Crack Moscow Garrison in Action

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 1, 2 January 1940, Page 7

Crack Moscow Garrison in Action

FINNISH VOLUNTEERS FROM CANADA Received Monday, 6.30 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 31. A Helsinki message says fresh Soviet troops believed to bo from the crack Moscow garrison were thrown into the attack against the Mannerheim Line to-day in a snowstorm. The Stockholm correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Company says the first contingent of Finnish volunteers from Canada has arrived at Helsinki. New batches of Swedish volunteers have gone to Finland. Stockholm reports that a squadron of Soviet airmen alighted in an ice snare on a lake and surrendered, complaining of engine trouble and lack of petrol though the engines and the tanks wero well filled. Elsewhere two infantry regiments surrendered on the ground of being without food. A Finnish communique dated the 29th states: "The enemy vainly reattacked the Karelian Isthmus near Kuelojarvi. Wo destroyed five tanks and captured two. The Russian infantry lost heavily. Artillery fire and patrol activity prevailed elsewhere on the isthmus. "Our defences stopped an attack north-east of Lake Ladoga. Tho dispersal of two Russian battalions at Suvanto resulted in the death of 300 Reds and the loss of arms and ammunition. We took one tank and one antitank gun in the Kutno sector and destroyed a column of 40 pack horses. "The battle north of Suomosalmi lasted throughout tho day. Wo destroyed supply columns and an armoured car and took three tanks and two guns." A Russian communique says: "Nothing of importance occurred on the 29th, our aircraft successfully bombing some areas." A later Finnish communiquo states that the Russians were forced back across the frontier at a third point, namely, in the Kutno sector. The new Russian onslaught on the Mannerheim Line failed, while the enemy attack on Ivitela was repulsed. Fighting continues further north. The Russians bombed Kexholm, Wasa and Jyvaskyla, killing some civilians and causing some material damage. Air-raiders dropped 60 bombs on the Hanko Hospital, destroying four buildings and injuring ten patients. They killed ofie child in a Helsinki suburb and machine-gunned Jyvaskyla civilians.