NEW TACTICS FAIL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1939, Page 5

NEW TACTICS FAIL

RUSSIANS MOWN DOWN OR ENGULFED FIERCE FIGHTING AROUND LAKE. FURTHER SOVIET AIR RAIDS. Some of the fiercest fighting took place on and around Lake Savonlinna. where the Russians tried new tactics, states a Daventry broadcast. These were to send infantry across the lake, on which the ice is now thick enough to bear heavy weight. The Russians advanced at several points, but in each case they were mown down by the Finnish artillery, which had a clear field of fire. In many places the Russians were engulfed. For the fourth day in succession Russian planes on Wednesday raided leading towns in southern Finland. Helsinki had one air alarm lasting just under two hours, but no planes were seen over the centre of the city, though gunfire was heard. Later some leaflets were picked up urging the Finns to join “their Russian friends.” In Viborg, almost the whole of the population of 80,000 has now been evacuated. According to one estimate, 42 civilian centres in Finland were bombed during Christmas, and the Finns say that in some places the planes came low enough to machine-gun the civilians. They add that the Russians lost 23 planes. Further measures to protect the population ;f Helsinki and other places against air attack are now in force. All motor-cars are now being painted white so that they will be harder for the airmen to see against the snow. Passengers in public vehicles must carry a white sheet to cover themselves. This, it is claimed, would minimize their chance of being machinegunned.

TOY ARMY

UNIFORMS TWO HUNDRED YEARS OLD. TAKEN OUT OF MUSEUM. People from Tallinn. Estonia, who have arrived in Copenhagen, tell an amusing story of the bogus Government set up by the Russians at Terijoki, states a broadcast from Daventry. This Government, which was called “the People’s Government,” though it had few people to govern, has now acquired a toy army, but, as the Russians were unable to provide uniforms, a museum was raided and the Terijoki troops have now been decked out in uniforms and cocked hats more than 200 years old. These uniforms date back to Charles Xll of Sweden, who ruled from 1697 to J 713, and were worn just as they came out of the museum, with the exception that on the centre of the cocked hats had been placed a red star.