Sääre Coastal Defense Battery No. 43

The main position was planned on the Tallinn-Porkkala line. Further ahead of this, the Muhu Strait position was planned to protect the islands and straits. It extended from Hiiumaa to the tip of the Sõrve sääre. On the other side of the Irbeni Strait, the Liepaja military port remained, but it was captured by the Germans with little difficulty. In fact, the Sääre battery was built in a war situation and in a hurry. It was already an “economy version”. Four east-west single-barrel artillery positions, the fourth of which was shifted back from the others, were open and had a narrow firing sector on the Irbeni Strait. At the same time, partially underground armored towers were built on Aegna and Naissaar for guns of the same caliber. The war events at the Sääre battery are told in the film “Moonzund” made by the Lenfilm studio in 1987, the prototype of the main character of which is the commander of battery no. 43, Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Partenjev. The commander of the first position of the battery was Estonian Jaak Vendla (Feldmann). The Sääre (Zerel) 305 mm (12-inch) coastal defense artillery battery No. 43 consisted of four concrete artillery bases and their associated ammunition depots with log ceilings surrounded by gravel embankments. Each position had its own diesel power plant. The complex also included a command post and an observation tower, located almost a kilometer away at the Sääre manor. The area also includes defensive ditches and a large running ditch. They were also used in the battles of 1944, when they were significantly expanded. In 1941, the gun bases were used as decoy positions for the so-called Stebel battery, for which wooden models were built on concrete bases. As a result, the concrete has been damaged by the explosions of aircraft bombs. A particularly large funnel is visible at position No. 3. The actual construction of the battery began in 1916. This planning began in the autumn of 1912. After surveying, construction began, but a port was needed to transport construction materials. The port of Mõntu was completed in 1914. Apparently, the actual construction of the positions also began at that time. In 1914, a five-kilometer-long railway line with a 750 mm gauge was built between the port of Mõntu and the battery. In October 1917, concrete defensive walls for two more positions had not been built. The revolutionary-minded sailors were not inclined to obey order. As a result of a fire started by an aerial bomb dropped from a German plane, an explosion occurred in the unfinished ammunition cellar being built for artillery position No. 3, in which 70 sailors and three officers were killed, and an additional 70 wounded. This tragic event further lowered the morale of the battery personnel. When the Germans attacked in October 1917, the cannons were blown up. Thus, the object only had a deterrent purpose, which closed the entrance of German ships to the Irben Strait, i.e. to Riga, Kuressaare and Pärnu. In 1922, the parts of the cannons cut into scrap were transported away through the port of Mõntu. Since then, the facilities have been unused. This is a rare military complex from the point of view of Saaremaa, Estonia and the world. What makes the Sõrve battery special is that although a similar 12-inch battery is still in Tahkuna, Hiiumaa, the defensive walls of the positions were not completed there. The locations of the foundations of the auxiliary buildings of the facilities serving the cannons have also been preserved to a greater or lesser extent in Sääre.