Evening star., 1941-11-08
r. A. F. Blasts Berlin for Hours
In Heaviest Raid on Nazi Areas;
MoscowDrive Ha|ted> Russia Says
Soviet Reports
COunteruttuckS
In Many Areas

BY the Associated Press.
MOScoW'S defenders announced
triumphantly over their radio to-
day that they had halted the
German attack on Moscow, and
that the Germans had been
forced on the defensive by Red
Army counterattacks ION many
sectors of the front"
This announcement was made by
Gen. RokoSSovsky, one of the COM
manders Of the forces defending the
Soviet capital, which has been the
goal of a concentrated German at
tack for more than five weeks.
The generals statement conceded
with other reports telling of Rus
sian counterattacks on some sectors
with strong tank forces which the
Germans were attempting to check
with flamethrowers.
On other sectors of the front be-
fore the capital the Germans were
reported on the offensive and the
Berlin radio stated that considerable
ground had been won by the in
vaders near Moscow yesterday.
Bitter Resistance.
The Germans, however, acknowl-
edged bitter Soviet resistance. On
the Russian side, the Official noon
communique issued in Moscow
simply told of fighting ION all
fronts during the night.
1t appeared that the lines before
Moscow were fluid, swaying almost
from hour to hour as the two pow
erful armies applied and relaxed
pressure.
D.NB., the official German news
agency, said Nazi assault troops had
made considerable territorial gains"
In break through" somewhere on
the Moscow front. inflicting heavy
losses on the Russians and smoking
out the crews of SO Soviet classmates.
The British radio broadcast a pre-
dlctlon today that the German high
command will undertake in the
near future new assault on Mos
COW IN a new sector" without saying
where it was likely to be.
Troops Sent Southwark.
The announcer did say, however,
that 1t was reported that German
troops were being transported south.
ward from Kalinin. 95 miles north
west OF Moscow, where heavy fight.
ing has been under way for weeks,
Northwestward at beleaeuered
Leningrad heavy land and air fight
Ing continued. Today's Moscow
communique said that within the
last SIX days one Russian air unit
on this front had DESTROYED 10 Ger
man tanks and 165 trucks with
ammunition and German infantry,
while another dispersed large Ger
man truck columns and DESTROYED
20 trucks and two tank cars.
The Moscow radio said that Ger
man casualties around Leningrad
had amounted to 100000 during
October alone.
Crimed Advance Claimed.
Early To-Day as the German drive
begged down in several sectors of
the Russian front and signs of win
ter stalemate grew, the Berlin high
command reported that Nazi armies
In the Crimea had smashed through
Soviet defensive zone six miles
deep on the narrow peninsula lead
ing to Kerch and were continuing
to advance toward that port.
West Of Kerch. which is at the ex-
treme eastern edge of the peninsula
German and Rumanian troops were
declared officially by Berlin to have
annihilated an entire division of
Russian cavalry on the southern
slope of the Laila mountains.
Various reasons for the static sit
uation in Russia, among them strain
on Hitlers hard-worked troops
and stiffening Red Army resistance,
were cited by London commentators,
but the severity of Russian winter
apparently was big contributor.
The German high command made