ATTACK THAT FAILED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 January 1940, Page 5

ATTACK THAT FAILED

The reorganised Russian army under General Stern, numbering 200,000 launched a great front attack on the Mannerheim Line in a blinding blizzard, but the attack was a failure, states a Helsinki message. An army of 100,000 Finns, one-third of Finland’s total army, held the assailants at bay, despite the tactics of the Russians, who pressed in simultaneously on both wings and the centre in the hope of preventing the Finns transferring reinforcements to threatened points. The Finns shot down seven Russian planes in the attack. The Russians began the attack with great intensity on the centre and on the left. They appeared to be concentrating on breaking the left wing by crossing a frozen lake. The forces include crack regiments with firstclass equipment. ' A large number of Russian wounded have frozen to death in no man’s land. It was reported yesterday that the Finns are moving swiftly to the Kuolojarvi front and threaten to encircle and annihilate 16,000 Russians. A Copenhagen message reports, but without confirmation .that the Finns have, cut off 10,000 Russians from their bases in Petsamo and Murmansk after defeating the invaders in the Nikkelby mining centre, in the Petsamo area.