Evening star., 1942-01-15
Russians Open
Furious Assault
On Mozhaisk
Sewage Bottle Shapes
Up as One of Wars
Most Important
BY the Associated Press.

by tEe hSSOCldted Press.
Russian shock troops were re-
ported smashing in a direct
frontal assault today against
100000 Germans massed at Mo-
zhaisk, 81 miles west OF Moscow.
in what appeared to be one Of
the greatest and perhaps most
decisive battles of the war.
Mozhaisk is the keystone of the
dwindling German defense corridor
on the Napoleonic road from Moscow
to Smolensk.
The British radio said that a saw
age battle was raging at the gates
of Mozhaisk and that "one KEY posi-
ton is said to have changed hands
several times"
Other Red Army forces, slowly
closing giant trap around Moz-
haisk. were officially reported to
have recaptured the town of Medyn,
IS miles to the southwest. This
meant that the Germans now had
only a 70-mile wide escape route
from Mozhaisk, with Soviet troops
pressing down from Volokolamsk in
the north and Medyn in the south.
Volokolamsk is IS miles north OF
Mozhaisk
New Drive Toward Taganrog.
4 bulletin from Adolf Hitler's high
command. tersely noting defensive
battles on the Moscow and Lenin-
grad fronts, acknowledged that the
Russians were making a new drive
along the Sea of Azov toward Tar
anrog, 40 miles west of Rostov-on-
Don. The offensive was termed
unsuccessful"
Marshal Semeon Timoshenko's
Rec Army of the south has launched
sharp attacks against German-hel
kharkov, great industrial center of
the Ukraine, and Taganrog. it was
reported in dispatches to London
from the Russian front. 1t appeared
70 be concerted effort to precipi-
tate new Wholesale German with
drawal on the southern front.
Loss of Kharkov and Tasanrog
would force the German Army in
most of the Ukraine to fall back to
new position,
The Moscow newspaper Pravda
reported that guerrillas around Ia
ganrog, heartened by the approach
OF the Russian Army, were in.
creasing their activities and are a
constant menace to the Germans"
Red Army Landings.
Other advices to London told Of
Red Army landings on the coast Of
the Sea Of Azov in q maheuver de-
signed to threaten the German rear
and harass the enemy's already
weakened supply lines.
The Berlin radio admitted that
/ Russian reinforcements for the new
battle of the Crimea were landing
at Feodosiya, on the Kerch penin-
| Sula, and said German flyers had
bombed large Soviet shipping con-
centrations, disembarking troops and
war materials of all kinds. The Nazi
high command said three Russian
ships were damaged by bomb hits
In the north, on the Leningrad
front. German assault troops were
reported to have destroyed 20 Soviet
pinboxes and their gun crews in
| driving 600-foot- breach
through Russian lines. This i'm
piled that Nazi counteroffe fensive
had been launched in the Leningrad
area.
/ Eastern Bank Cleared.
BY contrast, the British radio re-
ported:
The Russians have now cleared
almost the whole of the eastern bank
of the River Volkhov, southeast OF
Leningrad. and captured a village
on the west bank about IS miles from
the city
A possibility that Hitlers east
ern armies now have reached
winter line which they would seek to
hold at all costs was seen by some
european observers in the fact that
Berlin newspapers. for the first time
since the retreat from Rostov began
November % are again mentioning
SPECIFIC combat zones.
Half Dozen Soviet Attacks.
A dispatch from the Swiss Ger.
man frontier said the Deutsche ALL
gemeine zeitung spoke of a half
dozen Soviet attacks on German po-
sitions from the central sector south
ward to the Sea of Azov-northeast
tSee RUSSIAN, Page A-4)