The moment of war. Death on the front lines with Finland, 1943

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

On April 8, 1943, a group of Finnish army war correspondents, accompanied by a fenrich from the battalion headquarters, went to the front line near the village of Rugozero in Karelia to take pictures.

The war on the Karelian front, by that time, had long since passed into a positional phase and the battles were of a limited, local character - a lull in general. As you can see from the title photo, the shooting took place in a serene environment and without any precautions.

Finnish soldiers posed at the Maxim machine gun

At the end, the broken-hearted military commander, generally climbed onto the parapet, removing the enemy's front edge.

In the meantime, the headquarters fenrich approached the journalists and began to point to something in the direction of the Soviet front line, seemingly joking at the same time. Such a revival in the Finnish trenches did not escape the attention of the Soviet side. A shot rang out.

The dead fenrich collapsed to the bottom of the trench. The sniper of the Red Army unmistakably chose the officer among the targets and worked "excellently".

See also: Why the war with Finland became unknown

Materials of those years:

"Having taken prisoner Soviet servicemen, immediately separate the commanding staff from the privates, as well as the Karelians from the Russians. … To detain the Russian population and send them to concentration camps. Russian-speaking persons of Finnish and Karelian origin who wish to join the Karelian population are not counted among the Russians." Mannerheim's order of July 8, 1941

FROM MESSAGES OF THE SOVIET INFORMATION BUREAU

Near the village of V. in the northwestern direction of the front, the Germans captured and captured two wounded Red Army men. One of them was shot by the Nazis, and the other was burned alive at the stake. On the northern front, the White Finns captured the military technician Ladonin, wounded in both legs. The Shutskorites cut his face with a razor, gouged out his eyes and inflicted many stab wounds. The mutilated corpse of Comrade The Red Army men found Ladonin in the closet of the house, which housed the office of the White Finnish battalion.

From the evening message on August 5, 1941

Looting in the Finnish army is strongly encouraged and is the responsibility of Finnish soldiers. The secret instruction of the headquarters of the 7th Finnish Infantry Division No. 511 says: "In all circumstances, as soon as the situation permits, it is necessary to remove all uniforms and equipment from the killed enemy soldiers. If necessary, prisoners of war can be involved in this work. (Reason: telegraphic order of the headquarters. Karelian army) ".

From the evening message on January 3, 1942.

The Red Army soldier Sergei Pavlovich Terentyev who escaped from the White Finnish captivity spoke about the unbearable suffering of Soviet prisoners of war languishing in a camp near the city of Pitkyaranta. "In this camp," Terentyev said, "there are wounded Red Army soldiers. They are not provided with any medical assistance. We were given a mug of flour stew per day. The Finnish executioners invented a terrible torture for us. They girded the prisoner with barbed wire and dragged him along the ground. Every day from camps take out the corpses of tortured Soviet soldiers."

From the evening message on October 7, 1942.

A group of fighters from the N unit operating on the Karelian front found the corpses of 11 Soviet soldiers who had been brutally tortured by the White Finns in a repulsed trench. The Red Army men Bachinov G. M., Uglov V. V. and Bogdanov I. S. were wounded in battle and captured. The White Finns tortured them for a long time and carved five-pointed stars on their chests. The identity of the rest of the tortured fighters could not be established, since the bandits disfigured them beyond recognition.

From the morning message on October 9, 1942.

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“… The same atrocities are being done in the Far North by the Finnish accomplices of the German fascists. On the Karelian Front, during the offensive of the Red Army units, dozens of corpses of the wounded Red Army soldiers tortured by the Finnish fascists were found. So, the Finns gouged out the eyes of the Red Army soldier Sataev, cut off his lips, pulled out his tongue. They cut off the ear of the Red Army soldier Grebennikov, gouged out his eyes and inserted empty casings into them. After long torture, the Red Army soldier Lazarenko was crushed by the Finns' skull and stuffed with crackers, cartridges were driven into his nostrils, and a five-pointed star was burned out on his chest with hot metal.

*

ACT

October 26, 1941.

We, the undersigned, servicemen of the 26th joint venture: military assistant of the 2nd battalion Fedor Fedor Fedoseevich Karataev, foreman Karabanin Pavel Mikhailovich, Red Army men: Viktor Ivanovich Konovalov and Nikolai Zinovievich Korolev, of this date we have drawn up a real act of the following:

When our unit entered the village. Stolbovaya Gora, Medvezhyegorsk district, Karelo-Finnish SSR, which was recaptured from the Finns, we found in one of the peasant yards the corpse of a Red Army soldier of the 7th company of the 24th joint venture Zubekhin Nikolai, brutally tortured and robbed by Finnish knackers. The Red Army man had his eyes gouged out, his lips were cut out. The Finns took off Zubekhin's shoes. They took all the documents. The corpse was buried by us in the village. Stolbovaya Gora, Medvezhyegorsk region, K-F SSR. We confirm the correctness of the above with signatures.