Day 71 of the Winter War, February 8, 1940
Ladoga Karelia: the enemy wipes out a Finnish ski battalion to the northeast of Lake Ladoga. Photo: SA-KUVA
Finnish evening at the Paris Opera
- The Soviet Union asks Finland which island it would be willing to surrender to house a Soviet base.
- Central Isthmus: Soviet infantry supported by tanks and protected by ski-borne armoured sheets manage to reach the front of the Finnish positions in Summa. By midnight the enemy has been forced to withdraw, leaving almost 150 armoured sheets in Finnish hands.
- Eastern Isthmus: two Soviet divisions launch a massive assault in Taipale at 10.15 in the morning.
- The enemy directs heavy shelling onto the eastern part of Kirvesmäki and the western strongholds in Terenttilä.
- The Finnish positions being shelled are also bombed by nine enemy aircraft at the same time as fighter aircraft strafe the front lines.
- Two of the Terenttilä strongholds are lost to the enemy. Finnish losses total 219 men, of whom 32 are killed.
- The enemy assault on Kirvesmäki fails with the loss of two assault tanks. In the north, 1,500 Russians are killed in Kuhmo.
- Ladoga Karelia: the enemy wipes out a Finnish ski battalion to the northeast of Lake Ladoga.
- An enemy detachment of around 250 men is surrounded to the east of Lake Nietjärvi.
- Government ministers Ryti, Walden and Tanner discuss the offer of help from the Allies and decide it should be used to exert pressure on both the Soviet Union and Sweden.
- Second Lieutenant Wilhelm Bekassy, a Hungarian volunteer, disappears while flying his Fiat G50 fighter, bought from Italy and assembled in Sweden, from the Swedish city of Västerås to Säkylä in southwest Finland.
- The Swedish national collection in aid of Finland has so far generated around 15 million krona.
- The British Labour Party delegation visiting Finland leaves for home today.
- Abroad: the Paris Opera is putting on a special gala evening to raise funds for Finland.
© The Finnish Defence Forces 1999.