Evening star., 1941-08-03
Moscow
Continued From First Page)

manpower-already considerably in
excess of $500, ,0O0-and in materials.
Each day of the struggle brings
the German Army closer to defeat
and Hitlerite Germany closer to
catastrophe.
Great Losses Claimed.
"The Red Army is beginning to
beat off the Fascists from the po-
sitions they occupy" said an op-
timistic statement in the Com
munist Party organ, Pravda, lis
forcing them at a number of places
to abandon the offensive and as
sumo the defensive, and in certain
places to retreat with great losses" !"
With the war ending its sixth
week, Pravda pictured the Germans
as having failed to disrupt the long
and laborious task of fully mobiliz-
ing the full Soviet Army, to seize
the three key western cities of Mos
COW, Leningrad and Kiev, and as
having lost the initial advantage
of huge concentrations launched in
powerful surprise attack.
Now "an levers" of the Soviet
strength are being put into action,
said the official organ.
From isolated defensive blows the
Red Army is going into consecutive
counterblows which are hurting back
the impudent enemy"
Desperate Efforts.
The official communiques said the
Germans, in desperate efforts to
hold their ground, were rushing in
fantry divisions forward under
forced marches, while panzer divi-
sions, cut off from fuel supplies,
were burying their gas-dry tanks in
the ground to serve as miniature
fortresses until help could arrive.
Parachutists, it was said, in at
least one instance, were sent for
ward as reinforcements until the
infantry could battle its way for
ward.
But the Red Army was described
as turning back on the Germans
the same tactics which the NaZi
general staff has used to drive steel
fingers into the enemy's lines.
Crack Red units, it was. said, were
probing for the weak spots in the
German lines, driving in wedges,
and then exploiting the gains with
flank attacks.
One Soviet division, the goth, thus
contributed to the destruction OF
dog tired German infantry divisions,
Soviet military dispatches said. One
of these presumably was the Ger
man 5th Infantry Division which an
eyewitness account from the front
said had been rushed forward to
reinforce a parachute unit.
The location of this action was
not given, though especially severe
fighting was reported in the Smo-
lensk area along the road to Moscow
Mentions Infantry Division.
A communique specifically men.
toned another German infantr,
division, the 18th, as having beer
wiped out at Smolensk.
This division was said to have
been rushed forward to check &
Soviet advance but to have beer
ferociously attacked from the f1ani
before it could get into action. Sur.
rounded by artillery, it was virtually
annihilated by the storm of fire anc
succeeding bayonet charges, the Of
fetal report said A desperate effort
of German motorcyclists and cav
airy to cut through the Gordon me-
smashing disaster when 1t en-
countered unit of Soviet tanks.
While Prava said the Germans
! were being driven back in som'
places, it warned that in others
"the treacherous enemy, despite hi!
great losses in manpower and ma
terial, is attempting to expand thu
territory seized" and is trying by al
means to reach the life centers O.
the Soviet Union.