Lähde — Yakovlev against the Mannerheim bolt
After the Summa breakthrough Timoshenko relaunches the offensive at once. From 11 to 14 February 1940 the Soviet , supported by the and 400 guns, attacks the Lähde sub-sector — a weak point of the Mannerheim Line, where the frozen marshy ground limits the depth of the Finnish fortifications.
General Yakovlev commands the attack. He has a tactical novelty at his disposal: the KV-1 tanks (Kliment Voroshilov), prototypes weighing 47 tons, with 75 mm of armour — proof against the Finns' 37 mm Bofors anti-tank guns. Concentrated artillery fire: 300,000 shells on five kilometres of front in four days.
On the Finnish side, the (General ) holds with 8,000 men against 35,000 Soviets in the front line. Ammunition at the minimum. Talvela telegraphs Mannerheim on 12 February: "Forty-eight hours more. No longer."
Yakovlev must decide how to exploit the budding breakthrough.
How should Yakovlev exploit the budding breakthrough?
Yakovlev applies B. From 14 to 17 February the widens the breach: 8 km deep on a 14 km front. The Finnish 3rd Division is destroyed as an operational unit. Talvela orders general withdrawal to the intermediate Karhula-Säkkijärvi line. On 17 February 1940 Mannerheim telegraphs the Ryti government: "The defence of the Isthmus is finished. Prepare for peace." It is Lähde that forces the decision to negotiate. On 6 March, delegation to Moscow. Peace of Moscow signed on 12 March. Yakovlev, despite his victory, was dismissed by Stalin in July 1940 for the enormous losses (60,000 Soviet dead in the February offensive on the Isthmus). Arrested, tried and shot in September 1941 the day after the Barbarossa disaster. Posthumously rehabilitated in 1957.
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