Evening star., 1941-08-12
Russians Fight Hard
To Halt Foe Around
|Leningrad and Kiev
Germans Still Are Held
StoIemoted in Smolensk
Area, Moscow Asserts

By the Associated Press.
MOSCOW, Aug 12-Hard-pressed
on both f1anks, the Red Army was
reported today fighting flercely
against two Nazi nut-cracker move
ments around Leningrad in the
north and Kiev in the Ukraine.
The daily war bulletin declared
the Russians still held the Nazis
stalemated on the central road to
Moscow in the long contested
Smolensk salient.
mo major engagements took place
| on other directions and sectors of
the 'front.'" the midday communi-
que said.
The centers of fighting in the
north were listed as Kakisalmi, on
the Karelian Isthmus rs miles north
of Leningrad, and in the Soltsi
sector, l20 miles south of Russia S
second largest city.
Hard Blows by Air Force.
Kay battlezones in the south still
were given by the Russians as
Hprosten. 80 miles northwest of
K1ev, and Uman, midway between
the Ukraine capital and the big
Black Sea port of Odessa.
The communique credited the Red
air force with hard blows at Nazi
infantry and motorized forces along
thes entire battlefront and at the
Luftwaffes nests deep behind the
| lines.
The rout of large German tank
column in the Korosten area was
reported in detail
In one battle in the Korosten area
a large German tank column was
routed by Russian airplanes, tanks,
artillerymen and infantrymen work.
ing together. the communique said
After the engagement wreckage of
the German units was strewn along
a road for eight miles, the Red
Army reported.
| More than so per cent of the
| German tanks were declared TO
have been destroyed, including Is
| heavy machines. Two anti-aircraft
batteries were destroyed, the COM
munique said.
The Soviet Bureau of Informa-
/ tons midnight communique dealt
principally with the stepped-up air
war and increasing guerrilla opera
tions behind the German lines. but
cast little new light on the situation
along the battlefront.
The Red Army reported holding
out in the Bel TSerkov area so miles
/ south of Kiev after week ano a
half of uDceaSing struggle The
midnight eommunique said, too
there was no let-up in the newer
+ sectors of Uman and at SoltSi.
/ Moscow had its 18th air raid ol
the war last night, but the Russians
/ described the attack as one of the
shortest and weakest the strongly
guarded capital has experienced
( One German plane was said to have
been downed and most of the raid
! ers were reported dispersed west OF
/ the city'S outskirts.
| The Russian war bulletin said &C
| to 70 German and Finnish planes
recently attempted an attack on the
/ far northern port of Murmansk-
! raided 80 times before-but ran into
such strong opposition from Russian
| fighter planes and anti-aircraft that
/ they were beaten off with a loss oi
I Is planes to one Russian plane.
The Red air feet reported often
/ sives of its own ranging from the
heart of Berlin to the supply base:
and ports behind the German
southern flank.
Report Fires in Berlin.
The Russians said fires were
started in Central Berlin Sunday
night. They reported their planes
wrecked a big railway bridge across
| the Danube at the Rumanian town
Of Cerna-Voda, on the oil shipment
line from Constanta toward Ger