Kuivasaari

Kuivasaari (Torra Mjölö in Swedish) is a Finnish island in the Gulf of Finland, near Helsinki.

In fair weather the city of Tallinn, Estonia on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland is visible from the observation tower.

The whole island is a military installation of the Finnish Defence Forces, and access for civilians is heavily restricted.

A number of coastal artillery guns are installed there, including some exceptionally heavy 12-inch (305 mm) pieces.

The island served as an important coastal artillery fort protecting the entrance to Helsinki harbour during the World Wars.

During the Finnish Civil War, after the German Baltic Sea Division invaded the Hanko Peninsula, the Russian soldiers in Kuivasaari fled to Petrograd.

[1] The Russians left on the island 12"/52 Pattern 1907 guns that had been manufactured in the Obukhov State Plant near St. Petersburg.

[1] The guns were part of the coastal defense of Finland, but they were only fired twice during the Second World War, once during an exercise, and once when the Soviets were retreating from Hanko in the autumn of 1941.

The last theoretical use for the guns would have been to fire on the Seutula Airport, as it was then known, in case there was a need to protect it from invading troops.

The Suomenlinna Coastal Regiment Guild maintains a notable collection of historical guns on the island.