NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE serious Russian offensive against Finland to the north of Lake Ladoga, which was still continuing at the end of last week, has now spent itself, with heavy losses to the attackers. The Finns pursued the tactics which have again and again proved successful—when the enemy front was advanced the right flank was raided by mobile ski patrols and the left flank was attacked from the island fortress of Mantsi. Reports of prisoners show that extreme hunger and cold had their share in lowering the morale of the Russian troops. The evidence goes to show that many of the men on the Soviet side are extremely unwilling fighters. Calculations of Russian casualties based on unofficial but well-informed Russian reports suggest that the Russians must have lost in the course of the campaign scarcely fewer than 200,000 men in killed, wounded and prisoners. But, if unsuccessful on the fighting fronts, the Russians have been intensifying their brutal attacks on the civilian population, not sparing clearly-marked hospitals. On Monday, no fewer than 200 raiders flew over the country, the civilian victims being 30 killed and 50 or more wounded. But there is indication of a strengthening of the Finnish air forces in the fact that 21 Soviet machines were brought down, some of them by fighter machines, and that on the same day Finnish aircraft took the offensive at many points on Soviet bases or communication lines. If the report is true that 200 American war-planes have been landed at Bergen the relief to the Finns will be considerable.
