RUSSIAN DENT

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 225, 20 June 1944, Page 5

RUSSIAN DENT

Main Mannerheim Line

BASTION CAPTURED (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received June 19, 7 p.m.) LONDON, June 18. Russian troops are punching a dent in the central sector of tlhe Mannerheim Line itself at a point south-east of Summa, which, is on the direct approaches to Viborg and is only 20 miles from it, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. The depth of the dent is not yet known, but once the combined Red Army tanks, artillery and infantry are assembled before wfhat are believed to be the last Finnish fortified zones the situation should be liable to very swift exploitation. The Finnish Command nevertheless cherishes the hope of holding the Red Army by means of the original Mannerheim Defence Line, as it did for a period in the Russo-Finnish war of 193940. The Finns along the rest of the front, after a week of hurricane bombings and shellings, are trying to stage some kind of orderly withdrawal into the Mannerheim defences as the Red Army closes in on either flank. Defences Pierced.

Tonight’s Soviet communique says: “Troops of the Leningrad front on the Karelian Isthmus today, as' the result of an impetuous infantry and tank advance supported by artillery and planes, penetrated the third line of the Mannerheim Line defences. The Russians broke through in the area of Muurila, 30 miles south of Viborg, and occupied the town and port of Bjorko (this is the modern name for Koivisto).” Bjorko is the main anchor of the Mannerheim Line. A Moscow supplementary communique says that the Red Air Force twice made concentrated raids on Viborg, destroying three locomotives and 200 wagons.

The supplementary communique also says that Russian planes off the northern coast of Norway sank a 10-000-ton German transport and a patrolship. Russian torpedo-boats off the Finnish coast sank two transports totalling 14,000 tons and set. fire to four escort ships. The Baltic Fleet air’ arm sank two Finnish transports in the Gulf of Viborg. Moscow radio said tonight that the Finns on the Karelian Isthmus are retreating in such haste that the Red Army often finds the remains of meals still warm on plates which the enemy had no time to remove. Military trains and even factories are being found in full working order. The Russians were last reported 18 miles from Viborg, the gateway to southern Finland.

The British United Press Stockholm correspondent quotes a German report saying that the Red Air Force made a big trouble attack against Detl’s supply lines on the Arctic front. The German news agency reported u Russian raid against a German convoy off Kirkenes, the Norwegian Arctic port near the Finnish border. The Russian Air Force loit. night dealt massed blows at. enemy aerodromes in the area of Pinsk and Minsk, causing numerous tires and explosions, says a Moscow air communique. They destroyed or damaged a large number of German planes. One Soviet plane has not returned. \ •FINNISH ADMISSION (Received June 19, 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, June 19. The Finnish Prime Minister. M. Linkomies, broadcasting, said: "The Russians have achieved 1 considerable success in the initial stages of the offensive. We are ready to face danger calmly.” The British United Press Stockholm correspondent says that Swedish observers are disappointed because they expected Linkomies to announce a new peace move.