Valuable lessons from the Battle of Tali–Ihantala
The?Battle of Tali–Ihantala?(June 25 to July 9, 1944) was part of the Finnish-Soviet?Continuation War?(1941–1944), which occurred during World War II. The battle was fought between?Finnish?forces—using war materiel provided by?Germany—and?Soviet?forces. To date, it is the largest battle in the history of the?Nordic countries.
Numbers
The Soviet's sources claim to have 60k but most people agree the real numbers of the Soviet army were 150k. Now for the Fins, we have at first 50k strong troops later joined by as many forming a total of 100k, alongside 4k German troops supporting the Finnish.
Leaders
Some very interesting names pop up here as the Soviets have the following generals:
For the Finnish-German Forces, we have :
First Look
The number and material are on the side of the Soviet forces since we are talking about an early 1 to 3 advantage and more diverse forces since they bring to the battle SPG and tank regiments and a large number of bombers, fighters, and artillery(around 1,6k).
The Finnish forces here have 1 armored division made from captured Soviet tanks and German Stug IIIs, around 340 planes, and a total number of 100k troops in the last days.
Now the battle area wasn't large, which favors the fewer Finnish troops since they are familiar with that area and can easily and fast maneuver.
Battle
From June 20-24 the Finnish troops were hit by artillery and planes but managed to defend against a Soviet attack.
From June 25-26 soviet forces start with heavy artillery and air bombardment to soften the defenders to advance to Imatra-Lappeenranta-Suurp??l? before June 28. Soviets want to break through along both sides of Lake Leitimoj?rvi. Though these attacks are repelled, the Soviet 27th Tank Regiment manages to push through. The Soviets also attacked with the 178th Division over the Saarela Strait, which was defended by Finnish regiment JR6's 1st battalion, but the attack was thrown back here as well. Meanwhile, the Soviet 97th Corps attacked the Finnish 3rd Brigade's positions but gained little ground. At this stage, the situation was very critical for the Finns, whose units were at risk of being cut off and surrounded. This would inevitably have led to the defeat of the Finnish IV Corps and the loss of the VKT line.
The Finns were able to organize a counterattack with the reserves of the 18th Division, parts of the 17th Division, and some battle groups from the 4th Division. Later that afternoon, the Finnish armored division joined the battle and managed to push the Soviet attackers on the west side of Lake Leitimoj?rvi back to their starting point. The Soviet 27th Tank Regiment was annihilated except for six tanks that were captured by the Finns.
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June 27–30
As the battle continued, additional Finnish units joined with the German 303rd Sturmgeschütz brigade. The Finnish units had been spread out and mixed in with other units, making it difficult to organize a concentrated defense. They were reorganized into two battle groups, BG Bj?rkman, and BG Puroma. The Soviets also reinforced their forces with the 108th Corps; at this stage, Soviet forces included at least one armored brigade, two armored breakthrough regiments, and four assault gun regiments (around 180 AFVs if full strength).
The Finns tried to regain the initiative by attacking the Soviet divisions—that had broken through the east of Leitimoj?rvi—from three directions, to make a "motti" of the Soviet divisions. The two battle groups, Bj?rkman and Puroma, did manage to advance to within one kilometer of each other but failed to surround the Soviets who had set themselves up into a hedgehog defense around Talinmylly.
The Finnish attack on Talinmylly failed because of heavy Soviet resistance, especially with mass tanks and artillery. Colonel Puroma said after the war that he regretted not making a motti out of Talinmylly. The attack gave the Finnish defenders 72 hours of respite at the same time as the fresh Finnish 6th and 11th Divisions reached the battlefield. Several tank battles took place during this fighting.
On June 28, both sides had high activity as Finnish bombers and German Stukas pounded Soviet formations, and Soviet planes hit Finnish troops hard. On June 28, Finnish commander Oesch gave the order for Finnish units to withdraw back to the line of Vakkila–Ihantalaj?rvi–Kokkoselk?–Noskuanselk? (still within the VKT line), but they became caught up in a new Soviet offensive. In the sector of the 18th Division, in Ihantala one powerful barrage by 14 Finnish artillery battalions (~170 guns and howitzers) destroyed or damaged at least 15 Soviet tanks.
June 29 was a hard day for the Finns, but they didn't give up. They fought hard and retook their positions. On June 30, the Finnish forces retreated from Tali. The heaviest fighting took place between July 1 and July 2 when 800 men died each day.
In the critical Ihantala sector of the battle, the Finnish defenders managed to concentrate their artillery fire. They were guided by a clever fire control system developed by Finnish Artillery General Vilho Petter Nenonen, which enabled easy fire correction and quick changes of targets. At the height of battle, as many as 21 batteries, totaling some 250 guns, could be firing at a target simultaneously; the fire controller did not need to know where individual batteries were located to guide their fire.
The Finnish artillery fired a total of 122,000 artillery rounds during the battle. This was considered a world record at the time (In fact, the Finns fired more rounds in 8 days period than the Soviets did in 5 days). These fire missions managed to halt and destroy Soviet forces that were assembling at their staging areas. Thirty times, the Soviet forces destroyed were larger than battalion size.
On July 2, 1941, the Finns intercepted a radio message that the 63rd Guards Rifle Division and 30th Armored Brigade were about to launch an attack on July 3 at 04:00 hours. The following morning, two minutes before the supposed attack, 40 Finnish and 40 German bombers bombed the Soviet troops, and 250 guns fired a total of 4,000 artillery shells into the area of the Soviets. At this time, 200 Soviet planes and their infantry started to attack the Finnish troops from 07:00 until 19:00 hours. By 19:00 hours, the Finnish troops had restored their lines.
It is surprising how close the Soviet artillery fired during the period of 21 June to 7 July, when compared with the Finnish artillery. This suggests that the Soviet forces had some logistics issues. The field artillery of rifle divisions was also relatively light when 70-75% of guns were 76 mm while only 30% of Finnish field artillery was light. According to Soviet statistics, the average fired field artillery shell in 1944 was just 12.5 kilos. In Tali–Ihantala, Finns focused on one-minute barrages where the average weight of shells was 20-24 kilos.
On July 10, Soviet forces were ordered to stop their offensive operations and take up defensive positions as the Stavka redeployed troops to the Baltic fronts, where German and Baltic forces were putting up a stubborn resistance.
Lessons
Although Soviet forces had more troops, tanks, and aircraft the clever defense setup of the Fins and the small operational area gave them a large advantage. The moment where Finnish force could have been destroyed the clever and fast deployment of reserves, and the smart use of artillery fire concentration and determination of Finnish soldiers did make up for the difference in material and numbers. The clever use of artillery #tactics seemed to have played a large role in this battle. Of course, one shouldn't leave out the radio interception the Finns did which clearly gave them an important advantage as they waited for the attacking troops to concentrate on their respective points and bombed them making them cancel it.
Sources:
https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=215
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tali%E2%80%93Ihantala