Evening star., 1941-07-08
Wide Swoths Cut in Nozi Ranks
At Key Rivers, Russians Assert;
Heavy German Losses Claimed
Four Enemy Units
TotoIing 5000 Men
Declared Destroyed
sy the Associated Press.

ey the Associated Press.
MOSCOW, July 8.-The Rec
Army was reported to be cutting
wide swaths in the ranks of the
ReichsWehr today in fighting
concentrated largely at strategic
river crossings.
The Russians struck their heaviest
blow south of the Ukranian city OF
Novograd Volynski, a communicate
said. and also inflicted heavy losses
on the Germans in defending The
Dnieper and Dniester Rivers, in the
central and southern sectors.
A fierce sun beat down on hard
dry battlefelds.
Lines Stretched Tightly.
The communiQue indicated the
lines of conflict throughout the vital
600-mile central front, on which the
Russians rely for the defense OF
Moscow, stretched tightly, almost
directly north and south. between
Ostrov, on the Latvian frontier. and
Mogilev Podolski, on the Dniester at
the BesSarabian border.
Destruction of four German units
totallng approximately 5000 men
was specifically announced in Mos
COW.
The heaviest toll of Nazi forces
apparently was taken along the
bloodied Dnieper River front, where
IS heavy German tanks and two in
fantry battalions were reported de-
stroyed and in the shell-plowed
fields of the Western Ukraine. where
two regiments were reported wiped
out bv Russian counterattackS.
To the north. where German me-
chanized forces have been driving
through the Ostrov area northeast
toward Leningrad. strong Soviet re-
sistance stemmed the German drive,
the Moscow communique said.
The communique said heavy losses
were inflicted on forces thrustlng
into Soviet territory in the vicinity
of KakiSalmi, on the karelian
1sthmus Is miles north of Leningrad,
and toward Kandalaksha $50 miles
south of Murmansk. and Ukhta. $50
miles farther south.
1t reported fierce fighting. too, in
the Borisov area of the Baltic front
against a drive toward Polotsk on
the Upper Dvina.
In the central region of Lepel.
where fighting has centered along
the canal linking the Dvina and the
Upper Berezlna, the Russians de-
clared Soviet and German troops
were locked in attack and counter
attack in a continuing struggle.
In the Bobruisk sector, near the
confluence of the Berezlna and the
Dnieper. the communique said "all
enemy attempts in this direction to
force the River Dnieper were re-
pulsed with heavy losses to the enc
my 1t added that some of the
Germans were taken prisoner.
In the direction of Novograd
VolynSki," the war bulletin said.
'1heavy fighting with enemy tanks
and motorized units continued.
Farther south from this direction
our troops. by a decisive counter
attack on the flank and rear of the
enemy, annihilated two enemy in
fantry regiments.
So Nazi Planes Claimed.
Fifty-eight German airplanes
were reported destroyed in air fights
and bomb raids on airdromes yes
terday to a loss of five Russian
planes.
In Bessarabia, a province Russia
took from Rumania last year, the
communique declared a part of the
German -Rumanian troops were de-
stroved 'and thrown back from
Soviet territory by a Red Army
counterattack.
The communique declared that
discovery of some dozens of corpses
of Rumanian soldiers" near where
an Axis headquarters had been To-
Gated led to statements by prisoners
that Rumanian soldiers had been
shot by Germans for refusing to
fight against Russia.