Evening star., 1941-08-10
Moves Bring Far East Crisis Oehodwng Sto|eote Soviet Front

toward Kiev, the chief city of ths
Ukraine.
The fighting toward Moscow is con-
centrated around the area of Smolensk.
Authoritative quarters in
Smolensk London reported that the
Sector fierceness of the Russian re-
Sistance around Smolensk
had forced the Germans to abandon
frontal attacks in that sector, whils
there was renewed vigor about the
fighting in the Leningrad sector and
on the Ukraine plains. But the diff
culties of operations in the Karelian
IsthmuS, northeast of Leningrad, and
against the large Russian garrison in
Leningrad were expected to force the
German drive In that direction to meet
with slow success.
The German plan with regard to Kiev
calls for enveloping the city by sweeping
around it north and south. But the
country is swampy, and advance is slow.
Hungarian troops are leading the way
into the Ukraine
BY the end of the week the German
high command reported that Axis troops
knitting deep into the lower Ukraine
had annihilated a Red Army force
trapped southeast of Uman, l25 miles
south of Kiev, capturing more than 30
900 prisoners and the supreme COM
mander of the Russian 9Th Army. The
high command report indicated that the
main German thrust was directed at cut
ting off the Black Sea port Of Odessa, 140
miles below Uman. London said the
Kiev- Odessa railway line had been cut
by the Germans.
In the north the NaZi high command
said German columns driving toward
Leningrad had captured Wesenberg, 6S
miles southeast of the objective, and
had penetrated to the Gulf of Finland,
If the German armies are at the Gulf
| of Finland, the Russian Baltic feet is in
jeopardy.
However, the Soviets labeled the Ger
fairy tales" and the Russian
"Foiy high command said the first
| Toles" 48 days of the Russian CAM
paign had cost Germany more
| than 100000 men, compared with 600,-
| 900 Russian losses. Russian military dis
| patches on Friday told of fighting at
| points whose location gives an idea Of
how far the Germans have been able to
| push the line of battle:
Kakisalmi, IS miles northeast of Lem
ingrad; Smolensk, 203 miles west of
Moscow; Bel Tserkov, so miles southwest
of Kiev and in Estonia.
Finnish soldiers and officers gave Louis
P. Lochner, Associated Press corresponds
ent, the information that the morale
of their Soviet enemies is perfect but
the Russian air strength, as used against
the Firms, is meager. One Finnish gen.
eral said:
You put a common Russian soldier
anywhere and tell him he must stay
there, and he'll stick, come what may"
| American faith in the Russian re-
siStance was shown Wednesday in the
unfreezing of millions of dollars worth
OF Soviet orders in this country. Be-
fore the German invasion of Russia. the
Soviet Union had approximately $780,
100000 in orders pending here for va
rious materials, consisting primarily of
machine tools, oil we'll drilling machinery
and other industrial equipment. These
orders were frozen under the rigid ex-
| port control policy of retaining strategic
materials for national defense and for
aid to Britain and China.
On Thursday Harold L. Ickes, defense
| petroleum administrator, said four
American tanker ships were being turned
over to Russia to haul aviation gasoline.
He reported that Russian ship had
left Los Angeles week before with
J load of drums of aviation gasoline.