Bunker No. 6 of the Inkilä Fortified Area

Bunker No. 6 (Finnish designation Ink-6) is a concrete machine-gun pillbox of the Mannerheim Line in the Inkilä fortified area on the Karelian Isthmus. Its ruins lie by the Primorskoye Highway on the Gulf of Finland coast in the Vyborgsky District of Leningrad Oblast, on the way to Primorsk. Together with the neighbouring Bunker No. 7 it covered the coastal road, which is why the pair is often searched for simply as "bunkers 6 and 7 on the Primorskoye Highway".

Design

The Inkilä fortified area was built between 1931 and 1937 and comprised seven permanent firing points. Bunker No. 6 had three casemates armed with Maxim machine guns. Inside were quarters for a garrison of up to 30 men, with a heating stove and a well of its own.

For its time the structure was well equipped:

• forced ventilation;
• a water supply for cooling the machine guns;
• sewerage;
• carbide lamp lighting.

The builders fitted the bunker carefully into the terrain and camouflaged it, so even when it was in service it was hard to spot from a distance.

History: the fighting for bunkers 6 and 7

The defence of the sector was reinforced by the Humaljoki fort and Finnish artillery. In December 1939, at the start of the Winter War, the Inkilä area was attacked by the 7th Separate Infantry Battalion, but the first assault failed against stubborn Finnish resistance.

A new attack was prepared in February 1940. To destroy the fortifications, 152 mm guns of the Baltic Fleet's coastal escort detachment were brought in. Their fire damaged bunkers No. 6 and No. 7: on No. 7 the armour plates were pierced and the front wall was broken. Among those who distinguished themselves in this fighting was Mikhail Mikhailovich Garmoza, later awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The general offensive on the Karelian Isthmus began on 11 February 1940. After several days of fighting the Finnish units withdrew, and both bunkers were left in Soviet hands.

What to see today

Today Bunker No. 6 is badly ruined, but its layout can still be made out. Over more than eighty years the massive concrete blocks with twisted metal sticking out of them have sunk into the ground and become overgrown with moss; nature has finished the camouflage the builders started, and from the highway the ruins are barely visible. Remains of the fortifications are found on both sides of the road. The collapsed sections have holes and crawl passages about ten metres long.

Getting there and safety

The easiest way is by car along the Primorskoye Highway from Saint Petersburg towards Primorsk: the road follows the Gulf of Finland shore, and the bunker ruins begin right by the roadside. The point on the map is on the place page.

The structure is neither guarded nor reinforced: the concrete is crumbling and the roofs have partly collapsed. It is better not to enter the crawl passages and to move carefully over the ruins, especially in wet weather and with children.