SOVIET ARMS TURNED AGAINST INVADERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 304, 26 December 1939, Page 7

SOVIET ARMS TURNED AGAINST INVADERS.

CAPTURED BY FINNS.

Reds Driven Back On All

Fronts.

MOSCOW DISILLUSIONED

Lnitftd Press Association.—Copyright.

(Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, December 2.1. It is authoritatively confirmed that the Finnish coastal batteries severely damaged the main Soviet naval base at Kronstadt, in the Gulf of Finland, on the first day of the war. Fires blazed for four days. A Helsinki message says the Russians have arrested Kuusinen, leader of the Terijoki puppet Government. The Finns are continuing their counter-attacks and are. repulsing the Russians on all four fronts says a further message from Helsinki. Claiming that the Russians have lost 7000 dead m two battles, a Finnish war communiijue details a victory at Aglajarvi, and says the whole of this area is now in l-iniish hands. The. advance i« being continued. Eight tanks and quantities of ;;uns t rifles and ammunition were captured. The Finnish infantry is reported to have advanced behind tanks recently captured from the Russians. It is re"tiled that the Fi;jni foi'ght the War of :id'■prudence in IDJ.S largely with arms a .'1 -ic,munition captured from the Reds. Most of their army rifles and many of their field guns to-day use amn.unitiou ol lite s-njic calibre as the Hi.ssiiiiis. A Finnish communique dealing with the Russian re-treat in the Salla sector, j-ist north of the Arctic CiivJc, estimates that the enomj lost '>000 dead, and says the. route of the Finnish advanco is marked by a long trail of corpses and wrecked tanks. The Red Army's bid to split the country north of !• inland's '"waist" has thus been thruback.

Russians Halt Retieat. The Russians also retreated on 1 hursday and Friday in the Petsamo area, on the Arctic coast, where tliev had made most progress, but a portion of the defeated army has now ceased retreating and dug trenches in order to make a stand near Nalmljarvi. where the Finns claim to have already surrounded thi'in. Here the intense cold is proving the Finns' best ally. The Finnish Government state* that Soviet aeroplanes machine-gunned civilians in several places and attacked coastal batteries. Finnish pursuit aeroplanes brought down 14 Russian machines during numerous aerial battles. The Finns lost two machines. A special communique from Moscow again nsserts that the Russians are advancng, and also attributes the slowness of the. Red Army's progress to the inaccessible territory and concrete fortifications. It adds that 1823 Russians haw been killed and 7000 wounded, wHIe 20,000 Finns have been killed, 10,000 wonrtded, and 1300 taken prisoner. A la tea* Moscow communique stated that there was nothing of importance on Sunday, except for serious clashes between reconnaissance units on the Karelian Isthmus, resulting in the j Finns leaving 971 dead on the battlefield. The Rome radio stat«d that 500 Russians surrendered at Savukoski, on the north-east f 'ont.