Word: sortavala
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...north shore of Lake Laatokka lies the busy sawmill town of Sortavala, strategically as important a town as there is in all of Finland. Sortavala is the junction of two railroads, one leading north to Finland's waist, which the Russians have been trying to cut, the other going southwest to Viipuri and the Mannerheim Line, which the Russians have been trying to storm. Through this town pass Finnish troops withdrawn from one front to reinforce the other. If Russia had Sortavala, the mobility of the Finnish Army would be dangerously curtailed and Russia would have a railroad...
...week long the Russians pounded at the Finnish lines along the Aittojoki and the Kollaanjoki (joki is Finnish for river), northeast of Sortavala. They fought valiantly, desperately, for behind them the Finns were beginning to close in, ahead of them the Finns had already trapped two divisions of their comrades. These two beleaguered Russian divisions were at Kitela, only 24 miles east of Sortavala, and had been there for weeks. Using the same tactics that had won at Suomussalmi (TIME, Jan. 22), the Finns had first retreated, then made a stand at Kitela, while encircling forces cut the Russian supply...