Snowstorms Immobilise Finland Armies

Northern Advocate, 21 December 1939, Page 5

Snowstorms Immobilise Finland Armies

(Received noon.) LONDON. December 20

JJEAVY SNOWSTORMS ARE RAGING ON THE ENTIRE RUSSO-FINISH NORTHERN FRONT, ACCORDING TO REPORTS FROM OSLO. The armies'are immobilised. Visibility is nob more than three yards. A severe air raid on Turku is reported from Helsingfors, but no details are available. Men, aged 40, have been called np for service in the Finnish Army. About 100 Soviet planes flew over Helsingfors, Viipuri, Hango, Turku and other areas for four to five hours today, states a Helsingfors message, and numbers of civilians were killed. Incendiary bombs caused several fires at Viipuri and Turku, The coastal batteries drove off raiding aircraft 'at Kotka and shot down two near Viipuri.

Cold Puts Tanks Out Of Action,

The intense cold has put out of action 200 Soviet tanks, and transport vehicles on the Northern Front have been abandoned because the oil froze in the engine. It is officially reported that the Russians, south of Salmajarvi, are using a new type of tanks fitted with a tractor propeller resembling an aeroplanepropeller, enabling it to move easier over the snow.

The main Russian attack in Finland is between Kuolajarvi and Kaukjarvi, says a despatch from Helsingfors. The enemy is losing heavily, and Russian attacks on the east front have been repulsed. Twenty Russian aeroplanes flew over Hanko, Wiipuri and other points in South Finland.

Bombs were dropped around Helsingfors. Finnish coastal batteries at Kiov'fsto engaged in a lively action with Russian air and naval forces and shot down four or more aeroplanes. The Finns deny the Russian investiture of Kermijarvi, east of Rovaniemi. Huge Reserves Begin to Tell. They declare that they will defend it to the death. However, Russia’s huge reserves are beginning to tell, whereas the Finns can have few reserves. Women volunteers are operating on base lines to release men for the front. A Russian communique reports that Russian airmen shot down 12 Finnish machines. One Russian plane did not return. Military operations consist mainly of skirmishing and artillery duels. Battleship Sunk. A report that the Finns had sunk the Russian battleship Oktiabrskaya-Rev-lutia (23,256 tons), armed with twelve 12-inch guns is now denied by the Moscow news agencies.

The 'original story was that the Russians knew that the extreme range of the Bjorko batteries was three miles, and, therefore, kept just outside it; but the Finns brought up more powerful artillery, discharged a salvo when the battleship was just under four miles from the shore, and sank her.