Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-07-15
Russians Launch
Strong Offensive
On 0re| Front
Push Far Into Nuzi
Lines; Kill 1900
Officers and Men
BY the Associated Press.

tnelr nrSC summer OIIenSlVe-an
offensive timed when the Sicilian
invasion was three days Old
and said they had broken
through heavily fortified Ger
man lines on two wide fronts
north and east of Orel in a Sec
tor 200 miles south of Moscow.
More than 10 populated places
topped to the Red Army's hot
weather drive, said the special an
nouncement broadcast from Moscow
and recorded by the Soviet monitor.
and 10000 German officers and men
were killed and 1000 captured.
Wrestling the initiative from Adolf
Hitler's stalled war machine after it
had failed to gain important results
in its own offensive in the OreI-
Kursk-Belgorod sector which was
launched July 5. the Russians said
they had penetrated the German
lines up to depth of % miles in
the last three days
Martial Music Played.
The announcement was repeated
over and over in Moscow broadcasts
with Red Army marching songs as
triumphant preludes.
The 28-mile advance was made in
the drive north of Orel on a 40
kilometer Us miles front, the COM
munique said.
Fifty populated places we're taken
in this offensive. including Staritsa,
which is about 60 miles northwest of
Orel and about the same distance
northeast of Bryansk.
Battering at the bullying Orel
salient also from the east, the Rus
slams advanced from IL to Is miles
on an 18-mile front against stub
born German resistance and cap
tured more than so populated places.
the announcement declared.
Many Towns Captured.
In the three day drive. the COM
munique said, the district center Of
Ulyanovo and the large populated
places of Staritsa, Sorokino, Mol
novo. Budorovsky, Lukmily, Protivno.
Shvanyo. Yagodnaya. Yelensk and
KLEIN were captured north of Orel.
East of Orel the Red Army occu-
pied the large populated places Of
Yazhik, Orlovka, Vysokoye, Pobed-
noye, Sykhka and Brezovykh.
In the course of the offensive
the German 56th, 262d and 293d
infantry divisions were routed along
with the 5th and 18th tank divi-
sions, it was said
Heavy losses also were inflicted
on three other German infantry
divisions and two motorized divi-
sions.
German Tanks Repulsed.
Captured booty included 40 tanks,
210 guns and 1877 mortars, the an
nouncement said, and 100 tanks, At
guns and 294 planes were destroyed.
The offensive of our troops con-
tinues," the communique said in
concluding its account of this sector.
but it said Russian troops also had
attacked the Germans to the south
in the Orel-Kursk area and had
repulSed German tank and infantry
attacks in the Belgorod sector.
The Russians said they had beat
en- off stubborn attacks which the
Germans launched almost inceSsant-
ly in some sectors around Belgorod
and had recaptured several villages
as their counterblows got under way.
Meanwhile, for the second sue
ceSsive day the NaZi attack stalled
at the northern end of the 200-mile
Orel- Kursk- Belgorod front along
which the Germans launched their
offensive II days ago. AS the mid
night Soviet communique expressed
it, the Germans did not undertake
any attacks" in the Orel-Kursk sec
tor yesterday.
Germans broadcasts recorded
in London said the Russians
themselves were attacking near
Orel and had broken through the
Nazi lines east and north of the
city by sheer weight of num-
bers." The Russians later were
driven back and the gaps sealed,
the broadcast saidD
In the fighting yesterday around
Belgorod, the Red Army was said
to have knocked out 100 German
tanks, shot down AZ planes and
killed more than 1000 of the enemy.
Aerial engagements sewhere
brought the days bag of Nazi planes
to 1853, the Russians said.
In their counterattackS at some
points in that sector, the Russians
were reported in dispatches to be
pouring more men and tanks into
the raging battle, ironing out the
wedges the Germans thrust into the
Soviet lines at the outset.
Yesterdays engagements brought
German losses, as tabuIated in
Soviet communicates, to more than
10000 killed, about 1892 planes
downed and 2,919 tanks destroyed
since the start of the summer cam
paign.
The Soviet Air Force was re-
ported keeping up its attacks against
German troop concentrations and
supply lines and effectively sup
porting the operations on the
ground.
The Soviet press today quoted a
captured German officer as saying
Hitler had issued an order at the
outset of the Nazi offensive declar-
ing that this blow must be of de-
cisive importance-it must be the
turning point Of the war-the last
great battle before German victory"
The press accounts said the Ger
man, a lieutenant, had slipped
across no mans land recently at
night to surrender because he was
convinced the German offensive
against Russia would fail and that
Germany would be defeated in two
to six months.