Käenkoski Schoolhouse

An outpost was set up at Käenkoski schoolhouse, 20 kilometers north of Kallioniemi.

Site of Winter War Finnish outpost

The Finns established three outposts in late December to keep an eye on enemy movements, to protect the road to the jetty, and to secure their flanks. The outposts were located south of Lake Koitere, 15 to 20 kilometers from Kallioniemi.

A fourth outpost was set up on December 21 at Käenkoski, 20 kilometers north of Kallioniemi, to screen Colonel Per Ole Ekholm’s Task Force A, which had been formed in preparation for action in Ilomantsi.

The outposts were manned by young Civil Guard members

The outposts were built and manned primarily by Civil Guard members from the neighboring municipality of Eno. They were young, of less than 20 years of age. They had received military and weapons training in the Civil Guard youth organization, and after turning 17, had become full members.

The Civil Guard was a voluntary national defense organization that was founded in 1918 and disbanded at the request of the Allied Control Commission in the fall of 1944. It provided young men with military training that made them eligible for outpost service even though they had not reached the conscription age. The strength of each outpost was less than 20 men, some of whom were adult reservists.

The men of Käenkoski outpost conducted ski patrols in the direction of the Russians’ billeting areas and supply lines northeast of Kallioniemi and maintained contact with the southern sector of Lieksa front in the north.

Patrols were occasionally involved in skirmishes, in which they inflicted casualties to the enemy and destroyed vehicles of various types. Own losses were inevitable: one of the young guardsmen was killed in action and two ended up as prisoners of war.