SOVIET TROOPS WITHDRAW

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21556, 19 January 1940, Page 7

SOVIET TROOPS WITHDRAW

Pressure On Salla Front

Cold Immobilises Activities

United Press Association—By Bleotrio Telegraph—Copyright

(Received January 18, 11.50 p.m.) COPENHAGEN, January 18.

Danish correspondents in Finland declare that Soviet troops are withdrawing from the Salla front and also northward of Lake Ladoga.

A message from Helsinki states that the Finns before the cold immobilised activities recaptured Aursu on the road to Kemittrask. A Finnish communique records successful fighting here. The Russians gained slightly on the south front where the Finns are falling back to prepared positions in good order. The Finns were successful near Kitela where the Russians retreated abandoning several guns and fast tanks.

The Finns announce having routed an enemy company north-east of Lake Ladoga, killing 70 men, destroying two tanks and capturing 100 rifles. They also shot down an aeroplane the occupants of which possessed maps of Sweden.

The Russian High Command officially announced that reports that the Red Air Force bombed working class quarters in Helsinki are untrue. It never has and never will bomb Helsinki much less the working quarters. Tire cold weather has virtually brought Finnish military operations to a standstill and paralysed naval operations.

A Soviet communique states: "Scouting activities were carried out at Murmansk and Gregoriev, and clashes occurred between Infantry units at Petrozavodsk, and there has been minor artillery fire on the Karelian Isthmus. Our patrols repulsed an enemy attempt to launch reconnoitring operations on a wire front. The enemy suffered great losses. Our aircraft made reconnaissance flights and bombed railway junctions and military objectives."

Finland’s need for supplies of fighting material is illustrated by a storv told about an air force pilot. A few days ago he wrote to a friend saying: “In the daytime my machine is shot full of holes. At night the mechanics patch it up. In the morning I take it up into the air to see if it works, and if it does I go off to fight the Russians.” Since then tire pilot has been killed and his patched-up machine destroyed.

A contingent of Norwegian volunteers will leave to-morrow to Join the Finns in their fight against the Russians.