On June 10 the forces of Leningrad Front and Karelian Front began the offensive that would eventually drive Finland out of the Axis and out of the war, but this did not immediately involve 32nd Army. After suffering serious defeats the Finnish Army began to regain its equilibrium in the last two weeks of July. 32nd Army began an advance on July 26 in the direction of Ilomantsi, in North Karelia, using the 176th and 289th Rifle Divisions with limited armor and artillery support, despite the fact this was not headed toward any strategic objective. By this time the STAVKA had apparently decided that achieving a decisive victory against Finland would take more troops and resources than it was willing to spare from the upcoming offensives into Germany.Earl F. Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin, Center of Military History United States Army, Washington, DC, 1968, pp. 296-97, 387 The attack appeared initially to be a success as the two divisions reached the 1940 frontier and pushed on to the area where the 155th Rifle Division had been stalled in 1939.William R. Trotter, A Frozen Hell, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 1991, pp. 107-08, 117 Finnish reinforcements arrived on July 28 and began counterattacking three days later. Already by August 1 they had cut the only road to the 176th in a return to the motti tactics of the Winter War. Three rifle brigades with armor support were organized to break through to the encircled divisions; while this was not successful it distracted the Finnish forces sufficiently for a large percentage of the pocketed men to break out and escape through the dense forests, losing their heavy equipment and vehicles in the process.Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin, p. 388 The last men escaped on August 10; Finland and the USSR reached an armistice on September 4. Colonel Zolotarev was not blamed for this debacle and retained his command.
