REBEL ATTACK

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 54, 26 November 1937, Page 5

REBEL ATTACK

-Press Assn.'

Madrid Shelled HUNDREDS KILLED Property Damage Reported to be Enormoixs FURIOUS BOMBARDMENT

(By Telegr&ph-

— Cortyright.l

(Eeceived 26, *12.30 p.m.) MADEID, Nov. 25. General Franco's long-awaited onslanght in the final effort to capturo the city is believed to have begun with a furious overnight shelling which wae the most intense since the beginning o£ the war. It was obviously a deepertt# attempt to shake the Eepublican troops' position and break the morale of the remaining civilians. There are no exact reports of ihe casualtifls, but it is believed that hundreds were killeff and wounded. There would have been greater havoc but for the fact that the people were mostly at home when the bombardment began and took refuge in eellars. The damage to property is reported to be enormous. Whole strCetB are ruined. . - A Government eommuniqae says that the city 's batteries replied to the rebel bombardment. The Eepublicans anticv pated the blowing-np of a rebel mina, in the University City and fired a. counter-mine, wrecking a wing of the. building. Iusurgent advance parties were repulsed on the western outskirts and southern sector. « Barcelona reports heavy, insurgent air-raiding and the bombing of rebel towns as a reprisal. Republican plan© squadrona heavjly bombed troop concentrations along the Aragon river and at Tudela and Jaca in retaliation for raids on the unpriOtected towns of Bujaralzy Bonj Carlo and Alcaniz. An insurgent broadcast alleges that the pianes flew over French territory en route with the connivance of the French Popular Front Government. Cabinet has ordered the mobilisation of all unemployed between the ages of 18 and 50. A Madrid message reports that guerilla warfare is being waged by bands of Asturian miners orgaixised in military formation and based in the mountaina between 0viedo and. Gijon. Daily clashes are disorganising insurgent movements and iSflictjng heavy losses. The Asturians have sworn never to cease their resistance while a single miner is able to hold a rifle. Rebel guns, ineluding nine-inchers, systexnatically raked Madrid, starting from the north and gradually working southward. A violent bombardment' of Madrid before midnight resulted in many being killed. Two thousand shells fell in one hour. The insurgents ruthlessly bombed Guadalajarra, causing great destruction of buildings and civilian life. Italians are reported to be massing at Guadalajarra to avenge their xout of last March.