The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-09-19
Four Russian Armies
 Being Annihilated
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 The broadcast, quoting the daily Russian war communique. said that stubborn fighting" continued all along the eastern front, with the Red air force attacking German columns, troop concentrations and Nlrdromes.
 (Direct press communications with Moscow have been cut off since Thursday due to atmospheric difficulties)
 "One of our units routed Ger man rifle regiment on a sector of the front" the communique said. "Another unit destroyed two Ger man infantry companies.
 Tn a northwest direction, the en- emy's 63rd motorized rifle regiment was destroyed and the third battal- ion of the 9th regiment was an- initiated. The enemy left more than 200 dead on the battle field"
 Adolf Hitler's armies of the east rolled forward at blitzkrieg pace to- day in a drive that threatened So- yiet defense forces with disaster.
 For almost the first time since the attack on Russia was launched l3 weeks ago the wehrmacht was pounding forward with the .destruc- tive force and binding speed of its campaigns on the western front.
 The German offensive was re- ported to have:
 Trapped four Soviet armies, pos- sibly 350,000 to 400, 900 men, in new encirclement area extending l25 miles east of Kiev. ,
 Carried the Nazi vanguard to the edge of the great Donets-Don indus trial basin-biggest in Russia-with Che huge Kharkov-Rostov coal, steel and oil area as the objective of the next German thrust forward.
 Sliced the communications lines which link the Crimean peninsula with the Russian mainland.
 Drawn tighter the steel ring around Leningrad which was characterized by Berlin as suicide city" which faces a fate worse than Warsaw.
 The daily Russian war commit niuue, as broadcast by the British radio, admitted that severe fighting now is raging in the immediate vi- cinity of Kiev and that German pressure on Leningrad is increasing despite vigorous Russian counter attacks. H.
 The Nazi high command made It's first estimate of German casualtles on the eastern front, placing the killed at 84,354 and the wounded at 292 ,6sO up to August 3l-a total which seemed to be almost fantas- tically lower than the best estimates of sources in London and MOSCOW which have placed Na2i losses at from 100000 to 100000.
 The perilous Soviet situation was not minimized in London where lt was admitted frankly that the Ger mans now have captured or are on Ahe verge of captured so large a nortion of Russia's industrial plants that the Soviet can not be expected Id provide herself with sutiicient guns, tanks and planes to equip the Red army with the weapons lt must have to match the German blitz forces.
 This, said the British, poses the most urgent question of the war: HOW Co get to Russia sufficient arms fast enough to enable the Soviet 70 stay in the ring slugging 1t out with her formidable opponent.
 Probably another month of fairly good fighting weather remains, the British suggested, before winter be- cins to bog down operations on the eastern front. They had little hope of getting more than token quanti- ties of planes and tanks to Russia within that period.
 However, a dispatch by Edward W. Beattie, Jr., United Press stan correspondent, reporting authori- fative British opinion on the likely