Word: summa
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...centre of the Karelian Isthmus, tired Finnish defenders stood firm under fresh concatenations of heavy Red artillery, replying with their own shells to break up the enemy's attempts to advance. At the Mannerheim Line's right centre, north of its gaping break-through at Summa, the Red juggernaut inched forward. In the suburbs of Viipuri, out on the ice and islands of the bay, and southwest along the coast where the Reds had won a few footholds, fighting raged as the 105th morning wore on. The Russians claimed that now Viipuri. where the first shots for Finnish...
Against the Summa and Muolaa sectors the Russians sent company after company of their best troops. Each wave advanced as far as it could, then when its ranks began to thin a fresh company came up from behind to join it. Then another and another and another. These were just the tactics the British had used in the Somme, and, as had the Germans in 1916, the Finns were forced to fall back. Fighting fiercely with their puukos (hunting knives), they sold their lives and their soil dearly...
That night the Russians entered the remains of the village of Summa, but the Finns did not admit it until four days later...
14th Day. The drive showed no sign of abating. The Russians pushed on past Summa, heading toward Kämärä on the railroad. Hand-to-hand fighting was general throughout the isthmus, but except in the Summa wedge the Russians made no gains. Russians trying to advance over the ice toward Koivisto were blasted by the Finnish guns of that fortress. Tanks plunged through the shell-shattered ice. So fierce was the shelling that the Finns' gun-bores wore...
15th Day. All across the isthmus the Russians pounded the weary Finns. Sleeplessness, exhaustion and frayed nerves were their allies. In the east, in the centre and at the western end of the line the Finns still held on, but the crack in their line at Summa widened into a breach. Through this breach the Russians kept pouring tanks and men, supported by an incessant bombardment. While their artillery was being moved up to support the continued advance, the Russians kept up the bombardment with planes. The Finns had no respite. Far behind the Russian lines transport was choked with...