RED ARMY THOUSANDS SLAIN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20140, 9 January 1940, Page 5

RED ARMY THOUSANDS SLAIN

FINNS’ PRISONERS AND BOO'D DEFENDERS IMPROVING POSITIONS PLIGHT OF REFUGEES FROM TOWN AREA! RUSSIANS EXPERIMENTING WITH GAS (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. Jan. 9, 11 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 8. A special communique issued in Helsinki to-day states that the Finnish Army wiped out the Forty-fourth Division of the Red Army near Suomussalmi. Thousands were killed and over 1000 were taken prisoner. The booty includes 1180 horses, 102 guns and 43 tanks. A Finnish communique issued yesterday stated that 300 Russians were killed and 14 machine-guns were captured on ,the Salla front as a result of an attempt to outflank the Finns. Three additional Russian planes were shot down. The Finns beat off night attacks and dispersed an infantry column and a supply column near Summa, where the . Russians are digging in. The Finns improved their positions at Lake Ladoga and threw back the Russian attack at Petsamo. Russian air raids along the Gulf of Finland killed one and wounded two people Bombers .twice raided Turku. Co-operative Spirit The Helsinki correspondent of The Times says that 400,000 refugees are quartered in farm houses, public buildings, and schools. Ninety thousand people, half from the Karelian Isthmus, occupy houses where there exists the co-operative spirit which animates the soldiers in the front line.- At present food is plentiful, but it may not last. The Kuopio district of 27,000 square miles contains 80,000 children, women, sick and aged. The Bishop of Sormunen, when the evacuation blocked the roads, ordered the churches to be opened and heated as places of refuge. Epidemics hitherto have been avoided. The Church plays a noble part in the relief work. Population of Lapland Thirty thousand of Lapland’s population of 100,000 are refugees, the remaining 70,000 accommodating them. A Moscow war communique states that the Russians routed a Finnish detachment'north-east of Lake Ladoga. A Copenhagen message states that the Russians are experimenting with gas in.skirmishes round Suomussalmi. Paris wireless reports state that 20 German general staff officers have ‘ gone to Russia" inF 1 order to help in the. reorganisation of the Red Army. A message from Berlin states that the German Government held up a number of Italian planes destined for Finland which were railed across Germany to a Baltic port. Informed sources in Berlin state that Germany was aware that Russia would violently object to the transit.