Furious Fighting

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 27, 16 February 1937, Page 5

Furious Fighting

-L-reas Assn.

road to valencia still open Rebels Ready to Besiege Capital SLAUGHTER BY BOMBS

(By i'elegiaph-

— Copyright.)

(Beceived 16, 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. 15. The Spanish Government admits Sunday's battles for "the lifeline of Madrid' ' were most intense but claims that the main highway to Valeacia is still open though suhjecfc to artillery fire. The fighting was intensified all day along the Jarama river, with the rebejs attacking the Arganda bridge, eommanding the highway. There was furious fighting on the Guadalajara front, whero the position was unchanged at nightfall. West Park, where normally nursemaids and children played and couples courted, is a maze of trenches with tho trees toru by grenades and r^e fire. The Government 's fortifications were «o complete when the rebels bur,st into CJniversity City, that they did not know the whereabouts * of the enemy 's po.sitions conceale.d in a labyrinth ot tunnels which were lit by electricity. The rebels nfcill occupy the cellars and the iirst floor of a battered eight-storey shell of one of the most modern hospitale of Europe, which they storm'jd weeks agc. General de Llano claims that the insurgents have crossed the Manzanares and Jaraine rivers and control the Arganda bridge, enabling Madrid to be completely besieged, so that it will be forced to surrender. The insurgents further advanced toward Almeria, occupying Torre Nuenva, near Motril. The Times Valencia correspondent states that during the retreat from Malaga to Almeria, rebel aeroplanes swooped down upon 40,000 heavilyladen men, women and children fleeing from the Fascist terror and maehin^gunnod them, killing hundreds. The slaughter was intensified by the fire of rebel warships sailing parallel with the coast. The Perpignan railway, from France to Spain, on the eaSter'n frontier, was cut when an insurgent plane flew over Port Dou and dropped bombs on the line, which was destroyed for a considerable distance.