In many ways the White Army front in Carelia was different than the other fronts of Finnish Civil War. The railway leading from southern Finland through Viipuri to Petrograd was vital route of supplies to the Finnish Reds. Even if it offered tempting target to the White Army it was not an easy pray. City of Viipuri had Russian garrison, which had early on proved to be on side of the Reds and reinforcements sent by Russian Bolsheviks were streaming from Petrograd all the time. Unlike in other fronts besides plenty of weaponry and ordnance these reinforcements included also lots of volunteer units, which the Bolsheviks had raised among Russian military. As there was no certainty how many units the Bolsheviks could send to this front Mannerheim's Headquarters decided to select Tampere as goal for the first decisive White Army offensive. Suojeluskunta-units of Carelia had succeeded buying some weaponry before the war in Viipuri and Petrograd and in beginning of the war they succeeded acquiring some more by disarming Russian military units in their area. Still, when the actual fighting started they were rather small and had serious shortage of weapons and ammunition.

PICTURE: Locations of Antrea front and Kiviniemi railway bridge. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (130 KB).

Since General Mannerheim's HQ decided to concentrate its resources towards Tampere the White Army units in faraway Carelia basically ended up in status of a stepchild. The Headquarters did not send any reinforcements from its own troops or from other fronts no matter how dangerous developed in this front. Instead it had to find its reinforcements among the nearby areas and take care of training them for battle. As far as artillery weapons were concerned the White Army units in this front also had to do what they succeeded capturing. Because of this the White Army troops in Carelian Isthmus were much weaker when it came to artillery than their Red opponents did. So when they finally captured good amount of artillery in Rautu they were unwilling to yield the much needed to Artillery School (located Pietarsaari in Pohjanmaa), as they had good reason to believe that they might never see these guns again if they would do so. Middle of April the situation changed considerably - White Army had succeeded capturing city of Tampere and now Mannerheim wanted it to strike another decisive blow in Carelian Isthmus at April. This meant bringing there most of the White Army combat units and large amount of artillery, which finally gave the Whites also numeral superiority in Carelian Isthmus. Leadership of this front was also quite different from other fronts for the White Army - while other fronts were commanded by Colonels and Generals most of the war this one had Captain commanding it. Quite unusual was also the amount of freedom given to Jaeger-Captain Aarne Sihvo to lead this front the best way he saw fit. One could say that while Mannerheim's HQ did not give reinforcements or much of supplies to its benefit it also did not impede him from improvising and using the limited resources most effective way possible.

PICTURE: Captain Aarne Sihvo (1889 - 1963) and staff from his Headquarers of Carelian troops. Sihvo is in the middle wearing jaeger uniform, which due to being green-grey appears darker than locally made steel-grey uniforms m/18. The other officer in jaeger uniform (third from the left) is Lieutenant Woldemar Hägglund (1893 - 1963). Both of them Jaegers, who became Generals of Finnish Army. Due to his role and success during Civil War Sihvo's military career took off like a rocket. He was promoted as Major in March of 1918 and as Colonel in May of 1918 at age 29. Later he would serve as Commander of Finnish Armed Forces twice - first in 1926 - 1933 and second time in 1946 - 1953. Hägglund was given command of Army Corps for both Winter War and Continuation War and retired as Lieutenant-General in year 1953. Photographer unknown. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (92 KB).

For the Finnish Reds this front was "Eastern front". They had one of their leading three Headquarters (the other two were in Tampere and Helsinki) located in Viipuri. Assisting it was assisted "HQ of Russian troops located in Finland" also in Viipuri created from Russian Bolshevik-minded officers. Like Captain Sihvo and his staff also these Red Headquarters seem to have lead their front in rather independent manner. Among Viipuri HQ the Reds had also ill-reputed General Kaljunen, who was known of his pompous behaviour and executions of civilians.

Unlike other fronts this one also had two railways going through frontlines. But thanks to Kiviniemi railway bridge that the Whites destroyed when the war begun the more northern railway was not as important as the one, which went through frontline in Antrea. This was also the only front in which the Whites succeeded building the only somewhat proper armoured train of theirs - Antrea armoured train also as Saviour of Carelia (Karjalan pelastaja). This train contained only one improvised artillery wagon and locomotive pushing it. While the G1 (later called Sk1) series locomotive was armoured the artillery wagon it was pushing had 76 VK/04 mountain gun with gun shield on naval mount and sides build from two layers of planks with bricks in between these layers. Also the Reds used their armoured trains actively in Antrea railway. Once the both sides had their armoured trains patrolling the railway neither side could use its infantry freely and centre of battles moved further away, where village of Hannila after constant and bloody battles lasting 9 weeks gained nickname "Verdun of Finland". At that time both sides tried seeking solution to this deadlock by trying to outflank each other and cut each other's railway-connections to the frontline. In addition the Whites tried exploding the tracks behind the Red lines for the same basic purpose. Along the Rautu railway the Whites were first in serious difficulties with the much stronger attacking troops of the Reds, but then succeeded

The two main fronts in Carelian Isthmus, Antrea Front and Rautu Front both had substational number of Russian soldiers fighting side by side with Finnish Red Guards. Antrea Front had large Russian volunteer units taking part in battles until they returned to Russia in March due to Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Early on Rautu Front had Russian military units operating in there and once the Germans protested their continued presence on Finnish soil and partaking in the Finnish War being breach of Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, they were replaced by Bolsheviks with Russian volunteer units created from men hired in Petrograd.

Stabilising the situation until in beginning of April they wiped out Finnish Red Guard and Russian units in their area capturing their plentiful weaponry. In middle of April White Army transferred large amount of troops to Carelian Isthmus for its second large offensive of this war. This second attack rolled across Isthmus to the south first cutting Viipuri - Petrograd railway and moved to capture Viipuri. Once operations of White Army ended in Carelian Isthmus it controlled the area totally and the last remaining units of Red Guards located to Kymenlaakso had no land connection to Russia.

PICTURE: Ukrainski Revolutsija / Putilovian armoured train car photographed after being captured by Finnish White Army. Photographed by Harald Natvig. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (132 KB).

First (and probably last, since the rest were apparently somewhat primitive but proper armoured trains) armed train that the Reds equipped in Fredriksberg Works, the so-called "armoured train of riflemen", was sent to this front. Crew of this train was from Helsinki Red Guard. Early on this train contained (presumably) only thin-skinned locomotive and boxcar, whose walls had been reinforced and loopholes added to its walls for rifles. Later in the front the Reds added the train artillery wagon (likely Ukrainski Revolutsija / Putilovian) and separate boxcar (used to transport ammunition). In beginning of March the Reds in Antrea received also more standard-like armoured train build in Fredriksberg. Besides these Finnish made armoured trains most of the war likely also Russian heavy armoured train stationed in Viipuri operated in Carelian Isthmus.

