Loyalist Armies Crumble Before Franco’s Drive

Northern Advocate, 29 March 1938, Page 7

Loyalist Armies Crumble Before Franco’s Drive

(Received 2 p.m.) BURGOS, March 28. ;pOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE CIVIL WAR THE REBEL STANDARD FLOATS ABOVE CATALONIAN SOIL, WHILE, WITH BOMBING PLANES BLASTING A WAY FOB VICTORIOUS INFANTRY, GENERAL FRANCO CONTINUES TO DRIVE TO LERIDA, THE KEY TO CATALONIA, The Loyalists are conducting a civil evacuation of the town in the hope of battling for its retention. General Franco’s vanguard is already visible from Lerida, and other detachments are advancing elsewhere than by the main roads. Barbastro is clouded in smoke,, indicating that the Loyalists set fire to it before retreating. Some 160 warplanes, in wave after wave, bombed Fraga, shattering all hope of its defence and killing 15 CO people, mostly soldiers, because the majority of civilians had already fled. The capture of Mequinenza where the Cinca River joins the Ebro, means the .entrapment of Loyalists on the right bank immediately the Rebels from jVlequinenza, join their comrades, on the Caspe, ridge.

People’s Army In Retreat. The Bhrgos Correspondent of “The ' Times” says the line of the Government’s defences on ’the Cinca was selected months ago as the most favourable position to be fortified. Ac- ' cordihgly the inability of the Republicans to stand more than a few hours behind them betrays the degree of ’ demoralisation and disorgan- - isation sapping the military machine. “The New People’s Army” is in retreat, from the Pyrenees to Castellon. It is difficult not to believe that the Loyalist armies are beaten beyond recovery. • A “Daily Telegraph” correspondent says the French have taken full precautions alpng Pyrenees frontier ■ in readiness for a : possible collapse of the defence of Catalonia. They • have .stationed a reserve of troops in - order to disarm fugitives and prevent ... them from entering France. Defenders Heroism. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Lerida correspondent says Lerida is now un- . der aircraft fire preparatory to a ground assault, . but the defenders display heroic indifference to the odds against them. Forty planes bombed the city for three hours killing and wounding hundreds of people. Doctors, hospitals and ambulances were unable to cope with the victims, who /lie in thoroughfares or are buried under wreckage. Bombers circled and chasers v swooped even as the alarm of sirens , , screamed, mowing down civilians as they raced, to shelter. The bombers .burled down 1001 b. projectiles, wrecking building after building. The town was in an inferno when German and Italian planes departed. The road to Fraga was a shambles, . planes machine-gunning not only soldiers but long processions of . Refugees laden with mule carts and dx carts strewing the roads r with bodies of. men, women, children, .’ oxen and shattered utensils.

Loyalists Retreat. The' Spanish Loyalist forces have retreated 20 miles in the past 48 hours on the Saragossa-Lerida Road, says a message from Saragossa. General Franco’s troops, before entering Sarinena, fought their way through a mile deep defence system, attacking at nightfall with bombs and hand grenades and overcoming fierce resistance, ... Their line now stretches unbroken from the River Ebro to the Sierra de Guara, encircling the former Loyalist positions in the so-called granary of Catalonia. The rebels captured the village of Masai Correig, 22 miles from Lerida, and four milds south of Fraga, which they are now investing in the hope of subjugating the crack Government troops defending it. Flight of Refugees. The invaders, from aerial photographs, learned the exact position of the Loyalist trenches and blockhouses in the defence zone of the Cinca Plateau and launched squadrons of bombers which, wrecked them, following up with fighters which machine-gunned the survivors. Wrecked cars and lorries, dead mules, dogs and abandoned clothes marked the line of the flight of thousands of fugitives, says the “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent at Alcaniz. - The pilots of three Loyalist aeroplanes landing at Mas de las Matas were dismayed to find it was in the • hands of the Rebels, who took them prisoner. The “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent at Saragossa says the Loyalists were successful at the Talavera sector of the Estramadura front where they claim to have advanced six miles. “Astride Road to France.” The Insurgents, says a Saragossa message, are consolidating their recent gains in Castellon. They claim that the Loyalists lost all their principal communications between Valencia and Catalonia except the coast road and railway. They claim to have captur'ed in the last 24 hours 13,000 prisoners and a large quantity of guns and ammunition.