The Salpa-line Fortification

Älkää pelästykö te kenties vain suomea ymmärtävät, teen pienen testin ja jatkan suomeksi seuraavalla kerralla.

I will make a little test and write one blog with my bad English. That is why that there are some English-readers and, I guess, they have to use some translation programs. I´m interested to see do I get any feedback. My Finnish readers, don´t be afraid. I`ll continue next time in Finnish. On the other hand, it is useful to read this subject also in English, although bad one, to improve yours.

Unfortunately we Finns prefere to dig more mistakes from others English than make better our own. Do as you like, I don´t care.

In the Second World War Finland had to fight twice against Soviet Union. The Winter War began in the end of 1939 and lasted three and a half months. The Continuation War began in the summer 1941 and the truce with Soviet Union was done in autumn 1944. After that Finland had to chase Germans out of Lapland. Finland kept its independence, although it cost lots of sacrifices.

During the Winter War truce and the end of the Continuation War a fortified position of defence was built to secure a new eastern frontier of Finland.

In the Winter War 1939-40 Finland lost part of its eastern territory. Therefore the new boundery had no permanent fortifications. The world situation was still critical. To secure the unsafe frontier the commander in chiech of the Finnish army, Field Marshal C.G. Mannerheim ordered to build a fortified position of defence. It was called later Salpa-line.

The Salpa-line project is still the biggest building site in our country and also in whole Scandinavia. However, almost until nowadays it has been unknown, even for most of the Finns. One reason for that is that there were no battles in Salpa-line and it was kept top secret up to collapse of Soviet Union.

Actually we Finns can say proud in our heart, that while the Iron Wall fell in middle Europe, the part of it, the Salpa-line, stands straight and untouched symbolizing the great will of Finns to defend their country.

Mannerheim decided to fortify the eastern frontier just one week after of the ending of the Winter War. The most important area to fortify was the neck of land between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Kivijärvi, from Virolahti to Luumäki. The distance of that most dangerous part was about 50 - 60 kilometres. It was fortified extremely consistent.

From Luumäki Salpa-line goes to Lake Saimaa. From Saimaa the fortification line goes on up to Lake Pielinen in North Karelia. In this part the fortification relies on waterways, especially lakes.

From Pielinen forward north only the most important directions of road were fortified. The Salpa-line extends to the level of Kemijärvi-Salla in Lapland. The plans and some field fortifications were made up to the Polar Sea.

If I get reasonable feedback, I´ll write in English another blog where I briefly tell some results of the buildingwork.