Taking eastern motti at Luelahti
In early February 1940, a triple motti was formed in the Luelahti area in connection with a Finnish counterattack. The Finns captured the middle motti, known as Headquarters Hill, on 3 March and continued the attack to take the eastern motti on 4 March. The eastern motti, comprising of four terrain features, was taken after about four days of fighting.
Formation of the triple motti at Luelahti
The Luelahti area was encircled by the Finns following an attack that began on 29 January 1940. Infantry Regiment 27 cut off the road on the eastern side of the Saunajärvi village and Detachment Ruotsalo cut off the road on the western side of Luelahti. Later, the 1st Battalion of Infantry Regiment 65 (1st/Inf Regt 65), led by Major Yrjö Hakanen, cut off the road once more between Luelahti and the Kannas farm (at the location of the Kaakkurinlampi Pond). The pressure from the Finns divided the Luelahti motti gradually into three parts, which were named Western Motti, Headquarters Hill and Eastern Motti.
Taking over Eastern Motti
The commander of the Eastern Motti was Senior Lieutenant Krytsov, who had positioned his troops in mutually supporting posts at four terrain features.
Detachment Hakanen launched an attack to take the Eastern Motti at 6 p.m. on 4 March and captured the first terrain feature at 5 o’clock the next morning.
The detachment continued the attack that evening and captured the second terrain feature on the morning of 6 March. The attack was then stopped because of troop fatigue.
The attack continued to the fourth terrain feature on 7 March at 7:15 p.m. with heavy preparation fire (about 1,500 shells), and the enemy started to disengage the next morning at 10 a.m. Around 300 men started to flee towards the Western Motti of Luelahti and 100 men towards the south.
The terrain feature was cleared of the enemy during 8 March. In total, about 230 enemy soldiers were killed and around 150 captured. Among the captured were the assistant chief of artillery, a doctor, a political commissar and two pilots.
Large war booty
The seized motti yielded a lot of war booty. The most significant loot were a four-engine bomber, a twin-engine bomber and three fighter planes that remained on the ice of Lake
Saunajärvi. In addition, a tank, two artillery pieces, six machine guns, just under 300 rifles and plenty of other material were recovered from the motti.