The Battle of Suursaari was fought over the frozen Gulf of Finland

Gulf of Finland

The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn...

 on and around the islands of Gogland  and Bolshoy Tyuters

Bolshoy Tyuters

Bolshoi Tyuters is an island in the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, located 75 km away from the coast of Finland, to the south-east from Hogland. The island is a part of the Leningrad Oblast, Russia. The area is approximately 8.3 km². There are no permanent inhabitants, save for a...

 . After sharp fighting the numerically superior Finnish forces captured Gogland and Bolshoy Tyuters, and later provided support for German forces defending Bolshoy Tyuters

Bolshoy Tyuters

Bolshoi Tyuters is an island in the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, located 75 km away from the coast of Finland, to the south-east from Hogland. The island is a part of the Leningrad Oblast, Russia. The area is approximately 8.3 km². There are no permanent inhabitants, save for a...

 against Soviet counter attacks.

Background

Soviet forces had occupied Gogland during the Winter War, and, under the terms of the Moscow Peace Treaty, Finland was forced to cede the island to the Soviet Union. As Operation Barbarossa commenced, the Soviets placed a garrison on the island; however, as invading German forces on the mainland moved closer to Leningrad, the Soviet command ordered the evacuation of most of the islands in the Gulf of Finland, as well as their besieged base at Hanko on the Finnish coast.

Soviet forces left the islands of Gogland, Sommers

Sommers

Sommers is an islet and a lighthouse in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland, and arm of the Baltic Sea, just outside the Gulf of Vyborg, about 19 kilometres south of Virolahti, Finland, but it is now possessed by Russia....

 and Bolshoy Tyuters on 7–9 December 1941. Finnish coastal forces noticed that the islands had been abandoned, and manned both Gogland and Sommers with small garrisons by December 12. Poor ice conditions and harsh weather made it difficult for the Finns to reinforce the garrisons, and when Soviet forces returned in company strength on January 2, 1942, the surprised Finns had to withdraw from Gogland.

Capture of Gogland

Determined to retake Gogland, the Finns concentrated a large force in the nearby Haapasaaret Islands, which are roughly 20 km NNE

Boxing the compass

Boxing the compass is the action of naming all thirty-two points of the compass in clockwise order. Such names are formed by the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal directions, and are very handy to refer to a heading in a general or colloquial fashion, without...

 of Gogland. Before the attack Finnish forces opened two roads over the ice to the island's vicinity. Assault troops rode in trucks as far as they could, then, in the pre-dawn hours of March 27, travelled the last five kilometers over the packed ice on skis. The strength of the Soviet garrison was roughly 500 men but it lacked artillery, which meant that the garrison had to fight without support, while the Finns had strong artillery and air support. In many cases defending Soviet forces put up very stiff resistance and refused to surrender, forcing the Finns to use satchel charges on Soviet strongpoints. Small numbers of Soviet troops escaped over the ice towards Moshchny Island

Moshchny Island

Moshchny is an island in the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, located some 120 km west of Saint Petersburg. The island is a part of the Leningrad Oblast, Russia. The area of the island is approximately 13.9 km²....

  though the fleeing men suffered losses as Finnish Air Force fighters repeatedly strafed them.

Air activity was high on both sides. On March 27–28 Finnish Air Force Fokker D.XXI

Fokker D.XXI

-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* De Jong, Peter. Le Fokker D.21 . Outreau, France: Éditions Lela Presse, 2005. ISBN 2-914017-26-X....

, Curtiss P-36 Hawk and Brewster F2A Buffalo fighters claimed a total of 27 Soviet Polikarpov I-153

Polikarpov I-153

The Russian Polikarpov I-153 Chaika was a late 1930s Soviet biplane fighter. Developed as an advanced version of the I-15 with a retractable undercarriage, the I-153 fought in the Soviet-Japanese combats in Mongolia and was one of the Soviet's major fighter types in the early years of the Second...

 and Polikarpov I-16

Polikarpov I-16

The Polikarpov I-16 was a Soviet fighter aircraft of revolutionary design; it was the world's first cantilever-winged monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear. The I-16 was introduced in the mid-1930s and formed the backbone of the Soviet Air Force at the beginning of World War II...

 fighters. Air forces on both sides supported their ground forces with strafing and bombing runs, the Finns using twin engined Bristol Blenheim

Bristol Blenheim

The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...

 and Tupolev SB-2 bombers.

Capture of Bolshoy Tyuters

On March 30, 1942, with Gogland secured, the Finns sent a small patrol to investigate Bolshoy Tyuters. A strong Soviet garrison forced the patrol to depart. A stronger force was sent to capture the island on April 1, and by the time the company-sized force reached the island the Russians had abandoned it. On the following day the Russians returned, and despite Finnish resistance, managed to create strongpoints on the island. With German support, Finnish troops eventually managed to destroy or drive off the remaining Soviets.

Aftermath

On April 8, 1942, after the Germans had transported artillery to the Bolshoy Tyuters, the Soviets launched another attack. The assault force was estimated to have been roughly 1,200 men strong, but the heavy German artillery on the island and lack of cover on the frozen Gulf of Finland caused heavy casualties among the Soviets. After the attack had been repulsed the Finns left the island to the Germans, who occupied it until they evacuated Estonia in 1944. Though the operation to capture Gogland had succeeded, the overall goal of capturing all the main islands in the Eastern Gulf of Finland failed, as the German forces needed for the operation were required to defend against Soviet counter-offensives on the Leningrad Front.