ARMY CORPS PRACTICALLY ANNIHILATED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 January 1940, Page 5

ARMY CORPS PRACTICALLY ANNIHILATED

+ Renewal of Heavy Fighting ANOTHER ATTACK ON SALLA FRONT SOVIET EMPLOYING PICKED TROOPS (By Telegraph—Press Association.—Copyright.) LONDON, January .10. The correspondent of the British I nited Press with the north-eastern army says lhe Finns defeated and practically annihilated the Russian Ninth Army Corps, comprising' about 50,000 men, during battles between December 24 and January 7, in which they overthrew the Russian 163rd, 164th and 44th Divisions. A Helsinki message says that heavy fighting has broken out at Salla (reported Daventry late last night). In this engagement the Russians are employing picked troops who are revealing greater mobility than their predecessors, and the tactics include sending out patrols in an endeavour to surround the Finnish positions. Italian sources state that the railway between Leningrad and Murmansk has again been cut at several points by Finnish patrols. It is learned that at. Suomussalmi upward of 2000 Russians surrendered under a flag of truce after three-fifths of their division had been wiped out. Among lhe prisoners is the divisional chief of stall* and 40 officers, but. the general in command is reported to have been killed.