{"id":1699,"date":"2017-11-24T18:08:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-24T16:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-talvisota.digiasites.com\/?page_id=1699"},"modified":"2018-04-26T09:02:03","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T06:02:03","slug":"the-areas-of-kuhmo-and-lieksa-1939","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/en\/battles\/north-finland-group\/the-areas-of-kuhmo-and-lieksa-1939\/","title":{"rendered":"The areas of Kuhmo and Lieksa 1939"},"content":{"rendered":"

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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>\n

Battles in the areas of Kuhmo and Lieksa in the first days of the war<\/strong><\/p>\n

The mountain division (54th MountD) that was deployed at the southern flank of the Soviet 9th Army (9th A) launched its offensive along the Repola (Reboly)\u2013Kuhmo road on 30 November with two mountain rifle regiments (118th MountRR and 337th MountRR). One company (Co\/118th MountRR) attacked in the Kiekinkoski\u2013Kuhmo area on the right.<\/p>\n

The division\u2019s third mountain rifle regiment (81st MountRR) had been replaced with a rifle regiment (529th RR) of the 163rd Rifle Division, which attacked in the Suomussalmi area. The rifle regiment attacked in the Repola\u2013Nurmij\u00e4rvi area. A battalion (Bn\/529th RR) from the regiment attacked in the Lentiera (Lendery)\u2013Lieksa area at the regiment\u2019s left flank.<\/p>\n

The main offensive along the Repola (Reboly)\u2013Kuhmo road by the mountain division (54th MountD) commanded by Brigade Commander Nikolay A. Gusevsky<\/a> reached the Rasti crossroads on 6 December. The fighting on the Kiekinkoski road in the north reached Tyr\u00e4vaara on 13 December.<\/p>\n

Brigade Vuokko deployed to the Kuhmo area<\/strong><\/p>\n

The North Finland Group, commanded by Major General Wiljo Tuompo<\/a>, assumed command of the Kuhmo area on the night of 1\u20132 December and formed Group Ilom\u00e4ki from the troops deployed in the Kuhmo area. Brigade Vuokko was subordinated to the North Finland Group on 4 December for deployment in the Kuhmo area. In practice, the brigade was a reinforced infantry regiment (25th IR). Its reinforcements included the 9th Light Detachment.<\/p>\n

The troops of the brigade, which was commanded by Jaeger Officer, Colonel Aksel Vuokko, had been detached from the 9th Division at the time. It was stationed as the commander-in-chief\u2019s reserve in the Oulu area, where it had been established. The first units of the brigade arrived in the area south of the Rasti crossroads on 6 December. The light detachment (LDet 9) was deployed to Savij\u00e4rvi.<\/p>\n

First battles of the North Karelia Group<\/strong><\/p>\n

One rifle regiment (529th RR) launched an offensive within the reduced area of responsibility of the North Karelia Group. The regiment belonged to the 54th Mountain Division (54th MountD). North Karelia Group was commanded by Jaeger Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Erkki Raappana<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The main forces of the rifle regiment (529th RR) attacked in the Nurmij\u00e4rvi area, reaching Puurunj\u00e4rvi by 4 December. The battalion from the rifle regiment that attacked in the Lieksa area reached Viisikkoj\u00e4rvi by 5 December. The group deployed two separate battalions (12th SepBn and 13th SepBn) in the Nurmes area and its field reinforcement battalion (RBn\/NKG) in the Lieksa area.<\/p>\n

Counterattack by Brigade Vuokko<\/strong><\/p>\n

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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>\n

The main forces of Brigade Vuokko were transported by rail to Nurmes and from there by car to the area south of the Rasti crossroads. The brigade attacked the southern flank of the enemy\u2019s mountain division (54th MountD) with two battalions (I\/25th IR and II\/25th IR) on 8 December. Reinforced with a battalion of Brigade Vuokko (III\/25th IR) that had initially been transported to Sotkamo, Group Ilom\u00e4ki attacked the northern flank of the Soviet division three days later. The offensive\u2019s main goal of defeating the enemy was not achieved, but the attack by the 54th Mountain Division in the Kuhmo area was stopped.<\/p>\n

Withdrawal of Soviet forces from the North Karelia Group\u2019s area<\/strong><\/p>\n

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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>\n

In the North Karelia Group\u2019s area, the front line was drawn at Puurunj\u00e4rvi near Nurmes and at Viisikkoj\u00e4rvi near Lieksa. A Soviet battalion that advanced towards the rear of the North Karelia Group from the direction of Kuhmo was defeated in Savij\u00e4rvi on 20 December.<\/p>\n

The North Karelia Group prepared to launch an offensive in the Viisikkoj\u00e4rvi area on Christmas Eve. Right before the start of the offensive, reconnaissance patrols reported that the enemy troops had left their positions. The Soviet forces in the Puurunj\u00e4rvi area began their withdrawal on Christmas Day. The Finns found the enemy\u2019s defensive positions empty the following day. The troops of the North Karelia Group advanced to the national border on both fronts and afterwards took up defensive positions.<\/p>\n

In Group Ilom\u00e4ki\u2019s area, an offensive was launched on 24 December by Detachment Kekkonen, which had been formed in the Tyr\u00e4vaara area out of approximately two companies. The enemy was forced to withdraw to Kiekinkoski, where the Finns defeated the enemy troops, who had taken up defensive positions, with an offensive that was launched on 28 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. Battles in the areas of Kuhmo and Lieksa in the first days of the war The mountain division (54th MountD) that was deployed at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":935,"parent":1691,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"custom-templates\/child-level.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1699","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1699","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=1699"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2943,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1699\/revisions\/2943"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/talvisota.fi\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}