FALL OF BARCELONA WITHIN A MONTH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 17 January 1939, Page 5

FALL OF BARCELONA WITHIN A MONTH

ARMIES CONVERGING FROM THREE POINTS ' -B.v Electric Telegraph— Copvright! (Received 17th January, 9 a.m.) LONDON, 16th January. “We shall capture Barcelona within a month,” boasted the rebel General Kendelan after the occupation of Tarrangona yesterday. General Franco’s armies are at present converging from three points in the coastal regions and are only 33 miles from the city. A republican report in Barcelona admits the loss of Tarragona, and declares that the troops have been ordered to fall back and form a new line to the cast of the town. The high command had appealed to volunteer suicide squads to stem the advance till the defences are completed. The special correspondent of the “Daily Herald,” referring to the superiority of General Franco’s artillery says that the guns of one republican battery were made in 1886 and that another is composed of Russian field pieces made in 1910. The Hendaye correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that though the capture of Tarragona, Reus, and Tarrega gives the invaders ample supplies of textiles, rice and oil, it is not as important as the operations of General Franco’s northern column, now 35 miles from Barcelona, which threatens the loyalist fortifications behind Tarrega and promises to expedite the advance to Igualada and Barcelona. General Franco is so convinced that this offensive will be decisive that he refused to divert further trops to the Extremadura front.