Evening star., 1940-01-02
ToIvojorvi
Continued From First Page.)

Finnish war began, foreign corre-
spondents have come to Eastern
Finland. We have travelled the mar
row road from Lake Tolva to Lake
Agla, where fighting ragged from De-
cember 13 to December %. We have
seen the roadside in the forest
strewn with countless frozen corpses
of Russians. We have seen and
counted more than IA disabled
Soviet tanks. We have learned that
three Russian divisions participated
in the savage hostilities of the twin
battle of Tolvajarvi and Aglajarvi.
We have seen where the Reds were
decimated and driven back for a
solid 20 miles from their farthest
point of penetration on the eastern
shore of Lake Tolva.
Now most of the dramatic story
can be told. beginning with the first
official figures of Soviet losses in
the battle of Tolvajarvi. In this
battle alone one Red division was
virtually destroyed and only hand
full of men escaped death from
either machine-gun and artillery
fire or from frost In addition, the
Bolshevist losses were 80 tanks, 3
armored cars, IA field guns, l6 anti
tank guns, PIG heavy machine guns,
86 light machine guns, 1880 rifles,
TOO prisoners taken by the Firms.
60 Tanks Captured.
Sixteen of the captured tanks
were in such good condition it was
possible to take and use them i'm
mediately against the Reds. If
Aglajarvi is included, the total Rus
sian loss in tanks must be placed
at we'll above 60.
AS important as the huge amount
of captured materiel is, one fact is
of far greater importance-namely
that the Reds who were crushed and
routed at Lake Tolva were not
the ill-clad, badly trained Russian
proletarians whom Moscow had
thrown in as cannon fodder on most
ports of the Karelian Isthmus Hun
dreds upon hundreds Of Russian
corpses lie here to prove that these
were shock troops, well clothed and
thoroughly equipped.
Most of them were between 20
and % years of age and carried
membership cards in the Comsomol,
the Bolshevist organization from
which selected youths may pass
from provisionary status into full
membership in the Communist
party. These men were trained SOL
diers, and, unlike the Russian
masses in many other divisions,
were supposedly fighting from con-
viction. The Red division to which
they belonged does not exist any
more. The Bolshevists are forever
silent, lying beneath the snow of
Tolvajarvi.
The character of this annihilated
division gives enormous Importance
to the Finnish triumph of Lake
Tolva. Here some of Red Russia S
finest troops were crushed. Here
Finnish strategy made monkeys out
of the Soviet high command. Here,
as in the Suomussalmi sector, the
Finnish eastern front has been
made secure for two months or
more and the Communist invaders
appear to be begged down seriously,
perhaps irreparably, for so long as
the snow lasts.
Strategy Utilizes Terrain.
But Lake Tolva's battle can only
be understood by the beautiful and
unusual contours of the lake itself.
AS we stood on its shores the re-
markably successful strategy which
the Finnish high command en-
ployed here became crystal clear
where before it had been completely
obscured by the dry, terse language
of the December % war COM
munique. The officer who directed
this tactical masterpiece has just
been promoted from colonel to gen.
eral. He and his men are now
tying the Russians into knots sew
eral miles eastward, beyond Lake
Agla.
Lake Tolva is shaped like an elon-