FIERCE FIGHTING

Evening Star, Issue 23499, 13 February 1940, Page 9

FIERCE FIGHTING

SOVIET OFFENSIVE CONTINUES

NOW LOSING FULL STRENGTH MANNEftHEIM LINE STILL INTACT HELSINKI, February 12. The Finns retain the entire. Manner heim Line, despite continued pressure on the Sumnia front of Russian mechanised columns and flamethrowing tanks, and tie concentration of aeroplanes ahd artillery, with four successive infantry attacks, the strength of which, however,'is slackening. A Finnish communique states that the principal Russian objectives are still Summa and Taipale, and adds that five tanks and a column of 70 horse-drawn sledges were destroyed north of Lake Ladoga. Finnish forces at Aittojoki threw back the (Russians to their former positions. (Russian bombers, two of which were shot down, killed and wounded several civilians; Disposal of the Russian dead presents a problem. The Russians have thrown some into ice holes on the Isthmian lakes, but thousands who fell in December are not yet buried. Ihe Finns are interring some, despite the frozen ground, but those who have not been buried will be a menace in springtime. The rates of pay in tho Finnish army have been increased. RUSSIANS CLAIM SUCCESSES ATTACKS ON WIDER FRONT LONDON, February 12. A Russian communique claims that advances have been made along the Mannerheim Line. This is, incidentally, the first time that they have admitted that any, real fighting is going on. It is claimed that 16 Finnish positions, including eight concrete armoured posts, have been captured The Finns claim that all attacks have boon repulsed, and that the Russians have nowhere gained a footing on the Mannerheim Line. The Soviet attacks are now being made on a wider front, and fierce fighting is going on. It is thought that Russia’s present purpose is to prevent the Finns strengthening their positions in this sector. The Finns ■ regard the attacks as important as the Russian forces are composed of men from the regular army and not conscripts.

Last night the Finnish Foreign Minister flatly denied that- any third Power had offered to mediate between Russia and Finland. Ho stated that the rumour ■ was deliberately spread in the hope of. slowing up the arrival of foreign help for Finland. “ Peace cannot be dictated to Finland,” he stated.

RUSSIANS USE ARMOURED SHIELDS

ATTACKS EASILY REPULSED LONDON, February 12. (Received February 13, at 11 a.m.) The special correspondent of the Associated Press on the Summa sector says: “ Finnish officers showed me armoured shields which the Russians push before them as they crawl across the battlefield. They are about two feet high, and are shaped like a snowplough, with a hole in the apex for a rifle. Many captured shields have Keen placed on top of the Finnish trenches. Some of the larger ones have been used to protect machine-guns, and others fastened to skiis have protected the sledges on which infantrymen rode into battle. “ The officers says the throwing back of the Russians is easy. Their artillery is mostly inaccurate, but the tank crews are highly trained and are difficult to deal with. About 170 planes support the enemy army and artillery on days of big attacks, but the Russians rarely get close enough for hand-to-hand fighting.” SUMMA SECTOR EARLY END TO BATTLE EXPECTED LONDON, February 12. (Received February, 13 at 8 a.m.) The Associated Press correspondent in the Summa sector says the Finns predict an early end to the eleven-day battle in this sector of the Mannerheim Line. The Soviet infantry attacks are becoming less intense. Columns protected by an artillery barrage continue to advance ' through the forests and fields, but‘“the Finnish commander remarked: “ The tiredness of the Russians is apparent. The Mannerheim Line is still intact. The Russian effort to pierce it has certainly fallen short of expectations. I have seen no indication of a Finnish retreat or of plans for one. Instead there have been several strategic counter-attacks and shells fell within yards of the woods on either side of our narrow path. RUSSIANS BRING UP HEAVY GUNS FINNS WITHSTAND UNPRECEDENTED BOMBARDMENT HELSINKI. February 12. (Received February 13, at 1.30 p.m.) The defenders of the Mannerheim Line are withstanding a bombardment unprecedented since 1915. The Russians brought up Bin and 12in guns to

