Evening star., 1942-07-04
Germans Increase
Pressure Against
Soviets in South
Py the Associated Press.

COuUUeTdtUdCK IN Ine kurSk sec
tor, at the junction of the Cen
trail and Southern Russian fronts,
has thrown the Germans back
across strategically important
stream, front-line dispatches
said today.
Colliding with greatly strength
ened Red Army troops, the Ger
mans were badly battered in this
encounter, while east of Kursk the
pressure of their tank assaults was
slackened.
To the south, however, the Nazis
battered with mounting fury at
Soviet positions in the Belgorod and
Volchansk sectors.
The Germans apparently were
throwing massive forces into the
Kursk-Belgorod-Volch sectors
in an effort to push to Voronezh
and cut the rail line running south
from Moscow to the Caucasus gate
way at Rostov.
Greater Intensity Expected.
This drive could be expected to
reach more violent proportions now
that Sevastopol, the last Soviet
stronghold in the Crimea, has
fallen.
The Russians said the Germans
were losing 300 tanks a day along
the 100-mile line from Kursk to
Belgorod, with these losses divided
about evenly at the three main bat
tie centers.
One of the mightiest tank clashes
OF the war ragged on the west bank
OF river in the kursk sector where
the Germans had established
bridgehead but were thrown back
to the east bank by counterattack-
ing Russians
Earlier today the Russians an
nounced that their siege-worn
forces wound up the epic Sevasto-
pol delaying action that cost Ger
many almost 100000 casualties by
withdrawing from the ruins of
Sevastopol yesterday.
(The German high command
asserted today Nazi mobile de-
ia h m en- IS "are advancing
speedily toward the Don" after
operations which other military
quarters in Berlin described as
gigantic break through on the
southern Russian front.
(The site of the reported break
through was not identified, but
the implication was that Red
Army lines had been pierced in
the Kursk-Kharkov zone, which
at its closest point is about 200
miles from the mouth of the
DOM
Heavy Toll Claimed.
I'm one days fighting" the Soviet
Information Bureau said, "the
enemy lost $50 tanks and $4,000
officers and men killed.
German attacks were frustrated
also in the Belgorod and Volchansk
sectors between Kursk and Kharkov,
it said.
Several thousand troops of the
second Hungarian corps, fighting
alongside the Germans, were said to
nave been killed in three days in a
sector of the Kursk front.
Our air force brought down 13
planes it was announced.
In the Volchansk sector, where the
Germans were said to be attacking
necessarily, the crew of a Soviet
tank immobilized by shelling after
it had destroyed four Nazi tanks,
was reported to have machine
gunned and wiped out over 200 Ger
man officers and men"
Not less than 10000 of Hitler's
troops were declared killed and up
to 10000 wounded since June 7 by
Soviet soldiers, sailors, marines and
guerrillas who made the last ditch
stand at Sevastopol against the final
offensive.
This came after seven months of
less violent action in which 10000
fell, it was reported.
4-to-1 Casualty Ratio.
The information bureau declared
the garrison of the Black Sea naval
base-eXecuting with unexampled
courage and steadiness" a calculated
plan to divert and bleed the invasion
army-evacuated casualties at ratio
of almost four to one and quit their
SCARED pill-boxes and entrench-
ments yesterday only on order of the
Red Arny's supreme command.
Soviet troops" it said, lost from
June 7 to July 3, 1886 men killed.
21,090 wounded and $500 missing,
80 tanks, 300 guns and II planes.
Troops, commanders and wound
ed were evacuated from Sevastopol." /"
(The implication was that the
survivors were headed by trans
port for the Caucasus, where the
Soviet trans-Caucasian army of
1t. Gen D. T. KoZlov stands
guaM. The German high COM
mand declared Wednesday that
Sevastopol had fallen and rem
nants of the garrison faced an
Inhalation on the Kuersones
peninsula, spit of land to the
southwest)
"The iron steadfastness of the
Sevastopol defenders" it was said,
"has been one of the most important
reasons holding up the so-called
spring offensive of the Germans"
OktyaDTScHy Ndui vi oisahhHeu'
Vice Admiral E. S. Oktyabrschy,
commander of the Black Sea feet,
was identified AS the main organ
izer of the defense, termed one of
the most brilliant pages" in Soviet
war history.
Premier Stain congratulated Ad-
miral Oktyabrsky last December for
the successful Russian conquest of
Kerch and Feodosiya at the east
ern end of the Crimea opposite the
Caucasus.
(The Red Army and Navy
since4then have lost both points,
but together with Sevastopols
long stand the Russians gained
time to ready their Caucasian
(see RUSSIA, Page A-15)
= .