FURTHER RAIDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 February 1940, Page 5

FURTHER RAIDS

CHURCHES REDUCED TO RUINS.

BOMBING OF HOSPITAL SHIP.

HELSINKI, February 5. The Finns claim to have shot down nine Russian planes today. Widespread Russian raids destroyed a church at Ivalo (Lapland), scattered a Swedish ambulance and killed a few civilians.

Russian planes up to February 3 dropped 6800 bombs, killing 145 and wounding 179 civilians.

A hospital ship at an unnamed port has been bombed by the Russians. Patients and members of the crew fled to a forest.

The latest Finnish communique reports that their air force carried out successful reconnaissance flights behind the Russian lines and bombed enemy troops and air bases, states a Daventry broadcast.

Together with the nine Soviet planes known tc have been shot down, four mope are believed to have been destroyed. Today's Soviet air force raids were made especially in south-west Finland. The places bombed include the terminus of the railway running northward through the centre of southern Finland.

In Viborg now practically all the principal buildings are wrecked or partly gutted by fire. Several correspondents agree that the Russian airmen concentrated on bombing hospitals and churches, and many small country churches have been burnt down during the past few days.