WILL RUSSIA REAP?

Blows & Counterblows. Like three great scythes, Red Armies were trying to slash their way through and behind the German positions in south Russia last week. Said Moscow's Red Star: "By strengthening our blows we will be in a position to surround new masses and inflict new losses. The harvest will be great if we can reap it in time."

But time was favoring the Germans. Bogged in the mud 30 miles east of Dnepropetrovsk was the crucial drive of Colonel General Nikolai Vatutin's armies, striving to reach the Dnieper and cut off the Germans in the Donets Basin.

The most serious Russian setback came in the Donets Basin itself, where the Red Army has been trying for two weeks to smash south against the main German armies. The Germans halted the drive with heavy counterattacks against the Russian right flank northwest of Stalino. This week Berlin claimed that other forces crossed the Donets River near Izyum. If this report was true, it meant that the Germans may succeed in breaking up the Red Army's drives through the Donets and toward the Dnieper.

West of Rostov, along the Sea of Azov coast, the Russians were doing better. Tank and infantry forces were pounding hard against the German defenses covering Taganrog and Mariupol. Said Moscow: "All indications are that the battle here is moving toward a climax."

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