Evening star., 1941-11-01
Red Evacuation
0fCiviIians in
Rostov Reported
Little Chance Seen
To Save Key City
In Caucasus Drive
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
Russia was reported to be exc
cutting another massive leap-froe
withdrawal before the onslaught OF
Adolf Hitlers invasion armies to-
day, evacuating most OF the civilian
population and machinery from
Rostov-on-Don as the Germans
smashed deeper into the Upper
Donets River industrial basin.
A city of $4,000. about the size
of New Orleans or Minneapolis
Rostov is the gateway to the vital
Caucasus oil fields and the southern
anchor of the l,200-mile battle front
London military observers said
Soviet Marshal Semeon Timoshen-
kos Red Armies still were Offering
fierce resistance at the approaches
to Rostov-with the Germans 10
miles away. at latest reports-but
that there appeared 10 be little
chance of saving the city.
Russian engineers already have
heavily mined the Don River port
preparing to dynamite it into ruins
at the signal Tor retreat.
A bulletin from Hitlers field head
quarters said Axis forces had crossed
the Upper Donets River at several
points-apparently in wide flank
ing movement intended to engulf
Rostov-and the Berlin radio broad
cast reports that the west bank of
the river now was in Axis hands.
Nazis Reported Held Up.
In the Crimean campaign. where
the Germans are driving to capture
Russia S big Black Sea naval base
OF Sevastopol, the Nazi high COM
mand said German and Rumanian
troops we're continuing their pursuit
of Soviet forces
Soviet military dispatches ac-
knoWledged that the battle of the
approaches to the Crimea had be-
come increasingly critical. with the
Nazis continuing to widen the gap
they cut through the defense line
across the 4-mile-Wide Perekop
1sthmus, which links the Crimea
with the U. S. S. r. mainland.
A British radio broadcast how .
ever. said the Russians were holding
up the Nazi onslaught about 25
miles south of the Perekop Isthmus.
The Moscow radio said three Ger
man transports had been sunk by
Russian submarine recently in the
Black Sea. The exact zone of the
operations was not defined, but the
transports may have been moving
up troops for the current German
drive into the Crimea.
New Nazi Drive Forecast.
The Russians forecast mighty
new German offensive against Mos
COW. declaring that the Nazis had
brought up masses of reserves and
were ready to attack soon.
A London radio broadcast said
huge-scale battle was raging IS
miles northwest of Moscow. with
control of the town of Volokolamsk
at stake
Front-line dispatches to Red Star
the Soviet Army newspa per, further
conceded great new danger to the
munitions-making center of Tula.
100 miles south of Moscow. where
the Germans were reported to have
battered their way into the suburbs.
Red Star said Russian troops were
still retreating at Tula under rear
guard action.
Freezing weather hardened the
mud in which German armored
units had wallowed for MANY days.
permitting Nazi panzers to swing
into action.
Soviet Gen. Gregory K. Zhukov.
central front commander, was re-
ported rushing reinforcements to
the Tula danger zone. and as street
hghtlng ragged in the suburbs.
factory workers dropped their tools
and went out to bolster the defense
lines.
Russians Counterattack.
Elsewhere on the central front. a
Soviet spokesman said the German
advance in the sectors of Mozhaisk.
Maloyaroslavets and Volokolamsk
had been halted.
On some sectors of the Moscow
front" the spokesman said, the Red
Army has switched to a counter
attack
In the north. Hitlers high COM
mana asserted that German troops
had broken through strongly forti-
fled Russian defense zone west of
Volkhovo. 10 miles southeast of Len
1ngrad, and in fierce hand hand
fighting had captured 533 pillboXes.
Volkhovo lies on the main Lenin-
grad -to-Moscow railroad and along
the Volkhov River which connects
Lake Inner with Lake Ladoga.
A Reuters British news agency |
dispatch from Stockholm said the
Germans were advancing east of the
Volkhov, attempting to Join hands
with the Firms in Eastern Karelia
and thus isolate Leningrad.
Action on the Leninel ad front
thus apparently was once more IN
full blaze.
The German high command said
Soviet attempts to cross the Neva
River. directly before Leningrad,
mad been repulsed by Nazi siege
armies, while the Russians told OF
killing and wounding more than 200
men in a surprise attack on two
German battalions moving along
road near the old Czarist capital.
Death Toll Put at 27