Finns Disrupt Attacking Red Army on Karelian Isthmus

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Globalization41
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Finns Disrupt Attacking Red Army on Karelian Isthmus

#1

Post by Globalization41 » 10 Jul 2004, 08:10

Helsinki, United Press, The Merced
(California) Sun-Star,
Tuesday, December 5,
1939:
Stormy weather aided Finland's
fighting forces again today in holding back
the Red Army. Semi-official dispatches
reported Finnish successes in military
operations on two southeastern fronts. ...
Finnish tank traps supplemented by quick-
firing anti-tank guns, were described as
disrupting the Soviet attacks north of Lake
Ladoga and on the Karelian Isthmus, where
Russian troops were reported pushed back
in some isolated sectors after suffering high
casualties.
... Official sources reported that
Finnish troops and volunteers also were
making a strong stand on the Arctic coast but
communications with both Karelia and the
Petsamo districts were disrupted and the
government information usually lagged
behind frontier reports relayed through
Norway telling of renewed fighting in the north.
... Frontier messages also reported heavy
cannonading at Petsamo and Liinahamari,

where the fighting has been most severe. An
unconfirmed report published in Stockholm
said that Finnish airplanes had raided the
Russian airdrome near Murmansk, dropping
bombs that destroyed 60 Soviet airplanes
but the report lacked conformation elsewhere.
... Russian reinforcements were arriving near
Petsamo and a big Soviet offensive in the
Arctic area was believed likely.
... Snow fell
intermittently all along the southern coast and
the cloudy ceiling was too low for successful
aerial activity. ... On the eve of the 21st
anniversary of Finnish independence,
the
streets of Helsinki were almost empty and
workmen were covering windows with boards
in the main streets because of fear of a
Russian onslaught when the weather breaks.
... Despite assertions in authorized mediums
that only military objectives would be attacked
by Red planes, the rumor spread through the
capital during the night that a gas attack from
the air, first in world history on such a city as
Helsinki, impended. British consular officials
were so alarmed at the rumor that they used
the telephone to warn all British subjects to
leave the city at once. Many had to be
advised by courier. ... Less than 70,000
people remained of the city's 300,000.
Those who were left, including Americans
and other foreigners, found it difficult to get
transport. All trucks and many private motor
vehicles had been requisitioned
for the use
of the men at the front, stubbornly holding
back the colossal Russian war machine.

Stockholm, United Press, The Merced
(California) Sun-Star,
Tuesday, December 5,
1939:
Sweden partially mobilized her armed
forces today to strengthen defenses on the
Finnish frontier in the far north, where Finns
were reported making a desperate stand
against Soviet Russian troops and planes.
... Fifteen classes of Swedish reserves were
called up in the order for partial mobilization.
Most of the reservists will be sent to the area
adjacent to the Swedish-Finnish frontier.
Sweden has a standing army of less than
50,000 men but recently the nation's
defensive forces have been strengthened.
The Swedish reserves total about 570,000
men. ... The mobilization order followed
preparations for evacuation of Stockholm if
necessary. All Army leaves were suspended
due to the threatening Baltic situation. ... The
spread of fighting in Russia's undeclared war
on Finland and failure of Swedish efforts to
act for Finland in resuming negotiations for
a settlement at Moscow intensified alarm
throughout the Scandinavian states. ...
Norway invited the foreign ministers of
Sweden and Denmark to meet at Oslo
Thursday to frame a parallel policy in
preparation for the League of Nations
meeting on Finland's charges of aggression
against Russia. ... Denmark, closest to the
European conflict as a neighbor of Germany,
reemphasized through her foreign minister
the determination of her government to
remain neutral
in the present unhappy
conditions.

London, United Press, The Merced
(California) Sun-Star,
Tuesday, December 5,
1939:
Foreign Secretary Viscount Halifax
said today in the House of Lords that Adolf
Hitler [who authorized the Nazi-Soviet Pact in
August just prior to the invasion of Poland]

had bartered away the liberties of the Baltic
States.
Hitler, he charged in discussing
events leading up to the European wars, had
bartered what was not his property -- namely,
the liberties of the Baltic peoples. ... He
revealed in negotiations with Soviet Russia
earlier this year Britain refused to make an
agreement with the Soviet government on
terms of formulas covering cases of
aggression on the Baltic states.
[With
German troops concentrating on the French
front, Stalin had begun an incremental
occupation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.]


London, United Press, The Merced
(California) Sun-Star,
Tuesday, December 5,
1939:
The Finnish legation today issued an
official announcement from Helsinki saying
Finnish troops had advanced against the
Red Army in two sectors of southeast Finland,
inflicting heavy casualties on the Russians. ...
The legation statement said news from the
Finnish general staff told of heavy fighting
Monday in the district of Salmi,
north of Lake
Ladoga. The Red Army suffered many
casualties and the Finnish troops advanced,
the statement said. ... The statement also
quoted Finnish headquarters dispatches
saying that Finns had advanced
southeastward along the coast of the
Karelian Isthmus, north of Leningrad. ... All
foreign legations at Helsinki were notified
Finnish mines had been laid around the
Aaland Islands which guard the Gulf of
Bothnia.

Helsinki, United Press, The Merced
(California) Sun-Star,
Tuesday, December 5,
1939:
An official announcement tonight said
2,000 Russians had been killed and 64 Red
airplanes destroyed in Karelia alone in the
last three days.

Stockholm, United Press, The Merced
(California) Sun-Star,
Tuesday, December 5,
1939:
Sweden blacked out all lighthouses on
the east coast tonight and laid a large mine
field between Sweden and the Aaland
Islands.

Washington, United Press, The Merced
(California) Sun-Star
, Tuesday, December 5,
1939:
President Roosevelt proposed today
that Finland's payment on her debt be used
for the benefit of the Finnish people.

Copenhagen, United Press, The Merced
(California) Sun-Star,
Tuesday, December 5,
1939:
A Stockholm dispatch to the Svenka
Dagbladet
quoted reports in Sweden and
Finland today [saying] Finnish airplanes had
attacked a Russian airdrome near Murmansk
and, dropping small incendiary bombs, had
destroyed new Russian planes.

Paris, United Press, The Merced (California)
Sun-Star,
Tuesday, December 5, 1939:
French troops repulsed four raids by German
patrols in the Wissembourg sector during the
past 36 hours, inflicting heavy losses, French
military dispatches said today.

New York, United Press, The Merced
(California) Sun-Star,
Tuesday, December 5,
1939:
Fritz Kuhn, leader of the German
American Bund, was sentenced to two and
one-half to five years in prison today for
stealing $1,217 from the treasury of the
organization. ... The maximum sentence
which could have been imposed on the 42-
year old Bundesfuehrer, who was convicted
on five counts of grand larceny and forgery,
would have been 15 to 30 years.

Map of Scandinavia

Sami Korhonen's Winter War.com

[Stay tuned for late breaking war bulletins.
... Globalization41.]

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