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Show SCRIBE TELLS . GRIM DETAILS OF REDDEFEAT First on Scene, He Finds Story of Soviet Rout By COLRTENAT TERRETT ON THE RUSSO-FINNISH FRONT, NORTH OF LAKE LA-! DOG A, Feb. UNSI-By extraordinary ex-traordinary luck during the tome of a visit to headquarters of the American volunteer ambulance corps In Finland, I found myself today near the scene of a great Finnish victory over the Russians, whose details are told here for the first time. In this new triumph for Finland the entire 18th division of the red army was wiped out Its 30,000 troops killed, taken prisoner or dispatched to almost certain death by freezing In the wilderness north of Lake Ladoga and east of Sorta-vala. Sorta-vala. (Ed Iter's Motet Official denial that the Russian Ifth division had been destroyed waa Issued In Helsinki The version there la Finland's chief city waa that decisive notion has been expected ex-pected north of Lavke Ladoga for several days.) As the first and only reporter to reach the scene, I can testify to the extent of the soviet defeat. 1 saw 42 Russian tanks destroyed and limitless quantities of war ma- (Contlnuod an Par TtofMr i Column On GRIM DETAILS OF RUSS DEFEAT 1 TOLD BY FIRST SCRIBE AT SCENE (Costkraea Tnm Pisa Oea terlals" of all kinds Jettisoned by th Russians over an area of 12 St miles. Th Finnish attack was so savage, sav-age, swift and decisive that many wounded Russisns froze to death In dugouts abandoned by their fleeing flee-ing comrades. Even th political commissars attached to red dlvl-i dlvl-i sions had fled, leaving all their ; records and papers behind them. It might be remsrked thst In soviet setbacks the commissars ar Invariably In-variably the first to get away. Only melting snow will, enable complete check up of the soviet I noticed that although th guns war Finnish, some of th shells were Russian. They fit precisely, but, according to th gunners, their xplosivaness uncertain. The local commandant, standing by for telephonic orders to open fire, begged us to remain, but our official chaperons were anxious to get within rlfl Dotting distance before dusk. They did, but I did not realize their urgency at th time. We drove on for about five kilometers ad I began to find out more about It when they spotted a Finnish sharpshooter on his belly losses, nut the amount of equipment equip-ment I saw abandoned along the roadside leaves no doubt whatever what-ever that at least an entire division waa put to rout And I was able , to inspect only one segment of an i 80-mlle front i Th first sight that met my eyes 'J was an abandoned Ford military ' truck belly upward which had ' tipped Into a ravin beneath a dynamited bridge. Most of th bodies of Its decu-panta decu-panta had been been removed, but on booted leg was still visible. The Finns, while mopping up all corpses they can find .to guard l; against pestilence when the spring -thavr-comesrdldnTr have time to jack up the truck and fish out this I lone reminder of battle. I The truck lay in the snow just i, beyond a line of barbed wire emplacements em-placements and antitank "asparagus." atop a hillock. - He was lying there, chewing on snuff and looking look-ing immensely pleased, although his target waa Invisible to us. His rifle was a beautiful job, with a 13-Inch telescopic sight, and he cuddled it like a baby. I asked him If he was sniping! "Just testing." he replied with a smile. Then I wanted to know If th rlfl was regular Finnish army issue. He grinned: "It's just been Issued to me by the Russians. "The Russkl who owned this rifle hsd been sniping at me for four days. So last night I went sut and got It-He It-He patted th butt lovingly and continued: The Russians shouldn't hsv guns like this. They (the Soviets) are rotten shots." But some of the Russisns are not Abandoned Equipment From that point the road to the front was lined with hastily abandoned aban-doned field kitchens, Vis corpses i ot horses, tarpaulin covered stacks Iof gasoline drums, fire gutted tanks and mounds of steel helmets, rifles, shell cases, cartridge belts I and bayonets. , I saw one staff car which had , not been touched by bullets or ' ' shells, but Its carburetor had been removed. At another spot wss an V ambulance In perfect working or-. or-. der, although indescribably filthy. i Inside were four frozen corpses. Farther on along the road 1 saw ' r two trucks which looked like school buses which hsd been fitted out I for regimental field commissars. , They contained geographies that showed Finland "properly" In Rus-' Rus-' sisn territory. , Driving onwsrd in a Finnish staff car, despite the fact that staff officers offi-cers were in the car, the password always hsd to be given to the ubiquitous ubiq-uitous sentries. On one occasion the guards looked askance at the paraphernalia parapher-nalia carried by Arthur Menken. Menken's tripod case resembled a machine gun and the sentries Insisted In-sisted on a thorough examination. Then pictures had to be taken. Then picture had to be taken, to Menken, .who a begrudged the 5 "wasted" film. Abruptly things took on a grimmer grim-mer tinge. First there wss an air i raid warning and then a long f trudge through the forest to beau- tifully concealed Finnish batteries. such bad shots, for only a quarter-mile quarter-mile farther toward the front w passed a sleigh carrying a soldier sitting upright with his arm roughly rough-ly but correctly strapped across his chest He saluted the staff car with his left hand and was surprised sur-prised but courteous when I asked him how he was wounded. "I stopped two tanks, so they sent out a patrol to stop me," he said. "My gun was good for tanks but no use at short range, but after they winged me I got two with my pistol and then they left me alone." I discovered later that he had lain out In the snow for seven hours before being dragged in. Less than four minutes later w arrived at what Is called the "outpost "out-post line," there being no other term fit to describe It I had been told in Helsinki to keep away from the front line. Here I was standing In a snow-pit shoulder high, with a machine gunner gun-ner Intently watching the Russians Rus-sians only 750 feet away. I really didn't realize how close I wss to things until I saw other similar pits scattered about In the woods, each containing a sharpshooter, sharp-shooter, a machine gunner or a man with a tommy gun. They were all shrouded In white, each standing behind an Individual breastwork and apparently impervious im-pervious to the cold of 30 degrees below. Keep On Mov But although their bodies were never still, the Finns finding it stimulating to flap their arms or stamp their feet, their eyes never I ceased ranging the front and inside their mittens their fingers flexed constantly. Suddenly from the left came a short rattle of fire and then, as a machine gunner was explaining to me how his hand-operated auxiliary aux-iliary tommy gun worked, our chaperon descended Into the pit, conscience-stricken for two reasons. rea-sons. First, he had let me get too far afield. Second, he had failed to Increase his own detachment's "quota" of Russians during his absence. He offered tet, stating that "English "En-glish and Americans always have tea this time of day," but I preferred pre-ferred to slither out ot the pit and watch flaxen-maned sorrel Finnish ponies pulling sleighs of war supplies sup-plies down the road In an endless line, only to return with th seriously seri-ously wounded. Th others men who only hsv a bullet or shrapnel or bomb fragment in their bodies that doesn't Interfere with walking-plod walking-plod along hanging onto th tailboard, tail-board, shafts or even th ponies' manes. |