GRIM BATTLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 19, 23 January 1940, Page 8

GRIM BATTLE

v THE SALLA FRONT

'FINNISH STRATEGY

;' . SEPARATING ENEMY • ' DETACHMENTS

: i RUSSIANS TO MAKE STAND

' - XBy Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) '•■- (Received January 23, 2.20 p.m.) r ; HELSINKI, January 22. '-■" The battle on the Salla front I' grimly continues. Finnish patrols ''" are systematically separating Russian detachments from the main '" .force and driving others northward "from Markijarvi, where they have ; teen attempting to make a stand.. The »_ fugitives "left many dead and much v- war. material. The remaining bat-. ' Series continued to shell the Finnish • lines, and planes are bombing the Finnish columns. ■ The Russians, in night raids in . "this sector, are dropping flares by ~ parachutes in order to detect targets. The Finns are steadily gaining y ground south of Markijarvi. ■ It is admitted officially ,that the Finnish casualties since the outbreak of the war are 2500 killed, severely wounded, and 5000 slightly wounded. The Russian losses are V'estimated at 150,000, thousands of whom perished from cold. ' The Russians have dropped over '6000 bombs in Finland in the past - week, killing 18 and wounding 109. '' (Daventry Broadcast) ; LONDON, Monday Night (Later). , Tonight's Finnish communique re.'"fcorts further of the Russians. A thousand were killed, and some tanks destroyed in the repulse of five " separate attacks between the Karelian '..- Isthmus and middle Finland yesterday. /: It vis reported that the Russians are - moving back the greater part of their [' heavy material.