augment the trench mortars, 3-inchers, and 6-inchers, and are pounding the Summa sector. Soviet divisions aggregating 50,000, with machine guns behind them precluding retreat, have been thrown against an eight-mile front. They are stiffened by 72 tripleturret tanks, some of which have fallen into Finnish hands. The inaccuracy of the Russian fire was illustrated by a Finnish regiment withstanding four attacks with artillery preparation, but .losing only 11 dead and 14 wounded. A Russian attempt to turn the lino at Taipale ineffectually continues. The Bjorko forts frustrated a Russian landing in the Gulf of Finland. A Finnish communique says that tanks support an indeterminate Russian attack north-east of Wiipuri. The enemy have lost over 1,000 ; men and 72 tanks. Some 380 were killed at Aittojoki and 700 at Knhmo. The Finns shot down six planes A Russian communique claims the capture of 16 strong points, -which the Finns deny. Seven hundred foreign planes are reported to be reinforcing the Finns. FINNS APPEAL FOR SKIS LONDON. February 12. (Received February 13, at 11.35 a.m.) The Finnish Consulate at The Hague is making an appeal for gifts of skis after the destruction of one of the biggest ski factories «in Finland.

RESTRICTED ACTIVITY

BATTLE LINES FREEZING HARD FRENCH INTEREST IN SCOTTISH TROOPS LONDON, February 12. Despatches from the western front report that the battle lines are again freezing hard and all is quiet, except for artillery activity west of the Vosges. A French night communique reports local activity by patrols and artillery. British regiments in the front lines are getting periodical relief. A battalion of Cameron Highlanders arrived behind the lines for a short rest and excited great interest and enthusiasm in the villages. Kilted pipers headed the march from the railhead to the billets. COMPARATIVE STRENGTHS HUGE FORGES IN FIELD PARIS, February 12. (Received February 13, at 8 a.m.) Colonel Fabry, in ‘ Lo Matin,’ says the German army will soon reach 200 divisions. The Allied armies will reach this figure some time later when the British army is fully developed. Belgium has 20 well-trained divisions. • SPRING MANOEUVRES ACTIVITY IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE BUDAPEST, February 12. (Received February 13, at noon.) A number of countries are iprcparing for spring manoeuvres, but so far there has been no general mobilisation in this part of Europe. VITAL SHORTAGES COLD WAVE IN GERMANY RAILWAY TRAFFIC DISORGANISED LONDON, February 12. A cold wave throughout Germany has revived misery. The railways, despite a shortage of supplies, cannot distribute foodstuffs without recourse to canals and rivers, many of which arc frozen.

' It will be a colossal wartime task to remedy the shortcomings of the railways, duo to neglect of rolling stock while carrying out the four-year plan. Consignees are liable to punishment unless- hy* Working on ' Sundays and holidays they clear trucks in a stipulated time. A shortage of coal and potatoes has resulted in the closing of factories and greengrocers’ shops. A message from Bucharest ■ states that the Danube is again frozen, and heavy falls of snow have delayed transport. Hard frost for 26 consecutive days brought to a standstill all waters south of the Skaw, and it is possible to walk from Jutland to Sweden across the icebound Kattegat. This is believed to be unprecedented. INDIA'S PART IN THE WAR RENEWAL OF EMERGENCY ORDERS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 12. (Received February. 13, at 11 a.m.) The Viceroy of India’s proclamation at the outbreak of war and the emergency Orders in Council promulgated under it require renewal before the end of six months, which have now almost expired. The House of Commons will accordingly be asked on Thursday to give the proclamation and orders legality for a further six months by a motion approving a new set of draft orders. It is understood that the Labour Party has decided that the time is inappropriate for a general discussion about India’s constitutional future, and it is anticipated that the debate will not travel much outside the issues raised by the orders themselves.

