STRONG SOVIET OFFENSIVE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21553, 16 January 1940, Page 5

STRONG SOVIET OFFENSIVE

FINNS RESISTING DOGGEDLY

Appreciable Foreign Help

United Press Association—By Electric

• Telegraph—Conyright (Received January 15, 6.30 p.m.) HELSINKI, January 14. Large scale engagements are developing on the Salla and Petsamo fornts. Fight ng is intense at Koirinokakitela, north of Lake Ladoga, where two fresh Russian divisions are attacking towards Sortavala. The Finns have made all preparations to resist. They are digging in behind barbed wire while patrols are trying to cut off the Russian communications. Twenty thousand Russians, 30 tanks and a number of armoured cars are participating in the offensive at Petsamo. The Finns hold strong positions. Their Karelian lines nowhere have been penetrated but losses from artillery fire have been heavy. Russian air raids killed 15 persons at Hameerlinna, Helsinki, Lahti Hyvinkai, wounded dozens and destroyed many houses, including the villia. which was empty, Of the United States Minister, Mr H. F. A. Schoenfeld. The Finns shot down two machines and found the wreckage of another. Forty Russian ’planes attacked the Petsamo front and bombed a field hospital, driving the staffs and the wounded into the snow for shelter. Appreciable foreign material help is believed to have reached the Finnish northern forces, including one or two brigades of Swedish volunteers, big guns and other arms. A Finnish communique reports patrol activity and gunfire oh the Karelian Isthmus on January 13 and adds that the enemy attacks were repulsed. Armed Yacht Sunk A Russian submarine sank the Aurora, the Finnish Government’s armed yacht. The Aurora, with another armed vessel, was convoying merchantmen from Turku to Stockholm. The Aurora’s consort dropped depth charges and drove off a second submarine. The Finns claim to have bombed Russian vessels in the Gulf of Finland. Swedish Island Bombed A message from London states that eight Russian planes are reported to have dropped bombs without casualty on the Swedish island of Kallaz in the Haparanda Archipelago, six miles south-west of Lulea. Prince Gustav Adolf invest-rated and found Russian letters on bomb fragments. The Swedish Foreign Office states that a snowstorm prevented identification of the planes. Norwegian anti-aircraft gunners fired on Russian bombers crossing the Norwegian-Finnish frontier.