PICTURE: Carelian Isthmus and its railways at year 1918. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (144 KB).

January

19^th - 20^th: Firefight between Reds and Whites in Pietinen Factory in city of Viipuri. The firefight is now often considered as the true starting point of Finnish Civil War. The factory belonged to wood processing plant of Oy Matti Pietinen puunjalostuslaitos Ab owned by member of parliament Matti Pietinen and served as place of gathering and armory for Viipuri White Guard. The factory was guarded by group of six men lead by Jaeger known as Kalle Mata. In an attempt to avoid being spotted guns and men had been gathered to factories office, which was upstairs. Once filer August Andersson, who was leading the Reds who came searching guns reached top of the stairs Mata opened fire, instantly killing Andresson and in the process firing first shots of the Civil War. Men of Red Guards (30 - 100 men depending source) surrounding the factory also opened fire and short firefight ensued. The firefight ended when the surrounded Whites tried breaking though the siege running out gunning the Reds with pistols - this proved surprisingly successful with four of the six men succeeding to escape. The surrounded Whites had lost one man killed and in the charge through the siege another one was wounded and taken as prisoner by the Reds. The Reds lost two men killed and three wounded.

24^th - 25^th: The events in Pietinen Factory caused White Guard of Carelia to mobilise. They succeeded to gather and sent in total about 500 poorly armed men to city of Viipuri in hope of trying to restore order. They succeeded getting to city, but after noticing how outnumbered they were by some 3,000 men of Red Guards in the city and Russian military supporting Finnish Red Guards, were forced to retreat from the city very swiftly and headed to temporary safety of Venäjänsaari Island, where they found shelter in Sellgren's villa. Negotiations in between Red Guards and force of White Guards gathered in Venäjänsaari Island started. The unit of about 500 men got later known as Battalion of Venäjänsaari.

23^rd: Whites start disarming Russian military units in Carelia.

25^th: The Whites lead by Jaeger 2^nd Lieutenant Veikko Läheniemi demolish Kiviniemi railway-bridge. This blocked the railway crossing Russian border in Rautu. For a while this secured that direction for them and allowed the existing limited forces to be concentrated towards Viipuri.

27^th: The Whites disarm Russian naval unit of Vuoksi, which was small inland Naval unit operating three small gunboats in Lake Saimaa. The unit had warehoused its gunboats for winter, but still had quite a bit of weapons, which the Whites wanted. They succeeded capturing six 76 VK/04 mountain guns on naval mounts (main weaponry of the three light gunboats), 12 machineguns and good number of rifles. Early on these 6 mountain guns were the only artillery pieces that the Whites had in Carelia and when they were captured the Russians succeeded hiding their breechblocks. The missing breechblocks for these guns were manufactured in Machine- and Repairs Shop of Yrjö Horsma in Sortavala so the Whites got these to their use, but this caused a delay of several days. One of these captured guns was later used as main armament of Armoured train of Antrea, which was the only somewhat proper armoured train that the Whites build during the war.

The Whites in Venäjänsaari Island had come to conclusion that the negotiations were not going anywhere and decided to solve the problem by leaving and heading northwards via Kämärä. On the way they captured railway station of Kämärä in Viipuri - Petrograd railway from a small unit of Reds, who had been guarding the station. The Reds received reinforcements during the battle fought in the station, but still lost it. Among the telegrams they discovered in the railway station was one containing information about "The Great Weapons Train" about to arrive from Petrograd and supply Finnish Red Guards with guns and ammunition needed to start their revolution. The Whites being poorly armed, they lacked firepower that would have allowed them to capture the train, but had force of about 60 men lead by Jaeger Urho Sihvonen to stay behind. Sihvonen's force arranged ambush to two trains coming from Petrograd full of Finnish Reds from Petrograd and Russian Sailors. One of these two train was so-called "Great Weapons Train" which was transporting 15,000 rifles, 30 machineguns, 2 million cartridges, 10 field guns and two armoured cars, which the Bolsheviks had sent to Finnish Red Guards. Sihvonen's force which ambushed the trains had very limited supply of ammunition, but they did shoot up the trains and succeeded convincing their enemy for a moment to think that they were much larger force than they actually were and then retreated safely. This battle proved to be not just a minor success to the Whites and minor nuisance to the Reds. In the firefight locomotive to the "Great Weapons Train" was damaged in such extent that the train limped to Viipuri in very slow speed, which delayed early operations of Finnish Red Guards and may have effected progress of the war. Although one must note that by that time "The Great Weapons Train" had already been also delayed due to Military commander of Finnish Red Guards Ali Aaltonen while in Petrograd to pick up the train disappearing to a drinking binge of several days, which he financed with money provided Red Guards for the operation. While delivery of the guns contained by "The Great Weapons Train" got delayed Finnish Red Guards still ultimately got them for the revolution, which they had officially already started in Helsinki at 26^th of January.

31^st: The Whites destroyed railway-bridge near Tali railway station. The first time they tried exploding it that failed, but the soldiers had nerves cool enough to try again and in this case the second time was charm. This temporarily cut the Viipuri - Petrograd railway connection vital to the Reds. This event combined with explosive charge detonated in bridge of Koria at 27^th of January may partially explain, why their leadership concentrated early in the war primarely in securing their rear areas instead of starting offensive.

February

1^st: The Reds did not waste time. This day they captured Tali railway station without a fight and started repairing the railway-bridge, which the Whites had destroyed day before.

3^rd: The Reds took over Karisalmi railway station in Antrea railway without a fight.

9^th: The Reds capture Kavantsaari railway station in Antrea railway.

10^th: The Whites were unwilling to give up Kavantsaari station that easily and recaptured it this day.

However the Reds proved equally stubborn. Still the same day they arrived by force and attacked Kavantsaari railway station. The Whites had only about 70 men in there, so when the Reds attacked with Battalion-size unit the White Army unit defending the station found themselves in serious trouble. When the Reds succeeded surrounding them from three sides Jaeger Vilho Brander (later: Paloheimo) leading the White unit ordered it to retreat and the Whites abandoned the railway station. After this the Reds captured it.

The same day the Reds captured also Ahvola village some 7 – 8 kilometres west of Hannila and the Whites came very close loosing also Hannila village and its railway station when the Reds attacked there. Hannila railway station was the next station northwards from Kavantsaari and loosing also it could force the Whites to retreat north side of Vuoksi River. The Whites were very close loosing the battle in Hannila when their Antrea armoured train arrived to rescue and saved them. Besides giving the vital fire support, which helped the Whites to win this battle and keep Hannila the train provided their battle moral considerable boost.



