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Site Map: Sites 2-5
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3. Voisalmi machine gun and accommodation bunker in Lappeenranta
The Salpa Line is a defence fortification built into the terrain and stretching from the Gulf of Finland to Petsamo in Lapland. Finland began construction of the Salpa Line in early spring 1940. The Winter War had begun in November 1939, and the Salpa Line was meant to secure Finland's inviolability. It was constructed between April 1940 and June 1941; the station was reinforced and improved in summer and fall 1944 after the major Russian offensive. That same year the station's name became established as the Salpa Line or Salpa Station, from the Finnish word "salpa" for latch or bolt. The Salpa Line was Finland's largest construction site, with, at its peak, almost 35,000 people working on it at the same time. The Salpa Line was however never actually used, because war operations did not reach as far as this line of defence.
The Salpa Line includes more than 700 basic fortifications, the bulwarks and bunkers, either concrete or carved into the rock. There are also more than 300 km of stone barriers and trenches to block tanks. In addition, the station is further protected by over 3000 wooden field bunkers and hundreds of kilometres of trenches and barbed wire. The station was designed so that machine guns would form the framework of the defence.
The Voisalmi site remained partially unfinished. The site contains two machine gun nests, two combat centres, an 18-man machine gun and accommodation bunker, and a deep pit which was to have been the site of the never-finished bunker.
Driving directions: Voisalmi machine gun and accommodation bunker in Lappeenranta. Take Taipalsaarentie road (no. 408) from the centre of Lappeenranta. Turn left onto Tyysterniementie road. Drive about 1.8 km. The site is immediately after the Voisalmi Bridge on the left of the road. Parking is available at nearby public parking places.
