The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-09-26
Hitler Gave Special
 Order To Hit Moscow
Continued from Page D

but London military sources indi- cated that the NaEis had not yet made any important progress and had not been able to bring their parachute troops or air.borne forces into action.
 Fight in Rain, Mud
 Dispatches reaching Moscow told of severe fighting in rain and mud on important sectors and reported tens of thousands of Gebman cas-. ualties from Leningrad to Odessa.
 The picture given both by Mos. COW and London indicated that the Red army was battling everywhere to seize or hold the initiative. The Germans, although claiming prlson- CTS taken east of Kiev now total A02,000 men, admitted Russian counter.attacks in various sectors and the Axis made no definite claims of successes except for c Hel- Sinki radio report that Kharkov was threatened directly.
 What Dispatches Show
 The dispatches showed:
 Central front-As part of an of- fensive ordered personally by Hit- Ter, the elite panzer forces of Col.- Gen. Heinz dud0rian made three strong attempts to crack the Rus. sian lines south of Bryansk on the central front and cut the Khrakov- Moscow railroad near Orel, from where they might strike directly lorthward on the main line to Moscow with the luStwafke bombing a pathway along the railroad and ct Soviet air bases. The Russians said these attacks had been crushed, with 10000 German casualties.
 No German Comment
 The Germans did not comment specifically on these operations, but the official Nazi news agency ad- mitted that the Russians had made c strong "conc0ntric" counter.at. tack said to have been repulsed in bloody fighting.
 Leningrad 3ront-Red star diS- patches said that the Russians had gained another five miles In c local counter-attack and taken four more villages aS all lines around the besieged city held firm. The dis. patches, said however, that the Ger. mans were continuing to attack with unabated violence and that old men, women and children had been mus tered to fight fires in the city, foi- lowing luftwaffe bombing attacks. The Germans reported merely that their siege was frightened.
 South of Leningrad, in the Nov- gorod sector, the Russians said that the Germans had been stopped cold weeks ago and that Red army and guerrilla. raids were now being car. ried out with increasing vigor along the Volkhov river to weaken the enemy siege of Leningrad.
 Crimea front-BritiSh sources said that the German attack on the four lnile.wide iSthnuS leading to the Crimea continued but without defin- ite reports Of prograss. These sources indicated that the Nasi dive bombers and artillery had SO far been unable to break strong Rus- sian defenses on the isthmuS suf- ficiently to use air.borne or para chute troops, but that such opera tons were expected soon. The Bri- tlSh radio broadcast 0 report on the Crimea fighting as published under Q Bern, Switzerland, date by the New York Times, saying that Russian minefields had blown to pieces the first German attack units. ..
 No comment Here
 Berlin made no comment on the Crimea operations.
 odessa front-The Russians sald they had pushed back German and Rumanian forces outside the be- sieged port and estimated that the enemy had lost 60,000 men in killed, wounded and captured in the first half of September. Berlin dls- patches did not mention the Odessa front.
 Behind the fighting lines, Hitler was reported in Turkish dispatches to be encounterlng trouble in rais- ing an army of 1000 msn in Bull garia, Hungary, slovakia and Italy and to be meeting with continued guerrilla opposition.
 Rome newspapers said that Ger man and Serb troops had "mopped up" Communist bands in hte Sava river sector of former Jugoslavia after Q wave of sabotage and an att tempt to capture the city of Obre- novatc.
 British military quarters directed attention to Q counter -attack by Marshal Semyon Timoshekno's cen- tral armies along the Dvina river line, north of Smolensk and a little more than 200 miles southwest of the Leningrad front.
 If the Dvina attack could be pushed northwest toward Polotsk and Dvinsk the Russian would be in a position to sever the communi- cations lines of the German armies attacking Leningrad.
 A detailed German report on the lines around Leningrad indicated that the Nazis have m-sn little gain recently in pushing s~ posi- tions closer to the metropo-- They still appear to be IS to 20 miles away from the city proper at all points.
 The Berlin reports said the Nazis have had difficulty attempting to cross the Neva river at Echlissel- burg (schlusselburg) just southe- east of Leningrad and that this has made 1t difficult to attack the citys southeastern defenses.
 Russians Hold Position
 The Russians were said to be holding positions along the Neva river to the southeast and to be maintaining communications Co the caste with Karelia, at least as far ao tAa e4.ess usexrnN