FINNS DEFEAT RUSSIANS

Southland Times, Issue 23990, 4 December 1939, Page 7

FINNS DEFEAT RUSSIANS

Big Battle North Of

Salinxkervi

POPULATION LAYS COUNTRY WASTE

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright)

(Received December 3, 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, December 2.

The Finnish authorities announce that the Finns defeated the Russians in a big battle 50 miles north from Salinikervi. The Russians are reported to be badly equipped and lack provisions. Russian bombers again appeared over Helsinki at 9.20 a.m. while refugees were pouring from the city. The roads are packed with every type of conveyance. Those remaining in the city worked throughout the night in the snow constructing air-raid shelters. M. Ryti’s Cabinet held its first meeting this morning in a shelter in the centre of the city. It is reported from Bergen that the Finns are fighting doggedly in the extreme north. The refugees claim that Petsamo has been recaptured. It is officially announced in Helsinki that more than 35 Russian tanks were destroyed in Karelia yesterday. A message from Copenhagen says that M. Ryti’s Government has left Helsinki. Its new headquarters are unknown.

In Helsinki the Finnish Commander-in-Chief (Field-Marshal Baron Mannerheim) issued the order of the day, in which he declared that the whole country “will fight unto death” against the invader, who is Finland’s hereditary enemy. "This war is nothing but the continuance and final act of our war of liberty," he stated. It is understood that the Russians agreed not to bomb Helsinki today or tomorrow, after a German request that the German colony be allowed to leave safely. , , , It is officially claimed that a total of at least 19 Soviet aeroplanes has been shot down. The Russian troops are only 10 miles from the Norwegian border in the north, where 800 Finns are opposing a force of several thousand. The Finns are burning houses, slaughtering stock and piling their belonging on sleighs for transportation to Norway. The burning buildings are visible from the Norwegian frontier, where streams of women and children are constantly arriving, accompanied by food laden lorries. The fleeing population is determined that the Russians will find the countryside bare. A Finnish official communique says that two Russian companies in the south were wiped out, largely by the use of the new Finnish automatic rifle, firing as rapidly as a machine-gun and specially constructed for forest fighting. ’ The Russians again bombed the port of Hanko and other towns in eastern and western Finland. The Finns retired slightly along the Karelian frontier. A Russian army communique states that the troops penetrated 16 miles in

the Karelian isthmus. The retreating Finns burned villages and forcibly evacuated the occupants. The Soviet Commissar for War (Marshal Klementi Voroshilov) is commanding on the Finland front.

It is officially stated in Helsinki that troops captured 1200 Russian soldiers. One Finnish warship was sunk during an engagement with the Red Fleet off Hanko. Soviet warplanes machinegunned the sailors struggling in the water.

The Russian warship Kirov, was reported to be sunk off Hanko, but it was later stated that it had limped into Tallin (Estonia). The latest Finnish claim is that 18 Russian aeroplanes have been shot down and two Russian infantry companies annihilated.