REPULSING OF INVADERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23542, 30 December 1939, Page 7

REPULSING OF INVADERS

THRUST TOWARD RUSSIAN BASE HARD FIGHTING IN SOUTH TWO .SOVIET COMPANIES WIPED OUT By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received December 29, 5.5 p.m.) „ LONDON, Dec. 2S ~ The cold weather in Finland has slackened activities on the majority of the fronts, but a resumption of the Russian push is expected with better weather, says a message from Helsinki. Soviet troops are said to be massing on two fronts—in Central Finland and at the southern end of the Mannerheim Line in the Karelian Isthmus. The commander of the Leningrad military district has been recalled and replaced by General Stern, one of the youngest of the Soviet generals. He has already had considerable war experience fighting the Japanese in Mongolia. A total of 100,000 crack Soviet troops has arrived on the Karelian Isthmus to stiffen the assault. The Finns are reported to have pushed the Russians back across their frontier at a new point, north of Pielesjarvi. It is officially stated in Helsinki that hand-to-hand fighting marked the first Russian attempt to cross the Suvanto River, an important flank defence of the Mannerheim Line in Karelia. Two Russian companies were annihilated. A Finnish communique, dealing with the eastern frontier, records patrol activity north and east of Lake Ladoga, and adds that fighting is proceeding on Russian soil east of Pielesjarvi, where the Russians have been pushed back nearly to Tuuli and Lake Layaare. The Finnish objective is Repola, an important Russian base, 30 miles north-east of the frontier. A Swedish survey of the situation shows that the Russians have nowhere penetrated Finland more than 30 miles. They are making a determined stand south of Salmijarvi, where they have dug-in after a hasty retreat from advanced positions. The Finns, who failed to dislodge them, withdrew several miles. Some success attended earlier attempts to dynamite the ill-guarded stretches of the vital Murmansk railway, which is the main avenue of supplies to the northern Russian forces. A Finnish officer from the Petsamo front states that 150 Russian tanks are snowbound there. The crews of several tanks were found sitting inside them, frozen to death. A battalion of 800 women, mostly Leningrad and Moscow factory hands, is reported to have arrived at Murmansk. It is reported that 40 British and 20 Italian aircraft have been embodied in'the Finnish Air Force, and 1000 trained airmen are waiting to take over delivery of aeroplanes from England and America. The initiative of the Finnish airmen is indicated by the bombing of the lighthouse at Baindlo, a Russian naval base.