the completion of the concrete work, the structure was backfilled. A layer of sand of 2-3 meters, 1.3-1.5 m of stones was laid on the ceiling, and the front part of the casemates and the observation post /NP/ was covered with a 5-meter layer, and the back - with a 2-meter layer of boulders.

In constructive terms, the bunker 0011 was a caponier with casemates of the "la Bourget" system of flanking and oblique fire. The western casemate /A/ (see diagram 2) shot through all the swampy space to the lake and its northern shore. The eastern casemate /B/ held at gunpoint the entire western slope of height 65.5, the approaches to bunker 006 and the road to the Kyamarya station. The casemates had, respectively, 1 and 2 machine guns of the system - X. Maxima arr. 1910, installed on special casemate machines. There were also close combat loopholes for firing from a rifle, machine gun or light machine gun. In case of danger, the loopholes were closed with armored shutters, designed to resist 37-mm projectiles. Both casemates were equipped with special searchlights that gave a narrow beam of light. They were turned on after receiving an alarm signal from electrical sensors in wire fences or at the request of units that occupied positions adjacent to the height (field filling).

Above each casemate, as well as at the observation post, armored caps were installed. The thickness of the walls of the cap was 18-20 cm. The viewing slots (2.5x20 cm) provided the observers with a circular view and, in case of danger, could be closed by a steel strip rotating inside on rollers, about 3 cm thick, practically without the slightest gap. The observer climbed a ladder attached to the wall and found himself standing inside the dome on a special platform. If necessary, 2 people could be there, having a telephone connection with the commander of the fortification.

On December 19, during the shelling of Finnish positions from 280-mm mortars, one of the shells shot down an armored cap on the NP. The bunker from the front was "blind". The urgently arrived fortification and repair unit under the command of ensign K. Helminen began work. The remains of the cap were removed, a periscope was inserted into the hole, and the base was reinforced and filled with fresh hot concrete. Repairmen had to work lying on their stomachs under continuous machine-gun fire from the Red Army. Concrete in buckets was supplied from the bunker through the auxiliary input of the NP.

There were 3 rooms under the observation post block. One / 1 / - was occupied by the commander of the fortification, next to him, under the stairs leading to the NP and to the auxiliary exit, there was a signalman's workplace / 2 /. In the room /3/ there was an ammunition depot. Opposite there was a food warehouse /4/ and a warehouse for firewood and household equipment /5/. A well was equipped nearby, from where they took water for cooking and cooling machine guns /6/. A few steps down was the kitchen, which had a brick stove with three burners and a work table /7/.

The searchlights /9/ and electric lighting of the bunker were provided from a gasoline "engine" and an electric generator /8/. There is no information that the bunker OO11, like the bunkers in the Suurniemi resistance node, was connected to the industrial network. The lighting of the living quarters, where there were bunk beds for 40 people, as well as a tunnel with bunk beds for the rest of the external combat guards, was also provided by the engine, and in the event of the latter stopping, by kerosene lamps.

The bunker did not have a special heating system, although it is possible that in severe frosts some thermal elements such as braziers could be used.

The air cleaning system consisted of manual fans for ventilation of the premises and passive air intake through cleaning filters.

In the event that individual sections of the bunker were captured by the enemy, they were blocked with steel doors. For the same case, and also for operational communication, bunker 0011 was connected by a deep telephone cable to bunker 006, the artillery fire control center of the resistance unit, the command post of the 8th Infantry Regiment. This deep cable network was created back in the 1920s, part of it connected firing points and OPs of those years of construction, and the rest was mothballed.

The place for bunker 0011 was chosen very carefully. Directly in front of the height from the south, partly from the east and from the west, marshes extended to the lake, through which an unfreezing stream flowed. The area to the east of the height, on the contrary, covered with a sparse forest, was a flat area with a slight rise to the road Kamarya - Boboshino running from north to south. Finnish builders needed to carry out a minimum of fortification work in order to make it as difficult as possible for enemy armored vehicles and infantry to approach the pillbox.

The western slope of the "Finger" was cut off, and a 2.5-meter escarp was equipped there; . In addition, an anti-tank ditch was dug in front of the height, which then crossed it.

Somewhat to the north of the moat, on a hill, a 4-row strip of granite, relatively low gouges originated. The latter were entangled with barbed wire, mounted on low metal stakes. Further, at 15-20 meters, there was a 4-row barbed wire in front of the infantry positions, filling the gap between pillboxes 0011 and 006.

