Evening star., 1941-09-15
Germans Batter
AT Leningrdd
Bunker Line
Strongest Artillery,
Tanks and Infantry
Hurled at Defenses
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
BERLIN, Sept. 15.-German forces
have made large penetratlons
through the outer oefenses guard
ing Leningrad and now are assault
ing the toughest fortified line-a
ring of the most modern bunkers
held by the Russians with eXtraordi-
nary tenacity-German war dis
patches reported today.
Little was known as to details Of
the battle, but the offensive was said
now to be an operation of powerful
attacking weapons.
The Germans indicated that the
battle, into which they have flung
their strongest tanks, artillery and
infantry and in which the airforcs
and navy is cooperating closely,
was progressing successfully.
Walls Six Feet Thick.
Bunkers in great numbers which
surround Leningrad in a deep de-
fensive zone were pronounced the
equal of anything the German army
encountered in France or Belgium.
Some we're said to have had con-
crete walls feet thick. but the Ger
mans said they smashed high ve-
locity shells off these thick walls in
cessantly and that finally they
Welded, the explosives hammering
through to vital internal spots.
About 4.500,000 persons in the
Leningrad region are trapped in an
area of about 1900 square miles,
the equivalent of a space roughly
"a miles ON each side, German in
formants said.
The besiegers, they said, have the
power to take the city house by
house, and if this is necessary they
predicted it would be extremely
bloody"
Eastern Front Ripening.
German military observers said
action was developing all along the
line and that the eastern front was
''ripening for the successes which
the high command announced were
unfolding"
/ Some sources expected a climactic
battle soon in the Donets Valley.
where Stukas were reported dive
bombing artillery emplacements and
troop concentrations. The Donets
Valley, east of the Dnieper ana
northeast of the Crimean Peninsula,
is region of important Russian
industries and considerable German
cultural and economic influence.
The German high command de-
clared that Leningrad, its defenses
already cracked, had been locked in
a tighter encirclement by besieging
German forces after stubborn
fighting for possession of modernly
/ constructed Notifications
Lines Reported Contracted.
Great offensive operations IN the
east are progressing successfully"
said the war bulletin from Adolf
Hitlers headquarters without further
/ elaboration.
The defenders Of Leningrad pre-
viouSly had been reported contract
ing their lines after a Nazi thrust
which the high command said had
/ broken the citys defense front" at
one point.
Repeated enemy counterattacks
supported by heavy tanks collapsed"
the Communique declared.
The news agency D.N.B. said the
Luftwaffe sank a 5,000-ton Russian
transport in the Black Sea east of
Odessa yesterday, destroyed two
others and damaged fourth, of
S,000 tons. A Soviet coastal battery
trying to drive off the air attackers
/ was silenced. the agency said
New Defense Line Shorter.
German pilots, returning from
reconnaissance flights, were quoted
as saying the Russians apparently
were preparing for a stand on new
and shorter defense line tightly
ringing the city itself.
At the same time the Germans
said they had learned from Russian
prisoners that the Soviet forces were
dynamiting huge blocks of buildings
in Leningrad to clear the line of fire
for artillery and machine-guns
These preparations seemingly in
dicated that the Russians-who have
sworn to defend the city to the
last-were planning a street-to-
street defense.
German observers, commenting on
these preparations, said laconically:
"Leningrad may be rubbish and
ashes, even If German weapons
spare the city itself"