INDISCRIMINATE SINKINGS

NAZIS SEEKING JUSTIFICATION NEWSPAPER'S SPECIOUS PLEA (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 12. (Received February 13, at noon.) Indications are growing that tho need is being increasingly felt in Germany to justify to the German people the indiscriminate sinking of neutral shipping, of which 342.357 tons have now fallen victim to enemy action. While the Goebbel’s organisation claims that Germany is master of the whole of the North Seas and South Atlantic, the ‘ Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung ’ seeks to justify the Nazi methods of warfare against neutral ships by a frank confession that it is Britain’s control of the seas that justifies .their defiance of all accepted tenets of international law. The newspaper says; “ As the means of modern war enable a State to be master of her territorial waters in nearly the same sense as she can be master of her land territories, it is impossible for Germany to accomplish a blockade and an anti-trade war near to the English coast in accordance with prize laws.” Neutral shipping is compared by the newspaper to a bus running between the Maginot and Siegfried Lines. Finding that this thought introduces quite a new conception of international law, it pleads for the evolution of a new code to replace all existing international law, and designed, it would appear, to give legal authority to ruthlessness.

A STEAMER TORPEDOED LONDON, February 12. (Received February 13, at 12.35 p.m.) The captain sent a message to the owners that the steamer Burgorcijk had been torpedoed. HOLLAND ANGRY AMSTERDAM, February 12. (Received February 13, at 1 p.m.) Holland is seething as the result of the torpedoing of the Burgerdijk. The owners have asked the Government to protest to Germany. The Burgerdijk was laden with Canadian wheat and flour for Holland from New York. Ninety per cent, of the cargo was consigned to the Government, for which reason the torpedoing is regarded as a more flagrant breach of international law than the two Holland previously suffered. COLLISION AT SEA BELGIAN VESSEL BEACHED LONDON, February 12. (Received February 13, at noon.) The Belgian steamer Flandres was beached on the south-east coast after a collision with an unknown vessel.

SITTING SHOT VICIOUS ATTACK ON TINY FISHING BOAT NAZIS RUN TRUE TO FORM (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 12. (Received February 13, at noon.) In a recent speech the Prim® Minister declared that the Nazi raids on British fishing vessels is not war, but murder. The justice of this accusation, says the ‘Yorkshire Post,’ is sharply revealed by the news to-day of contemptible attacks by German planes on a tiny fishing coble off the Yorkshire coast. “ Two fishermen and a boy were out in the boat, when two Nazi planes swooped l down and tried both to bomb and machine-gun them. All they could do was to crouch and make for the shore. Once their boat was blown clean out of the water by the explosion of a bomb. “ Attacks such as these can have no object but sheer frightfulness. Nazi airmen must get the same sadis: !o pleasure in preying upon helpless fishermen as their Gestapo colleagues do in torturing Poles, Czechs, and Jews. Such a story as brought home by our Yorkshire fishermen is a crushing reply to the excuses offered by the German newspapers that British fishing boats are armed to fight Nazi raiders and that the attacks on them are, therefore, honourable and legitimate,” says the ‘Post,’ ‘‘What arms-had these two men and a .schoolboy ? A boathook?”

GERMANY AND RUSSIA

MILITARY AND ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION ERECTION OF HEW FORTIFICATIONS LONDON, February 12. The agreement between Russia and Germany for military and economic cooperation in the Ukraine, the Caucasus, and the Black Sea is demonstrated by authenticated reports from Black Sea ports and Poland that German engineers are erecting fortifications at Odessa, Mariupol, and Novorossisk, in tho Ukraine, and Batum, in the Caucasus. Fresh fortifications are also being constructed on the llussian-Rumanian frontier across the Dneister, evidently to protect the Baku-Kiev railway, along which war materials for the Finnish campaign- and oil, manganese, and copper for Germany are being transported. These fortifications will also protect the Odessa-Llow railway, along which oil will be carried to Germany. German troops are stationed along the line to prevent sabotage. The departure of 2,000 others from Poland to the Caucasus suggests that similar precautions are being taken on the BakuKiev railway.

