Evening star., 1941-11-04
NaziTanks0pen
Violent Drive
Against .Rostov
SevostopoI SheIIed;
Firms Sturt Drive
Aouinst Murmunsk.
BY the Associated Press.

Tank-led German troops were re-
ported to have opened a violent new
offensive today against Rostov-on-
Don, gateway to the Caucasus oil
fields, while Axis forces pouring into
the Crimean Peninsula were de-
clared to be ready for a frontal at
tack within q very few hours" on
Russia's great Black Sea naval base
OF SevastOpOl.
On the northern front the Firms
were active in spite of a warning by
the United Sttaes yesterday to cease
their military operations against
Russia. Helsinki' announced the
capture of the Koivisto Islands in
the Gulf of Finland and a radio
broadcast revealed the start of an
attack on the northern Russian port
of Murmansk.
Finnish forces, including artil-
lery, infantry and motorized units,
are starting a direct assault on Muir
mansk and "the town will be taken
in storm within a few days should
the Russian garrison refuse to sur
render" the Finnish broadcast,
heard in New York by N. B. c., de-
clared.
Savastopol Being Bombarded.
Nazi field batteries have already
begun shelling Sevastopol, it was
reported.
Soviet front line dispatches said
the German onslaught against Ros-
tov, directed by the veteran tank
army commander, Col. Gen. Ewald
Won Kleist. was attacking from sew
eral directions.
At one point. the Russians ad-
mitted, the Germans have succeeded
in driving a wedge several miles
long" into Red Army lines, losing
400 men killed. IS tanks and 20 field
guns. The thrust now has been
halted. the Russians said.
Latest advices put the Germans
within 10 miles Of the big Don River
port, city of 520,O 900. most OF whose
civilian population was Withdrawn
last week.
Two Attacks Repulsed.
Supported by Red warplanes,
Soviet troops repu1sed two attacks
by italian soldiers. it was reported,
and hurled back savage drive by
three tank-paced German infantry
divisions in fighting around the
beleaguered city.
On the central front, Soviet dis
patches said German troops in the
outskirts Of Tula, key munitions
center 100 miles south of Moscow,
had begun to shell the town.
NaN troops broke through Red
defense lines at one point, these dis
patches said. but failed to reach the
center Of the city.
The Russians frankly acknowl-
edging that the Crimea was in grave
danger, asserted, however, that the
strategic peninsula has not been
conquered -. Fighting IS going on
and will go on"
winter Army Moving Up.
London advices said Soviet win
ter army" of approximately 100000
troops, especially trained in Arctic
Siberia, was moving up to the long
battlefront to bolster hard-pressed
Red forces from Moscow to Rostov-
on-Don.
About 100000 have already arrived
at Moscow, it was reported, and
another zoe, 900 are on their way to
help out where they most are
needed'-presumably tn the vicinity
Of Rostov. the Caucasus gateway
below which the German drive
across the Crimea threatens to
establish a short cut to the Caucasus
itself.
The central office Of the Com
munist International in Moscow
were hit by a German bomb in a
day attack on October 20 and burned
many hours, D.NB. declared in
Berlin.
Sevastopol Immobilized IS Base.
Powerfully fortified, Sevastopol
resisted a British-French-Tu
siege for II months in 1886, but
advices reaching London conceded
that the Germans already had i'm
modified the port as a base for
operations of the Soviet Black Sea
fleet.
How long it could Withstand q
siege under the hamniering of mod
ern weapons was another question.
Military observers in London ex-
pected the Russian fleet to choose