Bunker Ink-7 (Inkilä fortified area)

Bunker Ink-7, or pillbox No. 7 of the Inkilä fortified area, is a Finnish reinforced concrete caponier built in 1934 on the right flank of the Mannerheim Line. It stands by the Primorskoye Highway in Vyborgsky District of Leningrad Oblast, in the Primorsk urban settlement, about 15 km before Primorsk, not far from the Okunevaya River and Zheltaya Bay (Yellow Bay) of the Gulf of Finland.

History of the Inkilä fortified area

The Inkilä sector covered the Karelian Isthmus from Lake Kuolemajärvi, now Lake Pionerskoye, to the Gulf of Finland at Cape Kyyrönniemi. The Finns began fortifying it in 1932. The first two bunkers, Ink-1 and Ink-2, followed French casemate designs; the others, Ink-7 among them, were built in 1933–1934 as flanking-fire caponiers. The sector had seven machine gun bunkers in total, and two of them, No. 6 and No. 7, covered the Primorskoye Highway.

Local historians say the armour plates for the embrasures came from the stores of the Russian fort Ino, blown up in 1918. Ink-7 was designed for two Maxim heavy machine guns firing through narrow embrasures from armoured casemates, with a periscope for watching the battlefield. It had running water, used both to cool the machine guns and for everyday needs, forced ventilation, wells and carbide lighting. The underground shelters of the bunkers in this sector held 12 to 24 men.

Winter War

In December 1939, when the Red Army reached the sector, it was held by the Finnish 7th Separate Infantry Battalion, raised from reservists of Kuolemajärvi parish, so many of its soldiers were defending their own homes. The first Soviet assault on the sector in December 1939 failed. In front of the bridge over the stream the Finns laid mines and anti-tank charges, a 37 mm Bofors gun stood by the road, and the defence was backed by field artillery and the 152 mm guns of the coastal fort Humaljoki (now Yermilovo).

In early February 1940, during the new offensive, artillery fire broke the edge of the front wall of bunker No. 7. The garrison patched the breach with whatever was at hand. After the war Soviet sappers blew the bunker up, like most other structures of the Mannerheim Line.

What to see

Today Ink-7 is a partly ruined concrete casemate with remains of the embrasures and the garrison shelter, with an information board next to it. The neighbouring bunker Ink-6 stands nearby by the road, and granite anti-tank obstacles known as "dragon's teeth" run towards the gulf. An eco trail goes through the forest, the shore leads to Zheltaya Bay, and about half a kilometre south of the highway there is a beach with a view of Cape Kyyrönniemi. The Humaljoki–Inkilä section is part of guided tours of the Mannerheim Line.

Getting there

The bunker stands right by the Primorskoye Highway between Zelenogorsk and Primorsk. Cars are left on the roadside shoulder, a few steps from the structure. There are usually few visitors.