page_title: 13th Light Tank Brigade
section_title: Breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line
hierarchical_section_title: 13th Light Tank Brigade / Winter War / Breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line
caption_attribution_description: English: Winter War - Lahde Road Battle - 11/14 February 1940
context_page_description: The 13th Light Tank Brigade was an armored brigade of the Red Army that fought in the Winter War.
  It was formed as the 31st Mechanized Brigade in 1932 at Stary Petergof near Leningrad, assigned to the 11th Mechanized Corps, one of the first armored units of the Red Army. Two years later, the brigade became part of the new 7th Mechanized Corps, and it sent crews to fight in the Spanish Civil War. When the corps was redesignated as the 10th Tank Corps, the brigade became the 13th Light Tank Brigade in 1938. In late 1939, it and the corps participated in the massing of forces on the Estonian and Latvian borders to force their governments to agree to Soviet demands.
  An ambitious plan for the employment of the 10th Tank Corps to encircle Finnish troops in the Karelian Isthmus at the beginning of the war in December quickly failed due to the unexpected strength of Finnish anti-tank defenses, and instead it was tasked with exploiting an anticipated infantry breakthrough in the Battle of Summa. This did not materialize, although the brigade lost several tanks to Finnish artillery while waiting to go into action.
context_section_description: The Soviet offensive began on 11 February with the attack again concentrated along the Vyborg road and within two days the 123rd had broken through the Finnish defenses with tank support. To pursue the retreating Finnish troops and develop the attack on Vyborg, three mobile groups were created, including infantry riding on the tanks, in the 7th Army on 14 February and inserted into the breakthrough on the same day. Moving to the front on crowded roads, they were delayed for hours: the chief of staff of the 13th Brigade recalled that vehicles stood as many as five rows deep. The Soviet senior commanders assumed that Finnish resistance would swiftly collapse, but were quickly proven wrong. The 6th Tank Battalion of the brigade and a battalion from the 15th Motor Rifle and Machine Gun Brigade, forming the group of Kombrig Boris Vershinin tasked with capturing the Leipäsuo station, met fierce resistance and took three days to accomplish their objective; by then, just seven out of the initial 46 tanks remained operational. Meanwhile, Baranov commanded a group consisting of the remainder of the 13th and 15th Brigades, supported by a detachment from the 1st Light Tank Brigade, tasked with capturing the Kämärä railway station in order to exploit the success of the 123rd. Lähde was quickly taken on 14 February despite a stubborn Finnish defense. In the fighting, flamethrower tanks proved effective against Finnish infantry. 
  During this subsequent operations, the 13th operated both as an entire brigade and as single battalions.  On 15 February the Finnish defenders began withdrawing to the intermediate line of defense, which only included sparse field fortifications. By the evening of 15 February, Group Baranov reached Kämärä, which was captured in fierce fighting on the next day. At Kämärä, five Finnish Renault FT and three Vickers tanks were captured, as well as 120 Finnish soldiers, in return for a loss of ten of the 13th's tanks. North of Kämärä station, the group was halted by prepared Finnish defenses on the heights above Lake Mustalampi held by the 3rd Battalion of the 61st Infantry Regiment. The 1st Light Tank Brigade detachment attacked on 18 February towards Hill 45.0 with elements of the 84th Rifle Division and reached the southern slopes of the hill, but had to retreat at nightfall to avoid being overrun by Finnish infantry because the infantry from the 84th refused to advance. By this point, Group Baranov was moving forward from Kämärä to support the detachment.
  A battle group from the 1st Light Tank Brigade detachment commanded by Senior Lieutenant Boris Kolessa captured Hill 45.0 on 19 February, but their advance was stopped when Finnish infantry blew up the road bridge near Pien-Pero.  Kolessa's battle group was encircled in the evening when the road that they advanced from was cut off by the Finnish troops, the 84th again having failed to advance. Though Kolessa was encircled, his presence in the Finnish rear blocking the Hotakka-Vyborg road sowed panic. Group Baranov broke through on the Mustalampi heights on 20 February, and by the end of the day the 13th Battalion, a company of the 15th Battalion, the 205th Battalion and a battalion of the 201st Rifle Regiment of the 84th had reached the southwestern outskirts of Pien-Pero. This advance allowed Kolessa to successfully break out to the Kämärä station area towards the end of the day.
  Due to the slow advance of the infantry, Baranov used a company of the 15th Battalion to carry up to one and half battalions of infantry to the Pien-Pero area on the night of 20–21 February. At 10:30 on the next day, the road between Mustalampi and Pienperio was cut, isolating Group Baranov, Kolessa's detachment, and elements of the 84th with its commander, and Hill 45.0 was retaken by the Finnish. The 6th and 9th Battalions and the 153rd Motor Rifle and Machine Gun Battalion attacked the hill on 22 February, recapturing its southern slopes although losing six tanks from the 6th Battalion.  
  A simultaneous attack on the hill by the 15th Battalion from the north and the 163rd Motor Ri
caption: The Summa breakthrough
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