PICTURE: Antrea armoured train. Photo source: Suomen Vapaussota kuvissa 1 (edition published 1934). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (92 KB).

12^th: Antrea armoured train, whose new nickname Saviour of Carelia was spreading among the ranks of the Whites bombarded Seistola village from Hannila station. Even if the gun crew was inexperienced the artillery shells it fired proved surprisingly accurate and scared the Reds so much that they retreated from village of Seistola to village of Kilpeenjoki.

13^th: The White Army commander of this front Wärnhjelm gave orders for the troops to retreat because he considered the situation dangerous. Luckily for the Whites Captain Sihvo decided not to obey these orders and instead ordered his troops to attack. Saviour of Carelia supported the attack with its gun from railway-section in between of Hannila and Kavantsaari stations and also bombarded Kavantsaari. This attack proved successful as the Reds retreated from village of Ahvola and the Whites captured it. The Reds soon launched their counter-attack to Ahvola, but with no success. Selecting Wärnhjelm as commander of front had proved considerable mistake, so he was transferred to other duties and replaced with Sihvo, who became by far the youngest of Finnish White Army commanders trusted to command a front.



PICTURE: Hannila railway station in use of White Army during Civil War. The railway station apparently served as major supply point. Photographer Ivar Aleksander Ekström. Photo source Museums of Varkaus (Varkauden museot), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (146 KB).

Gunfire from mountain gun in Saviour of Carelia proved again very accurate. The shells its gun crew fired to Kavantsaari railway station hit locomotive used by the Reds, railway station building and buildings of Kavantsaari manor (where the Reds had their local Headquarters). Success in battle and support of the armoured train boosted moral of the Whites considerably in Antrea front, while the moods among the Reds were much darker. It was not only that they had lost the recent battles, but also the quality of their Russian allies had proved questionable. Russian Red Guards unit from Petrograd lost its revolutionary zeal very fast after seeing real battle and decided to return Russia, while voluntary units of Russian Army from Moscow and Pavlov Regiments proved to be more of a thieves than soldiers. Once they had stolen enough property from local civilians these volunteers headed home with their loot. When 18^th of February also Siberian volunteer unit got tired of the losses it had suffered and decided to head back to Russia the Finnish Reds had plenty of reasons to be annoyed.

21^st: The Reds had decided to open up another front with plenty of assistance from the Bolsheviks. Their troops crossed border in Raasuli and advanced towards Kivisalmi. The Whites had 65 men guarding this area, while attacking force of the Reds had about 1,000 men. The Whites retreated fighting to Rautu railway station, also from which the Reds forced them to retreat 23^rd of February. After capturing of Rautu station the Reds stopped and started building their base in there.

23^rd - 24^th: The Whites attacked to Kilpeenoja and Syvälahti villages in Antrea front. Loosing these villages would have forced the Reds to retreat from Kavantsaari (and its railway station) in between the two villages. However the attacks failed and in the process the Whites came close for losing village of Ahvola as well.



PICTURE: Part of Ahvola battlefield of Finnish Civil War photographed soon after the battles. Ahvola was later referred as "Finnish Verdun" since in Finnish Civil War it saw some nine weeks of what was in essence trench warfare. Photographer Ivar Aleksander Ekström. Photo source Museums of Varkaus (Varkauden museot), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (278 KB).

26^th: The Reds attacked several times to village of Ahvola in Antrea front. Among the attacking Reds were large number of Russians, most of them sailors. These attacks continued almost daily until 11^th - 12^th of March, but still all failed.

The part of frontline around village of Ahvola became known as Antrea Front (Antrean rintama). Forest-covered hills in villages of Ahvola, Oravala and Seistola provided there troops of White Army favorable defensive positions, which they were able to keep, but only at great cost. The battles in Antrea Front there became very much a trench war with daily battles, which proved exceptionally bloody by standards of Finnish Civil War. Accordng later calculations on average some 20 men were killed in battle in Ahvola each day.

27^th: The Reds attacked to Rautu parish village. The Whites succeeded halting the attack with their fire and the Russians among the Reds suffered heavy casualties. After this the Whites tried flanking attack to Rautu railway station but once the Reds opened up with their machine guns they suffered casualties had to retreat back.

28^th: The Reds and Russians attacked to Rautu parish village again, but without success. The same day the Reds took over villages of Lemi, Taipalsaari and Savitaipale.

March

2^nd: The Reds and Russians tried solving the stalemate in Rautu by attacking again. This time they came very close to success as they already succeeded breaking through lines of the Whites, but then flanking counter-attack forced them to pull back.

5^th: The Reds attacked to Ahvola with force. Most of the attacking troops were Russian sailors and these powerful attacks continued more than a week, but they all failed.

9^th: Armoured Train 4 build in Fredriksberg Works in Helsinki for Finnish Reds is completed and heads towards Antrea front in Carelian railway.

10^th: Saviour of Carelia had continued its attacks to Red side of the front. In this particular day it rolled all the way to destroyed Putkoisenjoki railway-bridge in half a way between railway stations of Hannila (in hands of White Army) and Kavantsaari (in hands of the Reds). There its crew spotted infantry of the Reds and train few hundred meters from other end of the destroyed bridge, so they opened fire. However the Reds started returning fire with 2 artillery pieces and 4 machineguns. Train and infantry of the Reds retreated leaving behind two machineguns and a flatcar, but Saviour of Carelia did not have infantry with it to take advantage of this success. When incoming artillery shells started hitting close and the armour trains only artillery piece (76-mm mountain gun) started acting up it retreated back behind the own lines.

This same day one of the two armoured trains that the Reds had in this railway run to place where the tracks had been damaged. Its sand-loaded forward wagon was derailed and got stuck.

11^th: The Reds attacked to Ahvola again, as usual without success.

13^th: The Reds had repaired Putkoisenjoki railway-bridge and the Whites had noticed it. So they sent small patrol to destroy it again, but this failed. Now that the bridge was in one piece again the Reds could attack effectively to the frontline with their armoured trains.

The same day the Reds attacked to Hannila. But this time they lacked have artillery support and the attack failed badly. The attacking Reds retreated back to villages of Kilpeenjoki and Syvälahti. As usual in Carelia large number of Russian soldiers was spotted among the attacking Red troops.



PICTURE: 87-mm field gun of White Army in Hannila village. Photo from Suomen Vapaussota kuvissa 2 (edition published 1934). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (75 KB).

15^th: The Whites attack to Pullila village in Antrea front east of the railway and recapture it.

