Evening star., 1940-01-30
Writer Goes 10 Front
For Story on Women
In Russian Lines
Hazardous Journey
Made to Finnish
Headquarters.
BY WILLIAM L. WHITE.

SOMEWHERE IN Finland
We wanted to talk to the officer who
had heard the women's voices on the
Russian side of the line and had
seen them being driven toward the
Finnish machine guns, so they gave
us soldier to take us to his bat
talon headquarters. For a while
we went along the road, the guide
walking ahead and showing us how
to step around the little piles Of
green spruce twigs which mark the
anti-tank mines When the Films
retreat they rake up the spruce
twigs and throw them into the ditch.
Then there is only smooth snow
over the mine.
1t was very cold and long after
sunset. but the moon was so bright
that our shadows on the new snow
were like pools of ink flowing along
beside us. The Russian artillery had
never stopped and they were throw
ing over shrapnel at about 10 a
minute. The guns themselves we're
a deep roar, yet there was always
a metallic note about it like very
loW-pitched tuning fork. The eX-
ploding shrapnel made loud deep
thunder.
Machine Gun Still Warm.
Now and then we met soldiers
walking back from the front in twos
and threes. First you could see
their boots and rifles, which are
black; then their faces and hands,
which were not so dark; only when
they were very close could you see
the white cotton camouflage over
their uniforms and the outline of
their German-type steel helmets,
which were also painted white.
One soldier, grinning, stopped to
show us a machine gun he had
ripped out of Russian tank they
had captured up the road quarter
of an hour ago The barrel was still
so warm from firing that you could
touch it with an ungloved hand,
which you would not dare to do to
any other metal in that zero wealth
AllC oO4dlCl was VSlS PlouA Clloe
it was still warm. He invited us all
to touch it.
Presently we passed another SOL
dier, sitting very quiet in the ditch
with his anti-tank gun pointed down
the road ahead Then We turned
off the road into another wood,
along a path which our guide said
would never be mined unless they
abandoned this strip. The trees
were heavy with snow, except here
and there where the rush of air
from exploding Russian shrapnel
had shaken it to the ground.
Headquarters in Tent.
The battalion headquarters was
big round army tent perhaps 20 feet
across, dug down about feet into
the ground, so when you sat down
your head was below surface level
and was safe from anything but
direct hit Nothing is safe from
direct hit We went down to the
entrance flap of the tent by a mar
row, sloping trench.
A lantern hung from the central
pole of the tent, shaded so that no
glow came through the canvas at
the top to be seen from the sky.
Under the lantern was a table on
which was field telephone. The
major commanding the battalion
rose and shook hands with us. So
did all his battalion staff. Then
the major sat down again at the
table and the battalion staff lay
down as they had been, around the
edges of the tent, with their heads
on their bedding rolls, or resting
on their gas masks. The major ex-
planned that for two days the Rus
slams had been attacking here and
they had very little sleep. BY the
lantern light his lean face was lined
with gray and his blue eyes were
heavy, but he was courteous. He
said we would have to wait, as the
captain who had seen the women
was in the front lines and it would
take quite while for him to come
back. Much of the distance he
would have to crawl.