Edited map from the work Raunio, Ari, Sotatoimet \u2013 Suomen sotien 1939\u221245 kulku kartoin (Military Operations \u2013 The Course of Finnish Wars in 1939\u201345 with Maps). 3rd edition, Karttakeskus 2013.<\/em><\/p>\nHannuksela\u2019s division (13th D) moved to a defensive position in its area on 19 December, after the first counterattacks. On 24 December, the IV Corps ordered its divisions to prepare for a new counterattack.<\/p>\n
The aim of the attack was to defeat the troops of the enemy rifle division (18th RD) deployed in the Ruhtinaanm\u00e4ki\u2013Lemetti area. In the first stage, the units in the Kitil\u00e4 area (13th D) were to cut off the enemy division\u2019s (18th RD) supply routes to the east by taking control of the road leading to K\u00e4sn\u00e4selk\u00e4 in the area around the Siira crossroads.<\/p>\n
Tiainen\u2019s division (12th D), which fought in the area of the Kollaa River, was to participate in the attack by Hannuksela\u2019s division by sending approximately a battalion of troops to take part in an attack in Uomaa. The target of this attack from the north was the field logistics units of the enemy forces in K\u00e4sn\u00e4selk\u00e4. Hannuksela\u2019s division (13th D) was to also launch an attack on Ruhtinaanm\u00e4ki in the second stage and advance south from there.<\/p>\n
The enemy\u2019s rear routes were cut off<\/strong><\/p>\nThe assault troops of the first stage successfully advanced to the K\u00e4sn\u00e4selk\u00e4 road in the area around the Siira crossroads. The attack cut off the supply road of the 18th Rifle Division to the west for good. Farther east, the enemy\u2019s protection detachments prevented the Finnish battalion from advancing to the village of Uomaa. The attacking troops disrupted the enemy\u2019s transport operations on the Uomaa\u2013K\u00e4sn\u00e4selk\u00e4 road.<\/p>\n
The enemy repelled attacks on Ruhtinaanm\u00e4ki<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/a_521.png\")
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Open fields in Ruhtinaanm\u00e4ki. SA-kuva.<\/em><\/p>\nIn the west, the second stage offensive only succeeded in advancing on both sides of Ruhtinaanm\u00e4ki. The offensive in this area was aborted on 29 December, but the offensive to capture Ruhtinaanm\u00e4ki continued until 3 January. The same day, the detachments that had disrupted the traffic on the K\u00e4sn\u00e4selk\u00e4 road also broke away from their positions. H\u00e4gglund\u2019s corps (IV C) started to assemble the forces for a new counterattack.<\/p>\n
The Ladoga Naval Defence interfered with the enemy\u2019s transport operations on the Ladoga shore road<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Salmi sector of the Ladoga Naval Defence had coastal fortifications on the islands of Lake Ladoga, at the flank of the rifle division (168th RD) that attacked along the Salmi\u2013Kitil\u00e4 road. The Mantsinsaari Fort in particular was able to significantly disrupt the division\u2019s transport operations with both artillery fire and its infantry patrols.<\/p>\n
In December, the 23rd Separate Battalion (23rd SepBn) had been transported from Valamo (Valaam) over the ice to the Mantsinsaari Fort. This increased the fortification\u2019s infantry strength. After the withdrawal of Hannuksela\u2019s division, the fort\u2019s separate bicycle company (4th SepBiCo) started sending patrols to interfere with the enemy\u2019s transport operations on the road travelling along the shore of Lake Ladoga.<\/p>\n
The fort\u2019s troops occupied the north end of Lunkulansaari Island on 20 December. At the end of December, the troops of the Mantsinsaari Fort also occupied a part of the Uuksalonp\u00e4\u00e4 Cape of the island and set up a forward observation site at the tip of the cape. The two 152 mm coastal guns of the Mantsinsaari Fort kept shelling the enemy\u2019s transport units on the shore road throughout December.<\/p>\n
Ari Raunio<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edited map from the work Raunio, Ari, Sotatoimet \u2013 Suomen sotien 1939\u221245 kulku kartoin (Military Operations \u2013 The Course of Finnish Wars in 1939\u201345 with Maps). 3rd edition, Karttakeskus 2013. In the Loimola (Loymola) area, the enemy\u2019s offensive was stopped at the Kollaa River The troops of Tiainen\u2019s division (12th D), which was in charge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":889,"parent":1661,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"custom-templates\/child-level.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1670","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1670"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2924,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1670\/revisions\/2924"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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