Last Quarter

Around three sides of Karelia's crumbling capital Russian field artillery stood hub to hub, and under the torrent of shells they threw, the Red Army last week battered its way into Viipuri. Craftily the Finns fought their retreating battle, leaving small rear-guard detachments to hold up the advance while their main force fell back in good order. A ruined town makes the best of all fortifications, and as the Russians entered the outskirts of Viipuri, Finnish machine guns spat tellingly from the gaping windows of the all-but-demolished houses. The invaders had to occupy Viipuri block by burning block.

At week's end the Russians claimed to have reached the railroad station, but all around the station, in the heart of the city, the weary Finns still held out. They have no hope of holding the city long. Viipuri was condemned when the Finns abandoned Koivisto Fortress, blowing up their heaviest artillery and leaving the Russians a clear road across the frozen Gulf of Finland to outflank the city (TIME, March 4). Last week the Russians took this road. Another force drove past Viipuri to the northeast. And along what was left of three railroads the main body of the Red Army converged on its goal. The capital of Karelia, which was a Russian city from 1710 to 1918, was doomed to become Russian again. The Finns were holding it only to safeguard their withdrawal from the Karelian Isthmus.

Although the eastern anchor of the Mannerheim Line still held fast to the Taipale River, the Finns' retreat in the west had brought their western defense line parallel to their whole line of communications. This meant that if the line broke anywhere the rest of the front-line troops would be cut off from their supplies. And so last week the Finns began retreating in the middle of the isthmus, swinging their army back like a door, with Viipuri as the hinge. To the north and west of Viipuri civilians were cleared out of towns and villages, while the Army began preparing new positions between the Isthmus and Helsinki.

This country is rough and rocky, with a line of low glacial hills running from the shore of Lake Saimaa to Hamina on the Gulf. Along this line the Finns were expected to make their next stand. The eastern end of the Mannerheim Line would eventually have to be abandoned also, with that part of the Finnish Army probably retreating to join the forces north of Lake Laatokka. Apparently the Finns hoped, by thus splitting their Isthmus army, to harass the Russian rear with guerrilla tactics, keep the Russians too busy to organize a drive on Helsinki before spring.

Though there was no sign of a Finnish collapse, not even the Finns could deny that they had suffered a bitter defeat. The Russians had rounded the bend of the Isthmus, were only 150 miles from Helsinki. Before them lay, not a carefully built line of fortifications, but a series of makeshift positions, with half an army to defend them. And while spring's thaw would make the going tougher for the Russians, it would also thaw out their frozen northern army, bring better bombing weather. As if to give the Finns a taste of what is in store for them--possibly in hope of cracking their morale--the Russian air force last week made a clean sweep of the south of Finland, sparing only Helsinki, killed and wounded hundreds of civilians in Hamina, Kotka, Hanko, Turku, Lahti, Riihimaki, Kouvola, Tampere, Porvoo, Karjaa.

Worst of all for the Finns, the Russians were destroying men and material as fast as the Finns could get them from abroad. Against the 10,000 volunteers who have joined the Finns, at least 17,000 Finns have been killed in the battle of Viipuri. The Russians claim to have shot down 191 airplanes since Feb. 11th. This was 41 more than the entire Finnish Air Force at the beginning of the war. And that drive has netted the Russians a great store of small arms. As if to counteract these losses the Finns last week routed the 34th Tank Brigade north of Lake Laatokka, captured 105 tanks, twelve armored cars, six guns, 200 trucks, left 2,000 dead Russians.

From Helsinki, LIFE'S Cameraman Carl Mydans broadcast to the U. S. a description of the fighting on the Isthmus. Likening the war to a football game, Cameraman Mydans left little doubt as to how desperate it had become. Said he: "Last week Russia sent in her first team and the war went into the last quarter."

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