The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-07-21
Gateway City Rostov
 Hit On Three Sides
Continued from Page D

(Continued oppose a small-scale invasion at tempt without diverting large forces from Russia.
 Tt would be merely a sacrifice without any purposes" one allied military source in London com- mented.
 Showdown Battle
 Moscow dispatches said that the Red army, apparently massing its strength for a showdown battle on the twisting lower Don river, had retired southeastward in good order and was fighting back strongly with the aid of American-built bombers in defense of Rostov and in in- creasing offensive thrusts on the enemy flank at Voronezh.
 Great destruction of Axis tanks, airplanes, trucks and army units was reported as result of the Rus- sian counter blows, and at Voronezh the Soviet onslaughts had trapped large Axis forces by severing their communications lines and knocking out 50 enemy tanks.
 But on the major front to the southeast the Germans claimed ad- vances of as much as 90 miles in the past four or five days and a Vichy report said they were within four miles of the suburbs of fire ravaged and heavily bombed Rostov, key to the oil-rich Caucasus.
 The attack on Rostov from the west (Taganrog), the north (Voro- shilovgrad and the east Cat the conjunction of the Don and Donets rivers) was the climatic goal toward which the Germans have been ham, mering in their costly southeastern offensive to isolate the Caucasus, cut of the route of American war supplies to the south and divide the Soviet armies.
 Advances 90 Miles
 At the same time, the enemy re- ported that an Axis column fork ing off below Vorenezh at the bend of the Don river had advanced about 90 miles to within approximately 50 miles of the easternmost turn of the Don river, which flows within about 35 miles of Stalingrad on the Volga. The two Axis offensives, probably supplemented by a third push along the railroad from Lik- haya toward Stalingrad, are of equal importance in the battle for i the Caucasus.
 Rostov, battered by enemy bomb- CTS for several days, was reported by the Germans to be 'a'fiame." The communique also said that the bridges acros sthe Don at that point over which the Russians might re- tire from Rostov-had been de- strowed. Rusia rear guards "and dispersed enemy groups are being annihilated" by the Nazi air force the communique claimed.
 The Russians told a different story. They said that ground was yielded to the enemy but that a high price was exacted and that the Red army had fallen back in good order, leaving rear guarcs who ap- piled rigorous scorched earth policy and killed many thousands advanc- ing Germans.
 Apparently the German claims oi sudden advances and of encircline attacks by armored forces and air planes were based on the final re- tirement of these rear guard ele- ments which had held back the Axis tide while Soviet Marsha! Semyon Timoshenko prepared his ground for a decisive stand, pre- sumably along the Don. It appeared l unlikely tbat the Russian military i leaoer, who fast year drove the Ger mans back in panic from Rostov te Taganrog, would give up Rostov al this critical juncture with a last ditch fight like at Sevastopol ano similar to the one being made tc hold Voronezh.
 Massing Strength
 On the eastern flank, the Rus sians had been reported massing their strength for defense of Stall inggrad and the lower Volga and 1t was believed likely that the main battle would be fought in the com paratively narrow area between the Don and Volga rivers.
 The present phase of fighting may well determine possession of the main oil supplies of the Soviet Union. The Russians have strongly defended the northern end of the pipe line that leads from the Cas- plan coastal fields to Rostov and then northwestward to Nikitovka forcing the enemy to detour around the line en route to Rostov. The line north of Rostov, however, is now rendered useless by the German fianking advances or may have been seized at some points after being destroyed by the Russians.
 Capture of Rostov, or its encircle- ment, would permit the Germans to attempt a crossing of the narrow gap from the eastern Crimea Pen- insula to the Caucasus, south of the Azov sea and not far north of the Soviet naval base of NovorosSisk which frequently has been attacked by German bombers in recent days.
 The German gains in Southern Russia renewed the prospects for an Allied invasion to establish 6 second front in Europe, with the