Facets of the War

Northland Age, Volume IX, Issue 39, 20 February 1940, Page 4

Facets of the War

HOW BIG IS RED ARMY?

Russia’s population of 170,000.000 would, theoretically, make possible a reserve army of 12,000,000, but such an army, as some strategists point cut, might prove more imponderable than a smaller fighting force. Providing equipment, training facilities, and cadres for such numbers, not to mention the need for establishing an extraordinarily large communications system, would tax the resources of even as large a nation as the Soviet. In the World War, Russia mobilised 12,000,000 men, but stories are circulated of Czarist troops at the front in which only the front line were equipped with rifles, those behind relying on rifles dropped by comrades. It is generally believed that the peacetime army is well equipped. Development of tank warfare units have produced nearly 6000 tanks varyyJ ing from two-men light tanks to mov- * ing fortresses weighing in the vicinity of 50 tons. The innovation of airborne units and the fact that aviation is studied by even the Russian children, has had a big effect in building up an air force reputedly equipped with between 4,000 and 6,000 planes. But as Captain Hart points out, the present Russian Army is hampered by such archaic features as the prominence given to horsed cavalry, of which it is estimated that Russia has at least 16 divisions. While many armies have supplanted horses with trucks and other motorised conveyances, the Red Army enters large masses of cavalry into tank-infested areas with small regard for varying degrees of vulnerability. FINNISH NURSES Hospitals in Finland are said to be of an amazingly high standard, and the Finnish nurses are described in other countries as “the best in the world.” The training is done in schools under State supervision, with separate budgets. The training period is three years, of which the last six months is specialised. Particular attention is given to psychology, as the successful nurse must know the human being. After two and a half years’ general training, the final six months is spent in specialising in some branch cf nursing, such as ward nursing or operating theatre (advanced), or public health, or X-rays, or laboratory. There is an examination in each of the above-mentioned subjects. The Finnish Army is distinguished from most others in that it is completely dry. Prohibition begins as you enter the war zone, which includes the whole of Eastern Finland. The universal thirst quencher is milk. It is a common sight to see a patrol start out at dawn into No Man’s Land lugging a large milk can. Herds of cows are kept a few miles behind the lines. The food is wholesome and plentiful. ☆ ☆ tr The “Voelkextier Beobachter,” of Berlin, used lurid red headlines to announce that Germany had signed a non-aggression pact with Russia. <r * •a The London “Daily Sketch” reveals: “There will be two lucky Tommies wiring socks knitted by the hands of Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose—only they will not know ic.”