Monument to the Reconnaissance Men in Liinahamari

The monument is dedicated to the feat of the reconnaissance men led by Victor Leonov. On the night of 6 October 1944, the reconnaissance troop landed on the shore of the Malaya Volokovaya Bay between the Petsamo Bay and the Musta-Tunturi mountain range. They had to endure a long and arduous march under rain and snow – across knolls and roadless granite rock – to approach Cape Krestovy from the rear and deliver a surprise strike on the enemy. On the third day they approached the enemy positions in complete darkness and had to move literally by touch. A signal rocket soared, and the reconnaissance men were detected. The Nazi battery opened fire.
Leonov’s men were separated by several rows of barbed wire from the enemy’s gun lines. The commander ordered them to act ‘on their own’, and the Northern Fleet seamen threw their coats and groundsheets onto the wire and launched an attack under a hail of fire. Andrey Pshenichnykh and Semyon Agafonov were the first to reach the enemy cannons; they destroyed a gun crew and captured their cannon. They also largely secured the sucess of the offensive: the reconnance men captured all the cannons and took twenty prisoners, headed by the battery’s commander, with minimum casualties. The rest had to retreat.
On the following day, Leonov’s reconnaissance men not only repelled several fierce counter-attracks as reinforcements were constantly arriving to the Germans from the opposite coast, but also joined Captain Barchenko’s detachment to capture the second battery.
The reconnaissance troop’s success facilitated forced entry into the Liinahamari port, for the German forces could no longer fire from Cape Krestovy.