The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-08-15
Called Historic, But
 Grim Soviet Retreat
CcontInued from Page D

| days on the Kiev-Odessa front, and Pervomaisk is co miles south-south. east of Uman.
 An official spokesman, explaining the German gains, said the entire aim of the Russian high command Is to preserve the main forces of the Red Army while making the Ger mans pay for gains. !.
 The spokesman denied firmly that that any part of the army of Gen. Budenny had been encircled, as the Germans claimed.
 German Report
 Berlin, Aug. 15 = (UP.) - Ger man armed forces striking at the industrial area of the Ukraine des- troyed strong Russian forces in a narrow trap and broke Soviet re- sistance everywhere" the official news agency reported today. The agency reported 10000 Rus sian prisoners, 32 tanks, 85 guns and one armored train captured in the southern sector during one rapid thrust" forward which inflicted "the highest casualties" on trapped enemy forces.
 Russian endorsements, rushed to the fighting front to plug holes in the ranks of retreating Red army forces, were defeated everywhere" the agency said.
 A "ceaseless pursuit" of the Rus sians in the south was reported in German dispatches, which also said that Soviet counter attacks on the Finnish front had failed to halt German advances.
 The official agency said that 300 Russians were killed in vain coun- ter-attacks.
 The high command confined its report on the eastern front to statement that operations were pro- ceeding according to plan after earlier claims of sweeping successes.
 It repeated the special communi- ques yesterday in which it was aS- serted that the German forces had reached Krivoi Rog, s220 miles south east of Kiev, that Odessa had been encircled, that Nikolaev was threat | C4ACA dAlA t4Adp 4tNOoAuAA chA AAAVO WNoV of the Bug river faced annihilation.
 Unofficial sources asserted that "strategically" the btatle of the western Ukraine had been conclud- ed triumphantly and that the only hope of escape for thousands of Russian troops was evacuation by sea from Odessa area like that of | the British at Dllnkirk Cost Nazis Heavily
 Moscow, Aug. IS = OP0 - The bitterly contested battle of Smol- ensk which saw the city change hands repeatedly in 30 days of bloody house-to-house, street-by- street fighting, was reported today to have cost the Germans hun dreds of thousands" of killed and wounded.
 The first detailed Russian descrip- cription of the battle for Smolensk, on the road to Moscow 235 miles southeast of the capital, was con- tained in an official dispatch from General A Yeremenko.
 The Germans concentrated pick ed divisions in the SmolenSk Ne vel sector, Yeremenko reported, add ing, now many of these divisions cease to exist or have lost more tha nhaf of their electives and be- come regiments"
 German corpseS, he said, cover every foot of land" along the ap- breaches to Smolensk. Fierce fight ing developed in every street and house and the Fascists generally splashed their blood along every yard of advance"
 Hundreds of German officers and men perished in the Dnieper," he added.
 Fresh Reserves
 The German high command was forced to throw in fresh reserves, directly from march," Yeremenko said. This naturally weakened other sectors"
 The terrific loss affected the German position along the entire front" he asserted. Hundreds of thousands were killed and wounded and there were hundreds of burned | oA1Q WACShCA Weso the result of this battle for the Ger mans"
 Red army tactics, in the face of the Wehrmacht's onslaughts, forced the Germans to abandon frontal att tacks and shift frequently from sec tor to sector, being compelled often to take up defensive positions, Yer emenko said.
 'This alone proves that the Fas- cist calculations of their blitzkrieg have collapsed and that their driv- ing power is losing force," he said.
 Yeremenko reported that German tanks, suffering more and more defeats" often had to dig in, be coming pill-boxes."
 Of the fighting now in progress, Yeremenko reported. "the enemy is losing initiative and must adjust himeh to the methods dictated by our troops"
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