CATALAN FRONT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 156, 30 December 1938, Page 7

CATALAN FRONT

HALF A MILLION MEN

ENGAGED

SEVERE FIGHTING

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Received December 30, 1.10 p.m.)

LONDON, December 29

There is again severe fighting in a big battle on the Catalan front in which it is estimated that half a million men are engaged. General Franco's fiercest attack today was centred around the strategic bridgehead at Balaguer, where, after a shattering artillery barrage, the nationalists overcame the concrete defences and by midday were advancing in open country beyond Balaguer, tanks leading the infantry, which had previously charged and wiped out machine-gun nestSi Progress was also made towards Artesa,! while the drive, in . which a large force of Italians is participating, continues in the southern sector. The Hendaye correspondent. of the "Daily Telegraph" says that General Franco's mechanised, army is slowly overcoming the opposition, for ma-chine-guns, anti-tank guns, rifles, and hand grenades cannot indefinitely hold back tanks and armoured cars supported by bombing planes and artillery. The inadequately-trained republican pilots are proving no match for the Italian and German aviators. A "Times" correspondent at Hendaye says it does not seem that General Franco's attack' has yet penetrated the main defences of the republicans. BURGOS, December 29. General Franco's Aragon army corps has broken through the. formidable republican fortifications fronting the strategic town of Balaguer, 16 miles north-east of Lerida, taking a further 800 prisoners and much war material. The rebels also claim to .have brought down 20 republican warplanes during the day.