Four months since the opening of hostilities back in Poland, the Soviet forces finally did something to write home about. Although the fifth consecutive stalemate, a Soviet force fighting at a mere third of it's full strength patiently moved forward tree-by-tree and took over 700 Finnish lives while losing less than 200 of their own men.
The Soviet command knew that circling around the enemy forces and cutting their support lines would be crucial. Unlike the Poles who were looking for an excuse to retreat, the tough Finns would fight to the bitter fucking end and the only way Russia's battered forces could secure any objectives if they took out enemy artillery before it had a chance to vaporize Soviet infantry.
Musti's BT company advanced at high speed along the northern sector and took out several enemy flak positions without losing a single tank. Musti's men stayed well out of range of the flak guns while the two BT-7A artillery tanks lobbed high explosive shells at the positions, and the only damage the 20mm guns could inflict on any of Musti's tanks was to disable the main gun on one of them.
Homer Jay's recce squadron supported the BT company and survived the battle largely unscathed, although they did lose two horses and six men to a fougasse bomb:
Fuchs' paratrooper company and LHeureux's conscripts were the only infantry companies the Soviets had available for the battle, as Hjaldrgud's skiiers had been erased by Finnish artillery in the previous battle and will take a few more engagements to repair. Fuchs' paratroopers fought bravely and defeated several Finnish rifle platoons and lost only 11 men in the entire battle, 6 of which were lost to fougasse:
It was the first time any Fuchs' men had been warm since the war started.
LHeureux's conscripts (what was left of them from the last battle) rode to the front lines aboard three ZiS trucks, and the two still-working AT guns belonging to von Mudra's 45mm battery rode with them. The conscripts were surprisingly resilient in battle and held off repeated infantry attacks while Muddy's guns lobbed monster 45mm high explosive shells at the enemy. LHeureux himself personally killed a Finnish marksman, a bullet fired from his Nagant carbine going right through where the Finnish sniper's soul would have been if Finnish people had souls.
The battle also saw, finally, the first tank kill for Kaptain Tankbuster. After admittedly missing his first six shots, the seventh was on the money as his 76.2mm 1931 anti-aircraft gun on his SU-6 nailed a Finnish Vickers 6s tank 1350 meters. A monster kill!
The battle was an 83-turn marathon that see-sawed back and forth and ended once more in a draw. Kalkalash's Cossacks, Battleaxe's 37mm AA guns and Afterdune's men were committed to defense of the Soviet headquarters and artillery, and Born2Kill's rocket battery and both 107mm howitzers under Graf Radetzky's command rained hell down on Finnish positions.
The final score ended well enough for the Soviets that they were able to completely repair their BT company, their T-26 company, their T-35 platoon, and the paratrooper company.
After this 83-turn marathon battle, the following fight (a Delay against Finland once more, like the fourth battle of the campaign) is just 13 turns, taking place over about a quarter of the ground as previously. Finland will not have long to secure the Russian-held objectives, but they will be able to concentrate a fuck of a lot of fighting power on a line held only by some scarred and limping Soviets...
