On June 10, 1944, dug-in elements of the Finnish 1st Infantry Regiment in the Valkeasaari region were approached by Soviet units of the 46th Rifle Division, who advanced north in the face of light Finnish bombardment. They occupied a town in the southeast sector, setting up rocket artillery and mortar units there. Finnish units in both the southwest and southeast woods were attacked by Guards T-34/85 units at 1100 hours while other Soviet units moved north on both flanks. By noon, Soviet units had advanced into the northeast woods and pressed the 76.2mm artillery battery and mortar units there, with the artillery crews deserting by 1230 hours and the mortar units on the move. The Soviets then controlled the primary east-west road, while skirmishes continued in the central, southeast and southwest woods. By 1430, both BM-13 units were out of ammunition, while Soviet troops reorganized for a final push to clear the area of Finnish units. The Guards armor units were very effective at disrupting the Finnish units, but the latter held out until 1545, at which point both sides accepted a draw.

The primary objectives of this 4-map scenario are either Soviet control of the area south of the road and elimination of at least 10 Finnish units, or Finnish control of the area north of the road while not losing more than 8 units. It became apparent about halfway through the scenario that the Finns were not going to be able to keep the Soviet T-34/85’s from pretty much doing as they wished. The total AT firepower of the Finnish is limited to individual 37, 45 and 76.2 mm platoons, which is woefully inadequate to take on a dozen Guards T-34’s. At that point, the Finnish only need to have a single good order unit south of the road to gain a draw, while the Soviets try to hunt them down. It turns into a game of Soviet Whack-a mole, with Finnish units cycling through various stages of good order/ disruption/demoralization and hoping to keep one of their units healthy enough using the protection of the woods and movement to stay as clear as possible. This one could easily have been a Soviet victory, as the Finns only had two individual infantry units in good order at game end, one in the central woods with a 2-morale Kersanti and another in the southeast woods, and both were under attack. This would be an extremely difficult scenario for the Finnish side to win, but that mirrors the history of the day itself, hence the title “Black Day of the Finnish Army”. At game end, the steps lost were very close: 15 lost for the Soviets to 14 for the Finns.

NOTE: This scenario was played using updates and corrections from the PG-HQ site contributed by plloyd1010, rerathbun, and Shad. Maps from Eastern Front and Soviet units from Road to Berlin were used, and Finnish units were from Arctic Front Deluxe. One additional Soviet BM-13 unit from Kursk: Burning Tigers was also needed to play the scenario, which was played with 4th Edition rules.