Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1941-10-26
Russians Facing Supreme Test
As Nozis Hur| Mossed Power
Into New Moscow Offensive
Red Armies Plight
In Ukraine Ver9es
- On Disaster
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press
Russia's armies battling over
the snow-covered front before
Moscow faced a supreme test
today as the Germans hurled
great masses of shock troops,
tanks and guns into violent
new offensive and unconfirmed
reports placed Nazi spearheads
within 20 miles of the U. S. S. r.
capital.
Red Army forces have re-occu-
pied one town in the Moscow sector
and have killed thousands OF Ger
mans in three days of fighting in
another sector. the Moscow radio re-
ported early today.
The recaptured town. identified as
as" was said to be west of the CAPT.
tai while in the Bryansk sector, 2lO
miles to the southwest. severe
blows" were declared dealt the Ger
mans.
Thousands of Germans found
their death in the Bryansk sector"
the radio announcement said. Be
tween October 81 and "a about two
regiments of enemy infantry were
annihilated by one Soviet group
Thousands of Dead.
Untold thousands of dead, Ger
mans and Russians alike, LAY in
the drifting SHOWS. with Soviet dis
patches declaring that 100000 Nazis
had been killed on the central front
alone.
In the Ukraine. the plight OF the
southern Red Armies under the new
command of Marshal Semeon limo
shenko clearly verged on disaster.
brilliantly, heralded by a fanfare
OF trumpets, Adolf Hitler's high
command yesterday told the Ger
man people that their legions had
captured Russias pittsburgh" the
big war foundries city of Kharkov,
in the heart of the Donets River
industrial basin. and that Nazl
troops now overran all but tiny
corner of the extreme Southeastern
Ukraine.
The high command said the city
of $40. coo population. lying 400 miles
south of Moscow and $50 miles east
of Kiev. the German-held capital
of the Ukraine, was "one OF the
most important armament and eco
nomic centers of the Soviet Union.
AS a production source for tanks,
locomotive engines, coal and metals,
Kharkov's loss meant heavy blow
to Russia's war supplies. More
over. the Germans claimed the cap
ture of the key rail town OF Bel
gorod, At miles north of kharkov,
on the main line to Moscow.
No Mention of Kharkov.
The Soviet Sunday morning COM
munioue, broadcast from Moscow,
said fighting continued in the MOI
haisk and Maloyaroslavets directions
from which Moscow is most men,
aced. In the south-where no men
ton was made of Kharkov-the
fighting was placed in the Taganrog
and Makeevka directions near the
easternmost point of the Sea OF
Akov.
Six successive attacks by the Ger
man 129th Motorized Division on
the Soviet left flank in the MOI
haisk sector, 81 miles west Of the
capital, were declared repulsed In
three days.
In the Maloyaroslavets sector, IS
miles southwest of Moscow. the Ger
mans were reported thWarted in at
tempts to cross the Okla River.
second mighty Nazi offensive is
under way in the Crimea, where
Russian accounts said the first was
beaten off with 5000 German and
Rumanian dead. Despite these losses,
1t was admitted the Germans had
made new gains at the approaches
of the isthmus.
Dispatches from Kuibyshev, aux
iliary Soviet capital, acknowledged
that the hour of crisis had arrived
in the 24-day-old struggle for Mos
COW and that the Germans also were
pressing their new offensives into
the Crimea and at the approaches
to Rostov-on-Don, gateway to the
vital Caucasian oil fields. One of
the fiercest battles of the entire
front was reported raging at Tag
anrog, only 80 miles west of Rostov.
Fighting in OreI Sector.
A supplementary official Russian
announcement said tremendous bat
ties were being fought in the Orel
sector 210 miles south of Moscow,
operating in heavy counterattacks
against the German offensive.
Air attack squadrons were said
to have destroyed Al German tanks
and annihilated more than two
battalions of German infantry on
(See RUSSIAN, Page A-50