BELOW ZERO HORRORS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 March 1940, Page 3

BELOW ZERO HORRORS

THE WAR IN FINLAND. RAIDS BY-SOVIET BOMBERS. The deep quiet of the snowbound country in southern Finland is often broken by the wail of sirens five or six times a day as wave after wave of Soviet bombers, sometimes totalling 500 a clay, fly across the Gulf of Finland from their bases in Estonia —only 20 minutes away—to bomb and terrorise civilians. Miss Virginia Cowles, the "Sunday Times’s" special correspondent in Helsinki ,who has just visited Hanko, the coastal town at the entrance to the Gull of Finland, says it is difficult to convey any picture of the horrors of the Red warfare against civilians in a country with the temperature at 30 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. A young' Finnish lieutenant detailed to show Miss Cowles through the bomb-torn town, declared :"It will take a miracle to save us. but perhaps a miracle-will happen. It must happen!" The correspondent comments: "The lieutenant was typical of many Finns with whom ! talked. They, know that they cannot’hold out indefinitely in the unequal struggle, but they cling to a stubborn faith that some event, unforeseen now, will’save them from destruction."

Miss Cowles passed through village after- village in which peasants’ huts could be pointed out as having been riddled with machine-gun bullets by low-flying raiders. As Miss Cowie’s motor ear drew near a village on the outskirts of Hanko. 20 raiders appeared. The party deserted the car and ran into a cellar in a farmhouse with the peasant men and women. The brick ceiling was so low that .most of them were huddling on the floor amongst the farm produce while they waited for the all-clear signal.

’ Miss Cowles was informed that on the previous day the inhabitants spent six hours in-the shelter while 200 raiders dropped- 150 bombs, although the bombing was so inaccurate that little damage was done. ■ Miss Cowles found- no shortage of food among the villages, some of which were filled with soldiers and police officers. They suggested mining', towns ■in a' boom period rather than a war. -There were plenty of hors d’oeuvres, meat, potatoes, and butter. Many tiny inns were decorated with pictures of Field Marshal Mannerheim. Finland’s military leader .The soldiers were forbidden to play gramophones, because, with the music going, it was impossible to hear the sirens which were expected at any hour. Generally, there was no sign of panic among the people, but. among some of the peasants' Miss Cowles noted "quiet weariness."