TOWN IN FLAMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 98, 27 April 1937, Page 7

TOWN IN FLAMES.

BIG REBEL ADVANCE.

I Whole Companies of Basques Surrender. BAYONETS USED DT ASSAULT. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 1.30 p.m.) ST. JEAN DE LUZ, April 26. General Mola's troops are apparently gaining impetus in their advance towards Bilbao. The Basque resistance is breaking down and whole companies are surrendering. Total prisoners are reported to be 2500, besides enough war material to equip a division. The rebel advance guard entered Durango, the key to Bilbao, which is 16 miles away. They stormed with hand grenades and bayonets houses in which a rearguard had been left to cover the Loyalists' departixre. The "Daily Telegraph" corresjMjndent on the Bilbao front reached Eibar on foot. After climbing a wrecked railway bridge blocking the road, he saw a sight unparalleled since the destruction of Irun last year. Bursts of yellow vapour rose from where the last band of Syndicalists to leave had chemically ignited the munition works. The fire spread until every house was I alight, strewing the streets with blazing wreckage and smashed machinery, while smoke belched from the aperture of a church wall, above a stone saint with its arm raised in a gesture of blessing. Loss of Eibar, which manufactured munitions, will be serious to the Government. "Impregnable" Trenches Abandoned. The 3rd Navarre Brigade took Mount Udala, which gave the attackers command of the whole Aramayona Valley. General Mola's troops delivered a double attack from the front and from the rear, aided by artillery and aerial barrages. These attacks resulted in breaking the main line of the Basques' eastern defences, and Marquina, to the northeast of Bilbao, is now threatened. The rebels are 33 miles from the town, on the outskirts of Durango. They were able to penetrate to the Aramayona Valley and seize El Orrio. Yesterday's advance was on a 15-mile front between Mondragon and Vergara, among the highest eastern peaks. The occupants of supposedly impregnable trenches crowning the Basques' entire eastern line were compelled to abandon them without fighting to avoid being cut off. The rebels now can continue downhill until they are faced with a strong line of artificial fortifications 12 miles from Bilbao.

BOMBING OF MADRID. DAILY ATTACKS CONTINUE. (Received 1.30 p.m.) MADRID, April 26. Daily bombing the capital continues. Fourteen were killed and 22 wounded to-day. General Miaja ordered reprisals, and war 'planes are bombing hostile batteries on the outskirts of the city.