"Battle at Portinhoikka Crossroads" Topic

Many years ago (1982 more or less), I was able to visit the Pannsarimuseo (Tank Museum) outside of Hameenlinna, Finland. Below are my notes from the visit, including the map I copied by sketch. I no longer remember if I translated the narrative below, or if it was in English as well as Finnish. The punctuation is a bit strange, which makes me think I translated it myself.

In any case, for my money, this was the most remarkable tank encounter I have ever read about.

Tank Battle at Portinhoikka
June 25, 1944, 1515-1630 hours

On June 25th, 1944; an especially strong Russian artillery barrage commenced on the north-east side of Viipuri Station; and a strong Russian armored wedge plunged over the gap in the line and assaulted the Finnish rear guard, situated on the road from Juustilaa to Viipuri near the Ihantala crossroads, and pushing on to Juustilaa. The Finnish divisional commander threw his armored reserve into the opening created by the Russians. Major H Mikkolan was in the lead tank of a Finnish column of five heavy tanks (2xT34C & 3 x T28), his duty being the destruction of the enemy. As the columns encountered each other, the Finns quickly gained the upper hand, mostly because of their superior marksmanship and the speed at which they engaged the enemy; as they charged in, in spite of the fact that the Russian columns were considerably stronger. At this stage of the battle, the enemy lost six T34/85 and one JSU 152, which was taken by the use of smoke, as the Finnish guns were unable to pierce its thick armor. (The crew abandoned the tank – its morale and will to fight being lost by the smoke, the destruction of their comrades and the flight of the rest of the column).Three Russian tanks (of the six T34) were captured, and being only slightly damaged, they were abe to take part in the following phase. No Finnish tanks were knocked out. Fifteen Russian tanks (13 T34/85 and two JSU 152) fled the field.

Good deal that you documented it, makes for a neat small tactical battle.May try it out in Advanced Squad Leader.

The lower right got a bit cropped. There are 9 T34/85 there, in three groups of three

According to the memoirs of Finnish soldiers, the ISU-152 had a damaged track and could not move (it did not have a rotating turret and could not fight). The crew of the self-propelled gun had no way to repair the damage. After the Finnish soldiers began throwing smoke grenades under the bottom of the vehicle, it became impossible to breathe there, and the Russian crew got out of the vehicle and entered the battle, trying to retreat. All of them died in the battle and no one surrendered. It is unfair to accuse them of cowardice. They fulfilled their duty to the end.

Thank you.
They vertainly performed better than the T34/85 who did flee (as did the other two ISUs) in spite of losses, they still outnumbered and outgunned the Finns.
I believe the ISU was recaptured a few days later

One of the T-34-85 captured in this battle and its winner – KV-1

According to Russian sources, the battle looked like this:

On June 25, 1944, the 27th Separate Tank Regiment (OTP) (21 T-34/85, apparently reinforced by a battery of ISU-152 of the 397th Guards TSAP), following along the Tali-Portinhoikka highway without its lead guard, followed by the 397th Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment itself (a total of 21 ISU-152 and 4 Su-57 "armored personnel carriers") unexpectedly ran into a column of the 3rd Tank Company (3./Ps.Pr) of the 1st Battalion of the Finnish Armored Brigade (1 T-34, 2 T-28, 1 KV-1 and 1 command T-50), most likely supported from behind by a T-26 from the same battalion. Which, incidentally, turned out to be just as unexpected for the Finns, who also had no forward security. The battle was fought at extremely short distances, the terrain conditions significantly limited the possible maneuver.

However, because the Finnish tank company/companies were controlled on the march, and the 27th OTP (separate tank regiment) of the Russians were not. In the ensuing oncoming tank battle, the Russians were ingloriously defeated. The commander of the BT and MV of the 21st Army, Guards Soviet Colonel Shpiller, described the course of the battle as follows:

"…Instead of organizing a circular defense on the achieved line, the tanks and self-propelled guns of the 397th GSAP continued to stand in disarray along the highway and thereby expose themselves to destructive direct fire from the enemy's anti-tank guns, and, succumbing to panic, the regiment commander gave the order to retreat a second time, which further aggravated the situation.

As a result of such battle management, the 27th TP lost unjustifiably over the course of hours:

Burned – 6 tanks
Knocked out – 9 tanks
Stuck – 2 tanks
A total of 17 tanks

In addition, it is necessary to add about the shortcomings of the headquarters, which was unable to provide reconnaissance and coordination of issues of interaction with other branches of the armed forces, the headquarters, lagging behind the combat units, also did not provide timely refueling of combat vehicles with ammunition, as a result of which one tank company was left without ammunition at the most crucial moment."

Note that the Russian tank company had extremely limited ammunition. Of course, this is also a mistake of the Soviet command, but it explains something.

In addition to tanks, the 27th OTR also suffered losses in personnel in this battle.
The lists of the regiment's irretrievable losses for June 25-28, 1944, include 4 officers and 18 sergeants and privates, 19 of whom are tank crews. Of the latter, all four officers and four sergeants are shown killed, six sergeants and petty officers burned and five were missing.

The result of the battle was the actual destruction of the 1st tank company of the 27th OTR and heavy losses of the 2nd company. According to the record book of depersonalized Lenfront tanks, for the month of June the 27th OTP wrote off 6 T-34/85 as irretrievably lost, of which five T-34/85 from artillery fire on June 25, 1944 and one from mines on June 30. In addition to this, the 397th Guards TSAP irretrievably lost two ISU-152.

It is difficult to imagine another explanation for this catastrophe (where, by the way, Soviet tank crews identified the Finnish tanks as T-26s!), other than the complete lack of control over the 27th OTP, both on the march and in combat.

In fairness, it must be said that this is not a typical situation, but a blatant case of sloppiness and neglect of their duties by Soviet commanders.

Finnish trophy, killed in battle with Soviet tanks.

The ISU-152, from which the crew was "smoked out", was completely serviceable, except for the damage to the track, which was immediately repaired. The self-propelled gun was used in combat with a Finnish crew during the same period and was quickly destroyed by fire from Soviet tanks. The second self-propelled gun was damaged, its gun was removed and it was used by the Finns for a long time as a tractor. Afterwards, it was sent to the museum in Parola, after the gun was returned to it.

This ISU-152 survived. Note the damage under the gun mantlet. The armor has characteristic breaches from shells, as far as I understand, ricocheting off the mantlet into the hull…

Thanks Korvessa and Cuprum2 both, seems a really interesting action, and always incredibly useful to have reports from both perspectives. Will give it a go when I have a few ISU-152s, think I have the rest.

Whirlwind beat me to it,
Yes indeed, always interesting to see both perspectives