LIMITED PROGRESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 123, 20 November 1941, Page 9

LIMITED PROGRESS

THE FINNISH FORCES

LONDON, November 18

Though the Germans have claimed many times that the Russian merchantmen and warships are bottled up at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland, the Finns now report that brisk Russian sea traffic continues, practically without interruption, between the Russian garrisons at Hanko and Leningrad. * The Stockholm correspondent of "The Times" says that the Finnish troops, augmented by volunteers from neighbouring countries, have scarcely progressed a yard since they began their operations against the peninsula of Hanko.

The bombing of the Murmansk railway between Lake Onega and the White Sea continues, but only approximately one-third of the railway between Peti'ozavodsk and the White Sea is occupied. The -most advanced Finnish forces are still among the intricate inlets on the northern shore of Lake Onega.

The Finns have pushed northward along the railway from Petrozavodsk to a point some 150 miles south of the Soroka junction with the railway to Archangel. -Therefore, communication between Murmansk and Archangel .through Soroka is not yet immediately threatened by the Finns from this direction.

The Germans and Finns co-operat-ing from Salla towards Kandalaksha are at present believed to be within 50 miles of the Murmansk railway.