FIERCE FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 March 1940, Page 6

FIERCE FIGHTING

IN SUBURBS OF' VIBORG RUSSIANS DISREGARD COST IN LIVES ALL AVAILABLE FORCES USED BY FINNS. RETREAT AT SEVERAL POINTS ADMITTED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, at Noon.) HELSINKI. March 3. Fierce hand to hand fighting raged all the weekend in the Viborg northern, eastern and southern suburbs as the defenders contested every yard with wave after wave of Russian shock troops, tanks and armoured cars. The Russians, disregarding the cost in life and material, constantly renewed their vanguard. The Finns, in the hope of gaining even a little time for the completion of new defences, brought in all available forces, including girls who acted as runners and stretcher-bearers. The Finns admit a retreat at several points west of the isthmus, but they claim that they have repulsed attacks 'east of the Isthmus and also at Salla and Kuhmo.

FINNISH SUCCESS EAST OF LAKE LADOGA, DESTRUCTION OF RUSSIAN BRIGADE. (Received This Day. at Noon.) HELSINKI, March 3. A communique announces that the destruction of the Thirtyfourth Tank Brigade re-establishes the position at the outbreak of hostilities east from La’ke Ladoga. The brigade was en route to relieve the Eighteenth Division, but it became encircled at the same time as the Eighteenth Division and was attempting to retreat when it was destroyed. Three thousand men were killed and the booty included 125 tanks, 12 armoured cars, 200 lorries and 25 lorryloads of shells. The Russians carried out air raids on South Finland, killing 20 and wounding 23 civilians and damaging railways, factories and homes. The Finns shot aown 28 planes and raided the railways from Leningrad to the Isthmus.

It. is estimated that Finland lost 17,000 men in the battle for Viborg, owing to the necessity of delaying the Russians while new defences were being prepared.