ATTACK ON KRONSTADT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17295, 20 October 1919, Page 7

ATTACK ON KRONSTADT.

BRITISH BOMBARDMENT.

A. and N Z.

LONDON. Oct. 17.

The Helsingfors correspondent of the Daily Express states that Kronstadt's capitulation followed an all-j day bombardment, so intense that the concussion smashed the windows of Finnish villages for many miles along the coast. The fleet's main attack was directed from Kuporia Bay- The achievement was remarkable in view of the absence of battleships., the British fleet consisting of only half-a-dozen light cruisers, ten destroyers, a few coastal motor boats, and an improvised aerial flotilla. The complete disorganisation of the naval forces under ■ the Bolsheviks made the capture of the key to Petrograd possible. Mosquito craft on August 18 disposed of all the important units except the battleship Petronavlovsk, which escaped serious damage in August, and was able to engage in yesterday's fight. It. was always recognised that Kron-f-t.adt was impregnable while defended by the navy.

Twenty British and French warships have arrived in the Gulf of Riga. The majority of the English colony h; s departed. General 11iiianis, the. Lettish commander, was shoi in the right leg while thank ing the defenders in the front line.

Fifteen ihousand German soldiers in the Baltic provinces have ex pressed t.l eir willingness to return to Germany. Some. have, already arri\»'d. This number, however, is • nlv or:,- third of the Germans in the Halt;.. 25,000 others serving in the R.iiSM.m armies.

BOLSHEVIK MASSACRES. 2000 PEOPLE DROWNED. A mm :; /, HELHINGFOBS, Oct. 17. It is reported that Bolsheviks in 'he neighbourhood of Kronstadt drowned two thousand of the educated classes.