Current Events July 17, 1942: 18 SHIPS SUNK BY SUBMARINES: BITTER FIGHTING CONTINUES, GERMAN CASUALTIES HIGH:

Crete Troops

Fly to Egypt

50,000 Axis Soldiers

Massed on Island,

Say Turkish Reports

LONDON, July 16.—(AP)—British

sources said today that a German

light infantry regiment flown to

North Africa from Crete had been

put into the Egyptian line to reinforce

Nazi Field Marshal Erwin

Rommel's forces.

                                                 Frederick Post

                        FREDERICK, MD., FRIDAY MORNING JULY 17, 1942.

Russians Wrest Offensive

From Nazis On Voronezh

Front In Bitter Fighting

900,000 German Casualties

In Two Months Of Warfare,

Reds Declare

DEFENDERS WITHDRAW

TO OTHER POSITIONS

BY EDDY GILMORE

Moscow, (Friday,) July 17 (AP)—Soviet Armies have now

taken the initiative from the Germans on some sectors of the

Voronezh front and are stoutly resisting in the south in terrific

campaigns which have cost the invaders 900,000 men

and the Russians 339,000 in two months, the Soviets announced

early today.

A The Russians said that the Germans had been thrown

back on the defensive at Voronezh, an important railroad

city east of the Don River which the Germans have besieged

for days with waves of men, tanks and planes.

"In some sectors of the Voronezh front, the initiative

has passed into Soviet hands," the midnight Russian communique

said. "The Germans are on the defensive."

The communique said there were no essential changes

on other fronts, but acknowledged that the Red Army had

withdrawn to new positions southeast of Millerovo, where

the Germans are pounding furiously toward the Caucasus

and the Volga

18 SHIPS SUNK

BY SUBMARINES

Total Since America Entered

War Is Now Placed

At 376 Vessels

Lisbon, Friday, July 17 (JP)—Unconfirmed

reports were received

here early today that the 2,991-

ton Argentine freighter Argentino

had been torpedoed and sunk off the

Portuguese Coast, with an Ar-

gentine diplomat among its three

passengers and 39 crew members.

By The Associated Press

The destruction of 18 merchant

vessels by enemy submarines prey-

waters has been disclosed in of-

ficial announcements so far this

week

The latest victims of U-boat attacks

— two medium-sized United

States cargo ships and a small Norwegian

merchantman, announced

yesterday by the Navy and included

in the week's toll—raised

to 376 the unofficial Associated

Press count of Allied and neutral

ship losses in the Atlantic area

since America's entry into the war.