MIGHTY OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1939, Page 7

MIGHTY OFFENSIVE

PREDICTED IN FINLAND

HUGE RUSSIAN FORCES BROUGHT UP. THRUSTS AT SEVERAL POINTS EXPECTED. LONDON, December 13. Simultaneously with rejection by the Soviet Union of Ihe proposal from the League of Nations to mediate in the Russian-Finnish dispute and a forecast by diplomalie circles in Moscow of an early withdrawal from the League, there have been more emphatic reports of a mighty Russian offensive, eclipsing all fighting thus far in Finland. Huge reserves are believed to be stationed at several points from Leningrad northward, ready to launch concerted thrusts. Russia is reported to have 1,500,000 men and 1000 planes airing the frontier and to have been moving up men and materials in an endless stream for a whole week. Hard fighting continued throughout yesterday. The Finns were holding the reinforced Russian armies. They stopped the advance on the Karelian Isthmus and halted the powerful offensive on the eastern front. The Finns were preparing for a counter-stroke and were pouring reinforcements into the Petsamo front. Last night’s Finnish army communique stated: "There were incessant attacks on the Karelian Isthmus. We repulsed the Russians, causing heavy casualties. Hundreds of dead are lying before our positions. Numerous tanks were destroyed. "The Russians were also crushingly defeated on the eastern front and three battalions were annihilated. Twenty-seven machine-guns and twenty-five quick-firing guns were captured." Finnish airmen, operating in bitter weather, bombed the north Russian strategic railway from Murmansk and tore up the track for 12 miles with the object partly of diverting the Russian attack. The terrible cold and frosts are causing hundreds of casualties among the Russians, and prisoners are telling ghastly tales of sentries being frozen to death at their posts. The Finns are reported to have suffered a serious setback by being forced to fall back from Salla. Two other columns further south have not progressed as had been expected, but the Finns appear to be continuing their harassing tactics around Petsamo.

NAZI ACTION

HELPING TO BLOCKADE FINLAND PASSAGE OF WAR SUPPLIES STOPPED. ORDERS IN NEUTRAL COUNTRIES HELD UP. LONDON, December 13. After Britain’s action in granting licences for the export of war material to Finland. Germany has openly come out on the side of the aggressor. Official sources confirm that Germany is making full use of her strategic position to prevent supplies reaching Finland from other countries, and also that Germany is holding up orders that were placed in neutral countries before the war. Reports of an augmentation of the Finnish air force by the arrival of a considerable number of Italian aeroplanes should be discounted (states a British Official Wireless message). Authoritative British circles believe that very few Italian aircraft have reached Finland. It is understood that only a small part of an order given by the Finnish Government before the Russian invasion has been executed. The remainder of the order is held up in Italy because of difficulties regarding transit raised by Germany, which is now using its strategic position to prevent the supply reaching that country from a State anxious to prove its sympathy with the latest victim of aggression.