ON KARELIAN FRONT

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 232, 28 June 1944, Page 5

ON KARELIAN FRONT

Important Canal Freed

LONDON. June 26. A major victory has also been won on the Finnish front, where the Bed Army, by' its advance north of Lake Onega and the capture of Povyenets has freed the whole length of the Stalin Canal, which joins up the White and Baltic Seas. The “Daily Express” says that the freeing of the 130-mile Stalin Canal means that for the first time since 1941 Soviet and Allied warships . and merchantmen will be able to sail from the ice-free northern coasts to Leningrad. The Finns had cut the canal between Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega, and also north of Lake Onega, but the Russians always held the White Sea end. They will now be able to expand their naval strategy. A Soviet communique says: "Between Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega, we occupied Olonets, JO miles east of the southern tip of Lake Ladoga, and also 40 other places. North of Lake Onega we developed our offensive west, and south of Medvezhegorsk, advancing 19 miles and occupying four inhabited places, also two stations on the Murmansk railway. “In the Gulf of Finland, we have completely cleared the enemy from the islands of Koivisto and Tiurinsaari.” According to a German report, tha Finnish Parliament was summoned to meet in secret session tonight.