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About a month ago I took part in a bunker cleanup subbotnik, organised by the Fortification History Club, supported by the "Silver Ring" centre for culture and history. The bunkers of the Krasnogvardeisk fortified region have been neglected since the end of the war and either became garbage dumps for local villagers or simply remained piles of moss-covered concrete by roadsides. Our little group decided to contibute to the preservation of these bunkers by cleaning them from rubbish, tree branches and leaves, as well as attaching special memorial plaques to them. After so many years, these simple cookie-cutter concrete boxes remain some of the starkest testaments to the most desperate days of the Battle of Leningrad in August - September 1941, being both war relics and battlefields at the same time.
Constructed in great haste in a couple of months after the beginning of operation Barbarossa, the Krasnogvardeisk fortified region guarded the southern perimeter of the city, starting on the coast of the Gulf of Finland (a bit east of Peterhof), went further south to Gatchina and reached Kolpino in the east at the left bank of the Neva. On the map below St. Petersburg (Leningrad then) is in the upper part and the city inside the bulge is Gatchina (Krasnogvardeisk then). The area we went to is just to the north of Gatchina, right where the road to Leningrad crosses the red line.
The group initially split up and a few people came to clean up the bunker in a hard to reach area, while most people arrived at the site of the second bun, located on the motorway from St. Petersburg to Gatchina. All trash was promptly cleaned up and a plaque was attached to the bunker.
"A no less grave situation appeared on the left flank of the defensive belt along Izhora river, where the detachments of the 1st company were garrisoned between two highways. Here the platoon of junior lieutenant Sokolov, which occupied the pillbox next to the Kievskoye highway, fought successfully. In cooperation with an army battery of 76mm guns, which was located nearby, the bunker's garrison fired at the enemy which appeared from the south.
But then the ammunition ran out. German submachinegunners started penetrating into the rear areas of the company and the threat of encirclement appeared. Having blown up the bunker, Sokolov's platoon retreated to the north together with the army battery along the Kievskoye highway and went further towards Pushkin. Thus, by the end of September 11, the line on the northern bank of Izhora was abandoned by the battalion". G. Koval, Y. Smirnov "History of 276 OPAB [bunker battallion]"
Periscope
Plaque
View of road from the approximate location of the bunker's embrasure
It's a bit late now, I'll finish it next evening.
Constructed in great haste in a couple of months after the beginning of operation Barbarossa, the Krasnogvardeisk fortified region guarded the southern perimeter of the city, starting on the coast of the Gulf of Finland (a bit east of Peterhof), went further south to Gatchina and reached Kolpino in the east at the left bank of the Neva. On the map below St. Petersburg (Leningrad then) is in the upper part and the city inside the bulge is Gatchina (Krasnogvardeisk then). The area we went to is just to the north of Gatchina, right where the road to Leningrad crosses the red line.
The group initially split up and a few people came to clean up the bunker in a hard to reach area, while most people arrived at the site of the second bun, located on the motorway from St. Petersburg to Gatchina. All trash was promptly cleaned up and a plaque was attached to the bunker.
"A no less grave situation appeared on the left flank of the defensive belt along Izhora river, where the detachments of the 1st company were garrisoned between two highways. Here the platoon of junior lieutenant Sokolov, which occupied the pillbox next to the Kievskoye highway, fought successfully. In cooperation with an army battery of 76mm guns, which was located nearby, the bunker's garrison fired at the enemy which appeared from the south.
But then the ammunition ran out. German submachinegunners started penetrating into the rear areas of the company and the threat of encirclement appeared. Having blown up the bunker, Sokolov's platoon retreated to the north together with the army battery along the Kievskoye highway and went further towards Pushkin. Thus, by the end of September 11, the line on the northern bank of Izhora was abandoned by the battalion". G. Koval, Y. Smirnov "History of 276 OPAB [bunker battallion]"
Periscope
Plaque
View of road from the approximate location of the bunker's embrasure
It's a bit late now, I'll finish it next evening.
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