The exact location of the "Millionaire" was revealed to the squad leader Parminov at the end of December, during one of the reconnaissance night search raids behind the Finnish trench line. An attempt to destroy the discovered bunker with large-caliber artillery did not cause any noticeable damage to the bunker. The fortress remained invulnerable.

At the end of December, the Finns replaced one of the machine guns of the eastern casemate with a Swedish-made 37-mm Bofors anti-tank gun, model 1936, and in January, a 12.7-mm five-shot anti-tank gun of the Beuys system was installed in the room where the searchlight was located. Having received a bloody lesson in the December battles, the 123rd SD no longer undertook massive infantry attacks, but tanks, especially the T-26 and T-35, gave the Finns more and more trouble ...

By mid-January, a new method of dealing with pillboxes was worked out in neighboring sectors of the front. The tanks brought armored vehicles with explosives and a blocking group to the bunker, and they themselves closed the loopholes with their hulls. The block group and the units attached to it knocked out the enemy from the adjacent trenches and trenches, surrounded the pillbox and laid explosives on the roof. But numerous attempts to destroy the "Millionaire" in this way only increased the number of losses among the Red Army and tanks. Particularly heavy losses were suffered by armored vehicles from the use of Molotov cocktails by the Finns - the "Molotov cocktail", as the Finnish trench wits dubbed this very effective weapon.

On February 11, after 2.5 hours of artillery preparation, in which more than 100 guns, including 280-mm mortars, were involved, units of the Red Army went on the offensive at 12 o'clock. The 255th SP was advancing on the Finger (Language) height. The 272nd SP, the 123rd SP were in the second echelon. They were opposed by 2 battalions, which suffered heavy losses from artillery preparation. Directly the height "Finger" was defended by a company of the 11th battalion under the command of Lieutenant Erickson.

At 12 o'clock. 30 min. the Red Army captured 65.5, and at 13 o'clock an explosion occurred that destroyed the bunker 006. Events at the Finger height unfolded differently. The blocking groups of junior lieutenants Markov and Emelyanov, moving along with the attackers, suffered heavy losses and were forced to lie in the hollows. The wrecked tanks got stuck in the passages made in the gouges, blocking the way for others, and those who managed to slip through were on fire. The Finns now and then turned into counterattacks.

Only after the 272nd SP entered the battle from the western side of the height, was it possible to knock out the Finnish infantry from the trenches and block the western casemate. Began laying boxes of explosives on its roof. The bunker garrison moved to the eastern part, closing all the doors behind them. But even after the explosion, the Finns did not stop trying to recapture the bunker. Their attacks followed one after another. Only at about 4 o'clock in the morning Ensign Skaden left the pillbox with the team. Soviet sappers hastily began to prepare the bunker for the explosion, dragging boxes of explosives to the walls of the eastern casemate. Soon 2 tons of TNT turned the "Millionaire" into ruins.

The story about pillbox No. 0011 would be incomplete if the floor had not been given to modern researchers or, as they are called in these places, stalkers. The territory from Summa-järvi to the Munasuo swamp has been called the "Zone" since the beginning of the 70s. Many legends, myths and anomalous phenomena are also associated with this "Zone"...

Until 1961, this entire area was not only part of the active missile and tank ranges, but was also protected from uninvited visitors by the fact that it was part of the border zone that existed here at that time. The military did not care about the flooding trenches and the destroyed bunkers overgrown with willow-tea, and therefore the area retained a relatively primordial, from the time of the war, appearance.

More or less regular visits to these sites and related excavations, which began in the late 60s, were unsystematic and chaotic. But then, when the "stalkers", and, simply speaking, young people who showed a deep interest in the history of the bloodiest war in European history, got to know each other, the main joint efforts were focused on two objects: bunker 0011 and KP ("bunker") . Let's take a look at some of the results of the excavations.

Western casemate. The most affected part of the bunker. It was blown up twice: on February 11, 1940 and, apparently, in the summer of 1948, during the filming of a military training film about the capture and destruction of long-term structures. Of the finds made here, first of all, it should be noted a large number (about 10) of well-preserved famous small Finnish axes "Fiskar", a tripod from "Maxim". In the corner of the casemate on the floor near the wall was found a Laika rifle, model 1891/27. At the first moment, when it was cut down from the cemented concrete crumb covering the floor, everyone was dumbfounded: the varnish on the butt, the blued trunk ... But only 15-20 minutes passed - and the tree crumbled to dust, and the trunk began to grow rust before our eyes! In addition, a metal box with tools in excellent condition with an inscription on the lid - "Balnas" was cut down at the entrance. The American original screwdriver still serves the one who found it. The remains of the dead, both here and in the connecting tunnel, were not found.

