FURIOUS CONFLICT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 January 1939, Page 5

FURIOUS CONFLICT

SPANISH REBEL THRUST IN CATALONIA

REPORTS OF CONTINUED PROGRESS. COUNTER-ATTACK THREATENS ITALIANS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, January 1. Furious fighting in the main sectors attends General Franco’s Catalonian offensive. Every available ’plane is engaged. but a thaw is hampering the tanks. The Italian divisions, including the Littoria, which, at Signor Mussolini’s request, led the assault, are jeopardised because of a Loyalist counterattack.

The rebels claim the capture of Albages, Pobla de Granadella, and Cubells. The total rebel gain is 346 square miles on a 100-mile front. The Saragossa correspondent of “The Times” says that the rebels are advancing in the southern sector. Despite the necessity for storming a-succession of well-defended ridges between the River Segre and Tierra Dellana foothills, they crossed the River Sant ahead of their timetable. The position of the loyalists in the Lower Ebro is increasingly precarious. Barcelona reports, however, that repeated rebel onslaughts were unable to breach the loyalist lines in the lower Segre and in the Tremp sector. The rebels’ progress, it is claimed, has been reduced to a mile daily at a few points, and at heavy cost. The loyalists’ resistance is tremendous. Loyalist antiaircraft guns brought down three out of seven bombers.

HAVOC IN BARCELONA THREE BOMBING RAIDS IN ONE DAY. PURSUIT PLANE DESTROYS ENEMY MACHINE. BARCELONA, January 1. After five months of immunity Barcelona was bombed from the air three times today, 33 persons being killed and 92 wounded. The bombers cut a 50 yard path three miles long across the centre of the city. A prompt alarm by sirens enabled the crowds to escape from the streets where they were going home after the New Year celebrations. A loyalist pursuit plane overtook a bomber, switched on its wing lights to indicate its position to the anti-aircraft guns and chased its quarry till it was able to machine-gun the pilot and send the machine crashing in flames into the sea.

MOVE ON TARRAGONA ADVANCE OF TWENTY-FIVE MILES. TOWN STORMED BY REBELS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 11.5 a.m.) LONDON, January 2. The British United Press Saragossa correspondent says a force of 20,000 rebels stormed Juncosa, midway between Borjas Blancas and Falset, achieving a twenty-five mile advance and halving the distance to Tarragona.