Germany is doing her utmost to reorganise shipping in the Black Sea. She is establishing a new organisation at Odessa to facilitate the transport of wheat from Novorossisk to Odessa, where she has been accumulating considerable stocks for months. Shipping services are also planned to link up Poti and Braila for the' transport ol chrome, .and Braila, Tfebizond, and Batum for the carriage of hazelnuts, cotton, and oil. German engineers have arrived at Varna, Bulgaria, to construct a vast oil reserve container, from which supplies will ho shipped to Batum, then railed through the Balkans to Germany.

NEW TRADE AGREEMENT IMMINENT LONDON, February 12. (Received February 13, at 10 a.m.) The Berlin correspondent of the Associated Press states that Germany and Russia have concluded a new extensive trade agreement and an official announcement is imminent. PACT SIGNED IN MOSCOW GERMANY TO BUILD FACTORIES IN RUSSIA. AMSTERDAM, February 12. (Received February 13, at 1.15 ip.m.) The German-Russian agreement was signed at Moscow. It provides for a yearly turnover of 1,000,000,000 marks (£83,000,000 pre-war rates). Germany is to erect a series of factories in Russia and Russia is reciprocally to supply raw materials, including ore, petroleum, and foodstuffs, particularly large quantities of grain. Neutral observers in Berlin express the opinion that transport difficulties are the great obstacle to fulfilment of the agreement, for which reason Germany is striving to improve her tracks and increase rolling stock. . EMPIRE WAR CONTRIBUTIONS (British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, February 12. (Received February 13, at 12.30 p.m.) Two further examples of the generosity of the Colonial Empire to the Mother Country is announced. The inhabitants of Cyprus have given £2,500 for the Red Cross fund, and the legislature of the Bahamas has donated £20,000 towards imperial defence.

BRITAIN AND TURKEY TEXT OF TRADE AGREEMENT PUBLISHED (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 12. (Received February 13, at 12.30 p.m.) The text of the agreement respecting trade and payments between Britain and Turkey has been published. Although abrogating previous agreements between Britain and Turkey the present agreement has the effect of incorporating them as far as liquidation of transactions already commenced under them. From February 19, the date upon which the agreement comes into force, mutual exports ■will become the subject of compensation transactions in which may be incorporated produce up to 25 per cent of the total sum received by the British-Turkish clearing office exported to Turkey from such territories other than the United Kingdom as may be agreed upon between the parties. Goods exported by either country to the other must be accompanied by certificated origin issued by tho Government authorised body and the f.o.b. value of compensation for goods exported to Turkey must not exceed 80 per cent, of the f.o.b. value of the goods exported from Turkey. Debts duo from persons in Turkey to persons in the United Kingdom in respect to compensation transactions will be deposited in Turkish pounds in a special account at the control bank of the Republic of Turkey, and debts duo from persons in tho United Kingdom to persons in Turkey under reverse transactions will be deposited in sterling at the Bank of England for the account of the controller of the Anglo-Turkish clearing office. Arrangements made for regulating the computation of exchange notes where payment other than Turkish or pounds sterling provide that in London the selling rates of currency on the date of payment shall he the ruling price.

FLOOD PROTECTION

EFFECTIVE BARRIER TO NAZIS ATTACK ON LOW COUNTRIES STAVED OFF EASIER SITUATION ON FRONTIERS LONDON, February 11, The Brussels correspondent of the ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ says two crack German corps, totalling six divisions, which were concentrated at Aachen, departed last week and have been replaced by two newly-formed corps of Austrian units of tho same strength, which are rated as third class. It has now been revealed that General von Brauchitsch personally inspected the frontier districts of southern Holland and northern Belgium by air on November 10, and decided that the flood conditions were unfavourable for an offensive. NAZI TYRRANY MASS TRANSFER OF POLES FORCED LABOUR IN GERMANY BERLIN, February 11. In addition to 350,000 Polish war prisoners, 1,000,000 Polish workmen will be sent to Germany in the springtime in order to. assist in agricultural work. A message from London states that still more people are to ho driven from their homes in German-occupied Poland. The latest decree affects all Ukrainians, White Russians, and Ruthonians in these areas, and they are to leave for Russian territory between next Sunday and l March 1. A strict limit is being placed on tho amount of goods which the refugees may take with them.

