December battles and interlude

The brigade was reinforced by a rifle and machine gun battalion from the 15th Motor Rifle and Machine Gun Brigade for the advance. The corps began advancing towards Kiviniemi behind infantry units on 1 December,^[16] having to overcome the strong Finnish anti-tank defenses, which included seven anti-tank ditches and seventeen rows of dragon's teeth between the border and Kiviniemi.^[13] The 9th Tank Battalion and infantry captured Riikola on the next day after an artillery preparation and approached Suurporkku, where the infantry were stopped by machine gun fire and the tanks by dragon's teeth and a ditch. After making gaps in the defenses by the morning of 3 December, the 13th Tank Battalion, 205th Reconnaissance Battalion, and 158th Rifle and Machine Gun Battalion attacked Suurporkku, which they captured by the end of the day before moving to Rautu. The 15th Battalion reached the village of Suokas on 4 December, but lost one tank destroyed by a mine and two by anti-tank guns while trying to cross an anti-tank ditch.^[17] These obstacles slowed the advance of the corps so that they did not reach Kiviniemi until 5 December, and the planned decisive breakthrough of the corps failed as Finnish troops covering the border retreated to the fortified Mannerheim Line and blew up the bridges over the Vuoksi before the corps could capture them. The 1st and 13th Light Tank Brigades came under fire from the line before the corps was withdrawn to the army reserve on 6 December.^[12] As a result of these operations, the Red Army command concluded that independent massed tank operations were impossible in Karelia.^[15]

Instead, the corps was shifted to the western part of the isthmus to exploit the planned breakthrough of the 50th Rifle Corps along the Vyborg (Viipuri) road in the Battle of Summa. By 16 December, after a series of marches, the brigade concentrated in the village of Peinola, tasked with exploiting the breakthrough of the 123rd Rifle Division by advancing towards the railway stations of Lähde and Kämärä and capturing the Tali railway station.^[12] The brigade moved up to the frontline on 17 December, with the 205th Reconnaissance Battalion in the first echelon. A detachment from the battalion consisting of a tank company, three flamethrower tanks, a rifle platoon and two artillery tanks was tasked with capturing the Tali station. Behind the 205th, the 9th Tank Battalion with three flamethrower tanks attached was assigned to capture the Kämärä railway station, supported by the 13th Tank Battalion. The 6th Tank Battalion stood ready to exploit an anticipated breakthrough at Yläsäiniö. The Soviet forces making the initial attack on that day, a regiment of the 123rd Rifle Division and a battalion of the 20th Tank Brigade, were faced by one battalion of the Finnish 15th Infantry Regiment.^[18] The tanks from the 20th reached the Finnish rear, but the infantry refused to move farther than the first Finnish trench line,^[19] forcing the former to retreat at nightfall.^[20]

Meanwhile, corps commander Komdiv (division commander) Prokofy Romanenko personally ordered the 9th Tank Battalion to attack at 13:00, claiming that the 123rd had broken through and the 1st Light Tank Brigade was already going into action. Two hours later, the battalion moved forward but the breakthrough had in fact not materialized and it was stopped by the first line of dragon's teeth, where a flamethrower tank from the 8th Combat Support Company was set on fire by a direct hit from an artillery shell, killing its driver. When the T-28 medium tanks of the 20th Tank Brigade returned from their attack, one of them ran over a BT-7 from the 205th, disabling it. The 13th Brigade remained on the frontline exposed to heavy shelling until they were ordered to pull back on 13:00 on 18 December, losing two tanks burned out and eight disabled with the loss of six tankers killed and twelve wounded.^[21] After this defeat, it was withdrawn to the rear in the area of Bobochino.^[13]

Interlude

The corps headquarters was disbanded in late December and the brigade became an independent unit under direct 7th Army control.^[8] Near Bobochino, from 23 December, the brigade conducted intensive training, preparing for the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line. Soviet tank tactics fundamentally changed: instead of racing ahead of the infantry and exposing themselves to being picked off at close range by grenades and Molotov cocktails while crossing trenches, tanks were now to be positioned in front of the Finnish trenches beyond small arms range and systematically demolish the defensive positions with their guns. They were only to cross trenches under the cover of other tanks to keep the heads of the defenders down.^[22]

Picked crews were sent to inform the infantrymen about operations with tanks.^[22] Spurs for their tank tracks were produced to increase the cross-country mobility of the BT-7 in winter conditions. They practiced firing at dragon's teeth, finding that a 45 mm armor-piercing shell hit would destroy the obstacle, a method later used in combat, in addition to towing armored sleds carrying infantrymen to resolve the problem of deep snow slowing down the foot soldiers.^[23] During this period, there were severe frosts that required a large amount of fuel and lubricants to maintain tanks in operating condition, which necessitated the development of dugouts to heat the tanks.^[13]

Breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line

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, on 14 February, three mobile groups were created in the 7th Army, which included infantry riding on the tanks. They were committed to 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, ran into anti-tank obstacles and defenses held by the Finnish 3rd Infantry Brigade and the 9th Infantry Regiment from the 3rd Infantry Division.^[24] Group Vershinin 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.^[25] Lähde was quickly taken on 14 February.^[26] In the fighting, flamethrower tanks proved effective against Finnish infantry.^[13]

During this and 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.^[27] 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.^[25] 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.^[28]

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 Tank Battalion, a company of the 15th Tank Battalion, the 205th Reconnaissance 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.^[28]

Due to the slow advance of the infantry, Baranov used a company of the 15th Tank 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 Rifle Division with its commander, and Hill 45.0 was retaken by the Finnish. These Finnish successes stalled Group Baranov's attack, preventing any further forward movements against Vyborg for the next six days. The 6th and 9th Tank 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.^[29]

A simultaneous attack on the hill by the 15th Tank Battalion from the north and the 163rd Motor Rifle and Machine Gun Battalion, the 84th's 344th Regiment, the 6th Battalion, and 13 tanks from the 9th Battalion on the next day failed when the artillery of the 84th Rifle Division mistakenly shelled the tanks of the 15th Tank Battalion, destroying two. Flares and radio messages did not stop the firing and only after the brigade chief of staff personally went to the 84th's command post did it cease. The 6th Tank Battalion lost two tanks destroyed by Finnish fire and the 13th two damaged that day.^[29]

The rest of the 84th and the 51st Rifle Division slowly arrived at Hill 45.0 between 24 and 27 February, while the brigade lost two tanks on the 24th and a planned attack slated for the 26th could not be conducted because the 84th could not quickly organize artillery preparation.^[29] The failure of the tank brigades to achieve their objectives in this period was due to the difficult terrain being unsuitable for tank operations and Finnish fortifications that complicated the employment of brigades and often even battalions.^[26] A postwar NKVD report faulted the brigade command for not coordinating with neighboring units in order to create a continuous line and for insufficient aggressiveness during this period.^[30]

Advance on Vyborg

The Finnish troops began retreating to their rear defensive line on 28 February. On that day, the 13th Tank Battalion captured the outskirts of Pien-Pero and moved on Lintula before occupying the Pero station after the hurried retreat of its defenders, who failed to blow up the bridge there. The 9th and 15th Tank Battalions with the 348th Regiment of the 51st Division moved along the route from Pillula-Pero and Suur-Pero towards Repola, slowed down by felled trees and landmines in the area of Hill 50.2. On 5 March, the 15th Tank Battalion began fighting for Mannikkala and Tali, defended by the Finnish 62nd Infantry Regiment.^[31] The battalion captured Manikkala on 8 March, losing six tanks burned out and two damaged. This occurred despite the narrowing of the advance by flooded land on both sides of the road and the Finnish anti-tank obstacles.^[32] Repola was taken on 10 March by the 348th Regiment and 9th Tank Battalion,^[13] and on 12 March and the night of the 12th and 13th the 9th Tank Battalion captured Nurmilampi in the face of stubborn Finnish resistance.^[17] After Soviet troops cut the road between Vyborg and Helsinki, the Finnish were forced to concede and the war ended on 13 March with a cease-fire following the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty.^[19]

Throughout the war, the brigade carried its supplies on its tanks as the lack of roads precluded using wheeled vehicles. From the beginning of the war, the brigade only had two Komintern tractors that proved unequal to the task of evacuating damaged tanks, and as a result most of these tanks had to be evacuated by other tanks. During the war, it received 67 BT-7s, two BT-2s, and five T-26s from factories, and suffered heavy losses of 122 BT-7s and two T-26s to artillery fire, 63 BT-7s and a T-26 to landmines, and 52 BT-7s and two T-26s burned out. The burned out tanks were total losses while 84 others were sent back for factory rebuilding, leaving the brigade with 227 operational tanks at the end of the war.^[17][33] The 13th suffered casualties of 234 killed, 484 wounded, and 23 missing. The brigade was awarded the Order of the Red Banner on 11 April 1940 for "breaking through the Mannerheim Line".^[2] Of its personnel, 353 were decorated for their actions in the war, including eleven awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, among them Baranov, while 14 received the Order of Lenin, 103 the Order of the Red Banner, 72 the Order of the Red Star, and 153 the Medals "For Courage" or "For Battle Merit".^[13]