LOYALISTS’ NEW OFFENSIVE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22367, 2 April 1938, Page 15

LOYALISTS’ NEW OFFENSIVE

Operations in Madrid

Sector

MORE VOLUNTEERS

RECRUITED

Terrible Hardships Of Refugees

(TOTTED PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPTHIGHT.)

(Received April 1, 11 p.m.)

BARCELONA, April 1,

The Government is heavily reinforcing its front with 10,000 volunteers, who have recruited in the last eight days. Ten thousand women are being given industrial training to replace them.

The Loyalists have launched an offensive on the Guadalajara front, to the nprth-east of Madrid, in the hope of relieving the pressure in Aragon. Lerida is surrounded on three but is still unsubdued, in spite of heavy shelling accompanied by fierce fighting on the adjacent countryside. The rebel front runs in two straight lines from Jaca to Lerida, and from Lerida to Teruel, aggregating 220 miles. The rebels report the capture of the International Battalion, consisting of British officers and men. Thousands of Republican soldiers and civilians from the war zone have arrived at Perpignan after terrible hardships in the Pyrenees. It is feared that many are succumbing in the snow-clad mountains. One thousand refugee infantrymen, who arrived at Perpignan from Barbastro after penetrating the Pyrenees, have been disarmed and interned.

BOMBING OF BRITISH

STEAMER

GERMAN AIRMEN ADMIT RESPONSIBILITY * '

LONDON, March 31,

A German, Lieutenant Rudolf Ruker, and three others, comprising the crew of a German bomber, told officials of the Loyalist Defence Ministry, after being shot down and taken prisoner, that their aeroplane bombed the steamer Stanwell on March 15. , They added that they came from the German air base at Pollenza ar.’l that they bombed and attempted to bomb other British ships.