Finnish Resistance Evokes British Admiration

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 307, 29 December 1939, Page 7

Finnish Resistance Evokes British Admiration

ARMS SUPPLY VITAL (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Dec. 27. The plucky and determined reilstance which the Finns are making to the Invasion by the numerically superior forces of the Soviet, and the success which appears to have attended their counter-attack against such odds, have evoked enthusiastic admiration among the British public. Commenting on the laconic but significant claim in yesterday’s Finnish official communique regarding operations in the Lieksa sector, that "operations have moved to the other side of the frontier,” the Evening Standard says: “Finland has taught the invader that behind her forest and ice stands freedom ready to defend its independence.” Military correspondents in the newspapers pay tributes to the skilful tactics of the Finnish Command. Courage and the difficulties of the ground, it is said, cannot alone explain the Finnish resistance. The tactics employed during the past ten days—with their carefully-timed retreats on the Petsamo and Sallo fronts, followed and redeemed by sudden counter-attacks on the Soviet flanks—are considered by experts as bearing the unmistakeable imprint of conception and execution of FieldMarshal Baron von Mannerheim, the Finnish Commander-in-Chief, who is once again proving himself an outstanding general. It is observed that the Finnish forces are acting as a coherent whole operating to a set plan. The Russians have not taken them by surprise at any point. Each Russian thrust has been anticipated and countered along the whole 700-mile front. While military critics in London stress the importance of the successes achieved by Finnish arms In adverse circumstances and against almost overwhelming odds, it is not overlooked | that the chief problem the Finnish Government has to solve if the Finnish ! generals are to maintain their resistance is one of supply, and, as several commentators remark, it is a problem not in the power of the Finnish Government to solve unaided. ;