BED ARMY PARALYSED BY HEAVY SNOWS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 301, 21 December 1939, Page 7

BED ARMY PARALYSED BY HEAVY SNOWS.

IN ARCTIC ZONE.

Intense Cold Cripples Its

Transport,

VISIBILITY THREE YARDS. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, December 20. Heavy snowstorms are raging on the entire Russo-Finnish northern front, according to reports from Oslo, and the armies are immobilised. Visibility is generally not more than three yards.

A severe air raid on Turku is reported from Helsinki, but no details are available.

Men, aged 40, have been called up for military service in the Finnish Army. —

About 100 Soviet 'planes flew over Helsinki, Viipuri, Hango, Turku and other areas for four to five hours to-day, states another Helsinki message, and numbers of civilians were killed. Incendiary bombs. caused several fires at Viipuri and Turku.

The coastal batteries drove off raiding aircraft at Kotka and shot down two near Viipuri.

The intense cold has put out of action 200 Soviet tanks, and transport vehicles on the northern front have been abandoned because the oil froze in the engines. New Type of Russian Tank. It is officially reported that the Russians, south of Salmajarvi, are using a new type of tank fitted with a tractor propeller, resembling an aeroplane propeller, enabling it to move easier over the snow. The main Russian attack in Finland is between Kuolajarvi and Kaukjarvi, says an earlier dispatch from Helsinki. The enemy is losing heavily and Russian attacks on the east front have been repulsed.

The Finns deny the Russian investiture of Kermijarvi, east of Rovaniemi. They declare that they will defend it to the death. However, Russia's huge reserves are beginning to tell, whereas the Finns can have few reserves.

Women volunteers are operating on base lines to release men for the front.

A Russian communique reports that Russian airmen shot down 12 Finnish machines. One Russian aeroplane did not return. Military operations consist mainly of skirmishing and artillery duels.