Evening star., 1941-07-17
Last Red Reserve
Units Thrown In,
Germans Assert
b the Associated Press.

BERLIN, July 17.-Nine million
soldiers on the eastern front are
waging a tremendous struggle
for a decision" and the Red
Army has thrown its last re-
serves into battle to try to stem
the onslaught of Adolf Hitler's
driving legions, the German high
command declared today.
Great successes are in the max
Ing" declared the war bulletin from
Hitler's headquarters. casting off
the reserve of recent DAYS and
again delving into details of the vast,
bloody front
Chisinau, the capital of Bessara-
bia on the southern wing of the
front, has been captured by German
and Rumanian forces, it declared.
The communique was sequel to
earlier reports that German
"Schnelle Truppen''-speed troops
had plunged ahead again on the
vital central and northern sectors
after mopping up pockets of Russian
resistance delaying their drives to-
ward Moscow and Leningrad.
SmOlenSk Capture Claimed.
D.NB., official German news
agency, reported that SmolenSk, i'm
portant bomb-battered railway town
230 miles west of Moscow, vas in
Nazi hands.
This followed statements by in
formed Germans that protracted
Russian rearguard resistance in that
zone had been broken yesterday and
that the Nazi advance had rolled
rapidly eastward again.
Russian and German lines in this
huge ggle-labeled by some the
greatest in history-still were not
clear cut, however
Mopping-up operations apparent
ly were in progress far behind the
farthest flung German vanguards.
Thus, DNB. reported the capture
of Smolensk and also PolotSk. an
other point to the rear which, it
said, was passed up in the first
rushes to the east and entered by
later encirclement.
Advance in South.
Between Zhitomir and Berdichev,
also on the southern front facing the
Russian Ukraine, authorized Ger
man sources said, German speed
troops swept into the town of Goro-
dische.
tThere are numerous towns of
that name in Russia and an ear
lier mistake by an authorized
spokesman in Berlin gave the er-
roneous information that the
Gorodische claimed as captured
was one 110 miles from Moscow.
Actually, it is at the other end
of the 'front.'
German troops, concealed in arti-
fetal fog, have stormed the last of
the underground Notifications near
Kiev," one German report said.
The Stormed Notifications were
described as three stories deep below
ground and defended almost to the
last man although German infantry
was said to have charged only after
fog-hidden forces had thrown eX-
plosives into gun-turret openings.
Informed Germans said their
troops encountered Red Army forces
west of Smolensk and in a crush
Ing onslaught beat them back.
They asserted more than 1000
prisoners we're taken, including the
chief of state of one of the Soviet
divisions, and large quantities of
all kinds of war materials captured
Russians Kept on Move.
DNB. said steady pressure main
tained by the Nazis both on
the land and in the air was keeping
the Russians on the move and fore
ing them to fight from unfavorable
positions, with the result that they
were suffering considerable losses.
D.NB. said the Luftwaffe had
succeeded in destroying hundreds of
miles of vital railways in the Rus
sian rear, throwing the Red Army
into confusion and preventing rein
forcements from reaching the front
The Soviet air force was said to
have been so badly shattered it
could not cope with the Luftwaffe.
Dispatches from Ankara said
German Ambassador Franz Won
Papen had sounded out the Turkish
government on the possibility of
sending supplies across Anatolia for
German troops in the Caucasus if
Russia should be beaten decisively
by September. Turkey was said to
have replied that such a question
was premature, but observers saw in
the reports the prospect of new
tug of war between Britain and
Germany to win Turkish favor.
Turkey is a non-belligerent ally
of Britain, but signed a 10-year
friendship pact with Germany on
June 18, four days before the Ger
man-Russian war began.