Kitchen. Several Eppila and Killa Koski folding fork-spoon systems, pots, other utensils and an absolutely amazing and excellently preserved frying pan were found here. It has seven recesses in the bottom, allowing you to fry eggs and pancakes. Currently used for its intended purpose.

The room under the stairs, despite the thin layer of sand that covered the floor, hid a crumpled pot with an "eppila" inside ("eppila" was made of "stainless steel", and "killa koski" was made of ordinary steel), the remains of a telephone set, fragments of a human spine.

Ammunition depot. In addition to a large number of cartridges, shells, empty zinc, a large bundle of leaflets with an appeal to the Red Army was found here (leaflets were also found at the NP bunker, but completely unreadable). It should be noted that in the Winter War, both warring parties widely used propaganda materials (and the Finns delivered them at night directly to Soviet trenches!) And such finds in large pillboxes are not uncommon.
During the war and after it, front-line tales and rumors, myths and outright nonsense, such as underground passages penetrating the entire Karelian Isthmus, connecting multi-storey pillboxes, with all conceivable and inconceivable equipment (like saunas, elevators, etc.) began to multiply and be widely replicated by the press. ). Having read books like the two-volume "Fights in Finland" in childhood, many adventurers rushed to the "Mannerheim Line" in the hope of finding the lower floors, stuffed, as they thought, with all sorts of good under the blown up upper floors. Not finding stairs, hatches, etc. their eyes invariably turned to ordinary wells, which were in almost all bunkers.

It is not known why, but the well was blown up in 0011 after the war. The first researchers of this bunker conscientiously dismantled the blockage and cleaned it out, but found absolutely nothing. In the future, his mine was used to dump the processed "rock". Quite funny, but every 5-7 years, one of the neophytes does a wild job of excavating it, considering it an honor to touch the bottom. As for the second, third and deeper floors, the above diagram of the largest bunker on the "Mannerheim Line" only confirms the fact that anyone descending into the bunker is convinced that the individual parts and blocks of these structures were located at different levels, and not floors , in contrast to the bunkers of the Karelian fortified region.

Wood warehouse. Mind-bogglingly sized pick (working part - about a meter), axes of different brands and sizes.

Interesting finds were made in the 3rd residential compartment, counting from the western casemate. Electricians probably lived there: coils of wires, light bulbs (one at 6.5 V - active), switches. There were many personal items: shoes, razors, belts, round aluminum pencil cases with the inscription "aspirin" and tablets inside, spoons, fragments of home-knitted woolen sweaters, large pigskin mittens, etc. It is worth recalling that there were not enough uniforms in the Finnish army, and the soldiers fought in civilian clothes, having only the famous Finnish hat from the uniform, which was so common among the inhabitants of Leningrad in the 40-50s, with a cockade and a waist belt with a buckle on which the coat of arms of Finland is a very rare find.

Eastern casemate. Being more preserved (compared to the western one), it also contained more finds. In the searchlight room, a headlight, vaguely reminiscent of a car headlight, was found in good condition. In the "aggregate" compartment there was a box with a large amount of electrical fittings. In the actual machine-gun casemates, a huge number of spent cartridges hit. Apart from several full boxes, the floor was covered with a layer of 10-15 cm. Among these shells were found Swedish binoculars with slightly damaged optics, a monogrammed finca, an engraved gold ring, small coins, pieces of overcoats with coat of arms buttons and other trifles.

Excavations inside pillboxes destroyed by artillery or explosions differ significantly from purely field work and even from dismantling dugouts and dugouts. Workers here require considerable physical strength, health (terrible drafts and dampness all year round), and technical equipment. Paraphrasing the well-known lines, we can say: you shovel a single button for the sake of a ton of concrete "ore". But there are also very interesting finds: rare coins, medals, badges, books, and even staff cards with notes.

These finds help to recreate the life of the defenders of pillboxes, the unique atmosphere of front-line everyday life, the psychology of Finnish soldiers who were forced to kill in order not to be killed, and, in turn, die defending their homeland.

editorial afterword

We believe that such excavations, which, unfortunately, are not being carried out today, would be of great benefit to historical science. We are sure that sooner or later all found items will end up in the Finnish War Museum, the creation of which is only a matter of time.

notes

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