BOMBS ON SWEDEN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 72, 22 February 1940, Page 7

BOMBS ON SWEDEN

SOVIET OUTRAGE. BORDER TOWN SUFFERS. STOCKHOLM REPORT. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) Received February 22, 10.30 a.m. STOCKHOLM, Feb. 21. Soviet ’planes heavily bombed Pajala, a northern Swedish town, of about 4000 inhabitants, near the Finnish frontier.

In Finland the Russians claim to have captured the fortified town and port of Koivisto on the western flank of the Mannerheim Line on the Gult of Finland (states a Daventry report) . The occupation of Koivisto is described in the latest Russian communique, which says that the Finns were routed and a great deal of war material captured. The. Finns, however, authoritatively deny that this town has been captured. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the Russians are pressing very hard. Koivisto (which is in the Bjorko area) is a strategic point on the Finnish right flank and an important railhead to Viborg, ihe object of the Russian push. In the sector north-east of Lake Ladoga, where the Russian 18th Division was wiped out, the Finns, who are said to be commanded here by General Mannerheim, claim to have cut the communications of the 164th Division, which is making a desperate stand at Kitela on the shore of Lake Ladoga. Meanwhile the Russian 54th Division is in difficulties at Kuinnio, near the Finnish waistline. Attempts to relieve it have been unsuccessful, one report stating that 5000 Russians have been killed in this area during the past fortnight.