18 Russian Planes Raid Finnish Capital

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 301, 21 December 1939, Page 7

18 Russian Planes Raid Finnish Capital

TWO BROUGHT DOWN LONDON, Dec. 19. Eighteen Russian planes participated to-day in a raid on Helsing- \ fors.. Only four reached the citjr, at a great height, and they dropped 11 bombs. There were no casualties. ; The Finns claim that anti-aircraft guns brought down two of the planes. L Soviet bombers thrice raided Turku, 100 miles west of Helsingfors, Finland’s main gateway to Scandinavia, which is largely constructed of wood. They , destroyed several houses. Many buildings were burned. No-one was killed, c Smallpox has broken out in the , Russian Army, says a Helsingfors • message, and is already of epidemic , proportions. All Finnish soldiers are , being vaccinated again, also civilians in • frontier regions. The outbreak was discovered among Russian prisoners taken on the Karelian Isthmus. : The Helsinki correspondent of the ; Associated Press of Great Britain states that the Finns have mobilised 40,000 men from detachments retreating from Pitkcjarvi. They set fire to buildings 1 before Russian motorised troops pur--1 sued them down the Arctic highway from Petsamo to Rovanieri, near the Swedish border. If the Russians reach Rovanieri, which the railway connects with Tornio, at the northern end of the Gulf of Bothnia, they would effectively bisect Finland. A British United Press message from Svanilc states that in order to consolidate their gains before resuming the attack, the Russians are digging in in the newly-conquered territoiy on the far northern front. They are erecting barracks at Salmijarvi, half-way between the Russian and Swedish borders, near which they have concentrated 12,000 men and 200 tanks.