WAR IN FINLAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 February 1940, Page 6

WAR IN FINLAND

ANNIHILATION OF SOVIET DIVISION FURTHER CAPTURES MADE. RECENT ATTACKS REPELLED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 1.30 p.m.) HELSINKI, February 19. A Finnish communique announces the annihilation by death or capture of the shattered remnants of eighteen thousand men comprising the Russian Eighteenth Division, whose rout was described on February 5. The Russians have renewed their attack on Taibela, but lost a battalion and six tanks attacking new Finnish positions elsewhere. The Finns dispersed a column and took guns, ma-chine-guns and ammunition. Their increasing aerial efficiency cost the Russians twenty-four planes on February 13. PROGRESS CLAIMED RUSSIAN OFFICIAL REPORT. (Received This Day, 1.25 p.m.) HELSINKI, February 19. A Russian, communique makes no mention of the Eighteenth Division, but concentrates on the Soviet occupation of outworks of the Mannerheim Line and Muola and the isolation of Bjorko. whence the Finns shelled the Russian advances, and also claims penetration to the shore of the Gulf of Finland six miles from Wiipuri.