World: Urgency In the Snow

Reindeer and horses still pulled sleighs through the haphazard streets of Murmansk. From that fine, deep-water Arctic harbor all the way to Leningrad, 650 miles south, winter snows still blanketed the land. Moving across the solidly frozen earth of the Karelian Isthmus, the Red Army smashed again & again at the tough Finnish defenders, drove a trio of wedges into the Finnish lines despite desperate tank and infantry counterattacks. East of beleaguered Leningrad Red troops lately transported from Siberia hacked away at Finnish positions on the Aunus Isthmus between Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega.

There was urgency about this, the only significant action on the Russian front last week. Only by shoving the Finns back could the Russians free the southern end of the Murmansk-Leningrad railroad and ensure the swift flow of goods from the Arctic port to the Baltic battlefront.