Word: koivisto
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...week's end the Russians claimed to have reached the railroad station, but all around the station, in the heart of the city, the weary Finns still held out. They have no hope of holding the city long. Viipuri was condemned when the Finns abandoned Koivisto Fortress, blowing up their heaviest artillery and leaving the Russians a clear road across the frozen Gulf of Finland to outflank the city (TIME, March 4). Last week the Russians took this road. Another force drove past Viipuri to the northeast. And along what was left of three railroads the main body...
...main body of the army began closing in on Säiniö, which a spearhead had reached last fortnight (TIME, Feb. 26). Then, veering to the left, the attack beat against the Finns' right flank guarding the Gulf and the fortress of Koivisto. Over the clean new snow, waves of Russians crouching behind their tanks swarmed over the Finns' weakened positions. Above the fog 200 Russian pursuit planes circled to keep off Finnish aircraft. On the 21st day of battle the Russians reached the Gulf. Koivisto was isolated...
...This action, if successful, would flank the defenders of Summa. At the same time the Russians hit both ends of the Mannerheim Line, along the Taipale River on the east and, on the west, across the frozen Gulf of Finland in an effort to silence the murderous batteries at Koivisto. The Russians used tanks, armored sleds, infantry shields and flamethrowers. Finns estimated the Russian artillery dropped 300,000 shells in 24 hours...
...sign of abating. The Russians pushed on past Summa, heading toward Kämärä on the railroad. Hand-to-hand fighting was general throughout the isthmus, but except in the Summa wedge the Russians made no gains. Russians trying to advance over the ice toward Koivisto were blasted by the Finnish guns of that fortress. Tanks plunged through the shell-shattered ice. So fierce was the shelling that the Finns' gun-bores wore...
16th Day. The Russians reached Kämärä and hammered against the Finnish right flank that cut them off from Koivisto. Between Lake Muolaa and the Vuoksi River the Finnish lines broke. Muolaa village fell and the Russians poured into the narrow strip of land just west of Lake Muolaa. Around the north shore of the lake they pushed and, with only flat ground ahead, they soon made contact with the divisions at Kamara. This broke the back of the Mannerheim Line...