Evening star., 1941-07-01
Capture Of Riga
By yGermuns Is
Reported
Ay the Associated Press.

8y the Associated Press.
BERLIN, July 1.-German
Armies, sweeping forward toward
Leningrad, Moscow and into the
Ukraine, have reached and
crossed the Dvina River in the
north, the Berezina in the CEN
ter and are pursuing fleeing
Russian units around LWow in
the south, the high command
declared today.
A communique from the Fuehrer' S
headquarters" reported unusually
bloody losses" for Soviet Armies at
tempting desperately in waves of
eight 10 twelve ranks supported by
the heaviest tanks to break a Ger
man wise west of Minsk
dispatches received in Stock
holm today said the Germans
had captured Riga, capital of
Sovietized Latvia.
(The Stockholm correspondent
Of Columbia Broadcasting Sys-
TEN also reported the capture in
broadcast heard in New York.
He said the Riga radio, after be-
ing silent for some time, opened
this morning with German songs)
No Mention of Minsk Capture.
The German communicate made
no mention of any German occu-
patton of Minsk-reported by a
Berlin military spokesman yesterday
but said further eastward the
Berezlna River was reached"
This river runs some 80 miles
east of Minsk and about 400
miles west of Moscow. On it is
Boburisk, in the region of which
the Moscow communique re-
ported heavy fightingD
THE Soviet armies surrounded be-
tween Bialystok and Minsk vainly
made desperate attempts the entire
day to break out of the wise" the
communique continued:
Farther eastward the Berezina
River was reached. Between Dvinsk
and Riga, the Dyina River has been
reached on wide front and crossed
at various places.
Here, too, bitter counterattacks
Of the enemy were broken.
"Squardrons of the German air
force participated in ground fighting
with decisive effects They bombed
enemy columns retreating east of
Lwow, sometimes in two and three
columns on one road. inflicted heavy
losses on surrounded Soviet troops
between Bialystok and Minsk, and
attacked in waves the enemy troops
retreating over Riga"
Tanks Destroyed.
The communique also told of de-
struction of numerous tanks" and
transport units by panzer columns
driving toward Moscow and Lenin-
grad. German fighter planes were
said to have destroyed 280 planes
yesterday.
The German high command said
2l6 Of that total were downed in
air fights over the Pvinsk region
of Latvia, where Nazi spearhead
is third Of the way 10 Leningrad.
and East of Minsk, where panzer
speed troops have been repo1 ted
halfway along the road to Moscow.
Dismemberment end destruction
of the Red Army as a fighting force
appeared the Nazi goal with the
tactics familiar from the lightning
campaigns in Poland, the Low
Countries and France-swift pene-
tration, then encirclement.
A German spokesman declared
two tank columns now are far east
Of Minsk," capital of White Russia,
and that Schrelle 7ruppen-speed
troops of the advance forces-were
within sight of ancient Smolensk,
fortress town $50 miles from
Moscow.
tThus war on wheels out
stripped Napoleon S famed march
on Moscow by almost a month
and a half Over the same
route the Nazis report COW
ering in little more than week,
Napoleon launched his drive
toward Moscow June "a, 1872,
and came into sight of Smolensk
August 49,
D.NB., official German news
agency, predicted "the presence of
these troops in this area without
doubt will soon prove most un-
comfortable to the enemy"
Minsk, back of the Nazi spearhead,
was said to have been captured
by the juncture of two separate
German drives.
These drives, the Germans de-
clared, completely ignored the vast
1See BERLIN page A-51