The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-08-25
RUSSIAN STORY
 OF BATTLEFRONT

Continued from Page D
 cepted German convoy of four transports, laden with troops, tanks and munitions, sank two of them and forced the other two to beach themselves, the communique re- ported.
 Two German patrol boats, which had been escorting the convoy, were said to have been run aground.
 As the Germans and Films drove down from the north, Russian and German tanks in massed formations fought savagely in the Kingisepp direction west of Leningrad. Giant Russian tanks were reported smash ing into the German armored for nations and crushing tanks and men in their path.
 Intensified Fighting
 Today's first communique report ed intensified fighting all the way from Lake Ladoga northward to the Arctic Sea and disclosed that the Russian Arctic fleet had landed marines behind the German and Finnish lines to cut communica- tions. It was asserted that two Ger man transports, laden with men and munitions, had been sunk of the Arctic coast.
 Fighting was now general in the entire stretch between the Arctic and the Black Seas, with the key sectors for the moment the Kakisal- mi area on Lax Ladoga, Smolensk, on the Moscow front; Gomel, at the junction of the German central and southern army areas, and to- ward Dniepropetrovsk and the great Dnieper river power dam.
 The communique asserted that the Rumanian fifth and seventh in- fantry divisions had been smashed in the Ukrainian fighting, after ear- Her communiques had reported the destruction of the Rumanian 18th and Third Divisions. This would mean the elimination of 60,000 Ru- manian troops.
 Reports from the front said that the great counter offensive of Gen. I. S. Konev on the Smolensk area of the front, now in its ninth day, continued unabated. Up to yester- day morning the Russians had re- captured 19 villages in this offen- sive, 1t was asserted, and late re- ports said that several more had been taken yesterday.
 R0ut NaM Infantry
 It was asserted that during the weekend Konev's men had routed a German infantry division of up- wards of 15.000 men, wiped out its staff and destroyed 130 tanks and hundreds of trucks and guns. The Germans lost at least 5000 men kille, according to dispatches, and it was indicated that up to 5000 had been wounded.
 There was. little detailed news from the southern Ukraine except that the Germans were driving dercely toward Dniepropetrovsk.
 Military experts here were divided in their opinions regarding the Ger man drive in the Gomel area, where they had crossed the Dnieper. Some e&2erts believed that the Germans actually intended to push north eastward toward the important rail- road center of Bryansk, 210 miles south southeastward. Others clung to the belief that the Germaps hoped to turn Southeastward and strike at the rear of Marshal Sey- mon Budenny's army of the Ukraine.
 Sundays communiques had re- ported the smashing of the Ru- manian Third and 18th Divisions, and had asserted that many divi- sions of the Rumanian army had lost between 75 and 30 per cent of their electives.
 Division Annihilated
 Today's first communique report ed the annihilation of the Fifth and Seventh Rumanian divisions. The Fifth was said to have suffered nearly 5000 casualties and the Sev- enth more than 1000. These divi- sions lost 21 tanks, 30 trucks, three armored cars, 20 field guns and howitzers and 24O machine guns and sub-machine guns in addition to an enormous quantity of other weapons, 1t was asserted.
 The communique said that in operations last month, just report ed, Russian guerilla attachments on the front vest of Leningrad had destroyed about 100 German am- munition and provision trucks. IS armored cars, II tanks, 35 motor- cycles, three grounded planes and several fuel dumps and depots, dee raiIed four German troop an an- munition trains, blown up IS bridges, set fire to several ammuni- ton and provision depots and killed | more than 40O German soldiers.