19^th: Battle in village of Ala-Nousua in Antrea front. Russian Reds taking part in the battle suffered heavy casualties and had to flee from the battlefield. After this Russian military units leave from Antrea front (and other fronts also), mainly due to peace treaty between Russian Bolshevik government and Germany, which demanded Bolsheviks to pull out their troops from Finland. While the Russians pulled off from Finland might have been happy to get away, this happened in rather difficult moment for the Finnish Reds, which were just about to start their offensive.

20^th: The Reds start their offensive in Antrea front. Supporting their attack was armoured train and artillery units. Even with all this firepower giving fire support and Whites suffering shortage of artillery ammunition the attack failed. After this attack the Reds finally stopped their attacks around Ahvola and the war around this village became stationary.

When armoured train which had supported the Red offensive was returning from the frontline its crew failed to notice the tracks, which the Whites had broken and the train got derailed about 4 kilometres north of Kavantsaari railway station. White Army troops attacked the train trying to capture it but failed. The Reds got the train back on rail, but after this their armoured trains moved much more carefully.

23^rd: Red armoured train attacked the White lines from Kavantsaari direction. Their armoured trains supported attack to Hill 56, which was a controlling terrain feature south of Hannila village in eastern side of the railway. The train used in this particular attack may have been the Russian heavy armoured train with the Ukrainski Revolutsija / Putilovian artillery wagon both mentioned earlier. It stopped only some 250 meters from the White Army positions and then released a hail of bullets and shrapnel lasting 20 minutes towards them. However such an arrogant attack proved to tempt fate too much - return fire from trenches of White Army hit the ammunition wagon, which was part of the armoured train, and the wagon disappeared to thunderous explosion. Crew of this armoured was lucky to have other (likely Fredriksberg-made) Armoured Train 4 covering its back, or otherwise it might have failed to retreat back to safety behind the Red lines. Ukrainski Revolutsija / Putilovian returned to Russia for repairs.

24^th: The Whites attacked to Näätälä village southeast of Kavantsaari. Their goal was to cut railway connection between that the Reds had between Viipuri and Kavantsaari. First their succeeded pushing back the Reds, but the counter-attack pushed them back and in the end they had to retreat back to the same positions they had started their attack.

25^th: In Rautu 3 separate units of White Army all belonging to 1^st Regiment of Carelian (Army) Group commanded by Captain Georg Efvengren adnanced across Russian border in Palkeala with plan to destroy railway bridges in Russian side of the border to cut the railway connection that the Reds were using to supply their bases in railway-stations of Raasuli and Rautu in the Finnish side. The regiment was very much Elfengren's creation with only one battalion stationed in Kiviniemi having existed earlier and being created of volunteer troops (White Guards), which typically had almost no military training. In addition it was poorly armed having only rifles and single 76 VK/04 mountain gun installed on a sleigh. Elfvengren had bigger hopes for this operation, which had apparently planned and launched without knowledge or approval of his superior Aarne Sihvo, who apparently also was not aware that Elfvengren's regiment was about to cross border to Russia as part of its operation. What is known suggest, that Elfvengren had had intended to keep Raasuli railway station and hoped that its capture would allow successfully attacking Rautu from its rear. His troops succeeded damaging Sahakylä and Viisjoki railway-bridges plus water tower of Lempaala railway station in 25^th – 26^th of March. However their attack to Raasuli railway station, which first captured the train station turned into failure mainly due to armed train of the Reds, which arrives from direction of Rautu during the battle. Attack to Rautu railway station, which was the main base of Russian military and Finnish Reds in this part of the frontline raged 44 hours, but failed. The Reds were using the armed train to transport supplies to Raasuli and Rautu. The operation had failed to reach it main objectives, partly due to losses of officers, which included both battalion commanders of the regiment, but also because the resistance that they met had been severely underestimated. The failed operation caused the Russians to reinforce their troops in Rautu.



PICTURE: 2^nd Heavy Artillery Battery of Finnish White Army on a train on the way to Carelian Isthmus. Field artillery of Finnish White Army was mostly equipped with light field guns, so heavier artillery pieces such as old 107 K/77-piir guns that this artillery unit trained in Pietarsaari Artillery School were uncommon. This unit was sent to frontlines in 29^th of March 1918 and was one of the first military units sent to reinforce troops of Finnish White Army in Carelian Isthmus. Photographer unknown. Photo source Museum of Central Finland (Keski-Suomen Museo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY NC ND 4.0 Creative Commons license xx CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (195 KB).

30^th: Finnish White Army General Headquarters sent VIII Jaeger Battalion (VIII Jääkäripataljoona) as reinforcements to Carelian (Army) Group. It was the first of new infantry units of White Army created from conscripts during the war and had personnel, who had only few weeks of military training, but their military training was still much superior to that of voluntary troops (White Guards) of White Army or their main enemy - Red Guards. The battalion was commanded by Captain Karl Lennart Oesch and was sent to reinforce troops in Rautu, which with its concentration of Russian troops and Finnish Red Guards was a threat in flank of already planned future Finnish White Army offensive intended to capture Carelian Isthmus and city of Viipuri.

Instead of waiting for reinforcements sent to him Captain Eflvengren again launched attack with his regiment against Rautu railway station, now deciding to try frontal assault, but with little success. Troops he had for the attack were less numerous and more poorly armed than the enemy defending Rautu railway station.



PICTURE: Captain Georg Elfvengren (first from the left) photographed with some personnel of his regimental HQ during Finnish Civil War. Like many officers of Finnish White Army Georg Yrjö Elfvengren (1889 - 1927) was a Finn career officer in Russian Army. Him also being nobleman and monarchist was not rare either, but what made him unusual was his level of involvement to Russian Civil War as hardcore anti-Bolshevik. He served in World War 1 as cavalry officer and got awarded for recon operations, got jailed as suspect linked to Rasputin's murder. He returned to and joined Finnish White Army in February of 1918. As its regimental commander he proved very hard working, but also quite willing to fabricate intelligence and falsify reports for boosting his career, while also poor at infantry tactics. His troops executed numerous persons suspected as spies in Kiviniemi without any kind of judicial process and shot their prisoners already when they Raasuli railway station the first time. Following his career in Finnish Army ending as Lieutenant Colonel Elfvengren became commander of North-Ingrian Regiment, which had its own miniscule state of Kirjasalo in June 1919 - July 1920 while launching with Nikolai Judenits attack towards Petrograd. After that he continued to Russian Civil War, becoming Major General for Russian White Army and after losing continued his fight against the Bolsheviks in more clandestine manner. Year 1925 he travelled Russia with false passport, was jailed and at year 1927 executed in Moscow along 19 counter-revolutionary Russians. Photographer unknown. Photo crop. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (135 KB).

