Evening star., 1940-01-02

gated figure eight. A long, bent fin
ger OF spruce-covered land comes
out from its eastern side and al
most cuts the lake in two. The
main road from the Russian from
tier rides atop this narrow finger
then bridge links it with the west
ern shore.
On December II, by precipitous
advance, the Russian shock divisions
had reached the eastern shore of
Lake Tolva and poured great masses
of soldiers down the twisted link of
the elongated finger of the penin-
sula. They had rushed pell-mell
into the trap. Then the much less
numerous Firms sprang their trap
Red Troops Fight Each Other.
The Firms had already beaten
back two Red battalions which tried
to fight their way around the ends
of the lake. They also had their
artillery and machine guns hidden
in the forest on both ends so that
they could reach the narrow penin-
sula which forms the waistline of
the figure eight. In the night two
Finnish companies, led by the COL
onel, penetrated through the thick
forest far behind the Russian lines.
There they machine gunned the
Reds viciously from the rear for 20
minutes, slipped away again swiftly
and left two bodies of Russian troops
to fight each other in the darkness
for two hours-each mistaking the
other for Firms.
On December 13 the Firms let
loose from both sides of the lake
and 38 Firms charged the bridge
which led to the peninsular finger,
which was now raked from both sides
with heavy fire. Only eight out of
the SO men got across but they cap
tured the Russian guns at the
bridgehead, turned them on the
enemy and the way was opened for
the destruction of virtually an en-
tire Soviet division. BY nightfall,
1,400 Russian dead we're strewn on
the snow around the entire penin-
sula. The Firms closed their pin
GERS from both ends of the lake and
a few surviving Red soldiers ran
frantically in headlong retreat.
From December IA to % the Films
smashed the Russians backward and
backward. Despite the fact that
the Soviets threw in a fresh division,
their forces were driven mercilessly
back until their retreat was utterly
decisive at Lake Agla and their
retreat had covered 20 miles in the
space of 10 days.
Temperatures Below Zero.
Most of this battle was fought in
temperatures ranging from 13 to 80
degrees below zero. An inestimable
force of Russian wounded must have
frozen to death where they fell.
Many others ran wildly into the for
est and probably perished there from
cold. The narrow road from Lake
Tolva to Lake Agla is still Uttered
with wrecked tanks and lined with
Russian materiel and frozen corpses.
Here one sees new testimony, elo-
auent but ghastly, of great tactical
military victory and a Russian de-
feat which can only be described as
devastating in the extreme.
Although TOO Russian prisoners
were taken here, Finnish headquar-
ters has refrained from announcing
how many Soviet officers had been
captured, nor has anything been
said about the fate of the COM
manders of the annihilated Red di-
visions. All that can be reported
with certainty in regard to the size
of the Russian dead is the fact that
the Firms officially are making a
most excessively moderate estimate
when they place the figure at some
thing more than 1000.
There can be no doubt, In any
case, that the battle of Lakes Tolva
and Agla pulverized a vast number
of the Red Army's best shock troops,
and observers here s%lieve that the
Finnish victory at Lake Tolva will
assume a yet greater significance as
the var proceeds.
(Copyrieht, 1910. chicago Daily News. Ine.)
Leninarad. Russia. now has 4