THE FINNISH DEFENCES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 21, 25 January 1940, Page 11

THE FINNISH DEFENCES

LARGE-SCALE RUSSIAN ATTACKS

WAVE AFTER WAVE OF SOVIET TROOPS

(Daventry Broadcast.) LONDON, Wednesday Night, The-latest reports from Finland leave no doubt that the new big offensive near Lake Ladoga has been held at all points. The offensive was apparently on a. larger scale than any of the prolonged attacks in the early days of the war. It consisted of a double drive, one around.north of Lake Ladoga in an attack on the defenders of the Mannel'heim Line in the rear, and the other in the centre of the Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus. - t Wave after wave of Soviet troops were sent against the Finnish defences, but they failed to break through, and the Finns claim that the Russians lost more than 1000 men north of Lake Ladoga alone. At the same time the Russian air force continued raids on central and southern Finland. Four hospitals are reported to have been attacked, and one bomb which fell, on an air-raid shelter killed 19 people.. ' ' » ■ . It is officially confirmed thaf six Soviet bombers were shot down, and an unconfirmed report states that three more were destroyed.

Alarge section of the population has been forced to spend many hours in air-raid shelters, and the authorities have had to urge on the people the«ieed for at least one hot meal a day. Another example of close harmony on the Finnish home front is that workers and employers have concluded an agreement to settle all differences between them by friendly negotiation.