Evening star., 1941-09-11
Leningrad Bombarded
With Nazi Pamphlets
Urging Surrender
Might Is Withheld to Give
Citizens Chance to Yield
Peacefully. Germuns Say
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
BERLIN, Sept. 11.-German planes
showered Leningrad today with
pamphlets urging its civilians not
to defend the city, and Germans
said the Russians must decide
whether Leningrad is to be taken
as a fairly intact city or as a heap
of debris.
An authorized commentator said
the Germans were in position to
infiict much heavier punishment on
Leningrad but were withholding
their full might to give its citizens
a chance to reconsider defense
tactics.
The pamphlets, he said, empha-
sized that if civilians resist, the
German army must regard them as
enemies and act accordingly. They
warned that if a civilian house to-
house defense were attempted, Len
ingrad would be subjected to more
general bombardment.
Decision Up to Inhabitants.
Shells and air bombs up to now
have been concentrated on food and
munitions stores and other facilities
to enable the city to Withstand siege,
it was asserted, with electricity and
transport services marked out first
for demolition.
The commentator declared it was
hoped that would be enough to
soften Leningrad. but the decision
lay with its inhabitants. Smoke
already Is visible at considerable dis
tanees from the city, he said, but
there is no general conflagration.
German sources acknowledged
that at one point on the Russian
front tank-supported Soviet forces
broke into the German lines, but
said they were repelled.
Dispatches reported destruction
of 68 of 100 attacking Red Army
tanks on lone sector of the eastern
front" yesterday and said a two
day battle at another $point had
ended with the Russians losing 3,70O
men in prisoners as we'll as heavily
in killed and wounded.
important Locality" Taken.
Other reports said Germans had
captured an important locality in
heavy fighting yesterday north of
Kiev, taking 2,060 prisoners and
seizing so cannon, 90 machine guns
and large numbers of motor We
hicles, horses and munitions,
In the middle sector the Germans
annihilated one Soviet combat
group" the news agency DN.B. said,
and in mopping up an encircled area
captured more than 1000 prisoners.
In al, it said, the Russians lost %
tanks on that front.
The agency claimed capture of an
undiSclosed town on the central front
after driving the Russians back
house by house. While infantry was
storming the town. it said, motor
lied detachment encircled it and
captured Red Army staff officers
The Russians, the news agency
said, sent blazing oil tankers down
the Dnieper River in the Ukraine
TO fire a, bridge, but failed. 4>
These terse dispatches provided
the only elucidation to terse COM
ment on the eastern front contained
in today's high command communi-
que: In the east, offensive opera
tions continue successfully"
r. Waterworks Damaged.
Luftwaffe dive -bombers were re-
ported in German dispatches to
have destroyed a number Of Lenin-
grads field Notifications and effec-
lively damaged the city waterworks
in support of ground siege opera
tions.
Several Soviet aircraft guns
and artillery batteries of the Lenin-
grad defense system were silenced
in the aerial attacks, war CORE
spondents said.
Military commentators said dam
aging of water distribution facili-
ties was intended to hamper fire.
fighting work in the oft-bombed
former czarist capital as well as to
restrict the supply for other services
among the defenders.
However, supporting possibility
that the Germans might rely on
bombers and long-range guns to the
exclusion of direct assault, the COM
mentators said the day and hour Of
the eity's fall was a matter of sec
ondary Importance Red-hot de-
tense was acknowledged.
D.N,B. said tank-supported Rus
sian attack on German positions
throughout Monday and Tuesday on
the central front 81 miles northeast
of Sn1elensk had been broken with
bloody losses" among the Red Army
units.
Russian war correspondents
said the Red Army had driven
three wedges into the German
lines on the central front. A Ger
man panZer spearhead once was
reported operating as far east as
WANNA, 80 miles northeast of
GoiftOiCbShJ ..
Fleeing Barges Sunk.
The bomb sinking of several
barges laden with fleeing Russian
soldiers was reported in military dis
patches from an unidentified sector.
Troop concentrations and railway
lines also were strafed, the accounts
said.
The newspaper Boersen Zeitung
spoke of assault troop successes on
the far side of the lower Dnieper."
A German infantry captain in the
last half of August, the newspaper
said, led assault detaehments across
the wide stream and captured 164
prisoners without losing a man. The
newspaper carried no more recent
references t0 that pr1hattled zone