Mannerheim line. Inkiliä fortified area. DOT (duration fire point) No. 6 and 7
Mannerheim line. Fortified area of Inkil. Pillboxes No. 6 and 7
The defense in the fortified area of Inkil was occupied by the 7th separate infantry battalion. Most of the battalion personnel were from the Kuolemajärvi parish, that is, the soldiers defended their native places.
On December 13, 1939, the arrows of the KaUR detachment, with the support of three T-28s, went on the offensive along the Terijoki-Koivisto highway on pillboxes No. 6 and No. 7, located directly near the highway. The terrain near the Akhven-oy stream was extremely unfavorable for tanks and forced them to move forward in a column along the highway: a long steep sandy ridge adjoined the road directly to the right, a dense forest immediately began to the left of the highway.
The Finnish anti-tankers were well aware of which way the Soviet tanks would go, and immediately knocked out two T-28s. The third tried to turn around and get out of the fire, but immediately landed on a landmine. The explosion detonated the ammunition in the tank itself, and the tank turret flew off two hundred meters to the side. The arrows of the KaUR detachment of the division were stopped by organized machine-gun and rifle fire from the trenches and pillbox No. 6.
After that, a lull settled in the fortified area of Inkil. Only in early February 1940, bunkers No. 6 and bunkers No. 7 came under heavy shelling. Pillbox No. 7 received a direct hit at the junction of the roof and wall and received a hole. The Finns covered it up with rails.
Pillbox No. 6 received several direct hits with 152-mm high-explosive shells on the wall and roof of the casemates, as a result of which the outer armor plates cracked, and the Finnish sappers had to reinforce the roof of the casemates with two layers of concrete blocks. On February 15, 1940, the Finns began their planned withdrawal from the fortified area to the north, to an intermediate defensive line.
Leonid Sobolev, correspondent of the Baltic Fleet on the Karelian Isthmus, described the Ink6 pillbox in his story “The Third Generation” about the actions of the ski battalions of the Baltic Fleet:
“... The thick armor plate of the front wall of the pillbox is full of deep cracks, pits, furrows. From the torn concrete surrounding the slab, massive rebars stick out, tangled like guts. The corner of the embrasure was chipped off by a shell. Deformed steel shines with a fresh metallic sheen, and a crack creeps from the corner of the embrasure to the edge of the slab: the armor could not stand it and burst under the accurate fire of the Baltic sailors.
This monstrous structure made of one and a half meters of concrete and half a meter of armor, this armored tower, as if removed from a battleship and dug into the ground, was considered invulnerable by the Finns.
For several years, this powerful defensive position was built from two armored pillboxes, which would be more correctly called forts. The art and experience of the best European engineers has been invested in the creation of this thoughtful ensemble of fortifications, which can be the envy of first-class fortified areas, in the construction of this fortress, protected by the interaction of neighboring forts, trenches, sniper points. Then they brought selected, trained shutskorites here, showed them this armor and concrete, seven-meter ditches and mines, granite anti-tank gouges, underground passages and trenches, disguised places for anti-tank guns, sniper points on pine trees, ten rows of wire, cellars filled to the brim with ammunition. “Here,” they were told, “is a fortress that will wear down any living force, repel any attack, withstand any projectile. She is unapproachable. You are protected here from bombs and shells, from bullets and grenades. Your business is to conveniently and calmly, to choose, as in a shooting range, to hit the attackers from these embrasures ... "
You could really stay here for any length of time. Fragments of the largest shells that exploded near the wall of the pillbox slid along the armor without causing harm. Even a direct hit by a heavy projectile could only shake this monstrous shell, break off a piece of concrete, nothing more. But a direct hit by artillery fired from afar is an accident, one chance in a thousand...
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