A german PaK 38 position in Gumboritsa, 1942. Don't know much about those german troops and their role in the southern Finnish front so early in the war. Were they given a section of the Syväri front to look after?
Yes.
Did some very brief check through my books:
- When the war broke out, Reinforced 163rd Division "Engelbrecht" assaults Lagoda's Karelia alongside the Finns. They face stiff resistance at Tolvajärvi area and are halted there during august.
- After dealing with the russian pockets at Sortavala, Finns perform a pincer movement at Tolvajärvi. They attack Suojärvi and Tsalkki, while the germans assault Tolvajärvi and Loimola. This happens at the end of august.
- Germans keeps pushing to Suojärvi from Tolvajärvi and Loimola.
- Early september. After a two month pause in the assault, Finns break through at Tuulos, germans are left to guard the rear as Finns advance to Aunus, Podporoze and Lotinanpelto. 163rd Division follows the Finns along Lake Ladoga's shorelines.
- German Infantry regiments 307 and 310 are involved in fighting, assisting the Finns dealing with the Soviet strongpoints that are left behind the lines, along the roads towards the town of Aunus (Olonets).
- Finns reach Syväri. They cross it at some parts of it and begin digging in, mainly on the northern banks.
- German 163rd Division takes defensive positions at the westernmost end of Syväri, where Syväri streams into Ladoga.
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All of the above happens in july - october 1941. Then we have your photo that is set in 1942. I have to dig in deeper to find out what happened to the division afterwards, because to me it looks like the division wasnt present anymore when the Karelian Front assault started in june 20th 1944.
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EDIT: Wiki'ed the division, found what happened in the end:
The German 163rd Infantry Division was raised in November 1939. In April 1940 it was employed in the invasion of Norway, landing at Oslo, Kristiansand, Arendal, and Stavanger. Thereafter it remained on occupation duty in Norway until June 1941, when it was subordinated to the Finnish army to support operations along the River Svir during Operation Barbarossa. In February 1942 it joined the German XXXVI Mountain Corps near Kandalaksha, and remained there until the Germans withdrew from Finland back into Norway in the fall of 1944. In early 1945 it was transferred back to Germany, standing in reserve for a time at Berlin, then destroyed by the Soviets in Pomerania in March.
So yeah, that sums it up.
