Evening star., 1941-08-25
123 Russian Tanks
Destroyed in Three
Days, Nazis Claim
Soviet Mechonized Forces
Attacked Eight Times,
Berlin Dispatches Soy
BY the Associated Press.

by tne hsSOClkbeQ fTebb.
BERLIN, August 25.-German dis
patches today said 123 Soviet tanks
were destroyed in eight assaults
which the Russians made with
mechanical forces in three days of
counterattacks on the central front.
Competent sources said the Rus
SLAMS began a ferocious drive Satur-
day with strong forces of 32-ton and
Aston tanks supported by artillery.
Ninety-five of the armored ma
chimes were broken up by stead
fast German stand in one sector,
the Germans said, while in an ad-
jacent sector a single Nazi infantry
regiment withstood eight assaults
and smashed % more tanks.
German armored cars then charged
into the weakened Russian forces, it
was said, taking many prisoners and
loot.
Army Rolls Ahead. Nazis Declare.
The big German war machine was
described in official reports as roll
ing forward on all active fronts to-
day, but the high command ven-
tured only brief general statement
concerning the fighting.
Operations in the east are making
good progress everywhere" said the
communique from Adolf Hitler S
headquarters.
Complete official silence covered
the extensive battles about the Nazi-
encircled centers Of Soviet resistance
at Odessa in the south and Tallinn
in the north, where it has been ad-
mitted that death stands are being
made by regulars and civilians. and
the fortified areas of Leningrad and
Kiev, where the German forces seek
to forge similar bands of steel.
Likewise, there was q dearth OF
of1cial word concerning the drive of
the Germans between Kiev and
Gomel in what has been described
as another massive encirclement
battle to entrap defenders to the
southwest of Moscow.
Soviet troops commanded by
Marshal Semeon Timoshenko be-
tween Gomel and Kiev, which have
presented flank threat to Ger
man thrusts into the Ukraine and
in the Smolensk sector before
Moscow. now are being slowly
ground between the millstones of
the Nazi left and right wings, DNB.
official German news agency, re-
ported.
Heavy Luftwaffe assaults SUD-
ported the German smash toward
what the news agency called the
most important rail junction in
that area-probably Bryansk. $50
miles northeast of Gomel. A Sum-
DAY raid on the junction was de-
scrloed as devastating"
Luftwaffe Declared Active.
The commentary Dienst aus
deutschland called special atten-
tion to a hitherto relatively quiet
sector of the front-between lake
linen, some 110 miles south of
Lenlngrad, and Smolensk-which II
sa!d, now has been set in motion !"
Extensive operations are in prog
ress IN that salient, Dienst added
Whlle DNB dispatches told Of
destructive effect of Lnftwa ffe
activity north of Smolensk. which
Is the south border of this new
salient. The drive in this region
enhances considerably the threat
10 the Moscow-Leningrad rail con.
nections.
win Rumanian Marshal Ion
Antonescus Rumanian and German
forces continuing the siege of Odessa
IN the south, military reports said
iallinn, capital of Sovietized Es-
tonia In the north, also was cut
on from rear-line communications
and today stood a threatened city
kiev Threat Increased.
DNB said the Nazi air force m
the northern front was dividing it's
attention between assisting in the
encirclement Of Tallinn and DUNN
ing heavy bomb loads on rail lines
entering Leningrad from the south
and southwest.
The threat to Kiev. capital oy
the Ukraine, appeared increased by
an ofhcial announcement of the
capture OF the .bridgehead at Cher.
kasi, on the Dnieper 100 miles
southeast Of Kiev.
FINNISH coastal artillery sank q
o.0o0-ton Soviet transport loaded
with men. guns and trucks in the
Gulf Of Finland yesterday, D.N.B.
reported.
another dispatch said a Soviet
DESTROYER. three merchantmen and