Evening star., 1941-11-16
Smashing Of 70
Nazi Transports
Claimed by Reds
Tried Sneak Landing
On Murmonsk Coast,
Soviet Reports
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
Destruction of 20 troop-laden
German transports attempting
a sneak-landing along the frozen
wastes of the Murmansk coast
was announced last night by the
Russians.
The report of this smashing sue
cess on the far northern front was
accomplished by a Moscow radio
announcement Of another victory
In the south-annihilation of $500
Italians in the Donets Basin.
In its account of the Arctic victory,
the Moscow radio said Russian
troops made forced 7-mile march
across frozen tundra of the Muir
mansk region to foil the Nazis.
The Russians said Red Army
forces reached the coast a jump
ahead Of the Germans. who launched
the abortive landing from the Ry-
bachi Peninsula, which juts out
into the Barents Sea from the Fin.
-1bdoSldll
Before the Germans had a chance
to land the Russians said they were
destroyed by the point blank fire
Of the Red forces.
Coupled with these reported Sue
cesses at both ends Of the front.
the Russians declared that Adolf
Hitlers invasion armies. huddling
In trenches before Leningrad and
Moscow, now have lost their light
ing-war tempo for the first time
since the Fuehrer sent them ram
paging into France and the Low
Countries l8 months ago.
Line Declared Stabilized.
While admitting a critical situ-
alton in the Crimea. where the Ger.
mans asserted that the fall of Rus
sia's big Black Sea naval base of
Sevastopol was lust a question of
time" Soviet dispatches said the
l,200-mile battleline was now stabi-
hzed from the Gulf of Finland to
the mud-bogged Ukraine.
Soviet front-line dispatches re-
ported that Gen. Fedor Won Books
armies Wehe either being held IN
check or thrown back on both f1anks
of the 200-mile Moscow defense arc
and that the Germans had been
smashed back in three intermediate
sectors at Maloyaroslavets IS miles
southwest of Moscow; Mozhaisk, 81
miles west, and Volokolamsk, 65
miles northwest.
Even in the Crimea, the Russians
said their armies still held perime-
tiers of defense around the strategic
port of Kerch. gateway to the eau.
casus oil treasures, and at Sevas.
topol.
A bulletin from Hitler's east front
headquarters said Axis troops had
scored new gains in both sectors.
No details were given, however, and
apparently little progress had been
made in the direct assault on Kerch.
The high command said Thursday
that German shock troops had be-
gun to storm the town.
Italians Claim Break Through.
The broadcast account of the de.
struction of the Italians said two
Russian units accounted for them
and captured Is machine guns,
many rifles and cartridges and hand
grenades.
TINS Russian claim was preceded
by the dispatch carried by Stefani.
Italian news agency. that two Ital-
ian infantry battalions of the
Pasubio division broke through the
Soviet line in the Donets Basin Fri
day after two days of hard fight
ing in a blizzard and intense cold
and forced the Russians to fall back
toward VoroshiloVgrad, 100 miles
north OF RoStov on the Donets River.
The Russians rushed reinforce
mentS from north and east until
they had amassed four divisions to
halt the Italian advance, the news
agency said, but the Italians con-
tinued to push ahead.
Claim Repulse of Reds.
Nazi military dispatches admitted
that Soviet Gen. Gregory K. zhu-
kov'S central front armies were
counterattacking before Moscow, but
asserted they had been repulsed with
the loss of A Soviet tanks.
Coupled with this Acknowledgement
that the German offensive against
Moscow had been virtually thrown
back on the defensive, the Nazis
indicated a similar situation pre-
vailed in the four-month-old siege
of Leningrad.
Instead of headlong attacks
which for many weeks blasted the
Russians into retreat. the Germans
now spoke only of their siege guns
continually pounding the one-time
capital of the Cars while their
troops apparently dug in for a long
and dreary winter in the trenches.
Front-line dispatches to Red Star.
the Soviet Army newspaper, said
German troops captured in the Len
ingrad sector were thinly clothed
amid temperatures below zero and
that the Nazis were suffering in
tensely from the cold. The Rus
slams declared that German losses
in the Leningrad campaign so far
totaled at least 100000 killed and
wounded
Red Star said the Germans we're