Evening star., 1941-08-24
Nazis Report Bloody .
Hand::to-Hand Fights
In Odessa Sector
Defenders Position
Seems Hopeless.
Berlin Hears
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
BERLIN, Aug. 23.-Bloody hand
to-hand engagements outside the
Black Sea port of Odessa between
German-Rumanian troops and IA
natical bands of defenders, with
neither side asking quarter, were
described tonight in dispatches from
the eastern front.
Equally desperate struggles be-
tween the Nazi forces and the vast
Russian population, soldier and
civilian, were reported in the Lenin-
grad area to the north, while D.NB
spoke of violent battles along the
Dnieper River and the capture of
the river city of Cherkasi, 80 miles
southeast of Kiev. capital of Uk-
raine. where the Germans were try
ing to force a crossing.
The news agency reported also
that the courier plane of Marshal
Klementi Voroshilov, commander of
the Soviet northern forces, had been
shot down when it flew over a Ger
man occupied airfield and that i'm
portant secret documents of the
Soviet high command had been
seized.
Airdromes Attacked.
Waves of German bombers were
said to be smashing Russian air.
dromes on the outskirts of Lenin-
grad as the ground troops pressed
their offensive.
Between Smolensk and Kiev,
DN.B. indicated, a new threat to
Moscow was developing. The Nazis
said they had smashed go miles be-
yond Gomel, toward Bryansk, some
300 miles southeast of the Soviet
capital.
This force annihilated the bulk of
two Soviet armies in its advance,
D.NB. said.
But, ignoring all these reports, the
high commands bulletin from Hit
ler's headquarters merely said:
Operations on the East front con-
tinue according to plan"
Strong Opposition.
The dispatches from the Odessa
sector said the mechanical forces of
the invaders, German and Ru-
mania. were encountering strong
opposition, but that the defenders
position seemed hopeless. Marines
and sailors have been called from
ships in the harbor to prepare for a
fight in the streets alongside ordi-
nary factory workers. Communist
party members and chauffeurs and
others.
The battered remnants of the
Soviet armies which had retreated
stubbornly through Bessarabia and
then across the Southwestern
Ukraine. however, remained the
backbone of the city's defense.
The defenders had the benefit of
elaborate Notifications. the dis
patch said. Nevertheless, the re-
ports continued, the Germans were
smashing into concrete trenches and
classmates which the Russians had
undertaken to build 10 years ago.
No Thought of Surrender.
The southern reaches of the
Dniester River were especially
strongly fortified, the Germans re-
ported, and they observed that be-
hind such defenses even an made
quately organized and poorly armed
but highly disciplined and courage
GUS populace was able to make a
determined stand For thousands,
the reports said. it was a fight to
the death with never a thought of
surrender.
One report to D.NB. from Ger
man-Rumanian field headquarters
said the land encirclement of Odessa
was Tightening hourly-not always
swiftly, but with irresistible force.
Nothing in all these reports limited
how close the attackers were to
Odessa, but it was stated that river
Notifications had been occupied al
most down to the city.
(The N. B. C. listening post in
New York picked up a British
broadcast which said that Buch-
Arrest had reported the Germans
and Rumanians were within 8
miles of Odessa.)
Emergency Fortifcations.
IN the fighting along the Dnieper
east of Odessa, the advancing Nazis
reported they found clever Russian
emergency Notifications - tanks
buried in the earth with only their
camoufaged guns protruding.
The vulnerable bodies of the tanks
were thus protected and the forti-
fed lines, created after few hours
of digging, were hard nuts for the
infantry to crack.
Mistook City for Another.
IN. B. c. also picked up Ber-
lin radio report which said the
Germans had broken through all
Russian field Notifications near
Lake linen, about 130 miles
south of Leningrad, and had
taken several bunkers by Storm
DNB. reported from the middle
sector that Russian cavalry unit
had been separated from the main
Russian forces, surrounded in a
woods far back of the front and an
initiated.
The agency's account of the cap
ture of Voroshilov's plane said the
pilot was relying on his knowledge
of Russian airports rather than on
a map and so mistook Idritsa, held
by the Germans, for Velikie Luki, IS
miles away near the battle lines.
The plane. D.N.B. said, was to
have made an Intermediary landing
at Velikie Luki to obtain latest re-
ports from the front before return
ing to Moscow. The pilot was
wounded and the courier, Ivan
Afanasieff, disarmed before he could
destroy maps, papers. films and
other material. German translators
at the front were said to have been
kept busy several hours translating
the papers, which disclosed, among
other things, the locations OF vital
ammunition dumps near the front.