Evening star., 1942-07-09
Russian Counterattacks Menacinq
Nazis' Wedge West Of Don River;
RAF Blasts Axis Airports in Egypt
Some Vonguords
Of Enemy Make
Fresh Crossing
2, the Associated Press.


3, the Associated Press.
MOSCOW, July 9.-Germany's S
mightiest offensive of 1912 has
failed thus far to gain any broad
foothold east of the great Don
River barrier, and Red Army
counterattacks from the flanks
have endangered the Nazi wedge
west Of the river, battlefront dis
patches reported today.
With massed tanks and an infan-
try force padded heavily with Ru-
manians, Hungarians and Slovaks
for numerical superiority, the Ger
mans were reported still forcing
crossings in small groups in an effort
to regain footholds where their earl
Ter bridgeheads were smashed.
Some Units Wiped Out.
Some of these, the Russians said,
were wiped out, but other of the
Axis advance forces were holding
on grimly in the face of intense
artillery, and machinegun fire.
Russian dispatches said that as a
result of tank-led Russians coun-
terblows which recaptured several
communities on the flanks of the
Nazi wedge west of the river. the
Germans were forced to divert large
forces from their drive toward Vo-
roneZh.
(The Vichy news agency re-
ported today that the Germans
, had captured Bobrov, so miles
southeast of Voronezh, after
crossing the Don River south of
Voronezh)
The Russian counter attacks ap-
parently centered northwest of Vo-
ronezh perhaps aimed from Orel at
Kursk, starting point of the Nazi
drive.
Earlier Russian withdrawal
from Staryi Oskol, 65 miles south
west of Voronezh, had widened the
German salient in that sector.
Huge Nazi Force Accumulated.
A huge force was accumulated for
the Nazi commands greatest Often
sive so far in the 1912 campaign,
aimed to surge across the Don and
cut communications between Central
and Southern Russia.
Dispatches said the situation was
serious on the west bank, where
some Red Army detachments were
forced to retreat anew. The Ger
mans occupied a number of points.
But in the relatively narrow sector
where the invaders had reached the
river they appeared so far to have
failed to cross in force.
The struggle for the Don devel-
oped into a pitched battle after the
Germans failed in their original
plan to slip swiftly across the stream
and take the Russians by surprise.
Dispatches said that in repulsing
the first German efforts to cross the
Red Army gained time to occupy
vantage points on the east bank
and organize strong defense.
The Russians also struck at the
west bank, where roads and ravines
were jannmed with hundreds OF We
hicles blocked by the failure Of the
vanguard to break through. Red
airmen said the accumulation
offered easy targets.
Many Trucks Destroyed.
Many trucks as we'll as 60 tanks
were reported destroyed in single
days bombing of the west bank
Tuesday.
Screening their thrusts with heavy
artillery and aerial bombardments,
the Germans nearly succeeded IN Or
ganizing a crossing west Of Voro-
nezh, dispatches said, but the few
units which reached the east bank
achieved no important gains.
A light tank detachment which
crossed by night hung out red BAN
ners and fired its guns westward in
a vain effort to trick Red Army
troops into believing it was part OF
the defense forces, it was declared
The tanks were reported destroyed
A similar fate was said to have
befallen Nazi automatic rifemen
who crossed by pontoon bridges
barges or boats.
The Soviet Information Bureau
said the Red Army men were bat
Ting numerically superior forces.
Garrisons OF two settlements west
of Voronezh were declared to have
repelled nine attacks in row, wipine
out two companies in the final en-
gagement.
Four Attacks Fought OFF.
A communique said rifle bat
TALON disabled 13 tanks and killed
more than 500 Germans in sector
to the southwest apparently the
Staryi Oskol area) in fighting oh
four attacks and then retired to new
positions to avoid encirclement.
Five days Of combat on the Kalinir
front, northwest Of Moscow, were
reported to have cost the Germans
1000 killed.
Our troops fought fierce battles
west of Voronezh," the Soviet In
formation Bureau announced. "Afte.
stubborn fighting, our troops evacu
ated the town of Staryi Oskol."
Staryi Oskol lies on the Osko
River, major communications cen
ter (Which the German high com
mand declared Tuesday had beer
captured) on the MoscoW-Rosto'
railway. With the occupation o
Staryi Oskol the Germans expanded
southwark their triangular cor
ridor- toward the Don, based on
l60-mile line through Belgoroo
Kursk and Orel.
Crop Arsonists Doomed
VTC.IIv J,1lv q (Pl The deatl