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On 9 June 1944, the Soviet Union opened a major offensive against Finnish positions on the Karelian Isthmus and in the area of Lake Ladoga (it was timed to accompany D-Day[citation needed]). On the 21.7 km wide breakthrough point the Red Army had concentrated 2,851 45-mm guns and 130 50-mm guns. In some places, the concentration of artillery pieces exceeded 200 guns for each kilometer of the front (one for each 5m). On that day, Soviet artillery fired over 80,000 rounds along the front on the Karelian Isthmus. On the second day of the offensive, Soviet forces broke through the Finnish lines and, in the following days, made advances that appeared to threaten the survival of Finland, liberating Petrozavodsk on 28 June 1944. The retreating Finns delivered two weeks supply of food to the locals.[citation needed]
Finland especially lacked modern anti-tank weaponry, which could stop Soviet heavy tanks, and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop offered these in exchange for a guarantee that Finland would not seek a separate peace again. On 26 June, President Risto Ryti gave this guarantee as a personal undertaking, which he intended to last for the remainder of his presidency. In addition to material deliveries, Hitler sent some assault gun brigades and a Luftwaffe fighter-bomber unit to provide temporary support in the most threatened defence sectors.
With new supplies from Germany, the Finnish army was able to halt the Soviet advance in early July 1944. At this point, Finnish forces had retreated about one hundred kilometres bringing them to approximately the same line of defence they had held at the end of the Winter War.
