TALI-IHANTALAI

Outnumbered and outgunned, the Finns’ spirited defence of a natural choke point turned back the Red Army during the largest battle in the region's history

- LOUIS HARDIMAN

Lieutenant-Colonel Arvo Roininen, the Finnish 26th Heavy Battery commander, jumped as his radio crackled to life. The date was 30 June, 1944, and reports were coming in that the elite Soviet 63rd Guards Rifle Division was making another attack. Twenty tanks were ready to race forward and smash through the Finnish lines. Roininen’s observers remained at the front under constant bombardment, repeatedly shouting into their radios: “Enemy tanks are in their jumping-off points… all batteries fire!” Roininen passed the message to the commander of artillery, who called in a bombardment from every available gun. Shells screamed over the observers’ heads and turned the tanks into flaming, mangled steel while they were still at their staging posts. One Soviet attack had been repulsed, but several more were to come.

On the Karelian Isthmus, a narrow strip of land between Lake Lagoda and the Gulf of Finland, the Finnish Army waited anxiously for the snow to thaw as winter turned to spring in 1944. Their national survival was at stake, facing attack as soon as the Soviets deemed the ground firm enough for its formidable armoured columns. Should the Red Army smash through the Isthmus, it would be free to break out across Finland. The nation would once more fall under the shadow of Russian subjugation, having enjoyed independence for just 26 years. Meanwhile, swift victory was vital for the Soviets, who wanted to answer the Finnish question before the end of the war and free up troops for the race to Berlin.