April

1^st: Captain Elfvengren launched again frontal attack towards Rautu railway station and ordered also just arrived VIII Jaeger Battalion to join the attack although some parts of the battalion and field artillery sent along it as reinforcements were still on way plus enemy armed train operating in between Rautu and Raisuli remained to be a threat even in that case if the railway station would be captured. Captain Oesch, who commanded VIII Jaeger Battalion considered the attack so ill-prepared, that it had no hope of success and made it known. Resulting argument between captains Elfvengren and Oesch required Major Sihvo to visit and reconcile situation between his two subordinates. Being regimental commander Elfvengren was made to keep command in Rautu with Oesch becoming his subordinate.

At the evening VIII Jaeger Battalion come up with a plan for getting rid of armed train. Elfvengren's troops had tried demolishing sections of rails with explosives, but that had been been spotted and rails being repaired. Jaegers decided to set up two companies in ambush and removed few rails in hope that the Reds operating the armed train would not be at night able to spot missing rails in time. This proved a success - the train got derailed and ambushing force riddled it with such a hail of bullets, that what remained of its crew abandoned the train of six train cars, which was found to have in total six machine guns and great deal of supplies, which included train car full of artillery ammunition.

2^nd: Early in the morning force of two Russian companies and 80 men from Finnish Red Guards were sent from Raisuli railway station and tried recapturing the armed train, which had been derailed and captured by VIII Jaeger Battalion during the night. But the Whites drove them back with very heavy losses. Having received additional machine guns and having taken those captured from the armed train to their own use VIII Jaeger Battalion had devastating firepower. Losing their armed train and railway connection to Russian border was definitely bad news for the Reds in Rautu railway station, as it meant losing their route for supplies and reinforcements. While Russian troops and Red Gaurds in Rautu railway station had earlier been partly sieged, they were now surrounded from all sides. As if this had not been enough, careless handling of handgrenades stored in same building as HQ of the Reds in Rautu railway station caused grenades and other explosives stored there to explode causing considerable damage. White Army troops besieging the station exploited the situation by launching yet another attack towards it, which had some success, but after hand-to-hand combat with bayonets and rifle butts ended up being repelled. What is known the Reds besieged at the station still had some 40 machine guns, so they had no shortage of firepower and still also had plenty of men (depending source likely in total about 1,600 - 1,800 combatants and several hundred civilians).



PICTURE: Photograph taken in positions belonging to troops of Finnish White Army in Rautu Front. Notice snow camo with hat covers and camo jackets. Photographer unknown. Photo source Photo Archive of Vapriikki (Vapriikin kuva-arkisto), acquired via siiri.tampere.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (118 KB).

4^th: The Whites launched again attack towards besieged Rautu railway station at 17:00. The pocket around the railway station was the time only about 200 meters x 600 meters in size. After all reinforcement now having arrived, the attacking force was now notably more powerful than before, but also poorly co-ordinated with artillery support being slow and inaccurate and various units not starting attack simultaneously. Attacking force came under heavy fire, battle raged for hours with heavy losses on both sides and smoke from burning buildings covering the battlefield, but ultimately the attack failed. VIII Jaeger Battalion in particular had suffered heavy losses during the day, with only its remaining strength being only about 400 men out of original 750 men. However the siege continued and the Whites prepared for another try.

5^th: Siege of Rautu railway station ended in surprising and extremely bloody manner. During the night Lieutenant Prigorovski and 2^nd Lieutenant Pining, who commanded Russian troops in the station had decided to break trough the siege and head to Raasuli with their troops. At least officially the main reason for the decision seems to have been the danger of facing ammunition shortage. Damaged railway bridges plus losing the armed train had cut their supply route, explosion of grenade storage had reduced existing ammunition stockpile and repulsing attacks had depleted their remaining storage. Raasuli railway station south-east was some 8 kilometers away towards as the crow flies, closer to Russian border and like Rautu station had large Russian number of Russian troops with smaller number of Finnish Reds defending it - hence their troops retreating from Rautu could expect help from there. But there were few possible routes though terrain covered by half-a-meter snow was major obstacle for men who did not have skies and did not now how to ski either - not to mention civilians they had with them. Railway to Raasuli was guarded by VIII Jaeger Battalion, which had proved to be extremely determined enemy, so the Russian officers decided to first push break through towards west, head to crossroads of Orjanristi and turn to road leading from village of Mäkrä towards south via village of Maaselkä to Raisuli. They had to leave grand majority of their heavy weapons behind with only few machine guns being placed without their mounts on few sleighs, which were available with bolts from machine guns and breech blocks from guns left behind being hidden and some 150 wounded and sick being also left behind, while another 150 who with lesser wounds were taken with. The force also took with it voluntarily or not civilians, which included women and children.



PICTURE: Russian military train captured in Rautu. There seem to be about dozen artillery pieces loaded onboard this train - most of them 76 K/02 field guns. Photographer unknown. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (151 KB).

The besieged Russians and Finnish Reds broke out with force from Rautu railway station around 05:00 and succeeded breaching perimeter west of the pocket running over 50 men and single machine gun from White Guard of Kitee guarding that part of perimeter creating gap hundreds of meters wide, got to crossroads and turned to the road leading to via Maaselkä towards Raisuli. But they did not get much further before running into trouble. Sounds of the battle had alarmed the Whites, which were using nearby villages - including those of Mäkrä and Maaselkä for accomodating their troops and had their regimental HQ in Mäkrä. White troops, some 50 - 75 men, which had been sleeping in Maaselä manor about 200 meters from the road got rude wake when first of the Reds appeared, but quickly arranged defense with two machine guns. Sudden machinegun-fire caused the Reds and the Russians to suffer heavy casualties and their luck did not improve from that. The Reds succeeded silencing and capturing one of the two machine guns, but the Whites who defended the manor succeeded halting their advance. Two companies from VIII Jaeger Battalion had been sent to pursuit and apparently got contact to rear of the column soon after Orjanristi crossroads. Front of the marching column succeeded pushing through Maaselkä with machine gun fire, but once their machine gun crews headed on, rest of the column suffered heavy losses receiving machine gun fire from several directions. Near Kylmänoja stream what remained of the marching column of the Reds tried to find cover east of the road in hollow named Kylmänojannotko, where they found themselves in cross fire of at least three machine guns and were unable to push further. Later this second place of ambush became commonly known as Kuolemanlaakso (Valley of Death) in Rautu. The total number of the Reds that broke out from besieged Rautu railway station and succeeded reaching Raisuli is mostly generated as not having more than 150 - 160. Finnish White Army took 871 prisoners, but the number of those who died in the attempt are not known beyond being several hundred and in addition hundreds of dead also being found among ruins of Rautu railway station.



