Over the Wire

MOSCOW--Soviet troops are clinging fiercely to the western and southern approaches to Moscow, the High Command reported today, but the Germans have created such a peril that all able-bodied citizens in the Smolensk district west of the capital were called out to fight.

The communique said that "our troops fought the enemy all along the front, especially fiercely in the directions of Vyazma, 130 miles southwest of Moscow; Bryausk, 220 miles south-southwest; and Melitopol, on the southern front.

Those were the same positions reported in Thursday's communique and apparently represented no gain for the Germans.