VIOLENT FIGHTING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21576, 12 February 1940, Page 7

VIOLENT FIGHTING

Ninth Day Of Soviet

Offensive

All Attacks Repulsed

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright

(Received February 11, 6.30 p.m.) HELSINKI, February 10..

A war communique .dates that the Soviet maintained the offensive for the ninth successiv day without success. The Finns captured 32 tanks and shot down four enemy planes. The Karelian Isthmus is the scene of violent fighting. Heavy artillery and tanks supported massed Red infantry attacks against the Mannerheim Line but they were thrown back with heavy losses. The Russians lost another 800 men north-cast of Lake Ladoga. Enemy pressure is heaviest in the Summa sector. AH attacks have been repulsed and the enemy lost about 800 killed besides a column of GO lorries and two tanks. The commander of the Eleventh Russian Division, Colonel Borisov, was killed. The enemy’s weak efforts at Suomussa-mi were repulsed. The enemy lost four ’planes there.

A later message from Helsinki states that the Russians continue to pound the line from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga. The Finns claim not to have yielded a yard. A communique says the Red losses since the outbreak of war are 327 ’planes, 594 tanks, 206 guns, 572 cars, lorries and tractors, 63 field kitchens, eight ships and one submarine.

According to earlier messages a Finnish communique states that the Finns have repulsed all attacks. The enemy suffered heavy losses, and 19 tanks were destroyed. The Finns declare that the Mannerheim Line still holds out, even Summa, which is regarded as the most vulnerable spot; but a Soviet communique claims an advance resulting in the occupation of a fortified area in the Summa district, while a report from Stockholm states that the Russians on Thursday forced the Mannerheim Line, at one point, resulting in hand-to-hand fighting in which they were quickly driven out.

The Finns defeated a battalion near Raate, killing 250.

Finnish ski patrols captured a number of Russian parachutists behind the lines at Rovanieme. They were wearing Finnish uniforms and were equipped with shortwave radio equipment for tapping the telephone lines. The Finns report that parachute spies are causing much damage by cutting communications.