The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-06-12

down, the Leningrad correspondent of the Communist Party newspaper Pravda said. ''The Finnish invaders believed they would be saved by their old lines and by. the recon- structed Mannerheim line with German support.
 They made bitter mistake, and this isn't the first time. Nothing can halt the Soviet drive"
 A Pravda front dispatch said all kinds of Russian arms and masses of troops were speeding through a yawning gap in the Mannerheim line after the retreating Films.
 GOvorOv Opens Offensive
 Govorov opened the offensive with an earth-shaking lombard ment of the Finnish positions which left the enemy survivors dazed, be- wildered and unable to resist, Prav- da reported.
 The most concentrated lombard ment by guns ranging up to 220 millimeterS was turned against the steel and concrete fort at Belo Os- troy. The Russians moved up guns within 1,200 yards of the forts main turrets. As the shells tore deeper and deeper into the fort. the Fin nish guns weakened. The next morning Govorov's guns opened up along the entire front. ripped up barbed wire entanglements, filling trenches with earth. and blasting out gun supplements. The oombardment went on for three hours, and then tanks and in- fantry stormed forward. Stiff resis- tance was encountered near the coast at first, but the Films quick. ly abandoned their positions and fled northward to escape the threat of encirclement.
 The offensive brought Germany and her satellites under attack from three sides and was expected to spread gradually all along the 1,- 700-mile eastern front from the Parents sea to the Black sea. Com ing only four days after the Anglo American invasion of France, it was believed to have completed the first phase of the master plan agreed upon by the "big three" last winter at Tehran.
 Where and when the Russians will strike next obviously was mil itary secret, but observers would not be surprised if 0ovorov hurled the southern arm of his forces against Narva and Tallinn in Estonia as soon as the northern arm reaches the north coast of the Gulf of Fin land.
 Armies Standing By
 All Soviet aries, from Romania to northern Russia, were known to be standing by for orders to move against the enemy.
 (Military observers in London suggested the Russians might at tack next west of Murmansk in an attempt to cut across the northern tip of Finland into Norway and there perhaps effect a junction with an invading Allied army. The Ger man high command said last night that the Soviets were probing Axis lines in the Rybachi peninsula area only 30 miles from the Norwegian border.)
 More than 30 towns and villages were swept up in the first phase of the new offensive on the western side of the Karelian Isthmus, be- tween the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga. as Govorov attacked with overwhelming strength.
 With their strongest fortified line of the whole Russian Finnish front Ipierced, the Films were believed here to be doomed and the end of the campaign now appeared to de- Ipend entirely on how much eQuip- ment Govorov is willing to throw into the next phase of the opera ton.
 The strength of his forces driving up the Isthmus was illustrated by the fact that Premier Marshal Jo- sci Stalin mentioned 20. infantry, tank, air and engineer corps gen. erals in his order of the day an- nouncing the offensive.
 Finnish Communique
 GA Finnish communique acknow- ledged that the Russians had broken through their Karelian Isthmus de- lenses. Stockholm estimated that the Soviets were using 600 planes in the 0ffensive.)
 Breaking through into open wooded and lake country after smashing the Mannerheim Line de- lenses. the Russians captured Kar- vala, B miles north Of Leningrad and 4S miles southeast of Vlipuri, and the stronghold of Terijoki, nine miles to the south on the Lenin- grad.Viipuri-H Helsinki railway.
 The big guns of Russian warships from the Baltic fleet supported the advance. whichr broke q b0-day lull on the Eastern front with the ex- ception of the lightning liberation of the CFimea.
 Red Air Force and fleet air arm planes added hundreds of tons of bombs to the massive weight of the all-out artillery and naval bom- barment opening the assault, Tn one sector alone. 270 enemy dugouts. concrete pillboxes and other defense installations in the ManneThelnn line were destroyed.
 Thensands of Dead
 Tn trenches and dueouts were thousands of enemy dead-soldiers killed as result of the bombing and artillery fire." the Soviet high com- mand reported in its midnight conn munique. Prisoners and much booty also were captured"
 At some points. the Russians ad- vanced i've to 10 miles across the preslose Finnish border. The new border established after the Rus- slan.Finnish War Of ie3e-ie40 lies north of viipuri.
 Moscow saluted ths ylcsoFious