Evening star., 1942-02-17
Advancing Russian
Troops Reported
Novgorod
$3.50 Germans Declared
Killed in Four Recent
Soviet Engagements
By the Associated Press.

MOSCOW, Feb. 17.-Steadily-
driving Russian troops on the
northwestern front crushed formi-
dable German counterattacks to-
day and were reported endangering
Novgorod, strongly held enemy city
120 miles southwest of Leningrad.
Russian war dispatches said the
Germans, attempting to hold their
springboard points for Hitler'S
spring drive, hurled tanks into
the Donets Basin and the Russians
inflicted bloody casualties. Fresh
Nazi reserves were used.
In the far north along the Finnish
frontier near Murmansk and Kan
dalaksha, German and Austrian
troops were reported suffering in
tensely from frostbite.
Reserves Accumulated.
British made Hurricane fighters
and British-made tanks were ham,
mering against the Germans in the
center before Smolensk. The army
publication Red Star said reserve
troops were being accumulated not
only by the Germans but by the
Soviet.
The fate of the whole world de-
pends on the battles on our 'front.'"
Red Star commented, "the Allies
help not only us but themselves with
their supplies"
From Stockholm. reports came
that the Russian cavalry had re-
captured 40 positions in White
Russia, and that six German bat
talions had been destroyed at one
point on the central 'front.'
$3.50 Germans Killed.
The Soviet Information Bureau
said $3.50 Germans had been killed
in four recent engagements on the
winter front, $500 of them in a one
day battle which resulted in the
| destruction of a number of Nazi
dugouts in the Leningrad region.
The Red Army forces captured
two mortars, II machineguns. $40
mines and large number of auto
matte rifles and hand grenades in
tn Leningard zone fighting, a COM
munique reported.
(The German radio admitted
today that the Russians had ad-
vanced 180 miles in some sectors
since the start of their winter
offensive, the British Broadcast
ing Corp. said)
The Russians reported last night
the Soviet Baltic fleet and its air
arm have sunk IS enemy transports
laden with troops, equipment and
supplies. One submarine was credit
ed with bagging $4,000 tons of enemy
shipping
These announcements were in
cluded in review of seven months
Of warfare in the Baltic.
A London report indicated that
the southern jaw of the Red Army's
central front pincer-almoSt match
ing gains in the north-had thrust
past the German base at Smolensk
with an advance of 80 miles or more
from the Kirov zone, which lies $50
miles southwest of Moscow.
The British radio told of this de-
velopment, saying the Russians had
crossed the Sozh River, which winds
southwestward for 200 miles across
Smolensk Province and White Rus
sia to empty into the Dnieper at the
Ukrainian frontier.
Russian troops have occupied
several more villages on the Donets
'front.'" the radio said. Heavy losses
have been inflicted on the enemy,
who is in retreat with the Russians
hard on his heels"
Also from the London station came
report that Soviet crusier, aided
py an ice-breaker, had battered
through foes to shatter fortifica-
tions in a Nazi-occupied village at
the approaches to Leningrad. Pre-
sumably referring to an operation
in the Gulf of Finland, 1t said "The
Germans were taken completely by