Bull After Cape

As a bull that has been bled and hurt by picadores and banderilleros charges a matador with fresh power and fury,* Russia's lumbering Army, baffled and beaten at Suomussalmi last fortnight, last week hurled itself against the Finns in another sector. Strengthened by reinforcements, a division that had dug itself in near Salla on the north-central front began moving westward, heading for Kemijaervi, which a small Russian force occupied momentarily in the first week of the war (TIME, Dec. 18). The Finns gave way. By week's end the Russians were within 13 miles of Kemijaervi, halfway across Finland in one of its narrowest parts, the Finns were bringing up troops and artillery, and another big battle was in the making.

Meanwhile, in fine clear weather the Russians unloosed their greatest aerial offensive since the first terroristic raids of the war. More than 300 bombers, flying high, raided almost every important city of southern Finland, including Helsinki (where the house of U. S. Minister H. F. Arthur Schoenfeld was struck), concentrating on the Turku-Helsinki railroad and the Bothnian railroad terminus of Vaasa. Civilian casualties were small (not more than 15), but many business structures in the smaller cities were in flames, due to inadequate fire-fighting equipment. The planes went as far north as the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, bombed the Swedish island of Kallaks, near Lulea, thereby all but extending the war to Sweden (see P. 23}.

Next day the bombers came back and altogether southern Finland got three raids in a week. Helsinki's citizens, who do not scare easily, amused themselves during one alarm by potting one another with snowballs. During another they watched a Finnish anti-aircraft battery pot one of the visiting bombers. Cabled New York Times Correspondent Harold Denny: "We.saw a flash of fire in the sky, blotted out immediately by a mushrooming blob of black smoke, and then scraps of debris began falling. A moment later we heard a roar.

What happened, apparently, was that a Finnish anti-aircraft shell had caught the plane squarely and exploded its bomb load, blowing it to pieces." First detailed accounts of the tactics used by the Finns to wreck the Russian invasion at Suomussalmi reached the U. S. along with the first good pictures (see opposite page) of the battlefield. When two Russian divisions (the 163rd and 44th) occupied Suomussalmi in the early days of the war (TIME, Jan. 1), the Finns had only two companies to oppose them. The Finns, aided by their network of railways, quickly brought up reinforcements from the neighborhood of Lake Laatokka. They succeeded in separating the two Russian divisions and actually took up defensive positions between them.

The Russians, either thickheaded or fooled into overestimating the Finnish strength, did not attack.

With fresh reinforcements withdrawn from other sectors, the Finns then attacked the 44th Division, retired quickly, and left a small force to threaten it while they hurled the bulk of their troops against the 1 63rd. The 163rd was cut to pieces, driven out on Lake Kianta, machine-gunned from shore and bombed from the air, while the 44th, without patrols to find out what was going on, did nothing. When the Finns had finished with the 163rd they turned on the 44th. They blew up a bridge to cut off its retreat, sent a detachment to the frontier to cut its line of communication.

Leaving a small force in front of the 44th, the main body of Finns traveled through a wood and attacked it on a flank. How they finished it off was described last week by the New York Herald Tribune's, Walter Kerr :

"For three days the two armies fought, and the Reds fought better than they ever had in this war. The Russian commander sent a radio appeal for help on the third night. The Finnish radio heard the answer. Red Army headquarters felt the commander of the 44th Division had enough troops to win.

"On the fourth day two companies of Russian field police came up, but they were stopped by the Finns at the border. Then two companies of sappers and two of infantry attempted to join the 44th. None got through. Late that afternoon the Soviet commander ordered a retreat.

"The Red division never got going. The bridge was out, and tanks destroyed by grenades blocked the road. The Russians took to the woods. From then on it was a slaughter. The Finns cut them down mercilessly, and freezing winter nights did the rest."

>The Finns reported that on the Karelian Isthmus a Russian loudspeaker blared: "Surrender in 48 hours or the Germans are coming."

*For another analogy between Russia and the bull, see p. 2.

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