Battle of Vuosalmi

Battle of Vuosalmi
Part of Continuation War
Finnish soldier in the front line armed with a captured PPSh-41 submachine gun
Date July 4–17, 1944 Location 60°43′5″N 29°34′30″E Karelian Isthmus, Finland Result Finnish victory
Belligerents
Finland	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Armas-Eino Martola Aarne Blick	Vasily Shvetsov
Strength
30,000 men 25 assault guns 250 field artillery pieces (21 battalions)	75,000-80,000 men 80-90 tanks or assault guns 450 artillery pieces
Casualties and losses
795 killed 4,976 wounded 354 missing 2 assault guns	3,050 killed 11,750 wounded 250 missing 22,700 (whole 23rd Army) 60 tanks

The Battle of Vuosalmi (also known as the Battle of Äyräpää-Vuosalmi) – the main bulk of it – lasted from July 4 to July 17, 1944. It was fought during the Continuation War (1941–1944), a part of World War II, between Finland and the Soviet Union.

Background

After the Soviets saw that they had failed in the Battle of Tali-Ihantala against the Finnish defenders in the late June and early July 1944, they tried to break the Finnish positions in Vuosalmi (now Druzhnoye) and encircle the southern part of the Finnish forces in the Karelian Isthmus. Soviet forces of the 23rd Army in the region had made unsuccessful low-scale attacks against the Finnish defenses for nearly two weeks at Äyräpää region. Lack of success from the 23rd Army's performance lead to change of command on July 3.

Order of battle

Finnish

Finnish defenses on the Vuosalmi consisted initially with only the 2nd Division (Martola, later Blick). But this was later reinforced with parts of the Armored Division (Lagus), 57th Infantry Regiment and 25th Separate Battalion of 15th Infantry Division and 4th Battalion of 19th Brigade (IV/19.Pr) after the battles in the Tali-Ihantala region started to slow down. Total 21 artillery battalions were supporting infantry during critical last stage of the battle. Per infantry battalion there were more artillery support in Vuosalmi than in Tali-Ihantala.

III Corps (Siilasvuo)

2nd Infantry Division (Martola/Blick)

15th Infantry Division (Hersalo)

57th Infantry Regiment

25th Separate Battalion

19th Infantry Brigade (Maskula)

4th Battalion of brigade(during last stage)

Finnish Armoured Division (Lagus, during last stage)

Assault Gun Battalion

4 Jäger Battalions

Total forces first ~20,000 growing to ~32,000 in mid july. Average personal strength of infantry division around 13,300 men, while 6,700-7,000 of infantry brigade, 3,620 of infantry regiment and 1,022 of infantry battalion. 21 field artillery battalions (average 520-560 men each).

Soviet

Soviet Leningrad Front's 23rd Army (Svetsov) was assigned with the task of making a crossing and a breakthrough at Vuosalmi. For this task 23rd Army assigned first the 98th Rifle Corps and later switched it to the 115th Rifle Corps.

98th Rifle Corps (Anisimov)

92nd Rifle Division

281st Rifle Division

381st Rifle Division

115th Rifle Corps (Kozatsek)

10th Rifle Division

92nd Rifle Division

142nd Rifle Division

6th Rifle Corps

13th Rifle Division

382th Rifle Division

327th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

Supporting units of 23rd Army

17th Fortification Area troops

47th Guards Artillery Brigade

21st, 151st and 336th Artillery Regiments

165th, 641st, 883rd and 1072nd Antitank Regiments

175th, 456th, 506th and 567th Mortar Regiments

70th Guards Mortar Regiment

1469th Antiaircraft Regiment

71st and 618th Separate Antiaircraft Battallions

46th Guards Tank Regiment

226th Tank Regiment

938th Self-Propelled Gun Regiment

952rd Self-Propelled Gun Regiment

71st Separate Armoured Train Battalion

20th Engineer Brigade

Total: 8 infantry divisions, 80-90 tanks or assault/self-propelled guns and around 600 field artillery pieces or heavy mortars. Average personal strength of rifle divisions was around 6,600-6,700 men.

The battle

The Finnish positions were very unfavorably located in the ridge of Äyräpää, with the wide River Vuoksi behind. Though the position was very unfavorable, the Äyräpää ridge dominated the lower lands on the northern shore requiring the defensive lines to be placed on the ridge. The Red Army 98th Corps started heavier attacks on July 4 and heavy battles raged for control of the ridge until July 9 when Finns finally withdrew to the northern shore. The Soviet 115th Corps then continued the attack and crossed the Vuosalmi on July 9. During that day both Soviet and Finnish forces had highest numbers of artillery and mortar rounds fired: 30,000 (Soviet forces) and 18,800 (Finnish, 13,500 of it field artillery rounds).

The Soviet 115th Corps reinforced the bridgehead and had all its three divisions in the bridgehead on July 11. The Finnish forces also received reinforcements in the form of the depleted Finnish Armored Division directly from Ihantala and on July 11 both sides were attempting to attack simultaneously. Attempts on both sides were halted when they ran into attacking enemy formations. Though the Soviets now had access to the fields on the northern side, which were advantageous to the Soviet armor, the Finns were able to stop all further Soviet advances. The following Finnish counterattacks in Vuosalmi at this point amounted to not much success either, and thus both sides were on defensive here in mid-July, 1944.

The Finnish field artillery fired altogether over 122,000 rounds of ordnance in Äyräpää and Vuosalmi, from June 20 to July 17, 1944 – the same amount as in the Battle of Tali-Ihantala, which was fought during exactly the same time period in a nearby vicinity, on the relatively narrow Karelian Isthmus of Finland. Mortar units fired 85,000 rounds. When comparing 8 days period of most intensive fighting much more artillery rounds were fired in Vuosalmi (74,000) than in Tali-Ihantala (56,000). During that 8 days period in Vuosalmi Finnish mortar units fired also 52,000 rounds. Finnish field artillery especially during the latter part of battle fired also relatively heavy rounds. In 16 July the average weight of rounds were around 28 kilos.

Aftermath

The commander of the Soviet Leningrad Front, Marshal Leonid Govorov criticized heavily the 23rd Army, 98th Corps and 115th Corps commanders when the offensive in Vuosalmi had not yielded any concrete results despite of the intolerably heavy casualties.

Gallery

• 
  Camouflaged Finnish Sturmgeschütz III assault gun on the battlefield
• 
  Corporal Franz Haapala used Panzerfaust to destroy a Soviet IS series heavy tank
• 
  Fist-sized hole made by a Panzerfaust ("Armor fist") warhead
• 
  Soviet tank destroyed during the battle

Bibliography

• Raunio, Ari; Kilin, Juri (2008). Jatkosodan Torjuntataisteluita 1942–44. Keuruu: Otava.