PICTURE: Road used by the Reds breaking out from besieged Rautu railway station in 5^th of April 1918. The hollow, which was later named as Valley of Death (Kuolemanlaakso) is among the trees behind the telephone polls. Crossfire from several machine guns did not differentiate in between civilians and combatants. Photographer W. A. Sihvonen. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (178 KB).

13^th: In Antrea front Saviour of Carelia softened up positions of the Reds in front of Kannikko with its mountain gun.

The Whites started preparing for their offensive in Carelian Isthmus. Until now 3 Suojeluskunta Regiments and little artillery had been all the troops they had in the Carelian Isthmus, but now that city of Tampere (in Pohjanmaa railway) had been captured and lines of the Reds had broken they had plenty of troops available for further operations. Mannerheim's HQ started transporting in reinforcements from other fronts to Carelian Isthmus and concentrating them for large-scale offensive. Between 14^th – 17^th of April the Whites transferred to the Carelian Isthmus:

• 3 Jaeger Brigades
• Pohjois-Häme (Infantry) Regiment
• Jaeger Artillery Battalion (22 field guns and howitzers)
• 2 Field-telegraph Units

Later by 26^th of April also Vaasa (Infantry) Regiment and Pohjois-Savo (Infantry) Regiment arrived to the Isthmus. At all about two thirds of White Army infanry regiments took part battles in Carelian Isthmus in April of 1918.

19^th: White Army started its offensive in Carelian Isthmus. The numerical superiority that it enjoyed was not that large . It had about 20,000 men attacking against 15,000 Reds, but better leadership and discipline provided it considerable advantage. While the Reds had beaten their heads to the wall by launching one attack after another in Antrea front the Whites decided attack outside this main front and go for the kill. Their plan was to start their attack far from Antrea front in areas along the Lake Vuoksi, where the both sides had by that time had very little troops and the frontline weakly defended. The attack plan had two parts:

1. Powerful and fast sweep across Carelian Isthmus to Viipuri – Petrograd railway running near south coast of the Isthmus. As mentioned earlier, this railway was vitally important to the Reds, as loosing it would cut their main supply route and escape route to Russia.

2. Attack to northwest towards city of Viipuri, destroying the Reds in there and capture the city.

23^rd: Attacking White Army troops reached Viipuri - Petrograd railway and capture parts of it. In several railway stations that the Whites attack the Reds were waiting and bitter fighting broke out. One of these was Raivola railway station, where the Reds defending the station took positions behind piles of wood and proved to be tough enemy. The Reds in Raivola have also armoured train supporting them and the two White Army Battalions lead by Major Reiner Stahel succeed capturing the station only after long and hard battle.

The ill-reputed "General" Kaljunen lead the Reds defending Kuokkala station, which had two armoured trains giving them fire support (one of these two armoured trains may have actually been an armed train). In the end the Whites succeeded capturing also this railway station and the remaining Reds had no other alternative than to retreat. However as usual the armoured trains with their firepower allowed them to retreat relatively safely. The armoured train commanded by Kaljunen heads to Terijoki.



PICTURE: The ill-famed "General" Heikki Kaljunen (1893 - 1938) of the Reds was one of the founding members of local Red Guard in Terijoki. Even if he was wearing what was in essence uniform of General of Russian Army, like grand majority of leaders of Finnish Red Guards he had no military training of any sort, being a saddler by trade. Like many leaders of Finnish Red Guards he was also amateur stage actor, why might partially explain the outfit. He was one of the founding members of Terijoki Red Guard and during Civil War served as commander of Eastern Army for the Finnish Red Guards. During the war he also personally tortured and executed numerous civilians, whom he suspected of being White Army symphatizers. Kaljunen succeeded escaping to Russia, where he served in Red Army and Tseka/GPU, became manager of ski factory at year 1922 and disappearing in Stalin's purges at year 1938. Photographer unknown. Photo source Photo Archive of Vapriikki (Vapriikin kuva-arkisto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY NC ND 4.0 Creative Commons license xx CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (180 KB).

The Whites attacking Terijoki railway station run into enemy armoured train coming from southeast (direction of Russian border). The train started firing towards attacking Whites, who were in serious trouble until the main troop of Hynninen's Battalion arrived with its machineguns and forced the armoured train to back off. After this the Whites captured also Terijoki station.

To secure the part of railway they had captured the Whites destroyed tracks about 1.5 kilometres from Terijoki station. They also took the area along the Russian border in Jäppilä – Kuokkala area under their possession. Russian armoured trains move near the border and the Whites do their best to avoid them.

So now the Whites had three railway stations in Viipuri – Petrograd railway. But their victory was not yet indisputable and the Reds still had their armoured trains, which they could use effectively along this railway. Before loosing Terijoki the ill-famed General Kaljunen gathered 500 Reds to troop transport train, which then followed armoured train commanded by Kaljunen. Both the armoured train and the troop transport train following it headed towards Russian border. Their first clash with the Whites came in Kellomäki, but the trains broke easily through that. Repairing the tracks broken by advancing White troops the trains continued their advance but when they were almost in Kuokkala the armoured train drove onto broken tracks – this made its locomotive to fall off the tracks. The derailed locomotive blocked the tracks it had been travelling. Beside it lay another pair of tracks, but the last railway junction was in Kellomäki station, which the trains had passed earlier. The Reds had no other chance than to return Kellomäki and move their armoured train and troop transport train to another tracks. They did just this and continued their way to Kuokkala railway station, where the Whites had foolishly left only one platoon. Even with their overwhelming numbers the Reds still had to fight the White defenders of railway station before they succeeded capturing it. The Reds suffered numerous wounded (Kaljunen among them) and kept the station for couple of hours until proceeding with their travel towards Russian border in early hours of the 24^th of April. Around 05:30 that morning the two trains reached Russian border and the Reds in them crossed border to Russia.



PICTURE: Soldiers of Finnish White Army on church hill of Valkjärvi. The stone wall they are using for cover might be one surrounding church and graveyard around it. Notice white snow camouflage hat covers and jackets. Photographer W.A. Sihvonen. Photo source Photo Archive of Vapriikki (Vapriikin kuva-arkisto), acquired via siiri-tampere.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (199 KB).

Offensive of the White Army progressed to Viipuri - Petrograd railway also closer to city of Viipuri. Near Kämärä railway station their leading unit, II Jaeger Battalion, run into the Reds, who had heavy Russian armoured train supporting them. In open terrain the armoured train proves to be the Battalion very difficult opponent and the whole advance in this area became halted for a while.

