59th Army Baltic Fleet V Corps The Battle of Vyborg Bay (Finnish: Viipurinlahden taistelu) was fought in the Finnish-Soviet Continuation War (1941–1944).

Although Soviet advance forces captured Viborg on 20 June, the main offensive got stuck in the stubborn Finnish defense of the Tali-Ihantala region.

Despite heavy fighting and use of fresh reserves, the VKT-line bent but did not break, forcing the Leningrad Front to seek alternate routes past the Finnish defenses.

Both the 22nd Coastal Artillery Regiment and the newly arrived German 122nd Infantry Division (Breusing) were subsequently subordinated to the Finnish V Corps.

The Soviet Baltic Fleet landed a small assault force on the islands, but the Finnish garrison managed to keep the bridgehead contained.

Battles in Vyborg Bay started on 30 June with the Soviet 224th Rifle Division's attempt to capture the islands of Teikari and Melansaari.

The 3rd Battalion of the 224th's 185th Rifle Regiment landed on Teikari from ships of the Kronstadt Naval Defense Region late in the evening on 30 June, after a fifty-kilometer foot march that exhausted the troops.

After intense night battles, the Finnish defenders wiped out the Soviet landing force almost fully, as the Baltic Fleet ships were unable to provide support.

The 3rd Rifle Company, crossing to the southeast part of Ravansaari, came under intense fire that prevented it from landing and retreated back to its starting positions having lost 75 percent of its personnel.

A new order for the offensive was ready at 15:50 on 2 July, which stipulated that all three regiments of the division were to seize all four islands in cooperation with the ships of the Kronstandt Naval Defense Region.

[3] After a long artillery and aerial bombardment, the 143rd and 185th Regiments crossed to Suonionsaari and Ravansaari and by the evening of 4 July had taken full control of the islands.

Both sides suffered heavy losses, and almost all of the Finnish officers were killed in action, leaving Corporal Viljo Vyyryläinen in command.

These fresh units went on the offensive but halted in the middle of the island after the 3rd company commander, Captain Lars Westerholm, was mortally wounded.

On the night of 4–5 July, an assault group led by Captain Salomaa with 110 soldiers armed with submachine guns and forty sappers landed, and 1st Motorized Coastal Battalion commander Major Kauko Miekkavaara arrived to ascertain the situation and correct artillery fire.

As a result of sustained battles elements of the 160th Regiment were driven back to the shore near the settlement, where 50 soldiers were picked up from the water by Baltic Fleet ships.

During the fight, the companies of the 124th Division linked up with the remnants of the 160th Rifle Regiment that had clung to the rocks on the southeastern part of the island for more than a day.

[5] On 4 and 5 July, the Finnish Navy, supported by several German AFP gunbarges, made several raids on Viborg Bay in an attempt to disrupt the Soviet landings on the islands.

The German artillery included a battalion of StuH 42 assault guns, which fired on Soviet landing craft at point-blank range from the shores of the bay.

[7] In the battle of Vyborg Bay, the 224th Rifle Division lost 2,623 men, more than half its troops, between 30 June and 9 July, including 1,280 killed, 1,167 wounded and 176 missing.

With both the initial attempt at Tali-Ihantala and the crossing at Vyborg Bay blocked, the Leningrad Front turned its attention to the still undecided battles raging in the Äyräpää-Vuosalmi region.