Evening star., 1941-10-02
BY A. T. STEELE,

Army.)
BY A. +. STEELE,
Foreign Correspondent of The Star and
Chicago Daily News.
WITH THE RED ARMY ON THE
CENTRAL FRONT.-We got a whiff
OF death today and we saw 1t on
the bleak battle-ground of Yelnya,
which future chroniclers may re-
cord as the place where Russian
bayonets first pricked the bubble
of Nazi invulnerability.
The routing of eight German
divisions-which the Russians claim
may sound like modest achieve
ment in comparison to some of the
truly mammoth military maneuvers
of this world war. But modest as
1t may appear in perspective, the
Soviet success at Yelnya is by far
the biggest yet scored over Hitler
by any of his adversaries.
The autumn winds whipped the
desolate countryside today and the
skies dripped. 1t was the sort Of
day and the sort of scene that Edgar
Allen Poe might have described to
perfection. I thought Of Poe, I
admit, some miles before we reached
the actual battlefield. What called
him to mind was the curious black,
shifting cloud that hung over our
road-a cloud that rose and fell,
thinned and thickened, constantly
changing shape and position. Raw
ems! Or were they crows? 1 am
not enough of an expert to know.
They were mobilizing for their au-
tumn flight. There must have been
100000 of them in that one swarm.
Ushskova Obliterated.
Then Ushskova, a village six miles
north of Yelnya, which had the
misfortune to be situated on
prominence overlooking the whole
countryside. Because Of its COM
manding position Ushskova was a
coveted military objective and was
the site of one of the decisive bat
ties of the month-long Yelnya cam
paign.
We got out Of our cars there and
spent several hours examining the
battle-ground. Ushskova was abso-
luately obliterated. Every house was
burned to ashes. Every tree was
chopped Throughout by ak but
by shells and bullets. I think the
only thing we found standing at
Ushskova was a solitary birdhouse
on a pole, the pathetic adornment
of a peasants yard. The Germans
had held this height and the Rus
slams had taken it after a slow,
crawling advance under devastating
artillery fire and finally a bayonet
charge. Here we saw our first evi-
| dence of trench warfare. The op-
posing trenchworks were about 100
yards apart but only so yards
separated from advance machine
gun positions of the two sides.
The defense works of both armies
were much alike, with trenches
about six feet deep paralleling each
other halfway around the crest of
the height. Every few yards along
the trenches were log-lined cavities
bedded with straw.
The whole story Of the battle
was plainly written in the earth.
We could see how the Russians had
dug their way toward the German
lines from the nearby wood We
could see how they partially en-
circled the German position and
then poured artillery fire into the
narrow remaining corridor for Ger
man supplies and retreat. We could
tell from the little hollows gouged
out of the soil of no-man's-land
how they had crept up on the Ger
mans for their final charge. And
finally the big, flower banked
mound on the top of the conquered
elevation told us the price they had
paid for their successful bayonet
assault. The mound, 100 feet long
and about so feet wide. was sur
rounded by a fence of freshly
painted red palings. 1t was sur
mounted not by a cross but a big
star.
The epitaph, painstakingly punched
out on plaque of aluminium SAL
Fd5Co 1lOill d pldllC, 1Cdu.
Common grave for those who
died in this place in the struggle
against German fascism. July 20
to September 5, l941."
Near the Russian grave were other
patches of fresh earth which our
escorting officer told us were the
burial places of German soldiers.
Over the wno1e battlefield clung
the odor Of decay. Without doubt
the superior weight of the Soviet
artillery was decisive factor in
this battle and the surprising thing
is that the Germans were able to
stand it as long as they did. The
ground back of the German posi-
tions was turned into pudding for
a distance of couple of hundred
yards.
The problem of supply must have
been terrific. There was still some