When the Germans last week abandoned Vyazma on the Smolensk front (see map), they said that they were merely shortening their lines. That had been the explanation for withdrawals in the Donets area, too, and yet last week the Germans busily lengthened their lines there (see p. 25). "Line-shortening" could no longer be taken seriously as an excuse for retreats.
The departure from Vyazma was evidently imposed on the Germans. The Russians claimed to have found in the town 83 tanks, 69 guns, 222 machine guns, 565 trucks and tractors, 57 locomotives, 515 wagons....
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