Battle or Raate Road. Starting at 3 AM, Finns make several cuts in the Soviet column up to 5 miles East of Mäkinen’s original roadblock. As the Finns crush this part of the column, Soviet troops start to abandon their positions and flee into the forest where they are hunted down by the Finns or freeze to death. Task Force Fagernas holds the Purasjoki River crossing against NKVD tank counterattack and also manages to cut the road again further East near the border, frustrating the arrival of any reinforcements. As his division is being chopped into ever smaller mottis, 44th’s Commander Vinogradov orders a general retreat but there is nowhere to go.
Sweden and Norway both reassert their neutrality and reject British suggestions to protect shipping in Norway’s waters with Royal Navy ships. They rightly suspect this would lead to aggressive moves by Germany both at sea and on land to protect vital supplies of Swedish iron ore.
Finnish fighter ace, Jorma Sarvanto, flying a Fokker fighters shoots down six German Ilyushin bombers in about 25 minutes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorma_Sarvanto
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