RUSSIAN SEA TRAFFIC

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20618, 20 November 1941, Page 5

RUSSIAN SEA TRAFFIC

GULF OF FINLAND LENINGRAD CONTACT (Reed. Nov. 20, 9 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 19. Although the Germans have many times claimed that Russian merchant ships and warships were bottled up in 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 Finnish troops, augmented by volunteers from neighbouring countries, have scarcely progressed a yard since they began 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 Petrozavodsk and the White Sea is occupied. The most advanced Finnish forces are still among the intricate inlets of the north Onega area.

The Finns pushed northwards along the railway from Petrozavodsk to a point some 150 miles southward of the Soroka junction with the railway to Archangel. Therefore communications between Murmansk and Archangel through Soroka are not yet immediately threatened by the Finns from this direction. The Germans and Finns co-operating from Salla towards Kandalaksha are at present believed to be within 50 miles of the Murmansk railway. The Berlin spokesman to-day declared that U-boats are now operating in the White Sea “on the route of American armed merchantmen and British ships proceeding to Archangel.”