Evening star., 1941-06-23
Berlin
Continued From First Page)

tCOntlnued FROM t1rSC PageJ
sources, but Finland, they said, still
must say "how she desires to be
fitted into the scheme of things"
Informed German sources called
this part of Germany's fight against
Britain a phase of the struggle tc
escape encirclement, and declared
I'VE are breaking that ring, link
after link, and some day it will be
the turn of the last one"
(Nazi air might was stressed
In the report of the Berlin CORE
spondent of the Swiss newspaper
Basle National zeitung. who COM
pared the opening assault on
Russia with the Polish blitzkrieg.
He said, quoting German
sources, that the LuftWaffe had
sown devastation in an endless
chain" of attacks on Russian air
dromes and that Nazi panzer di-
visions would follow up. But
there, he said, the parallel ends
because the bitterness of this
war cannot be compared with
former struggles.")
Struck With All Power.
Reichsmarshal Goering's Luft-
waite, carrying out the tested
strategy of blitzkrieg, struck with all
the power at its command as soor
as the Fuehrer gave the word in a
sudden, bitter declaration at dawn
yesterday.
First meager dispatches from the
front told of smashing air assaults
on the Russian Black Sea base of
Sevastapol-near the scene of the
Light Brigade's famous charge-and
of destruction of at least 40 Soviet
botnbers trying to counterraid Ger
man positions.
The German Army smashed at the
Reichs erstWhile pact-partner along
front reaching from the White Sea
in the north to the Black Sea in the
south-a front which Hitler himself
said compares in extent with the
greatest the world hitherto has
seen"
In accord with the policy of the
high command, however, there was
no official indication as to the trend
of the campaign or whether all
fronts were in full action, the pur-
pose Of the silence being to camouf-
fage the plan of attack.
The first official news relayed to
the German public by DNB, Of
ficlal German news agency, was con-
fined to air activity.
These reports told of destruction
Of numerous Russian airports,
hangers and barracks all along the
line; destruction of uncounted num-
bers of Russian planes on the ground
and of smashing attacks on tank
columns, railroads and munitions
stores.
Battling in South.
Russian raids on the Reich ended
disastrously, DNB said, 33 of 35
bombers in one flight being shot
down and seven of nine Martin
bombers in another. The agency
added that Russian plane losses were
growing hour by hour.
In Baltimore Glenn L. Martin,
aircraft manufacturer, comment
ing on D.NB.s report, asserted:
The Russians have no Martin
bomberS.'D
A communique issued by the Ger
-Rumanian headquarters in the
south stated that the Allies there
had Joined battle with the Russians,
apparently in Bucovina and Bessa-
rabia, lost provinces which Rumania
hopes to win back from the
Y. S. S. r.
military circles in Vichy said
they had information indicating
that the main thrust would be
made in this front toward the
heart of the Ukraine, while an
other drive would be-or had
been-started in the Baltic re-
gion as part of a pincer move
ment on Moscow.
Scant early reports from the land
forces included colorful accounts
from army reporters at unidentified
fronts who told in excited tones-to
the accompaniment of rattling ma
chine-guns and the thud of artillery
f1re-of an infantry advance across
the border into Russian village,
the capture of Russian barracks
and the seizure of prisoners.
Describes PanZer Action.
A German war correspondent gave
the first definite indication today
that Nazi panzer divisions were in
action against Soviet Russia.
Just as in the earlier campaigns,
at dawn yesterday the battle began
with grand-scale attacks by our air
force" he wrote. "* = At the same
time the entire gigantic mechanism
on the ground came to life.
German panzers rolled in massed
souadrons against the enemy.
The German attacks hit positions
prepared long before the attack, but,
favored by the surprise element,
broke into the enemy lines. Artillery
was used only where border fortif1-
cations were exceptionally strong.
His report did not state where the
action described occurred.
After Hitler called Russia an
aggressor and an intriguer against
Germany in his blasting dawn in
dictment, he sent his divisions ian
estimated 1876 of them into action
along a front which compares
roughly, In airline distance, with