Even if the armoured trains of the Reds seem to have been very active in this particular day, in reality they might have been much more active. Three of their armoured trains spent the whole day in Viipuri because of mechanical failures and other problems demanding immediate repairs. Hence White Army units were lucky not to face them all at once in Viipuri - Petrograd railway.

24^th: The Whites capture Kämärä railway station in the morning. In the end the Red armoured train they had run the day earlier had succeeded delaying their advance, but not stopping it. The Whites capture also town of Uusikirkko. The White Army now had 40 kilometre strech of Viipuri - Petrograd railway well secured by their troops. The Russians had about 6,000 men concentrated just behind the border, but the Bolsheviks decide to keep them there and not to intervene further. If the Finnish Reds were still hoping the Bolsheviks to sent military units to help them, they do so in vain.

Same morning the Whites attacked also on both sides of Tali railway station, where the Reds had at least two armoured trains providing their troops effective fire-support. The battle was fierce with its last part being fought with bayonets and hand grenades, but once it finally ended the Whites were the ones who had the battlefield. However they had not yet captured the railway station and because of armoured train still in there capturing the station would be difficult (another armoured had left towards Karisalmi already earlier). Battle continued until battalion of Whites attacked the station from three directions simultaneously, at which point the Reds decided to abandon it and retreated towards Viipuri with the armoured train covering their retreat.

Also the Whites attacking to Säiniö railway station confronted strong resistance. The battle started in the morning, at afternoon they succeeded capturing the station and for a while it looked like the victory would be theirs, but then Russian armoured train arrived from Viipuri direction and the battle continued if possible even more fierce. Finally the Reds got enough and retreated towards Viipuri with armoured train covering start of their retreat. Soon after the armoured train had left ordinary train, which was transporting Red Guards infantry arrived from Säiniö direction. The rail was intact and the Whites had no time to demolish it, but 2^nd Lieutenant Ahonen succeeded turning the rail switch into wrong position, which derailed this train allowing the Whites to capture it.

However the Whites soon achieved even juicier victory in Säiniö. Russian heavy armoured train, which had been causing so much trouble for them was now heading back from Kämärä. Doing so it headed towards section of railway tracks, which the Whites had broken in Säiniö railway junction. The train succeeded spotting the first section of broken tracks in time, its crew replaced them and the train proceeded past Säiniö, but then faced another section of broken tracks, which its crew did not spot in time and the train got partially derailed. Locomotive crew of Russian heavy armoured train tried to reverse their train back to junction to get it back on rails, but instead in the process succeeded further derailing it. The crew abandoned their train and left it to the Whites who in this way captured it almost completely intact.

The Whites were no active in capturing train stations only in Viipuri - Petrograd railway, also in Antrea they captured Kavantsaari station, which the Reds had abandoned. Before their retreat the Reds had set the station buildings and rolling stock in the railway yard on fire. The train station was full of material - among them 300 railway cars. White Army troops, who captured the station found themselves busy in dangerous work of trying to salvage as much material as possible among the blazing buildings and railway cars. Many of the railway cars contained ammunition, which created several explosions during the salvage attempt. They succeeded salvaging one armoured train (which included at least Ukrainski Revolutsija / Putilovian artillery wagon), 3 locomotives, about 50 railway cars, over 20 guns and much of other property.



PICTURE: Kavantsaari railway station after the Reds had retreated and set it on fire. Photo from Suomen Vapaussodan historia (edition published 1934). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (76 KB).

Even if the Whites had now succeeded cutting Viipuri - Petrograd railway first part of this offensive was not complete success for them. The Reds had succeeded saving their main troops in the Carelian Isthmus and had gathered them to Viipuri, which now became powerful concentration of their troops. Previous experience from battle of Tampere suggested that when besieged to city like this the Red Guards might find the battle spirit and prove capable for fierce resistance.

The threat, which the armoured trains of the Red Guards represented to the White Army, had not disappeared either. This was well proven by one armoured train, which succeeded halting advance of whole XVI Jaeger Battalion from Säiniö towards Viipuri in open terrain. Originally the Whites had planned to attack Viipuri only from this direction, but partly due to this glitch in their schedule they instead decided to besiege Viipuri first.

No matter how desperate the Reds surrounded to Viipuri were their leadership, which had arrived from Helsinki as the Germans had closed it, had decided not personally take part to this battle either. Instead they sneaked to harbour, from where three ships took them to Petrograd, where their Bolshevik allies offered them a refuge. However the remains of Red Guards they abandoned to Viipuri had no such escape – even with all the firepower they had their situation looked bleak with their supplies diminishing and White Army closing in from all possible directions.

26^th: Two White Army infantry battalions lead by Colonel Von Coler tried to advance towards city of Viipuri from the east, but large number of Red Guards machine guns pinned them down and they suffered heavy casualties.

27^th: White Army troops fight against Red armoured train in Simona (Viipuri - Kouvola railway). They win the battle and capture Simona railway station.

By end of the day Whites capture whole Simona - Hovinmaa railway section of Kouvola - Viipuri railway. Now the railway-connection of the Reds in Viipuri towards west to other parts of southern Finland were also effectively cut.

27^th - 28^th: White Army units start besieging the city of Viipuri. However early on the siege was still quite weak.



PICTURE: Corridor of Prison of Viipuri Province after the mass-murder. As in many cities also in city of Viipuri Red Guards had arrested and prisoned suspected White Army supporters & sympahatizers and local prominent figures. In Viipuri they had been locked up in Prison of Viipuri Province, to which group of drunk Red Guardists lead by Hjalmar Kaipiainen attacked at night of 27^th - 28^th of April 1918 and murdered about 30 people, which included not only those prisoned there by the Red Guards, but also former and current prison staff. Kaipiainen, who had been frontline commander of Red Guards in Taipalsaari and his second in command Albin Piskonen both had pre-war criminal histories and were later both shot in illegal executions following capturing of the city. The mass-murder was likely a one of the reasons behind this particularly brutal cleaning of the city. Photographer unknown. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (102 KB).

28^th: The only man from the political leadership of the Reds, who had guts to stay in now besieged Viipuri until the very end was Edvard Gylling. In that desperate situation he and Oskari Ranta tried negotiate cease-fire, but without success. The Reds besieged in city of Viipuri were left with only two options - fight in Viipuri to the last man or try to break through the White Army troops besieging the city. They decided to try breaking through White Army lines in purpose of trying to get to Kymenlaakso region in the west (around city of Kotka), which was still in hands of their comrades.

