RAIDS ON VIBORG

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 February 1940, Page 5

RAIDS ON VIBORG

CITY NOW A GHOST TOWN

FIVE HUNDRED BOMBS DROPPED IN ONE DAY. SEVEN-FOOT TORPEDOES USED ON OTHER CENTRES. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. HELSINKI, February 5. After further Russian bombing the south Finland centre of Viborg is now a ghost town of 2000 instead of its former 80.000. Successive squadrons of bombers yesterday dropped 500 bombs, scoring 150 direct hits, including the cathedral and four banks, and causing 16 fires, but because of the evacuation only 10 persons were killed and 30 wounded.

The Russians dropped 15 bombs on Turku, killing and wounding several people.

The Russian offensive against the centre of the Mannerheim Line was half-heartedly extended to Muolajarvi but was repulsed. Russian airmen have been using a secret weapon, namely a seven-foot torpedo containing three sections, one with ordinary explosive, one- with shrapnel and one with small incendiary bombs against Hanko and Sortavala. A captured pilot admitted that one in every four Russian aeroplane machine-gun bullets was explosive. Parachutists dropped behind the Finnish lines wear uniforms hardly distinguishable from those of the Finns. Some are refugee Finnish Communists.

In the latest air raids in southern and western Finland, 60 civilians were killed, states a Daventry broadcast. Many raiders in the past few days are said to have taken a short cut across the Gulf of Finland from the new Russian bases in Estonia. The Finnish air force retaliated by bombing them, as well as Russian troop concentrations in Estonia.

Five Russian parachutists were seen to come down on the ice in the Gulf of Finland. All were shot while in the air. They were all youths of about 17 years of age, and carried large quantities of explosives. In spite of their heavy losses the Russians are continuing the attacks on the Mannerheim Line. Many frozen bodies are piled in front of the barbedwire entanglements. Fresh reserves are being brought up by the Russians, indicating a continuance of the attacks. —By radio.

MOSCOW PRESS DENIALS OF RUSSIAN DEFEATS. FINLAND’S RESISTANCE ENDING. LONDON, February 5. A message from Moscow says that the Press is now giving prominence to the Finnish war. It is printing long denials of Russian defeats and suggesting that Finland’s resistance is ending. The Swedish newspaper “Social Demokraten” asserts that at least 1000 Russian airmen have been killed since the outbreak of the war. seriously depleting the trained reserve. CATHEDRAL LN RUINS RESULT OF LATEST AIR ATTACK. SEVENTY CIVILIANS KILLED. ’ (Received This Day, 9.15 a.m.) HELSINKI. February 5. The Wiipuri Cathedral is in ruins after the air raids last night, which resulted in a total of 70 civilians being killed, twenty of whom were killed by dropping bombs on a hospital and an ambulance train.