PRISONERS IN SEALED TRUCKS OVER TWO HUNDRED DEAD LONDON, February 12. The Paris correspondent of ‘ The Times ’ says that 2,000 Polish war prisoners, who were brought from East Prussia to Warsaw in January, were kept for 13 days in sealed trucks, 50 to 70 in each. When the trucks were opened 211 dead were found and the remainder were so enfeebled that they could absorb only liquid. A party of 149 Poles in two convoys, en route to Germanised _ Poland from Russianisedl Poland, were found to be suffering from frozen hands and feet. AMERICAN AMBASSADOR RETURNING TO LONDON NEW, YORK, February 12. (Received February 13, at 12.35 p.m.) Mr J. P. Kennedy is preparing to return to London,. FRENCH BROADCASTS TELLING GERMANS THE TRUTH TROOPS CROWD OUT TO LISTEN LONDON, February 12. Along stretches where the Maginot and the Siegfried Lines are separated only by the River Rhine, the French are broadcasting propaganda by loud speakers. This method was first used by the Germans, but their news provoked only amusement. When the French authorities found how ill-informed the captured German prisoners were, however, they decided to make, the same experiment. When the first attempt was made the Germans were seen crowding out to listen, but on the second occasion German officers were seen ordering the men back. Now, whenever the loud speakers start, the Nazi machine guns open fire, drowning the broadcasts.

FRENCH GOVERNMENT

UNANIMOUS VOTE OF CONFIDENCE CONFIRMATION OF NATIONAL UNITY ißritish Official Wireless.) RUGBY> February 12. (Received February 13, at 11 a.in.) Much interest is shown in the British Press in the unanimous vote of confidence in the French Government alter the Chamber of Deputies’ recent session. The result is hailed as a signal of personal triumph for the French Premier, and as an undeniable indication of the solidarity and unity of the French nation. ‘ .The Times,’ after noting that the unanimous vote has strengthened M. Daladier’s position, recalls that M. Hcrriot, after the secret proceedings were over, emphasised the dignity and nobility which had marked the discussion. It had, he said, dispelled certain legends and established the truth, and had confirmed national unity in a striking and decisive fashion. Certainly nothing could have been more satisfactory than the motion, which, after two days’ debate, was signed by the leaders of all parties and carried unanimously.

ITALIAN PRECAUTIONS

FORTIFYING GERMAN-YUGOSLAV FRONTIERS ATTENTION ALSO TO BRENNER PASS LONDON, February 12. (Received Debruary 13, at 1.30 p.m.) Tlie Associated Press Belgrade correspondent states that Italy is hurriedly fortifying the Gerraan-Yugoslav frontiers in,Udine Province, also the Brenner Pass zone., Largo sums allocated to public- works in January have been secretly diverted to the Brenner Pass pillboxes, on which work has been continuous for the last four months. FRENCH COMMUNISTS SEVERAL MAYORS ARRESTED PARIS, February 11. Eight prominent people, mostly mayors of the Seine et Oise Department, and belonging to the former Communist Party, have been arrested and interned. Four others were arrested at Mons. MARKETING OF EGGS GERMAN PRESSURE ON RUMANIA LONDON, February 12. (Received February 13, at 8 a.m.) The Bucharest correspondent of ‘ The Times ’ says that Germany is reported to he applying pressure on the Rumanian Government to centralise the marketing of eggs which hitherto has been left in the hands of private exporters unwilling to sell to her. RUSSIA'S BLACK SEA FLEET STRENGTH NOW DOUBLED LONDON, February 12, (Received February 13, at 1.5 p.m.) The Moscow correspondent of ‘ Tho Times ’ states that Admiral Okiahrsky, Commander-In-Chief of the Black Sea fleet, revealed that the fleet was already in fighting trim in 1939. The surface and submarine fleets had been doubled and anti-aircraft and coastal defences increased. The fleet was now capable of protecting the rich oilfields in the Baku -region, which provide more than half the Soviet oil.