However White Army had plans of its own. At midnight its attack to Viipuri started with powerful artillery barrage. Attack of the Whites first broke through positions of the Reds in the south and this allowed them to capture the suburbs, but the citadel and Patterinmäki hill with their fortifications offered the Reds good positions, which they succeeded keeping. The Reds succeeded halting advance of the Whites for a while. As mentioned the Reds had decided to try breaking through the siege and now was the time for it.

First of the Red breakthrough attempts was made by about 7,000 Reds and civilian refugees trying to escape towards west through Tienhaara area to road leading towards Hamina. They started this attempt in the evening. Nobody was leading this desperate crowd. They got through Tienhaara area just outside the city, but then run into White Army unit less than 100 men already in crossroads of Naulasaari. The desperate crowd stormed towards positions of the White unit guarding the road and no matter all bullets fired towards them overwhelmed it with their sheer numbers. Last part of the battle in Naulasaari crossroads was spectacle of chaotic slaughter with bayonet and knife stabbing and shots fired from point blank range as the massively outnumbered White Army unit guarding the road was overrun. The remaining Reds and refugees with them continued their trek but they did not get far. Once they reached open fields of Rasalahti they faced more White Army troops, which were now waiting for them. Well-placed machine guns mowed down tightly packed Reds and civilian refugees, who were with them. Momentum for this mass of men dripped out in hail of machine gun fire and they were pinned down in open terrain. White flags started to appear as the survivors of this crowd lost their illusions of being able to escape and surrendered at dawn. From this first crowd maybe 500 died and about 6,000 became prisoners. The Whites lost in total maybe 50 men fighting against these last desperate escape attemps. Second crowd of maybe about 1,500 men following the first one stopped in Tienhaara area and decided to surrender at morning of 29^th of April.

The second breakthrough attempt made by the Reds from city of Viipuri happened towards south to Viipuri – Johannes highway, which was guarded by about 300 soldiers from XVII Jaeger Battalion. They were unable to stop about 1,000 men strong force of the Reds storming at them and the Reds succeeded keeping this hole in the siege open for several hours, during which time over 2,000 Reds succeeded escaping through the gap. Large part of the Reds that used this escape route were later captured, but number of them succeeded escaping to Russia.

29^th: By now that most of the Reds had tried escaping from Viipuri, either succeeding, dying or ending up as prisoners. The Whites could continue to capture rest of the city of Viipuri with relatively little resistance. They did just that with their troops advancing to city from the east and capturing it. From the Viipuri region the Whites took in total over 11,000 prisoners.



PICTURE: Prisoners taken after Battle of Viipuri being marched to in the city to unknown location, which was likely its prison camp. Photographed by Summelius. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (140 KB).

As usual the aftermath of Viipuri Battle involved White Army cleaning the city by killing or arresting persons suspected as Reds. But what was uncommon in this case was violence targeting city's Russian population, in a manner resembdling ethnic cleansing. Before Civil War city of Viipuri was one of the most ethnically diverse cities in Finland with notable Swedish, Russian and German speaking minorities. Total population of the city was at the time about 49,000 people, from which some 3,200 were Russians. Following White Army capturing of the city from those 3,200 estimated 360 - 420 were illegally killed by soldiers during cleansing of the city. The number is known to have included at least 30 persons, who belonged to various other ethnic groups and even foreign nationalities and were presumably shot due to being misidentified as Russians by their executioners. What is ironic is that much of the ethnic Russian population of the city were apparently supporters of Finnish White Army and there were its known supporters among those illegally executed. Investigation launched by Finnish White Army about the illegal killings of Russians failed to find anybody, who had ordered it or even identify the Jaeger officers involved. Later theories have suggested that the killings may have been related to soldiers of the particular units not grasping that the city had established Russian population and not all the Russians were supporting Red Guards. Another theory is that the killings were possibly intended by some officers to create provocation with purpose of getting Russian Bolsheviks to breach Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty in such a significant manner, that it would have secured German support for either launching offensive to Petrograd or obtained German support for Finnish territorial demands concerning parts of Russian Carelia.



PICTURE: Photo probably taken on site of Viipuri massacre committed by Finnish White Army soldiers in fortress at 29^th of April 1918. This was the largest single massacre of Finnish Civil War, with some 200 - 220 people assumed Russian and apparently picked in rather random manner among all people arrested and gathered to railway station being shot at the fortress mount. White Army military units who committed the atrocity were likely Vaasa Regiment (Vaasan Rykmentti) and Kajaani Ranger Regiment (Kajaanin Sissirykmentti), both of which belonged to units, that were under command of Major General Karl Fredrik Wilkman (later: Wilkama). Photographer unknown. Photo source The Labour Archives (Ty&aouml;väen arkisto) , acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY NC ND 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (209 KB).

Prisoners taken by White Army were gathered to prison camp, center place of which was central garrison (keskuskasarmi), which as the name suggests was located basically in middle of city next to Torkkelinpuisto Park. At most there were some 11,350 prisoners placed on the particular camp, which. became one of the main prison camps of the war.

May

14^th: The last remaining Russian military base in Finland was Fort Ino (Inon linnoitus) in Carelian Isthmus. This coastal fortress had large strategic importance as its numerous heavy and super-heavy coastal artillery batteries, which controlled entrance from the Baltic Sea to Petrograd and Kronstadt naval base on the Russian side was also well with-in range of its 305mm guns. Fort Ino was one part of a pair of fortresses, which was intended along Fort Krasnaja Gorka (also known as Yhinmäki in Finland) located to southern side of Gulf of Finland to serve as the last line of defense defending Petrograd (St. Petersburg) from any hostile navy. Fort Ino was by far the largest coastal artillery fort in Finnish sole. In total it had two artillery batteries (8 guns total) of 12-inch coastal guns, two artillery batteries (8 guns total) of 10-inch coastal guns. two coastal mortar batteries (8 mortars total) of 11-inch coastal mortars, two artillery batteries (8 guns total)of 6-inch coastal guns and some field artillery. The Russians finally gave up and left the coastal fort without Finnish White Army needing to storm it - leaving the fort to the Finns, but not intact. In this particular day they demolished its guns and ammunition storage with explosives and then exited to Russia. In Finnish history writing this day is considered the day in which Finnish Civil War ended. The next day White Army troops took over remains of the Ino coastal fort.



PICTURE: Finnish White Army soldiers pose with captured Maxim m/1905 machine gun right after battle of Viipuri / Wyborg in April of 1918. Photographer unknown. Photo source Ostrobotnia Museum (Pohjanmaan museo) , acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY NC ND 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (242 KB).