FINLAND AND JAPAN

Waikato Times, Volume 195, Issue 22461, 23 September 1944, Page 5

FINLAND AND JAPAN

RELATIONS BROKEN OFF LONDON, Sept. 22 Finland has broken off diplomatic relations with Japan. FORTRESSES OF BREST IVORK OF AMAZING STRENGTH U-BOAT PENS DESCRIBED (Received Sept. 23, 1 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 22 The Brest fortress, which is m Allied hands, is a staggering work cut in solid rock, says a Daily Telegraph correspondent after a visit ■*i inspection. Four hundred_ rooms open from the main tunnels. The officers’ quarters had carpeted floors and papered walls. The whole place was lit by electricity and stocked with stores of every kind. Prisoners said that the night before the surrender the garrison had a farewell party. Thousands of empty bottles suggested it must have ibeen a good one. The U-boat pens were staggering. A nine-feet-thick doorway opens into an enormous corrido.r in which there are submarine berths, machine shops, stores and administrative buildings pned in storeys to the roof far overhead. The scene resembles that in a munitions factory. There are 15 berths, the first 10 with gates for dry-docking. The other five are wider, housing two submarines each.* Thus 20 U-boats could shelter under the massive roof, varying from 15 to 30 feet in thickness.

The enormously thick’ steel gates closing the pens from the harbour are still intact. The strength of the structure, of which the internal walls are five to eight feet thick, defied demolition.