The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-07-22

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 of consolidating the two pictures.
 However, a detailed dispatch by Henry Shapiro, United Press staff correspondent in Moscow describing his personal experiences during the air attack seemed to indicate that the raid was only of moderate in- tensity compared with the smashing blows which the German air force has in the past dealt at British cities.
 The Nazi high command said that the Moscow attack had started huge fires near the Kremltn and the Moscow river which weaves through the center of the Russian capital and that damage was caused to Red Army headquarters and gov- ernment buildings.
 The attack was called & "repris- al" for Soviet air attacks on Hel- sinki and Bucharest-the customary Nazi propaganda technique. Most of the worst German attacks on Britain have been officially charac- terized as "reprisals" for some act or other by the British.
 The Nazi high command also en- tered an even more sweeping claim than any before concerning the disintegration of Russian defenses. No unified front line or central Russian command is any longer in existence, the Germans claimed, maintaining that their forces are now engaged in mopping up scat- tered and isolated Russian detach- mentS.
 Moscow sharply challenged this report but estimated that 200 Ger man planes participated.
 Front Lines Forgotten
 The air attack diverted attention from front-line fighting between Russia and Germany. Neither Berlin nor Moscow indicated any appre- ciable changes in the front posi- tionS.
 The Germans claimed that the smash by air. at the Red capital was one phase of terrific assault by the Luftwaffe on the entire triangle from Snolensk to Leningrad to Moscow.
 In that area, 1t was claimed, Ger man palneS wrecked railroad lines, military barracks and pounded troop concentrations in an obvious att tempt to break up Soviet military power behind the firing lines to pre- vent reinforcement of front-ltne Red divisions.
 The rail on Moscow as said in Berlin to have included the drop ping of hundreds of heavy high ex- plosive bombs and tens of thou sands of incendiaries which, 1t was claimed, started big fires through out the Soviet capital. Twelve hits by heavy bombs were said to have been observed near the Kremlin, massive nerve center of the Russian state, and 20 large fires were spotted, German airmen said, east of the Kremlin Railroads running east to- ward the urals from Moscow were heavily attacked.
 The Russian accounts said that several fires were started by in- cendiary bombs in central Mos COW and that some casualties had occurred but insisted that little damage resulted. Some 17 German radiers were reported brought down in the attack which started at 70 o'clock last night and continued until 3:30 this morning.
 One bomb was dropped in Man ege Square, directly in front of the U. s. embassy. Some reporters claimed that the crater of this bomb was the only one they had observed in Moscow.
 Only Few Got Through
 The Russians insisted that only a few of the German raiding planes penetrated to the Russian capital because of the stiffness of the So- viet defenSeS.
 It was reported in Moscow that the German air force for two days has been attempting to attack Lem ingrad. It was said 19 German planes have been brought down in their attempted raids with 8 loss of four Russian machines.
 On the front lines the Russians reported that their lines appeared to be holding well in the fre- quently mentioned PSkov. Polotsk- Nevel, and Novograd Volynsk sec tors, protecting Leningrad, Mos- COW and Kiev.
 The Russian communique named no new towns and indicated that German attempts to break through in these regions have failed.
 The Germans had little more to say about front line fighting. They claimed that the German army is concentrating at the moment in cleaning up encircled Soviet troops and is not pressing its advance SO strongly.
 One Nazi report claimed that Ja- kob Stalin, son of the Russian pre-. mier, had been captured with his Panzer unit southeast Of Vitebsk.
 Another Nazi report said that large numbers of "communiSts and Jews" had been executed in Jugo. slavia, c possible indication Of pan. Slavic demonstrations in shis strongly pro-ieuaaian Balkan state.
 Chained ts War Machines
 Moscow, July a3-Cupl-A Soviet information bureau cpaamnniqus