Evening star., 1941-08-17
Russians Near Odessa
1errorized by5tuka
Attacks, Nazis Say
Bombs Concentrated on
Railways, Roads and
Troops and Supplies
BY the Associated Press.

Hy the Associated Press
BERLIN, Aug. 16.-Screaming
Stuka dive bombers are giving
days and nights of terror" to Rus
sian troops said to be encircled near
Odessa and in other parts of the
Southern Ukraine German military
reports received in Berlin said to-
night.
The Germany air force was re-
ported spreading terror lavishly over
wide area, dive bombing with the
greatest intensity in the region
where the high command is at
tempting to achieve another Dun
kerque" by driving the Russians in
wholesale flight to the Black Sea.
German flyers reported they were
concentrating their bombs on rail-
ways, roads and long columns of
Russian troops and supplies. They
claimed that on the northern edge
of Odessa they silenced seven anti
aircraft batteries and obServ,d nu-
merous Soviet gun crews deSerting
their positions as the screaming
Stukas plummeted out Of the skies.
Two Sentences Devoted to War.
The high command devoted just
two sentences to the Russian war
today, opening the daily communi-
Que with the sentence Operations
continue successfully according TO
plan on the entire eastern front"
and closing it with report OF all
ATTEMPTED" Russian air raid on
Germany.
"A limited number of Soviet bomb
ers last night attempted a raid on
Northern and Northeastern Reich
territory" the bulletin said. The
attacks were wholly ineffective"
But although the high command
was thus in another of its silent
moods in dismissing the eastern
operations so briefly, semi-offlcial
hints indicated there was intense
action along the whole east front.
1t was reported that Estonia was
almost cleaned up" and that the
Germans going up the east and west
shores of Lake PeipuS toward Len
ingrad have almost joined on the
northern shore.
Stain Canal Bombed.
In the area of the joint German
Finnish operations the air force was
reported to have peppered the Sta
lin Canal, waterway which con-
meets the Baltic and White Seas
through a system of rivers and
lakes. 1t was claimed that locks at
an undesignated point were smashed
and that bombs damaged ships en-
route.
Moscow and airportS in the Novgo-
rod area 100 miles south of Lenin-
grad were the principal targets of
the German Air Force yesterday
and last night, D.NB. said tonight.
The war facilities of the Russian
capital were raided with good ef-
feet" the agency said, claiming that
ornaments plants were bombarded
from middle height" so that re-
suits could be observed closely. ~
In the Novgorod area So Russian
planes we're destroyed on the ground
and 20 were shot out of the air,
DNB. said. Nine tanks and 245
vehicles also were destroyed, it was
said. ~
The Germans claim to have de-
stroyed 13l Soviet planes and lost
three of their own in the last "a
hours.
Attacks Along Entire Front.
The agency said the Luftwaffe
continued destructive attacks along
the entire front. Bombs dropped on
retreating Soviet columns caused
heavy losses, according to D. N. B.
Bitterness of the fighting was
stressed in dispatches from the
front which declared that neither
side was disposed to give much
quarter. In one incidental skirmish
the Germans said they took only
200 prisoners as against 300 Russians
counted dead.
In another engagement empha-
sizing the desperate character of
the fighting the proportion was $50
prisoners to 900 dead.
Time and again, the German
soldiers said, they have had the
opportunity to verify the accuracy
of the high commands recent OBJ
servation that the bloody losses
of the Russians amount to several
times the number of prisoners taken
by the Germans.
An unofficial review of this week
of the war up to today, based on
German tabulations, stated that the
British had lost lis planes, mostly
In attempts to fly into the German
occupied territories. Included were
several four -motored bombers.