Evening star., 1944-04-18
Big Bottle for
Port Under Wuy,
Germans Say
By the Associated Press.

NAoOSoW, nplll 1o.-1 WI UlS
Russian armies were reported
nearing a juncture in the out
skirts of Sevastopol today for a
final onslaught against a fren-
zied Axis garrison barricaded in
the streets after falling to effect
a large-scale evacuation from
the burning city.
(The Vichy radio, quoting a
German report, said ''the battle
for Sevastopol has now COM
menced," with very heavy fighting
taking place in the fortified region
of the town.
Front dispatches said Gen. Andrei
I. Yeremenko's independent Mari
time Army was moving downhill on
the city from the southeast after
cracking 2,200-foot mountain posi-
ton known as Baidar Gate in a
drive which yesterday swept up a
road junction IL miles from Sevas-
topol and miles from Balaklava,
scene of the famed charge of the
Light Brigade"
Early Junction Expected.
This force, moving through dense
mineflelds, was expected to link up
at any hour with Gen.. Feodor /
Tolbukhin's 4th Ukraine Army, al
ready filtering through Sevastopol's s
barricades from the north, the dis
patches said.
--CThe Vichy broadcast asserted
the German-Romanian with
drawal toward the southwest of
the Crimean Peninsula was "be-
ing effected in perfect order and
in complete accordance with Ger
man plans. Gems. Tolbukhin and
Yeremenko have not succeeded,
in spite of all their efforts and
numerical superiority, in en-
veloping the German retreating
formations and cutting them off
from the rear as they had hoped
to do.D
All reports from the front, in
cluding those from correspondents
who have flown night and day over
Sevastopol indicated the German
command has not been able to ac-
complish a large scale evacuation,
although in the last few days the
trapped Axis troops tried to get out
Of the battered port on any kind of
craft they could find. They threw
caution to the wind as cannonading
Russian guns echoed over the city
and bombers raked the docks.
Thousands Stranded on Docks.
The dispatches estimated that
thousands of Germans and Roman
ians were still stranded on the docks
of Sevastopol while others, fighting
a determined rear-guard action in
the suburbs, were pouring machine
gun fire on Red Army engineers
clearing barbed wire and stone bar
ricades as well as felled trees and
deep mined trenches barring the
way into. the city proper. Inside the
city, the Axis troops were said to
have thrown everything they could
find into the streets.
Meanwhile, the Red Air Forces
heavy blows at the Romaniar
Danubian port of Galati Sunday
night were reported to have left
many fires and much destruction ir
the big sprawling port, adding tc
the fears of the Romanians who are
well aware that one Red Army is
gathering on the Bessarabian plains
west of Odessa for the shortest
route to Bucharest.
A Soviet communique last night
said that from 1000 to 1000 Ger
mans were killed on the mainland
in fight for extension of the Rus
sion bridgehead on the west bank
Of the Dnestr River in the Tighina
area 35 miles southeast of Chisinau
and about lis miles northeast OF
Galati.
More Ships are Sunk.
An Izvestia correspondent with the
Black Sea fleet reported the con-
tinuous sinking of transports large
and small, speedy landing barges
and destroyers and cutters 'in ports
along the coast and on the way to
Romania." Stormovik bombers
|strafing Sevastopol Harbor, and
raking landing barges were declared
operating almost without losses"
The writer, Alexander Stepanov
said the Germans sought to move
cattle and pigs from the Crimea by
four-engined transport planes two
weeks ago.
Their problem today, however, Is
to try to save their own skim" he
|added. He said the roar of Russian
planes over Crimean waters was
like choir with the low hum OF
bombers supplying the bass and the
high whine of fighters supplying
the tenor.
Another correspondent for lives
tia said Romanian captives were
choking the coastal highway behind
Gen. Yeremenkos troops. The
prisoners we're said to be marching
to Enclosures without guards, some.
times headed by their own colonels