December 31, 1939; FINNS REPULSE THIRD RED ARMY

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, DECEMBER 31, 1939:

Vital Russ Rail

Link Cut,
Britain Hears

HELSINKI, Dec. 30 (AP)—Finland's warriors of the snows Saturday flung a third red Russian army back onto soviet soil —in full rout—and faced the new year exultant in the strength they have shown to the world.

British accounts of the operations at the start of the second month of northern war went so far as to credit Finnish "suicide patrols" of skiiers with cutting Russia's vital railway from Murmansk to Leningrad in three places. These dispatches said there were reports of a food shortage in Murmansk as a result of the raids on the railway, which is the main supply line for the invading Russians.

Other Finns Stand Fast

Other Finnish armies stood fast against attacks on the Mannerheim line while this little capital, in contrast to the bloody aerial blitzkrieg of a month ago, had not a single air raid alarm all day.
Soviet bombers, however, attacked, other towns both close to Helsinki and on the Karelian isthmus.

Half a' hundred bombs were dumped on Hanko, southwestern naval base, destroying a hospital and four other buildings and injuring ten patients. Vaasa, in the capital area, was bombed with three to five civilian deaths; Sipoo, 30 miles east of Helsinki, was raided and a little girl was killed; there were civilian casualties in raids on Kakisalmi and other isthmus towns.

Pushed Over Border
The third battle in which the attacking Russians were pushed back across the border took place near Kuhmo, about 50 miles north of Lieksa, in lower central Finland. The Finnish command charted the course of t h e Russian rout as southeast, past Kiekki.

Spread of War Marks

'39's Place in History

European Struggle Emphasizes

Economic Combat Rather
Than Bloody Land Battles

By The Associated Press

Three wars spread their terror around the world in 1939.

The old European enemies, Germany, France and Britain, were fighting again. The 1918 "peace" took up sword and gun as it came of age.

Out of Asia lumbered ponderous Russia, sharing defeated Poland with Germany and starting a separate war—another undeclared one—against Finland, who balked at giving naval bases, barracks and air fields to her big neighbor who wished to "protect" her against an unnamed potential foe Finland could not see.

Japan and China struggled on the other side of the world in a war of "scorched earth" guerilla tactics and international diplomacy.

The phrase, "All quiet on the western front," described the European land war, but on sea and in the air Britain and Germany fought out their hates.

Britain vowed "Hitlerism" must end. Germany declared she would smash Britain and her efforts to block the spread of German power over Europe.

By Robert E. Bunnelle

LONDON, Dec. 30—The European war so far is quite different from the conflict expected. Emphasis is placed on economic combat instead of on big bloody land battles as in the World war. The aim is to starve out the enemy, undermine his civilian

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morale, isolate him in world politics and commerce, and keep his war plans upset by sharp irregular thrusts by sea and air. Casualty lists for war's first three months tell the story graphically.

More than 2000 men were lost in Britain's navy, more than 500 in the royal air force. But for this period the British expeditionary force reported only three men killed in action.

The war in brief stood like this:

1. Virtual stalemate on the western front.

2. The allies sought to establish a long-range naval blockade around Germany.

3. Germany sought to establish a counter-blockade against Britain through submarine and surface raiders and a new type of mine laid by airplanes.

4. Britain and Germany were feinting at each other's naval bases with persistent reconnaissance flights,